RIP Dan Wheldon
- Thread starter group captain mandrake
- Start date
I watched the accident and my first thought was that someone was killed due to the severity of the crash. Any time cars are flying end over end at over 200 mph there is a huge chance that it wont end well. As the drivers stood up and walked away one by one it looked like we were going to get lucky again this time but when they put the yellow tarp over Dan's car but not the others, I had a pretty good idea that he was dead. It was sad and a great loss to his family and to the sport.
Dan was a unique individual, I liked the fact that he won his second Indy 500 as a fill-in and was broadcasting on TV the very next race. He was a go-getter and always chipper. He will be missed.
I hope that the fallout from his accidental death will not be too severe. It is a dangerous sport even though we often times forget that fact due to the tremendous increases in safety. The only way to prevent this sort of thing is a closed cockpit car like LMP cars in Le Mans and I don't think Indy or Formula cars will or should go that way.
Dan was a unique individual, I liked the fact that he won his second Indy 500 as a fill-in and was broadcasting on TV the very next race. He was a go-getter and always chipper. He will be missed.
I hope that the fallout from his accidental death will not be too severe. It is a dangerous sport even though we often times forget that fact due to the tremendous increases in safety. The only way to prevent this sort of thing is a closed cockpit car like LMP cars in Le Mans and I don't think Indy or Formula cars will or should go that way.
The prosepct of 34 open wheel cars on that track was a concern of his prior to the race. The track really isn't suited for that many cars, especially open wheel sometimes 4 wide.
Personally, I don't think Indy needs to run ovals to draw in spectators....I can now see why CART split away...road courses IMO are more interesting to spectate.
Personally, I don't think Indy needs to run ovals to draw in spectators....I can now see why CART split away...road courses IMO are more interesting to spectate.
Stamos said:
I agree with this completely. I run the Chump Car series in a $500.00 car, a 24 hour endurance race on a half oval and half road course circuit.
That is until they decided the Nationals in Iowa would have several hours of nothing but high speed oval. This was terrifying. Now we were only at speeds of 110mph or so but when you run that fast, right at the edge of your tires lateral grip and you are door to door with 40 other cars, well let's say there was a lot of damage. Nobody ever worried about getting hurt until that night.
Rather than working on your apexes and passing when another driver goes a bit wide, all you can think about is what it's going to feel like when you lose that little bit of traction you have left and hit the wall just waiting for other cars plow in to you.
I never really liked NASCAR or any other oval circuit sport. I still don't but I have earned a huge amount respect for the guys that have the sack to get in these things run that ragged edge on an oval for hours on end, hoping no one else screws up and gets you killed.
I guess that is why it felt so much different for me. On a road course the amount of time you spend with your life left up to chance and other drivers is far less than that of an oval event.
Very sad. Really incredible nobody else was killed or seriously injured. I saw atleast 4 cars get airborn. They need to stop racing on these highly banked ovals or reduce downforce severely. It's basically like talladega except any time you bump wheels someone you go airborn