Dan Wheldon Indy Car

I don't know Dans condition but my thoughts and prayers are with him today....hoping for the best

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by 7gason7 on October 17, 2011 at 4:00pm

Derrick, you are probabaly right. Damit this sucks. I just hate it when the good guys lose. My mind is spinning in all sorts of directions on this one.

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Permalink Reply by Team Maranello on October 17, 2011 at 3:41pm

Derrick, safety is relative. These car were built and safe enough to run a track like Indy. They were not built to race in a tight pack flat out like at the oval in LV. IRL needed this finale desperately to build towards next year. Its a shame that it took a life trying to create a spectical. Grief will soon turn to anger. I hope IRL management is working on some serious damage control to keep the series attactive to sponsors next year.

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Permalink Reply by WJM on October 17, 2011 at 3:45pm

The cars are incredibly safe. It's the catch fence that does the damage.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Cartwright on October 17, 2011 at 4:57pm

I couldn't disagree more about the car, numerous drivers ended up having injuries even when the impact looked harmless. They don't break apart on impact like the champ car did, many drivers hurt their backs because of the car.

how many flips occured in IRL over the last ten years? it's staggering, those cars have a tendency to fly, just ask Mario Andretti. I hope the new car proves to be safer, I have my doubts.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Hoban on October 17, 2011 at 6:28pm

Paul Tracy just said the same thing on Sirius Nascar. He said that if they had a ballistic plexi-glass instead of the fence the car woudn't get caught up in the fence the wrong way. Everyone else including Will Power walked away. The car is save but the venue is not.

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Permalink Reply by IndyTim on October 18, 2011 at 9:45am

I'm pretty close to this situation...I'll just leave it at this....Dan died the moment his car went into the catch fence.......The workers who pulled him from his car on the track new what the deal was, the paramadics and Dr's who loaded him on the copter new it was just a formality....just a tragic accident.......

People can debate alld ay long that Indy Cars are not safe, Indy Cars shouldn't be running at Vegas, according to 15 time open wheel champion Jimmy Johnson Indy Cars should stay off ovals, you can debate that as well...The Bottom line is no matter how many millions of dollars are poured into safety for any type of race car....there will always be deaths associated with the sport....Auto Racing is Dangerous and Racers know what the deal is going in to it.........it is nobody's fault, it's tragic and it is a side to the sport that rears it's ugly head from time to time.....

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Permalink Reply by Wally Meier on October 18, 2011 at 10:30pm

Well said Tim couldn't agree with you more,there are just to many variables there will always be risk.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Dupree on October 17, 2011 at 3:54pm

R.I.P. Dan Wheldon. he was an amazing driver. Trully saddened by this and thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family.

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Permalink Reply by Chupakabras on October 17, 2011 at 4:56pm

hate to say it, but,. that's why im always happy that Robby Gordon skips doing the Indy 500, i always have said it, indy racing is dangerous,. too fast, not too protected,. , sad sad sad,.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Gruber on October 17, 2011 at 5:16pm

I dabble in covering racing here and there, and before I covered my first IndyCar Series race a couple of years ago, I had it in my head that NASCAR drivers were approchable and down-to-earth and that open-wheel guys were jerks. I guess I thought Robby was an exception or something.

Anyway, I couldn't have been more wrong, because the IndyCar guys were awesome, especially Dario Franchitti. I wish I had gotten a chance to interview Dan Wheldon. Sounds like he was a great guy.

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Permalink Reply by Corey T on October 17, 2011 at 5:18pm

I always am worried when I see these cars running on high speed ovals. I would have loved to see Weldon race with Team Andretti next year. I am glad someone brought up the issue about the catch fences. They have made the walls and cars safer, now is the time to improve the fences. Every car that has gotten up into a catch fence as been ripped and torn to pieces. I am not saying it would have helped in this instance, but there has to be something better and still keep the cars and parts inside the track area.

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Permalink Reply by RG7FAN on October 17, 2011 at 6:00pm

I saw a video from yesterday were someone asked Bob (RG's father) as he was exiting the drivers meeting about the condition of Dan and if RG was on hand for the event. Bob stated that they tried to get Rob to do the event but he would not because of the risk. Bob stated that it was not safe to have that many cars on the track with that type of speed. I to would be happy if RG never attempted Indy again. RIP Dan