RIP Dan Wheldon

[Kid Roberts]

Been down and at the point of tears all day. Many outside the racing community will never understand why. Race car drivers are extraordinary individuals...not everyone can be one.

[grimson]

That was a Horrific accident and I will be a man and tell you that i was a little teary eyed when I heard the official news that he was dead. I knew befor the announcement was made by the sombre mood and comforting in the paddock area. A sad day in Indy racings season finale. Prayers for his wife, family and team.

Rest in Peace Champ.

Dan Wheldon
1978-2011

[DARCY T]

Originally Posted by thepolishkid88

Involved in a 15 car crash, thought is his rool loop failed him. Dan Wheldon is survived by his wife and 2 kids. 1978-2011, he was 33.

wow,so he really died?i began to worry about him yesterday after i've read your post about the accident.i tried to find a video of it too but there wasnt any yet.
but greg moore's accident looked worse imo.

r.i.p. dan

[Kid Roberts]

Originally Posted by DARCY T

wow,so he really died?i began to worry about him yesterday after i've read your post about the accident.i tried to find a video of it too but there wasnt any yet.
but greg moore's accident looked worse imo.

r.i.p. dan

This crash is a lot worse than you think it was.

[cooke-swallows]

Originally Posted by DARCY T

wow,so he really died?i began to worry about him yesterday after i've read your post about the accident.i tried to find a video of it too but there wasnt any yet.
but greg moore's accident looked worse imo.

r.i.p. dan

Greg Moore's wreck was about as bad is it could get, in every possible way. That was 100% unsurvivable.
As far as Wheldon's crash, there will be a lot of speculation on te safety of the track, failure of vital safety components in the car, and pretty much everything that could possibly be viewed as a contributing factor. All I can say, is the organization has all winter to look into things, now is not the time to place blame. There is a ton of investigative work to be done now, looking at Dan's car, the quality of materials in his car, the catch fence, etc. You always hope tragedies like this bring positive change and improvements in safety, however in reality this may be another instance where not much could have saved Dan's life in this wreck.

[Humpzilla]

I live less than 10 minutes from Wheldon's home. To say this hits close to home....kind of an understatement.

[Kid Roberts]

Originally Posted by cooke-swallows

Greg Moore's wreck was about as bad is it could get, in every possible way. That was 100% unsurvivable.
As far as Wheldon's crash, there will be a lot of speculation on te safety of the track, failure of vital safety components in the car, and pretty much everything that could possibly be viewed as a contributing factor. All I can say, is the organization has all winter to look into things, now is not the time to place blame. There is a ton of investigative work to be done now, looking at Dan's car, the quality of materials in his car, the catch fence, etc. You always hope tragedies like this bring positive change and improvements in safety, however in reality this may be another instance where not much could have saved Dan's life in this wreck.

All cars are built to a spec so that has nothing to do with it. The problem was that you can can't run 220MPH + in a tight pack of 34 open-wheel cars. They should not run a 1.5 mile cookie cutter bowls like Vegas and Texas. You also can't do much for the catch fence and if he didn't hit head first...he'd still probably be here.

[shaud19]

Been reading a lot bot Wheldon, great personality and played the sport the right way. RIP.

[thepolishkid88]

Originally Posted by cooke-swallows

Greg Moore's wreck was about as bad is it could get, in every possible way. That was 100% unsurvivable.
As far as Wheldon's crash, there will be a lot of speculation on te safety of the track, failure of vital safety components in the car, and pretty much everything that could possibly be viewed as a contributing factor. All I can say, is the organization has all winter to look into things, now is not the time to place blame. There is a ton of investigative work to be done now, looking at Dan's car, the quality of materials in his car, the catch fence, etc. You always hope tragedies like this bring positive change and improvements in safety, however in reality this may be another instance where not much could have saved Dan's life in this wreck.

Greg Moore's wreck was terrible, both were terrible to be truthful. To be honest the simplest crash could cause death, look at NASCAR with some of those (Irwin, Petty, Earnhardt).

I don't want to place blame on anyone, there were a ton of factors as to what lead to his death, I want to make the sport safer to but it is almsot impossible to make racing completly safe, even NASCAR is not completly safe.

All I want to do for the next while is just celebrate Dan's life. The guy was always smiling, a true open wheel racer, and loved life. The hole he leaves in racing as a whole is big. I just hope we learn from what happened to Dan, so that we are not doing this at the begining of next year.

[cooke-swallows]

Originally Posted by Kid Roberts

All cars are built to a spec so that has nothing to do with it. The problem was that you can can't run 220MPH + in a tight pack of 34 open-wheel cars. They should not run a 1.5 mile cookie cutter bowls like Vegas and Texas. You also can't do much for the catch fence and if he didn't hit head first...he'd still probably be here.

There is actually quite a bit of technology put in to the catch fences at major speedways. Material, thickness, spacing of poles, cable support, load capacity, etc. They are substantially different from standard chain link.
Also having spent most of my life at the race shop, I can tell you first hand that just because a car is built to meet spec, does not mean there won't be weak points that are missed in inspection. It is unfortunate, but the jigs can become comprised, the welds can be weakened by material issues on a metallurgical level. There are so many possibilities for things to go wrong, that usually you will never know about. Unfortunately racing will never be 100% safe, but the measures taken in recent years has been great to see. The only bright spot that can come out of these incidents is improvement. There wil be a lot of questions, that LVMS and Indy will have to work through.
R.I.P. Dan.

[bustoff]

I guess I'll weigh in on this. First off I feel for his two kids more than anything. The drivers were skeptical to say the least about racing this track. Not really one groove on the track you can follow due to the banking. Kind of like racing Texas where they were doing 230 mph and getting vertigo. Indy cars should stick to flat ovals like Indianapolis. Wheldon found the 2.5 million too tempting and started from the back on a track he knew was dangerous. That's what racers do. You take your life into your own hands every time you race. R.I.P. Dan............

[OLLBLUEEYZ]

Not a auto race fan at all..... however...I really feel for his Family... tragic story.
RIP Dan Wheldon

[Treehugger]

Its a shame a two time Indy 500 winner is a virtual unknown in North America, Thanks Tony George for breaking up Cart and limiting the feild to just 8 real drivers (household names at the time) Running these cars on Nascar tracks didnt bring the people back did it...


Rip Dan Weldon you did all you could do under the current guidlines.