R.I.P Dan Wheldon

chrisbell

chrisbell

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For all other TSR members who are motorsport enthusiasts, perhaps a thread to remember this fine British driver might be appropriate?

For those who are unaware, Dan passed away yesterday night GMT after being caught up in an awful multi-car pile-up in the final round of the IndyCar season at the high-banked Las Vegas oval.:icon_cry2:
 
Terrible news. I had heard of him very vaguely, but was not really aware of his success in the states.

If there is anything positive about this, it's the fact that we are all so shocked. It actually shows how safe motor-sport actually is, considering what it is. When was the last time that you heard of a motor-sport fatality on 4 wheels?

Ian
 
Oval racing is a complete bore so he was offered the share of a $5 million bonus if he could made it from the back of the grid and win. Although I don't think that particularly contributed to his death there is something rather distasteful and frankly American about dangling a large sum like that and incentivising unnecessary risk.
 
Well, if winning the Indy 500 twice doesn't put you at the top, I don't know what does. It's only the fact that our British media pay so little attention to Indy that many of us tend to dismiss it, but I can't think of any two-time winners there since the Second World War that wouldn't be counted as being at the top and amongst the best oval racers of their eras. We'd been lucky over the past six years in the UK that, between them, Dan and Dario Franchitti had won 2 IndyCar titles and 4 Indianapolis 500s, almost unprecedented and a reminder of the 1960s when British drivers and constructors dominated over there.

As to the event itself, I think Tony is right inasmuch as the circumstances were not good. Too many cars on a 1.5 mile oval that, due to its high banking was more suited to NASCAR as the single-seaters were flat-out for the entire lap, leading to groups of cars drafting each other only a few feet apart at 225 mph.
 
Always a shame to hear news like this.

Didn't they change some of the circuits to street in order to make it more interesting?
 
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