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 6:25pm

IMO, Indy is a different type of track then LV. Indy you need to be a better driver and you can't run 3 wide through the corners. The design makes the driver drive more defensively. Cars get spread out after the first 3 laps. Ususally at Indy if you make it through the first 4 corners on lap 1 your going to be all right.

Yesterday was like a swarm of bees. watch it live and my heart was racing long before the 12th lap. Still hope to see Robby run the 500 at least once more.

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Permalink Reply by Bricoop on October 18, 2011 at 1:50am

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Indy is WOT all the way around. Robby stated that indy cars need to have the drivers to actually have to control the throttle before he would go back to Indy.

I can also vouch RG7FANs story.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Allen on October 18, 2011 at 7:05am

Indy is WOT all the way around for qualifying and sometimes during the last couple of laps of the race on light fuel if the tires and weather allows it. Through the bulk of the race everyone is lifting in at least turn 1 and 3. The bottom line is that Indy drives spread and gaps between the cars, you never see more than a couple of cars running together.

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Permalink Reply by 7gason7 on October 18, 2011 at 8:37am

Drivers also give up position knowing they can't go into the corners side by side.At LV they can run 3 wide as seen all the way around. No give and take.

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Permalink Reply by IndyTim on October 18, 2011 at 9:55am

Some cars in traffic lift....some drivers don't lift at Indy the whole month of May..... If you have to lift in 1 and 3 you need a better Engineer to set up your race car........

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Permalink Reply by Chris Anello on October 17, 2011 at 6:35pm

I'm not even interested in racing at this moment and im sure friends and colleagues of Dan feel the same. Still feel sick about the situation.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Reeves on October 17, 2011 at 8:02pm

Absolutely gutted. Watched Dan when he was still racing here in England but he left as he had no money for a drive and so went off to become famous in the USA. Most people in England had never heard of him until today. All over the news here when indycar normally gets zero coverage. I was glad Robby wasn't in that race. I saw Bob consoling Ryan. Seeing Tony K and Dario break down was heart wrenching. The pundit in the studio in UK (Johnny Mowlem, ILMC Lotus driver) was in tears. Just so so sad.

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Permalink Reply by RG7FAN on October 18, 2011 at 10:34am

To me it does not matter if it is Open Wheel or Nascar, if you are flat out all the way around the track and not lifting and just relying on the draft or pure luck to determine youre track position...than that is not racing. I think all series need to take a look at what happened this past weekend and make changes for there own formula of the cars vs. the track and bring throttle response and the driver back into the equation.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Cartwright on October 18, 2011 at 11:59am

changes need to be made or else the series will be in deep shit. I heard from someone else that Sam Schmidt may be leaving the sport.

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Permalink Reply by mj on October 18, 2011 at 1:31pm

Basically it's the same as NASCAR at Daytona and Dega . IRL needs some sort of restrictor plate or aero package to slow the cars down . But at the same time keep the cars from bunching up like they used to do with cup cars . It's not so bad with cup cars obviously cause of fenders and roofs . My big suggestion would to add side nerf bars like on a modified or sprint car just to keep them from rubbing wheels .

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Permalink Reply by WJM on October 18, 2011 at 3:55pm

Excellent point, mj. The complaints from the IndyCar drivers with regards to racing on the 1.5 mile high banked tracks are the same heard from NASCAR drivers at Talledega and Daytona restrictor plate races.

In 1998 I was in Charlotte for the IRL race and to witness drivers diving into turn one, two and three wide at 230mph, was....nuts. In fact, on pit road and in the garage you heard repeatedly the same words, "This is nuts." Fortunately that year there was only one incident and both drivers walked away. However the following year three spectators were killed when debris from a accident went over the catch fence and into the grandstand.

High-banked "short" tracks and IndyCars are simply not a good match.