Dan wheldon

[Erik]

I just heard he passed away a few hours ago. He died from injuries he suffered in a 15 car wreck at Vegas. He was taken away by helicopter were he died in the hospital.

As a weekend racer I feel bad when some other racer dies. I may have never meet the guy. But I still feel for his family and friends.

I really don't watch to munch Indy racing because of the crashes. I will watch road races thought. Cars doing 230 mph side by side is insane. Here is the video of his crash. If you don't want to watch it. You don't have to.

Indycar Crash at Las Vegas Speedway 2011 ~ R.I.P. Dan Wheldon - YouTube

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

Condolences to the family and friends of Dan Weldon. This seems like an accident that could have been prevented. Short track, 1 1/2 miles, high speeds, 220+, and a 34 car field. Insanity!

 

[Erik]

You hear robin miller's rant on wind tunnel. That guy loves Indy as munch as most guys love there wifes. He was bashing them so hard. 1 for putting 34 cars on a oval. 2 Its a NASCAR oval built for NASCAR. I think he spent a few minutes in each of them. But I do agree. Why put 34 cars on a small oval? I know they do that at Indy. But that is far different. They don't try to do 2,3 or 4 wide in to a turn.

 

[Jim Craik]

This is so incredibly sad, Mr Weldon was a great racer and really appeared to be a great guy as well. Our condolences to his family and friends, a truly dark day for all of racing.

 

[Rebeca Lynn]

I was watching the race on TV at the time of the wreck. Nasty.

I wish his family all the best as he was a father of two young children. Along with the other driver and friends of his as they have all lost a friend and a great competitor.

I was lucky enough to meet him while we was driving for Panther racing and National Guard.

 

[Howard Jones]

All I can think about is his new baby..............Damn.........this sport can be a very sad one. Breaks my heart.....every time is happens.........Damn sad........ God bless his family.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Condolences to the family and friends of Dan Weldon. This seems like an accident that could have been prevented. Short track, 1 1/2 miles, high speeds, 220+, and a 34 car field. Insanity!

Add in a $5million bonus and one time drivers and you get the recipe for disaster.
Very sad, my heart goes out to his young family.

 

[Jack]

Very tragic loss. Condolences to family and friends. Never should have happened!

 

I spoke with Dan for a few minutes at the Infineon race a few months back. I was there with my 4 year old son and he was very personable and gracious with his time. He made quite an impression on my son, asking if he would be driving karts soon. He and I discussed how he was excited to get his 2 1/2 year old Sebastian into karts next year although he said his wife would kill him for getting him into them so young. He then joked that we would likely be the angry fathers in the pits yelling at each other over our kids incidents on the track. It was very clear that he was a proud father excited at the prospect of raising his children.
I feel for the family and the loss of their husband and father.

 

[John Milmont]

I really want to see an analysis of this crash. I have a feeling that the fence played a major factor in the lethality of this accident. Somehow I think those fences don't work as intended with open wheel cars. There has already been so many horrible accidents with open cockpit cars: Massa's spring incident and Henry Surtee's tire impact...

 

[Price Walton]

Racing is also this - Mario Andretti


Thank you Dan, we'll miss you. :sad:

 

[Tod]

Point one: I think there were too many cars on the track - and too many inexperienced drivers in them. I can't remember where I read it, but somewhere in the history of the Inidanapolis Motor Speedway they calculated how many cars could be safely spread around the race track. How can you have more cars than run at Indianapolis run on a smaller track??? That many cars (34), running that close together, at that speed, with that many inexperienced drivers was a recipe for disaster.

Point Two: Quit trying to make a circus out of Indy Car with silly promotions. The idea of offering $5 million dollars to any driver who could come in and beat the field is insulting and down right dangerous. Look at how many drivers accepted that challenge...<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

 

[Erik]

I remember hearing about how many cars could run at Indy. I don't remember the number. I think it was done when the track was built. I think they have done it a few more times since. I just don't think they have done it in the last 15-20 years though.

I heard some interesting things this morning on the Dan Patrick show about this. A lot of drivers didn't want to do it. They felt like it was unsafe. If this is true why didn't the drivers boycott the race. Take a lesson from F1 a few years ago. The drivers felt like the tires were unsafe and chose to sit the race out.

I also heard this Morning the team owner is thinking about quitting racing. He was paralyzed in a crash ten years ago. Then you throw in the fatal crash. He said It is just to munch to handle.

Also heard what caused Dan to die. From two places I have heard it was Blunt force trauma to the head. From what I heard he was DOA.

What I am going to say next. I might come off as a a-hole. But I feel like him dying is better in the long run for his family and friends. Could you imagine how munch stress it would have put oh his family if he was brain dead or paralyzed. I know when my dad died in a car crash a few years ago. The people said if he lived he would have been brain dead. I felt munch better knowing that my family and me didn't have to deal with that.

 

[Mesa]

Like the economy in general, the series is hurting. NASCRAP's Daytime Television approach is sucking the few remaining sponsors out of all other racing in the US. The Indy series is fighting for it's life, not that I agree with some of the things they are doing. But they have to do something otherwise, Indy cars will be gone.

Andretti, Parnelli, Unser, Foyt. The history is immense, makes me wonder where all the American talent is. I guess they are all working the soap opera circuit in full body cars.

I liked Dan a lot, came from little money, took nothing for granted, spent time with the fans, was a great spokesman for the sport. A huge loss for all that knew him.

 

[Erik]

Mesa I think your right to a point. I just think that the younger talent is out there. There seeing the money that the drivers in NASCAR are making and want that. Most of the teenage grass root racers have seen nothing but NASCAR. They think it is the shit. I know I use to. My dad got me into road racing when I was 12. I have been watching less and less of NASCAR every year. I think this year I have only seen a total of like 6 races.

I think with that view teams are looking over seas for talent. The talent over seas have been driving karts since they could walk. If you had your own race team what would you do? I would hire the kid that has been driving a kart for ten years over a kid driving a dirt car for a few.

I also think that the teenage talent has been offered rides. There are a lot of teenagers racing in open wheel feeder series. Just that open wheel racing depends on region. I think on the east and west cost you will find more open wheel drivers/road course driver. The mid west and south you find more of the dirt/paved oval racers.

Let me add this. I think the next gen of racers are the most spoiled racers. There dad bought them cars, tires, trailers, tools, and pay all the bills. I didn't and still don't have any one backing me. If I go in to the tire wall. I am the one that has to fix it. I think because of this Kids are turning down a ride because they don't want to race in a different type of car.

I have a buddy like that. Hes not spoiled. But he feel in to off road truck seat by chance. All he dose is bitch about racing. I am more of a road race guy. But if some one came and offered me a full ride in a off road truck I would take it.

 

[Tod]

When you're not televising all of your races on channels that can easily be found on basic cable (like the Versus network), of course your exposure as a sport will go down. You mean to tell me that Indy Car could n't swing a deal with Speed, TBS, or ESPN???