Dan Wheldon is dead

[RhinoBull]

For those who follows Indy Car Racing the League just lost one of its finest driver - Dan Wheldon was killed in an absolutely horrifying accident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
I could not believe what I witnessed... 3 cars airborned at 220mh and in flames... :sad:

[EntityX]

What's surprising is that there aren't a greater number of deaths in racing than there are considering the speeds involved.

Sounds like that was a dangerous track. Quote from USA Today article.

"It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible," said Danica Patrick, making her final IndyCar start. "It was debris everywhere across the whole track, you could smell the smoke, you could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered.

Drivers had been concerned about the high speeds at the track, where they were hitting nearly 225 mph during practice.

Their concerns became reality when contact on Turn 2 sent cars flying through the air, crashing into each other and into the outside wall and catch fence.

"I'll tell you, I've never seen anything like it," Ryan Briscoe said. "The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there's just stuff everywhere. Crazy."

youtube video of crash

[techgnome]

I know... I was watching it live on TV when it happened... I couldn't believe it... about an hour into the red flag, something in the pit of my stomach said that something wasn't right... when I saw the look on TK's face though... that pretty much said it all.

[RhinoBull]

Drivers were concerned with high speeds during practice and qualifying.
But the biggest problem (imho) is that open wheel racing doesn't belong in tracks designed for Nascar that fields bigger and slower cars (they look like cows on ice if you ask me).
INDY racing should go back to road course racing with perhaps one exception INDY 500 at Indianapolis.
...very sad day...

[FunkyDexter]

I'm no racing enthusiast but I gather the cars weren't designed for that format of track and the organisers were just pushing the speeds as high as possible. Combine that with the fact they started Wheldon at the back of the grid and offered him 5 million if he could overtake his way to the front and it starts reading like the plot to Rollerball. I guess the organisers just wanted to create a spectacle and, in the end, that's just what they got. Such a shame.

Wierd co-incidence, my mate dropped his bike in the last race of the season at Thruxton at just over 100 mph. He's fine but he's now second in the season when he was in with a real shot at first.

[techgnome]

The cars can handle the oval just fine... the problem is the banking and the pressure to do what they call "flat racing" where your foot is smashing the accelerator the whole time, you never let up. Given the length of the track (1.5 miles) and the banking, and the number of cars (field of 34) and the number of part-time drivers (some drivers only do the ovals, which is fine, but for others, this was only their third race of the whole year)... and then you have a group of highly competitive people in it... They put Dan at the back, and then put the top drivers that were competing for the championship into the middle of the pack...

There were a lot of failures. Yes, Randy Bernard (IRC Commissioner) was attempting to create a race spectacle... trying to create an atmosphere of excitement... but when you're in the entertainment industry (and let's face it, that's what it is) that's what you do, you push things... and sometimes you push too far. This was one of those times. The envelop was pushed, and sadly, it pushed back. I fully expect to see changes next year. It will be even more interesting to see what the equipment changes also bring (they're switching to a new chassis and engine setup starting next season).

-tg

[penagate]

Drivers were concerned with high speeds during practice and qualifying.
But the biggest problem (imho) is that open wheel racing doesn't belong in tracks designed for Nascar that fields bigger and slower cars (they look like cows on ice if you ask me).
INDY racing should go back to road course racing with perhaps one exception INDY 500 at Indianapolis.
...very sad day...

I agree.

Tin tops bounce off each other; open-wheelers take off. They don't belong on ovals.

Actually, I don't think they belong on street circuits, either (think about Jeff Krosnoff's accident years ago). I prefer permanent tracks.