RIP Dan Wheldon -- Indycar Season Finale in Vegas

Unfortunate, everybody's got to say something... The amount of crap interviews I've seen today has turned my stomach...

 

The fourth/final angle reflects a real design issue. The support poles for the catch fencing is a fixed component to an otherwise contiguous net. There needs to be a redesign to that component of the structure. It should not be an afixed piece of steel that allows the car to pass beyond the plane of the pole. Clearly the car "snags" on the vertical post.

 

Yeah, He will be missed. RIP

 

They're called video games. Racing is dangerous by definition. It's a shame that he died, but, if you aren't willing to die, don't get on the grid at the start. It's a terrible thing to say, but it is reality.

I think anyone who races with young children runs the terrible risk of leaving them without a parent. That is something that I couldn't deal with, and didn't. Have kids, that is.

Art

 

The fence protects the public while acting like a cheese grater for the cars.

 

Maybe they should have plexiglas walls like in hockey that are cable reinforced. Something will change because of this with the walls.

 

I think the issue is with the high-speed banked ovals which allow passing (or side-by-side racing) throughout. In comparison, I think the flatter ovals are relatively safer because the drivers have to lift and/or brake in the turns. While they don't lift at Indy (or very little), it is very difficult to pass in the turns and nearly all of the passing takes place on the straights, where there is a little more margin for error. I think that all of the ovals of 2 miles or less that have average lap speeds of much over 200 mph should probably be removed from the IndyCar schedule.

 

You are correct, I thought the announcer said it was Wheldons car, the car in the video is 12 not 77. I was wrong, my fault, I deleted the post

 

True its a tragedy and people are going to risk their lives and race like maniacs for $5M and if they don't (and I wouldn't) there is always another guy to gear up. I've wondered since the incident if Wheldon had not perished - and all drivers walked away from this horrific scene w/ relatively moderate injuries - would it just embolden drivers to race at even a higher degree of risk becoming almost immortal about what can happen w/ today's safety measures/machines?

 

Dan's cause of death may be something like Mark Donohue's. As I recall, Mark was struck in the helmet by a pole from the catch fencing when his F-1 car went off the track in Austria (1975). Not necessarily any penetration into the helmet, but an "unsurvivable injury".

 

INDYcar needs ovals but they also need to apply some basic math in the risks they subject thier drivers to.

If an oval is more than 1 mile long its banking should be less than 12 degrees.

Rio de Janeiro Fittipaldi Speedway,
Gateway St. Louis,
The Milwaukee Mile,
Phoenix PIR,
Loudon NH,
Nazareth (defunct),
Chicago Motor Speedway at Sportsman's Park (defunct),

Drivers have been hurt at these tracks but I don't recall multiple cars going airborne in a single wreck.

Open wheel cars on a NASCAR intended 20 degree banked oval with an unusually large 34 car field including a several part time drivers chasing a $5M winner take all purse?

I'm with Paul Tracy on the suggestion that INDYcar should put that $5M in a trust for DW's kids.


RIP DW.

 

If I had the answer, I'd expect to be paid handsomely for it. However, I went to many a race as a kid and loved the cars when they went 160 around Trenton or did 250 at Englishtown.

I don't think they should be racing on super speedways - it's ridiculous. Go back to short ovals.

Same thing with NHRA - Top Fuel going 300+ in 1,000 feet is ridiculous. The cars blow up half the time, it sucks and it's ruined the sport IMHO.

 

JD McDuffie 20 years ago is the last one I remember.

I kinda take issue with the "aren't willing to die" part, nobody in racing is "willing to die", rather, they know that can happen, they accept it, they race therefore they accept it, but the semantics of "willing to die" don't sound right.

No, we are dealing with 200 mph cars with jagged edges, not hockey pucks.

May as well sell Indianapolis Motor Speedway then..

First, you know what can happen when you step into a car, no matter where or what kind of a car. A friend of mine died in a racing crash, he was going 105, but there was a fire... any of these guys - any of us - know what can happen.

An off-roader (Huseman) died in a plane crash the same day Whelden did, Davey Allison died in a copter crash, Bob Wollek was hit on his bike by a passenger car, the head of ARCA was hit in his car in the infield of a race by a passenger car and died, and I'd be willing to bet a million dollars more people die sitting in chairs in offices from blood clots or aneurisms than do in racing car crashes.

They need to eliminate ALL drivers that have not taken part in 50% of the current years' schedule, or 50% of the prior years' schedule AND 25% of the current year, any older than that than no, you don't compete, sorry Tony and Robby. I also need to point out the 'newbies' in this crash did not cause it, but the fact that MORE cars were in this event had a lot to do with it.

And Paul Tracy had a great idea, but I think IRL had an insurance policy that 'bet' he would not come from the back and win, just like in pro golf they have 'hole-in-one' challenges that pay off if someone makes one.

The racing community is a great one, I am sure she will be helped, but that doesn't replace a husband and a daddy, that brings tears to my eyes, I was 8 when I watched my dad die.

 

that was a nice post. for a lot reasons. thank you fro sharing.

pcb

 

Tony Kanaan, the former team-mate and long-time friend of Dan Wheldon who was killed in the IndyCar Series finale at Las Vegas, says the day he believes the sport is too dangerous is the day he will retire from racing.

Kanaan was leading Sunday's tragic race, which was red-flagged and not restarted following the multi-car crash on lap 11 that claimed Wheldon’s life.

Speaking on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday, Kanaan was asked for his opinion of safety standards in IndyCar racing, and if he might reconsider his future as a driver after seeing the aftermath of the fatal crash.

"To me, the day that I start thinking this is too dangerous, it’s the day it’s time to stop," said Kanaan, who drives for KV Racing. "I lost one of my best friends. I know it’s going to be very hard to forget, I don’t think I ever will. It’s really hard to swallow and I’ll remember him every time. But, as a race car driver, it’s one of the things you have to have.

"If it ever crossed my mind that it was too dangerous, I should go and do something else. Now I think if Dan Wheldon was here, and I announced I was going to retire, he’d be the first guy to call my team owner to take my place. I will try to honour him as best I can on the racetrack.

"As far as safety [is concerned], I think we’re getting better every time. I think that track was well equipped, the cars as well. Racing is dangerous. It’s been like that for 100 years."

Kanaan said the aftermath of the accident was the worst he had seen in his entire racing career.

"When I went through the wreck, probably 30 seconds after it happened, I realised it was a mess. It looked like it was a war," he said. "Pieces of cars on fire, cars flipped - in 27 years of racing I have never seen such a big mess like that. I had to hold myself [together] at that point.

"It’s part of our job, we get exposed to those type of things every weekend. It’s part of racing, but it’s never nice to see something like that."

 

Restrict power to where you run flatout, and you get cars really bunched up, no one lifting/braking means when a wreck happens, a huge amount of the field joins it.

I would recommend reducing aerodynamic grip, these things have soo much bite on a high banked oval that the speeds actually make it boring to watch, its more like a Tennis match with the cars bouncing back and forth around the ends of the track. Keep the power, restrict the under body aerodynamics and shrink the wing space. When a high downforce car relying on ground affects gets its nose in the air, those sucking ground affects lose their force, and the car gets pushed up into the air. At a slower cornering speed from less downforce, there is more time for it to get back on the ground and slow up again.

A 200MPH lap is still very thrilling, it doesn't need to be 240MPH.

My $.02

 

I dont know who came up with this 5 million dollar challenge where he has to start in the back but that's an obvious problem.

Also, the Vegas track was designed for NASCAR. It was crazy to even run there.

When I found out about both of these, I was very upset. I've been to that track and the banking is ridiculous.

 

This is very true. It's kind of morbid to say, but sometimes in the field of emergency medicine we "put on a show" for the family. No matter how far gone the medics and docs think the patient is, they still go through all the normal procedures just so the public knows that you did everything you could.

 

Naw...IMS makes the cut, its banking is only 9° 12´. But some of those low banked ovals I mentioned required downshifts and braking in corners. My theory is if a racecar relies on more than half its cornering adhesion from wings it should not be run on a track with excessive banking.

fixed, I'm printing this quote and taking it to work tomorrow.

 

After watching the F1 rerun I was looking forward to the race but missed it and I am kinda glad I did, RIP Dan and condolences to his family and friends.

Now I am not certain that eliminating the large ovals from the series will make any difference safety wise. I would rather see more road courses and I really like the shorter ovals but I would also like to see a more open rule book concerning engines/chassis's and power adders. I cannot put my finger on it but imho this series has been lacking from it's inception.

 

I believe Ken Schrader was the first person to reach Earnhardt after the accident (his car was also involved), and later said he more or less knew Sr was dead when he looked inside the car.

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95505

 

Glad to see that; I actually thought on Sunday something like that would be a great way to honor Dan.