RIP.
http://news.yahoo.com/wheldon-dies-massive...-220813739.html
Mark D.

I was watching the race. Very sad. It's so much more rare that a race driver dies in this day and age.

Yes very sad.RIP.

Very sad..........not a huge fan of IRL, but watched the man win Indy.....after a while, it's like you get to know these guys after watching them week after week................Tony Roper, Kenny Irwin, Adam Petty, Earnhardt, .wasn't around for Davey allison & Kulwicki.....RIP Dan Wheldon.......

I was watching the Race too. Last Death in an IndyCar was 2006. When I was growing up drivers were dying one a Month, I even saw a few in person.

Did anyone else catch the In-Car Commentary before the Race when Wheldon said "This is a Great Way to Go Out", followed by a Pause, then " of the 2011 Season"? I thought at the Time it was eerie then 11 Laps later he was gone.

Dan lived here in the Tampa Bay Area, owned a Porsche and was a Member of our PCA Region. I got to meet him a few times - very enthusiastic guy. He is Survived by his Wife Suzy and two young sons, Sebastian ( 2 Years Old ) and Oliver ( 7 Months)

R.I.P.

IRL needs to ask themselves if this could be avoided. Thier quest for TV viewers had made them do some stupid things. The cars are too fast for these 1.5 mile tracks. It reminds me of the old movie "Rollerball".

Click to view attachment

I saw the race live,not used to having these pros die in this day and age. A hard reminder that this sport is indeed dangerous. Which is why we are drawn to it.

Godspeed Dan. Thanks for the good memories of Indy.

Thoughts and prayers go out for your family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HkdSslyW9I?

I was there today, saw the whole thing happen and I am still in shock. Very sad day indeed.

Paul, I completely agree with what you're saying. Putting 225mph Indycars on wide high banked tracks is too risky. RIP Dan.

Very sad. RIP

One of the worst crashes I've seen in a long time. R.I.P. Dan

RIP Dan Wheldon

I've felt for years that these cars don't belong on high banked tracks. That was an awful crash. The racing world is fortunate that more drivers weren't killed. There was certainly the potential for it.

Perhaps Wheldons death will have an impact on Indy car similar to that of Earnhardts on NASCAR; meaning maybe now IndyCar will take a serious look at making changes to the formula for these tracks. Or better yet (but unlikely) move away from them altogether. Might take a driver boycot for that, but that is even more unlikely.

R.I.P. Dan. You were a winner and a class act.

RIP

RIP

The dude had talent. Its a shame that he is gone. Hopefully the fallout will result in improvements to safety that don't impede the actual racing.

Zach

IRL needs to ask themselves if this could be avoided. Thier quest for TV viewers had made them do some stupid things. The cars are too fast for these 1.5 mile tracks. It reminds me of the old movie "Rollerball".


I totally agree! Put chicanes or something in there....I have more fun in the 40-80mph stuff.... 200+ should be for planes or dragsters only...

+1

I don't know.
If they lose fan base, the races end too. And it is hard to keep fans when you slow down the races. Thank of all the flap over the "super 2000" changes from a few (11 now?) years back.

NASCAR was able to implement changes that made sense w/o greatly effecting the race itself. It was a model of what a good safety change should be.

Chicanes may be a good solution, but just slowing down the races could remove the interest of the fans.

Zach

CART never ran on banked tracks because of the speed and danger. Randy Banard needs to resign or IRL needs to fold up.

Too many cars on the track. Too much money at stake. Too fast.

When I lived in Tampa, I was fortunate to work with many drivers, including Dan. Back in August, I asked him if he was going to be at the Mid-Ohio race since they were in the midst of testing the new chassis too. he later e-mailed me that he was watching the race from his pool deck playing with his kids. "Life is good," he said, and went on to say how much he was enjoying his year, NOT racing. Just after that his Vegas deal was announced.

IndyCar driver Hinchcliffe has now asked for the 2012 Dallard chassi to be named the DW-001 in honor of Dan's development testing. I hope they do.

Very sad RIP

......Peace out, Dan

RIP Dan.

But if anyone has noticed, the Attendance at Ovals is next to Nil. A Lot of empty seats in Vagas, Nearly no one at Milwaukee, others Ovals nearly the same. However, St Pete was Packed, Long Beach was good as usual, Baltimore was a Huge Success.

Most of the Ovals that are out there were built for NASCAR ( Vegas, Chicago, Texas, Homestead, Iowa, etc). IndyCars are 1/3 the weight of NASCAR, go 30- 40 MPH faster and can go airborne

Bernard had no Racing experience, he came from Pro-Bull Riding. He has taken most of his On-tack from advice from Brian Barnhard, who has shown a Ton of Mistakes this Year ( 2x2 Restarts, Restarting that one Oval Race on a Wet Track, Uneven Penalties). No Need to get rid of the Series ( it is gaining momentum), just needs a whole new Management structure. Someone like Sam Schmidt should take over.

So when CART was CART, they didn't run at Fontana (killed Greg Moore in 99)
Michigan--Homestead--Ontario--Texas etc. All that series has been through
over the years and they should just fold up ?? I agree ovals are kind of boring
but it was a racing incident. Where was his spotter telling him what was ahead??
He sure flew on to that scene from quite a ways back looking to be at speed when
he tagged Tracy (who was slowing with the rest of them) This won't bring him back and I'm sure he and his family will want the IRL to fail too.....

Barber has been a huge success both years it has raced there, but that is not a good track for those cars. There is only one place to pass (the hairpin) and is just to tight for such long-legged cars. But none-the-less it is safe and a big hit for the series.

Phoenix is a great oval for Indy cars, but fan turn-out was even worse than the other ovals. Maybe that would improve once the economy around Phoenix picks up. Loudon is another good oval for them. Richmond was okay and had good crowds, but that track is way to tight as well. There just aren't many good ovals (minimum banking) for IndyCars. They used to race at Pocono, maybe they could go back there now that the track has made the safety improvements that were needed to keep them there years ago. Don't know if Milwaukee is ever going to be an option again because of the ownership.

IndyCar is hanging on to ovals out of sense of tradition and because most grass-roots American racing is oval based. Being a big fan of open-wheel tradition and grass-roots oval racing I understand that. But times have changed and there are no grass-roots oval feeder series that prepare racers for Indy cars. Sprint cars, for decades the path to Indy, lost there relevance over 40years ago. Any chance that sprinters would continue to prepare developing racers for Indy cars was shot down in the 70's when USAC banned rear-engined sprint cars. The notion being that it would add to much to the cost for owners to have to maintain a conventional front-engined dirt chassis and rear-engined asphalt car.
That logic was flawed as by then almost all front running teams had specialty asphalt cars anyway.

The last sprint car grad that I can recall getting a top-flite Indy car ride was Gary Bettenhausen, who signed with Penske in 73 or 74. His addiction to the sprinters and dirt champ cars cost him the ride when he crashed his dirt champ car and lost the use of an arm. Since then all top teams have signed guys with road race backgrounds. Al Unser Jr. started his career in sprinters, but then moved to Super Vees and Can-Am cars before graduating to Indy.

I hate to admit it, but I think unless someone figures something out, the ovals just aren't going to be practical for IndyCars future. This accident has pretty well driven home this point and I'm sure current and potential sponsors have taken note.

Not arguing a point either way, but i think Sam Hornish and Sarah Fisher both raced oval sprint cars before Indy cars.

That was the most horrific crash i have seen in some time. And these are supposed to be cars engineered for some protection. At Rennsport, i was having my first close look of a Le Mans era 917, and I had two voices in my head, one saying, "God, i want seat time in this thing", and the other saying, "This is a death trap".

Big balls required to drive at the peak of your series, regardless.

The tracks you list are not 1.5 mile high banked ovals. The rest of what you said really doesn't deserve comment.

If you think that is bad, check a 908. Brian Redman, who ran them back when they were new, has said "The first thing to hit the wall was your feet!"

--DD

Tony Stewart too

Hornish raced Atlantics. He once said he thought sprint cars looked like fun, but despite coming from Ohio he never raced them. Fisher did for sure, but mostly midgets. At one time she held the USAC midget track record at Winchester. She signed with Walker Racing in an underfunded effort, but did manage to exceed expectations and even won a pole at Kentucky. Ed Carpenter came out of sprinters and won a couple of weeks ago driving for Sarah Fisher. Score one for the under dogs!

There have been quite a few Sprint car racers since the 70's to make runs at Indy with noteworthy results, but none that landed big-time rides, at least none who hadn't established themselves in the 60's.

In '73 or '74 outlaw archetype Jan Opperman threw rear stagger on a real back marker that two other drivers failed to get up to speed and stuck it in the show on bump day.
Roger Rager qualified for Indy in the early 80's with a stock-block Chevy that was actually based on an old school bus engine.
Tim Richmond was fast in junk and managed to not kill himself despite destroying a bunch of underfunded cars before going to NASCAR.
Sprint car great Rich Vogler raced at Indy 5 times and had landed a NASCAR Cup ride before he was killed in a USAC sprint car race in 1990 (a race which he was credited with winning because the crash occured while he was leading on the last lap).
Those guys earned respect for that back when just making the show was a really big deal, which it was right up til 1995 when 96 cars showed up for 33 spots before the split in 96.

After the CART/IRL split several great sprint car racers got a shot at Indy including Steve Kinser and Jack Hewitt, along with Super Modified great Joe Gosek. But they were one off, under funded rides. Super Modified driver Davey Hamilton showed promise of breaking through before his big injury. And of course there was midget great Stan Fox, who also got busted up badly. Before the split Billy VukovichIII did pick up a good Indy ride (though not top tier), but was killed in a supermodified before he got a chance to show how good he was on the big stage.

Some of the best racers in the country are sprint car drivers, but unfortunately those cars just don't prepare racers for Indy. Penske, Ganassi, Andretti all know this.

How on Earth could I forget Tony! Back when Penske, Ganassi, Newman/Haas, Rahal/Letterman were still with CART the Menards ride was a top ride. Wish he had won Indy. Tony did prove that a really talented sprint car driver can make the adjustment to Indy. I think Jeff Gordon would have made the same impression.

I agree that Penske & Ganassi know where to go to get talent, but Michael Andretti is an Idiot. He chased off Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon, Tony Kanaan, Bryan Herta just so he could have his No Talent kid and Danica on his Team. Not to mention the Sponsors that he Fuch'd - Jim Beam, 7-11, Hersheys, AT&T, Motorola, etc, has anyone even seen Venom Energy Drink?

Sad day indeed .....but like i will always say ...they know the risk......no one forces them to race they do it for the love and money


R.I.P Mr Weldon