RIP Dan Wheldon

rozzer32

Suppose a lot of people on here won't know him but he truly was a great British racing driver. Could have made it big in Europe but decided to go to the US and proved his talent by winning the Indy 500. He died as a result of a crash during a race today.

Such a sad loss for British motorsport and my thoughts go to his family and friends.

RIP Dan Wheldon

scwxx77

I don't watch many IndyCar races but did this one to see Dario win the championship. Shocking crash with cars in fireballs and flying through the air. Really sickening and sorry to see. RIP

kentphil

RIP It was a terrible crash

Pokerface

Yeah, I saw it. Like it or not, people like to see crashes in auto racing.

But no one wants to see people hurt or what happened today.

RIP Dan.

prawny

Read about this today, real shame he's not well know over here, great driver.

RIP

afx237vi

Pokerface wrote:

Yeah, I saw it. Like it or not, people like to see crashes in auto racing.

But no one wants to see people hurt or what happened today.

RIP Dan.

It's a little bit like cycling in that regard. Brought back memories of Wouter Weylandt for me when I saw the news this morning.

Cleat Eastwood

I saw the crash on the news last night, looked horrific. Very sad news indeed. RIP Dan.

shouldbeinbed

RIP. took a pasing interest in it, he was a champion & multiple race winner, hadn't had a team this year but picked up drives. he was on a $5 million bounty, for charity I think, to win the race from starting at the back.

redvee

Picked this up early last night from the tweets of Mark Blundell & Mario Franchitti, Dan's death was confirmed around 22:30 last night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RycU_YwdKrU

This was the tribute to Dan from the rest of the grid and IndyCar.

rozzer32

Every time I went out racing I never thought I might die and I've been in some big crashes during my racing career. As a racing driver you understand that the sport is dangerous but you never think it could take your life. I was only born in the 80's so I've been used to people seeing walking away from crashes unlike the 50/60's era.

But if I had to die anyway then I'd want to die doing what I enjoy doing which is racing cars.

Has been fantastic to see the tributes paid to him.

martinwitnam

The interview with Max Moseley, on BBC Breakfast, was very interesting.
He said that even though following the weekend of the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola, the drivers and the governing body were very supportive of changes to improve safety. He felt that Indy car was not now appropriate for oval tracks, but that the americans would be loath to change any of their rules.
I'm interested to know if anyone else was badly injured during this accident? And what their reaction in America would be if it was one of their own that had died?

nwallace

THe Dallara chassis seem to have held up as well as an F1 chassis would.
THe real problem is the type of accidents that happen in Indy give far too much a chance of the helmet coming into contact with something.

It's not like Indy don't know this, Greg Moore barrell rolled head first into a wall years back, no contact with anything other than the grass to flip him at an insane speed.
But all the safety improvements have been instigated by FIA sanctioned racing, which rarley involves cars actually flying and the roll hoops are perfectly adequate as any high speed roll that does occur is normally acompanied by a lot of run off area in which to slow down in.

A roof wouldn't help much really I don't think,a 200mph impact on the roof? Nah there's not enough space for crumple and total destruction zones unless you make them as tall as a jugernaut.

nwallace

martinwitnam wrote:

And what their reaction in America would be if it was one of their own that had died?

Have a look at NASCAR since Dale Earnhardt died.

prawny

Lots of Americans have died in Indycar I don't think the reaction over there would have been any different, I doubt we'd have heard much about it. By the look of it the American fans had taken Dan in as one of there own.

There were a couple of other injuries, pippa man has had surgery on a badly burned hand will power has a bad back but is ok and there was another guy with a whack on the head, there's only pippa left in hospital, she's a brit too.