TBK-Light.com

Ha, life can be funny sometimes. Sounds like a brilliant experience nonetheless.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

I remember having to do a very early morning shift at work the next day, so I only intended to watch the first few laps of the race. I joined some of you guys on MSN, and I think we all had a feeling that something big was about to happen. The racing was just that crazy. I fell asleep before his death was announced, and I think I had a dream about the accident. When I woke up, I rushed straight to this forum, and saw the sad news. Dan seemed like such a great guy. For some reason, his death hit me a lot harder than some other fatalities.

RIP

I can't remember if I watched it live, I don't think so.
But when I heard the news, I was shocked...

I was in Poland at my girlfriend's family's house, with little Internet coverage (had to use my phone). The race had been on in the night and I loaded up Facebook to see someone saying "Dan Wheldon too young to die" and "RIP Dan Wheldon" (nea I think posted that) and I was pretty much frozen. Looked up some slow loading images on the Daily Mail site of cars flying through the air and it was even more shocking than I imagined.

Watching the accident back though it makes you appreciate how easily he could have survived, if his car had just spun a different way through the air, or he'd hit the fence differently. We'd have just been talking about the most amazing IndyCar crash ever, instead of something much worse.

Weren't you working on a GrandAm game for a bit there Ellis?

I was having dinner whilst watching the race, having just come back home from my parents house and wanting to relax a bit. Whenever I looked up onto the screen I thought "Oh crap, this may not end well." I recall that I was on an MSN chat aswell (probably the one De Cesaris was on) and everytime a piece of bad news and pictures would come up, all i could say were expletives.

It was the first time I had seen a fatality live, in any way shape or form, and yet, I must admit that comapred to most of you, I feel pretty heartless. I felt gutted, of course, but the way you guys expressed your sadness, both then and now, kinda makes me feel bad that I don't feel as sad as I should've been.

That said, Dan appears to have been an amazing character and a great guy all round, and he is indeed missed by a lot more people than he certainly could imagine.

Here's how I remembered the wreck:

MSNM mass chat, where pretty much everything was not to be taken seriously. We're all joking around and stuff and we're pretty stoked about the finale. Once the crash occurred, we responded with the usual satirical jokes (myself included). Unfortunately, it took a good 15 minutes to realize how serious the incident is. We're hoping for the best, but concerned about Dan Wheldon at the same time. Once the announcement happened, I can't help but realize that I saw two deaths--LIVE--in racing (the other being Dale Earnhardt).

It was so bad that I decided to skip church for the week and tried to find any positive thing to note on that day by watching TNA Bound for Glory (which was anything but). At the end of the day, I still couldn't believe what happened.

Granted, I was 10 when I saw Earnhardt pass away, so I felt kind of bad until I realized how much he made an impact in NASCAR. That being said, I honestly didn't feel too bad due to me being a Jeff Gordon fan. Wheldon, on the other hand, was a genuine nice guy that's often ignored due to a lot of things (such as the Danica 500 and him being a journeyman driver for the most part). I really wish I would meet him one day--even for a photo-op.

To sum it up: Wheldon died what he loved doing the most: race. And I appreciate him for that.

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Ducks Angels Sounders Spurs

Yeah, and CCWS. But it's probably common knowledge by now - money went missing (into the pockets of others), people got screwed, and those games died. They had licenses and threw it away.

I'd been playing a game (perhaps Forza, can't remember) and had forgotten all about the race. Turned over whilst Sky were trying their best to talk through the horrible waiting period and immediately got that 'uh oh' feeling. As much as this might sound wrong, when I found out the driver people were most concerned about my heart sank even further. Although I didn't walk around waving a Dan Wheldon flag (metaphorically) whilst he was alive, I really admired what he'd achieved and he was one of the most popular characters in the series.

Can't really remember much else as I turned off the TV after it became apparent that the worst news was inevitable. Spent the rest of the evening feeling glum. Pretty much October 31st 1999 all over again for me. You'd think with age and having had it happen before it'd be easier to deal with, but turns out that's not true at all.

Little did we know at the time that motorsport had another terrible twist left a single week later .

I guess I'll add my where was I story to the mix:
I was just finished showering and getting ready for church and was waiting for my now wife to do the same. I too had completely forgotten about the race. I flipped the TV on I think to check on football but on popped ABC. I had missed the wreck and they were interviewing Danica about potential damage to her car. Nothing seemed wrong yet but she did sound kind of in shock. Then I noticed the red flag condition. More talk and more subdued drivers tipped me off that something big and very wrong had occurred. I grabbed my Laptop and set up shop on the couch with this forum open for running info. I first saw pics of the wreck on here. That terrible zoom in of just Dan's car after it had landed. Then somewhere else a pic of him being wheeled to the copter. It was clear there would be no happy ending. On TV a steady stream of concerned owners, drivers, crew mulled about. The booth was solemn. They knew if only in their gut, the truth. Then came tweets relayed on here. The sad news was spreading but still no word could be given on TV. Then the drivers meeting. Then the looks of pain, the tears. We had skipped church at this point. My wife wanted to go but I wanted to be watching when they gave the word. Then came that lame shambles of a press briefing. Dan was gone. But when I look back at that briefing the lack of timing makes sense. Randy was in shock too. He was an outsider finding his way as head of this series. As the head of the PBR I don't think he ever had to face this before. Not a death. We saw that man's professional innocence ripped away at that moment. This is a deadly sport. Surely he knew it. But he wasn't exposed to it until that moment. He was pale, in shock, just like all of us. We watched the 5 lap tribute. Then had dinner. Then a long night of soul searching after watching another man die for my entertainment.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Yeah I remember CCWS but I wasn't do sure about GrandAm for some reason.

I had an awesome evening the night before. I went to the Bank of America 500 in Charlotte with some free tickets giving to me by friends. I speed all the way to Fayetteville NC to stay with my friends after the race. I talked all morning long about how i dont care what we do were watching the IndyCar race. Its gonna be epic... I still remember snatching the remote from my friend when he wanted to change the channel during the delay because i wasn't moving until i knew if dan was alive or dead. I took his death pretty rough because i predicted him to win the 500 earlier in the year to my xbox buddies and when he actually proved me right i was a fan! The day after his death i bought his 500 winning car die cast and a commemorative milk bottle that sit proudly as a tribute above my tv

I was in an MSNM chat with Joey, Tommy, et al. and quite honestly it was one of the worst racing days I can recall. It was the first racing death I saw live where I knew who the driver was and saw him race (the only other racing death I saw live was Jeff Krosnoff in 1996).

The whole way back to Baton Rouge was a rough drive that had me thinking about why I love racing and why we all love it. The pain stung for a few more days but eventually it subsided. Race day this year at Indianapolis really saw a great tribute play out to Wheldon and I'm glad to say that I saw it.

Race on, Dan Wheldon.

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If you screw up while skydiving, you have the rest of your life to figure out how to fix it.

Tony George Resigns From Hulman & Co Board of Directors



http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ ... directors/

This removes the conflict of interests issue, so don't take that as a good sign, if anything take it as confirmation the plan to try and buy Indycars is a serious one.

ugh, I really hope not.

They'll never sell.

Next thing they should do is get a restraining order against George.

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Ducks Angels Sounders Spurs

Every businessman has a price.

Robin Miller seems to think that George's resignation from the board was not a precursor to a takeover bid but was a move forced upon him by the rest of the family who had had enough of the plotting and told him to jump before he was pushed.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.