As everyone knows, despite the advances in safety, car racing was, and still remains, a dangerous sport. Unfortunately, the Las Vegas 300 IndyCar race that took place on Sunday proved fatal for two-time Indy 500 winner (2005 and 2001) and 2005 champion Dan Wheldon.
On lap 12, there was a massive pile-up on the second turn. Wheldon’s car, which followed, drove right into it. He was immediately taken to the nearest hospital but he didn’t manage to survive his injuries. The race was canceled after five “tribute” laps.
Wheldon, 33, is survived by his wife Susie and two sons, Sebastian age 2, and Oliver who is just 6 months old.
We extend our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased.
[Warning: The following videos contain disturbing images, so they may not be suitable for everyone to view]
6 Comments:
Such a shame, but at least he went out doing what he loved and was great at.
Terrible. Condolences to his friends and family.
RIP Dan Wheldon, you will be missed. Condolences to those closest to him.
Very sad, a great driver lost.
In my opinion IndyCar's should not be running on all these relatively small tracks. They are too powerful, too light and have too much grip for these little tracks, and it's unsafe especially with so much traffic. Indy cars in their current configuration should be restricted to ovals no smaller than 2.5 miles, and the corners should have a set maximum degree of direction change so as to keep the G-forces down to a reasonable level. That would be by solution, I know that's not practical, but the fact is these cars were designed to run on big open tracks, not tiny ovals and NASCAR tracks.
If they're going to continue to race on these tracks, then the governing body should cut the engine size in half immediately. Those cars don't need that much displacement, it's not necessary in this technological century, the engines are simply too big creating too much inertial mass at those high speeds. Do away with the 3.5 L V-8's, replaced with a 1.8 to 2.0 L four-cylinder, with turbocharging + 600 hp is still easily achievable.
When Formula One saw that their cars were becoming too fast, beyond any drivers ability to control, they took drastic steps to eliminate downforce in order to cut corner speeds, similar steps in keeping with the needs of oval racing should be taken bythe Indy series, or we are going to see more drivers die in such a manner.
rest in peace!!
Correction; Weldon won Indy this year _2011
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