RIP Dan Wheldon -- Indycar Season Finale in Vegas

True, RIP Dan.

 

Very sad...

Amazing thread,
Did not see it live,
Only read it late last night
Because of original posters live reactions
And others responses
I feel as though i am attached to whole tragedy
Living vicariously through the accident with all of you
Certainly not the same as watching it alone on TV.
Amazing time we live in.
Very sad event

I cannot imagine the grief of the family or the first responders disbelief as well.
RIP

 

I started following Dan Wheldon when he was named a finalist for the BRDC Autosport Young Driver Awards in 1996. What a marvelous story and well-deserved success that spanned his career in Formula Fords against Jenson Button in the UK to FF2000 against Andy Lally in the US, then Atlantics and on to his IRL success with TWO Indy 500 victories! RIP, Dan.

And yes, I remember Rich Vogler... and Tony Renna... and Paul Dana... Sucks... Bad.

 

I woke up this morning thinking that this thread was a result of one too many "pain killers" last night, and that it was all in my imagination. Really, can't have happened.

But this thread is still here.

DW is not.

I realize that we should all be more concerned about the thousands of children that die every day in places like Africa, but certainly for those of us on sites like FChat this hits closer to home, like an exteneded family. Maybe we never met the Dan Wheldons, but still part of our community.

Really feel it in your stomach.

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95484

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95486

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95474

 

Dan Wheldon was one of a golden crop of richly-talented British drivers to graduate from karting to junior single-seaters in the mid to late-1990s.

From Emberton, near Milton Keynes, Daniel Wheldon began karting as a small child, taking his first steps in a sport that was a family passion: his dad raced karts as an amateur, and his mum was timekeeper at the local track. At the age of 12, in 1990, he claimed his third successive British Cadet Karting Championship. He then moved up to claim a British Junior title, before becoming FIA Formula A World Cup champion in '95 with the team of karting legend Terry Fullerton.

Wheldon was hotly in demand from junior-level car teams. He battled for the Formula Vauxhall Junior title in 1996, won races in his rookie Formula Ford season in '97, and was fully expected to attack the Ford crown in '98 with the works Van Diemen team. But then along came Jenson Button…

With Button claiming Ford glory and all the headlines, Wheldon had insufficient family backing to move further up the ranks in Europe. He therefore set his sights on the USA for 1999, making his first move to a country he would grow to love. The new boy from the 'old world' claimed the US Formula Ford 2000 title at the first attempt, and in successive seasons rose the CART ladder by claiming second in the Toyota Atlantic and then Indy Lights championships.

He pushed for a move into the CART World Series, but no opening came, and instead it was the IndyCar Series where he got his chance, joining Panther Racing for a pair of late-season outings in 2002. In '03, when Dario Franchitti's motorcycle crash forced him out of the cockpit, Wheldon was called up by Andretti Green Racing to stand in for the Scot. When Franchitti recovered, Wheldon was retained because team boss Michael Andretti had stood down from driving after the Indy 500.

Wheldon's reputation rapidly grew, and he showed an affinity with ovals few would have expected a European with a road-track grounding to have. In 2004 he took his first win at Motegi, and the following season he blitzed his way to the IndyCar title and victory in the Indy 500 – the first Englishman to win the race since Graham Hill in 1966.

Incredibly, Wheldon would not defend his title with Andretti Green. Instead, he switched to Chip Ganassi Racing. The partnership started perfectly with a victory for Wheldon, in Ganassi's Grand-Am Daytona Prototype, in the Daytona 24 Hours. And the IndyCar season was pretty good too, Wheldon only being beaten to the title by Sam Hornish Jr – his first-ever IndyCar team-mate back in 2002 – on a countback of race wins.

Wheldon took fourth in the championship with Ganassi in 2007 and '08, winning two races in each season to take his IndyCar career tally to 15, but his form had dipped and he was released by the team at the end of the season in favour of Franchitti, who made a switch back to IndyCar following his unsuccessful NASCAR stint.

The following season featured a return to his roots at Panther Racing. Although he was now well and truly with one of the 'little teams', Wheldon scored some good results and placed in the top 10 in points in 2009 and '10. With no sponsorship forthcoming for Wheldon for '11, he was dropped by the team, but after the resolution of a lawsuit there was talk of his rejoining the squad.

Instead, he set his sights on Indy 500 glory with the team of his friend, Bryan Herta, with whom he had lined up in his Andretti Green days. On May 29 this year, Wheldon took an emotional second win in the 500 in his Bryan Herta Autosport Dallara, ironically thanks to Panther Racing's JR Hildebrand drifting into the wall at the exit of the final corner of the race. He was also named as official development driver for the new-generation Dallara IndyCar, with Herta's team running the programme.

After IndyCar Series boss Randy Bernard failed to raise any takers from the world of international motorsport for his lucrative challenge in this year's Las Vegas finale, Wheldon was chosen to race for $5 million, which would be split with a fan if he won the event. He contested the Kentucky Speedway race two weeks ago with Sam Schmidt Motorsports as a warm-up, and was regarded as a realistic threat for victory in Vegas. Then came disaster.

Dan Wheldon was a man who embodied the ideal of the immigrant to the 'New World' fulfilling the American Dream. Out of all the British – and indeed European – drivers to have made their careers in the US, Wheldon seemed to most fully embrace the American lifestyle, adopting a Transatlantic twang to his accent remarkably early, and donating his winnings from the 2008 Iowa race to victims of the region's recent tornado. Perhaps his affinity with the country was one reason why he turned down an offer from BMW Sauber to join its Formula 1 team for 2006 as third driver, as understudy to Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld. As the reigning Indy 500 and IndyCar champion, why leave behind what he regarded as the perfect lifestyle?

He married his personal assistant, Susie, in 2008, and together they had two sons, Sebastian (born 2009) and Oliver (born March this year). It is with his family, and his many friends in the world of motorsport, that our thoughts lie at this desperately sad time.

 

RIP Dan.


Very sad

 

Great Post RP, very informative. I watched the race and, well, it was just a awful awful crash

RIP DAN

 

To all, here is a link to ekartingnews forums, in there you will see how much he was loved and respected in the karting community. There is one post from Mike Maurini who Dan Wheldons races with every year at the Supernationals in Vegas. Dan Wheldon was planning on racing again this year and since he is not, Mike Maurini will still have a pit spot for Dan Wheldon and have his kart displayed at Vegas.

http://www.ekartingnews.com/viewtopic.php?t=109367&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

 

Jody Schectker in the UK Telegraph says the NASCAR-derived banked short ovals are incompatible with open wheelers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/indycar/8831981/Dan-Wheldons-death-IndyCar-racing-the-most-dangerous-motor-sport-says-former-F1-champion-Jody-Scheckter.html

Very sad by death of Weldon. One of my favorite drivers in the series. He genuinely seemed like a nice guy.

I would not be surprised if Franchitti retires in the next week. He really seemed shook up by it, and what else does he have to prove in Indycars? It also isn't like he needs the money. If he doesn't want to do this any more, I would think there would not be financial pressure to continue to race.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if both Franchitti and Kannan retire.

 

Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere, but was Kanaan declared the winner of the race, or was it scrubbed?

 

As far as I can tell, the race is just gone. No mention of it on the Indycar 2011 schedule anymore, no results, nada.

http://www.indycar.com/schedule/

 

Scrubbed. Reset to KY results as the final.

 

Some race drivers retire, others, are retired by circumstances and remind us that the things we have won't last forever. Then there are those that never retire, and "live" on to remind us just how frail human life is.

 

To pretend it didn't happen is wrong. It should be listed as red flagged / cancelled with no results.

The media is turning on Indy Car...

 

I would caution anyone that would view the 11 photo slide show in the link below that the photos left me absolutely cold, my hands shaking. I spent years as a race photographer when racing was dangerous and sex was safe, but I have never seen anything like this in my life. I watched Sneva's Indy excursion, Dale Sr's fatality, Cevert, etc, but nothing so horrible.

Knowing that these cars can get airborne when tires touch, why would the barriers in the turns be so low? Isn't the the monocoque shell supposed to survive such assidents? Why do we continue to race open wheels on banked ovals? When are the wheels going to be covered to prevent cars going airborne?




http://photos.speedtv.com/gallery/INDYCAR_Massive_Crash_in_Las_Vegas_Finale




Family statement:

Dan Wheldon's family has paid tribute to the former IndyCar champion, calling him "a gentleman on and off the track" and "a true champion."

Wheldon, the 2005 champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, died on Sunday from injuries sustained in a 15-car pile-up at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was 33.

His father Clive said: "The family would like to thank everyone for their overwhelming outpouring of sympathy. Daniel was born to be a racer and yesterday left us doing what he loved to do.

"He was a true champion and a gentleman on and off the track."

"He was a proud brother to Austen, Ashley, Elliott and Holly. "He was a devoted son to Sue and myself and a loving husband to his wife."

A statement was also issued on the family's behalf, in which members asked to be allowed to deal with his death in private.


The statement read: "They thank everyone for their condolences and messages of sympathy and support at this very sad time.

"They will make a further statement in due course but in the meantime have asked that they be allowed to grieve in private."

 

Maybe the local LA media has. Around here other than the Indy 500 its never mentioned until something like this.
I find it hard to explain to non-racing fans.

 

As an example,... Did you read this?

 

RIP Dan!

 

And just as I expected, today the finger-pointing starts...