RIP Dan Wheldon

PrettyBoy · #1 10-17-2011, 12:55 AM

I know there aren't any auto racing enthusiasts on here, but I just wanted to post this for those who knew about the crash yesterday.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Dan Wheldon, who moved to the United States from his native England with hopes of winning the Indianapolis 500 and went on to twice prevail in his sport's most famed race, died Sunday after a massive, fiery wreck in the Las Vegas Indy 300.

http://youtu.be/Sn08nh7zoto

ForeverRoses · #2 10-17-2011, 08:16 AM

Fans here in Indy have already started a tribute wall at the IMS. My husband met Dan Wheldon a couple years ago when he was on a pit tour and said of all the drivers they met, he was one of the nicest and funniest. So sad.

LouisaMay · #3 10-17-2011, 09:45 AM

I don't follow racing, but this is heartbreaking. I can't stop thinking about Wheldon's family and fellow racers.

Jill1228 · #4 10-17-2011, 10:53 AM

I am not a racing fan either. My heart goes out to his family and friends

NinjaPoodle · #5 10-17-2011, 01:03 PM

I'm so sorry to hear. RIP and Condolences to his many fans, friends and family.

KSigkid · #6 10-17-2011, 08:34 PM

I was flipping through and saw the crash: easily the most horrible thing I've seen on television. Just such an awful situation.

honeychile · #7 10-17-2011, 09:23 PM

I'm more of a NASCAR than Indy Car fan, but that doesn't make Don Wheldon's death any less tragic. From the slow-motion tape I saw, it did look as if he was trying to cause the least amount of damage as possible - that or God was really looking out for the other racers. I'm still shocked that only one person was killed.

DrPhil · #8 10-17-2011, 09:24 PM

Heartbreaking.

I hate racing for this reason.

PrettyBoy · #9 10-18-2011, 01:59 AM

I was reading a sad article about Wheldon and how he spent his last hours before the crash. He spent it with his wife getting tattoos of their initials on their wrists.

This whole thing reminds me of Dale Earnhardt's fatal crash at the 2001 Daytona 500, and Pierre Levegh's fatal crash at Le Mans in 1955.

Dale Earnhardt's death -the reason why the HANS device is now required, and why the "new car" is in existence.

Pierre Levegh (1955 Le Mans crash) -the reason why there is now a chicane in the Mulsanne Straight. Actually, it was this crash that changed the sport of auto racing.

Sad part about all of it is it usually takes someone to lose their life in order for more safety features to take place. Most of the time these safer features work, rarely they don't. The SAFER barrier worked for Jimmie Johnson at Charlotte on Saturday night, it did not for Wheldon at Vegas. He will be missed.

MidwayManiac · #10 10-18-2011, 07:33 AM

NASCAR fan here. My heart too goes out to his family, the 77 team, and Indy Car Nation. I can't help but think about how lucky we are that Jimmie Johnson walked away from his hard crash Saturday night in no small part because we learned from the loss of Dale Sr. It will in no way make up for losing Dan, but I hope some good can come from this. So sad this was the last race with the old car--a new, supposedly safer Indy Car is planned for next year.

Ghostwriter · #11 10-19-2011, 09:24 AM

I am a racing fan (mostly NASCAR) and Dan Wheldon was a class act. He will be missed. Prayers going out to his family and friends.

Bottom line is that an oval with banking is too fast for an Indy car. There is just not enough protection around the men and women racing these vehicles to protect them at speeds at a consistent 225 MPH. Once the cars hit top speed they hardly ever let off at these type tracks. Indy will have to curtail racing on banked tracks and stick to flat and road courses.

ForeverRoses · #12 10-19-2011, 10:33 AM

IndyCar just announced the memorial service for Saturday at Conseco Fieldhouse. I'm not a NASCAR fan, so I'm not sure if they have a "home city" somewhere, but for IndyCar, Indianapolis is home. No matter where the driver "lives". I drove my boys past the IMS last night, and even with 40 degree temps and rain, people were still all around the main gates. IMS even set up tents and moved the candles so that they would no blow out from the rain.

PrettyBoy · #13 10-20-2011, 03:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghostwriter

I am a racing fan (mostly NASCAR) and Dan Wheldon was a class act. He will be missed. Prayers going out to his family and friends.

Bottom line is that an oval with banking is too fast for an Indy car. There is just not enough protection around the men and women racing these vehicles to protect them at speeds at a consistent 225 MPH. Once the cars hit top speed they hardly ever let off at these type tracks. Indy will have to curtail racing on banked tracks and stick to flat and road courses.

I agree. But, a lot of it is based on the way the energy from the crash is dissipated. As odd as it sounds, there has to be some "crush" involved when there is a crash. With Jimmie Johnson's crash at Charlotte, if there were a bunch of steel bars etc. in the front of the car, that would have been a much harder impact because it wouldn't have had as much crush factor in the front of the race car. I'm a huge F1 and Rally Car fan (European motorsports), but I do like a lot of the safety features they're using in NASCAR. Besides moving the driver to the right a little, and raising the greenhouse, they've installed energy absorbing foam in the right and left sides of the car. It just dissipates some of that energy if there happens to be a side impact. Bottom line, energy is always the major factor in any kind of auto accident, for both racing cars and road cars.