Dan Wheldon RIP

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I don't know that you should feel bad about missing the memorial laps. The Izod Indy League had been trying to market this event for several weeks before they finally came up with this inane $5 mil. challenge idea. Wheldon would win the $5 mil. for himself and a fan if he came from last to first. After all this would be one of a very few of their races on a major network (ABC). Real professional racing right? Only in America. So they hold the race at a track, Las Vegas, where speeds can hit well over 200 mph. Did I mention the track is relatively narrow? Did I mention that they had the largest Indy field in years with 34 entries? The normal number being 20-23. Did I mention this is open wheel racing? Did I mention that a lot of those entries were marginal in terms of experience and ability? The surprise is that they managed to kill only one driver. Horrible accident to watch. If you were watching coverage in the states you suspected he had died at least an hour before it was announced. For at least 15 minutes before it was officially announced they had the TV announcers twisting in the wind not saying anything at the same time they were showing picture after picture of grieving drivers and friends. Then they come on announcing what everyone knew ....but wait plus they were now going to have 5 memorial laps. How respectful, how commercial, how maudlin. The marketing of grief.  Anything to deflect the conversation from the really tough question......WHY did this young man have to die?  

RIP Dan Wheldon. This is very tragic and you are already missed.

I am a huge circuit racing fan. I hate oval track racing, Indy and NASCAR. Driving oval circuits non-stop, flat-out at 225 MPH is just insane. Doing it on a 1.5 mile track is even crazier. Will the idiots here in the states learn from this race. Of course not. We gotta have us some of them thar crashes, duh.

IndyCar has been a bad joke and laughable for ages. Too bad the lunacy of the promotors had to pay with the life of one of the great racers. Very sad.

It was very moving the tribute laps and the ABC commentator's remarks. 

Yes Indy IRL whatever it is is a bit of a joke, unfortunately they waved the big cheque and human nature being what it is people came to try and get it. Dan was probably one of about 10 drivers who probably shouldn't have tried , but someone offers you a drive an d there you go.

Main problem with Las Vegas and a couple of other ovals is that it is too smooth and too easy to drive flat out, in this case 220 + MPH.

Next year if Indy survives this there will only be 4 oval races, and a brand new car engine combination.

In NASCAR of course these type of accidents happen quite often on the big ovals, but when you are sitting surrounded by steel bars and padding rarely do serious injuries occur, remember that even a stock can top 200 MPH at certain tracks.

Dan gave a huge amount to his sport and lived life to the full.

A legend at such a young age.

R.I.P. Dan

Engelbert

So few F1 accidents seem to result in fires,; it is my impression that the opposite happens in indyCars. Any basic reason for that?

Bearing in mind the astonishing structural integrity of the cars now this seems an important feature of the accident. I'm thinking of the recent Le Mans crash where the guy walked away from the tumbled wreckage etc

Bruce

Circuit racing (F1, LMS, BTCC, etc) is very different. The cars are slowed down by chicanes, etc. Endurance sports car racing is even different with multi-class racing where the slower classes (GT) slow down the faster ones (LMP). Much better racing than oval track forms used by IndyCar and NASCAR, and far more exciting, IMHO.

Indy, OTOH, is insane, They drive flat-out in excess of 200 MPH without slowing down. Vegas was an especially bad situation with a field of 34 cars, including less experienced drivers, on a short 1.5 mile oval, and a $5M purse that made everyone overly anxious. It's an example of particularly bad judgement and it is amazing more didn't die. It was a recipe for disaster to start. 

I think there is lack of perspective here. This is the first Indycar death for some 5 years(?) despite frequent high speed incidents.

I think the lack of perspective lies with IndyCar. The Vegas event was foolish, insane. Putting up a $5M purse meant lots of super fast cars focused on the big prize on a track ill-designed for that much density at that much speed. They should have used restrictors and/or limited the field. It's a miracle more didn't die.

They should give that $5M to Dan's wife and kids.

Racetripper

Well said.

Thursday 10 PM Sky Sports 2, there is a tribute programme for Dan Wheldon.

I trust BBC can come up with one too. 

This decal will be run on the NASCAR cars this week end.

Dan's funeral today (Saturday) at St Petes.

BBC news:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/h...orsport/15415142.stm