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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:36 pm 
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Apologies if this has been posted already

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On behalf of the British Racing Drivers’ Club I wish to extend my sincere sympathies to Dan’s wife Susie and their boys Sebastian and Oliver, as well as the rest of his family and his team following the tragic news of his death in a racing accident yesterday at Las Vegas in the final Indy Car Series round of the year.

The BRDC is extremely proud of Dan and all that he achieved and was achieving in the United States. He was undoubtedly one of the great talents of his generation as his racing results testified. Two victories in the Indy 500 put him in a very select group of drivers and having won the Rookie of the Year honours in 2003 it was no surprise that he should win the Indy Car Championship in 2005. Dan followed this in 2006 by winning the BRDC Gold Star, beating the likes of Jenson Button, Mark Webber, David Coulthard and Dario Franchitti to this coveted award.

Dan was a true professional and a great ambassador for the sport. He was highly focused in the way he approached his racing and a real perfectionist. He pushed himself, and those he worked with, hard to produce results that were worthy of his talents and that fed his insatiable hunger to win. With his film-star good looks and athletic prowess, it was no wonder that the American public took him to their hearts.

In the BRDC we will remember Dan as a great racing driver who was very much involved with the Club and our circuit at Silverstone during the formative years of his career. Dan was, for many years, part of the BRDC ‘Rising Stars’ young driver programme. So proud of this recognition was he, that even after qualifying to be a Full Member of the BRDC he chose to remain a Rising Star, as he felt it represented what he was and helped the Indy Car world understand where he was set on going; to the very top. As a young driver Dan was also a finalist in the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award on two occasions, which was proof, if it was needed, that great things lay ahead of him.

When Dan did eventually become a Full Member of the BRDC he commented at the time, “To be included in a group of such great names makes me feel very special. I will do everything that I can to represent the BRDC in a way that makes you all very proud”.
Dan Wheldon was a great ambassador for the BRDC and motor sport generally. He will be hugely missed.

Derek Warwick
President
British Racing Drivers’ Club
17 October 2011

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:49 pm 
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I'm still in pain over Wheldon's incident. I will be through at least tomorrow. But I had some time to reflect between my classes today, and I realized something.

Everything is going to be okay for the series.

We've seen the sun rise today, and although the loss is painful, It'll remind us that he lived his life flat out, just like how he drove. His talent and legacy won't be forgotten, so let's remember what joy he gave us behind the wheel.

Here's to you, Dan Wheldon. You've got the best seat in the house to watch whatever race you want to.

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Last edited by Chris D on Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:50 pm 
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Sky will broadcast a 1 hour tribute show to Dan on Sky Sports 2 at 10pm Thursday.


Last edited by StefMeister on Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:51 pm 
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RtN wrote:
It was on the calendar for next year.

Now it isn't.


Where have you heard that?


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:52 pm 
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I think this is vital to the development of Indycar:

It is quite long so here it is in spoiler. It is the conversation between Dave Despain and Robin Miller from Windtunnel.

[spoiler]
Quote:
Despain: You’ve covered this type of racing for many years, back when death was the rule and not the exception. Your thoughts on Wheldon? I know you two tangled some, as recently as this week, but you also had some good times together.

Miller: “He was one of those guys that the media gravitated toward because he was pretty quotable but the fans really liked him because he went out of his way to make time for them. When he wasn’t running fulltime, I got emails from people saying, ‘When is Wheldon coming back? He used to come by and have a cookout. He’d come and talk to us and he always was a great guy.’ I just remember him coming up through the ladder, coming up and winning races. He had no money behind him. He just had talent behind him. He was an American success story. Gene Simmons said on Wind Tunnel one night, ‘You need to promote those Americans like Dan Wheldon (a Briton).’ The thing that Wheldon brought to the table was he was a fiercely intense driver, especially on ovals. He kind of got mad at me about a year ago because I said he was kind of an endangered species without having a fulltime ride because he was so good on ovals but not nearly as good on road courses, which was what he grew up on winning races. So, we kind of had a cooling off period but then we got back together this year and it was fun. When I wrote the story Friday that he was going to Michael Andretti’s next year to take Danica’s (Patrick) Go Daddy ride, he asked me, ‘What are you doing that to me for? Couldn’t you wait until Monday to write that story? All these people are coming up to me and now I’ve got to lie to all these people.’ So, I just think he was one of those guys who moved to St. Petersburg and he became kind of an American hero. He always was one of those guys that people liked to cheer for.”

Despain: Racing has become dramatically safer but we were reminded today it still is dangerous. The inevitable question out of this is whether the type of racing we saw today is too dangerous, and if so, what is to be done about it?

Miller: “Way too dangerous. I’ve been writing stories since the ‘90s that this kind of insanity, this wide-open mile-and-a-half pack racing … We got lucky. Kenny Brack’s crash was on the backstretch at Texas and all that stuff went in the grandstands but there was nobody there. Ryan Briscoe was in turn three at Chicago and didn’t hit anybody and they both were able to survive. But when you’re on top of each other and these cars are so stuck and they’re going 220 miles-per-hour, and you can’t get out of the throttle because someone will run over the top of you, it’s not racing. It’s like a big game of chicken. Adrian Fernandez was here this weekend and he was smart enough to quit in 2004 because he said, ‘That ain’t racing. I’m not getting involved in it anymore.’ He was in the IRL a couple of years. He said he’s never seen the drivers as anxious and nervous as they were before the start of this race. He said, ‘I’m not talking about one or two. I’m talking about every guy I talked to.’ So, racing is inherently dangerous. When I grew up in the ‘60s, it seemed like it happened every other week in USAC, but the most important thing to remember is these tracks were built for NASCAR stock cars that are going 50 or 60 miles-per-hour slower. When you’ve got pack racing and you rub wheels with somebody and you get somebody out of shape and there’s 25 cars bearing down on you, there’s no driver reaction, there’s no way to survive it.”

Despain: So, is there a fix that enables Indy cars to continue racing on those type tracks? If you take away those types of tracks, oval Indy car racing becomes a one-race deal – the Indy 500.

Miller: “Exactly. We’ve lost Milwaukee, Phoenix and maybe Loudon – the three tracks that are real oval tracks where the drivers have to drive. If you’re going to stay on these mile-and-a-half bowls built for NASCAR, you’ve got one option. You go back to the Handford Device like they used to have in CART in the late ‘90s. It made the cars pass each other. It allowed cars to slingshot each other past. You didn’t run next to each other in a big pack. Guys were passing each other. There were 165 passes at Michigan once. They’ve shown you can run at Michigan and Fontana and big tracks like this and still put on a show and make it relatively safe. But you can’t do that. I was talking to Steve Horne tonight and he said, ‘This is a fixable problem but it has to be fixed immediately. You can’t do this again until the problem is fixed.’ You either fix the problem or you quit racing at places like this and you become a road course and street course circuit highlighted by the Indy 500.”

Despain: 15 cars involved, four of them airborne to some degree, and the catchfence involved, is it not noteworthy that 14 of those drivers walked away? When you compare that to the performance of Indy cars 10 or 20 years ago, that’s a pretty remarkable accomplishment of its own as we look ahead to those 2012 chassis.

Miller: “No doubt about it but I also think it plays into the fact that some of these drivers don’t have much experience on an oval; and they don’t have much experience at 200 miles-per-hour; and a lot of them have never spent a night in the hospital; and they didn’t drive a sprint car midget and run over somebody’s wheel. They don’t understand what happens when you interlock wheels in an open wheel race car. So, the bravery factor really goes up because it’s easy to go flat-out on a track like this (Las Vegas Motor Speedway). Well, guess what? That is a recipe for disaster, and thankfully, the cars are 50 times more safe than they were back in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. But at the same time … I said Thursday afternoon watching practice that I didn’t even want to watch practice. It was frightening to watch them run three abreast going through the corner. They’re down in the corner going 224 miles-per-hour. What happens if you puncture a tire or the suspension breaks? You don’t even have a chance. Racing should be about the drivers braking, getting in and out of the throttle, handling traffic. That’s what oval racing was built on.”

Despain: We have this tremendous increase in safety overall over the years … I’m curious about how the society has changed over time. The tolerance for the kind of thing that happened today isn’t what it once was. Sure, there was the little bump in interest that NASCAR got when Dale Earnhardt died. He was a national hero and everyone knew who he was. I’m wondering what the impact – not just his death – but the decision not to finish the face and the season ending on such an incredible down note – is on the series. How big a hit is this for the series?

Miller: “Good point. It’s a big point because you think you have some momentum – you’ve got new cars, new engines, kind of a new attitude, if you will, and when you watched the drivers walk into the drivers’ meeting and talked to them after the red flag, I told my camera man, Jim, ‘They don’t want to race and they’re going to tell them they don’t want to race,’ and out of respect to Dan, they ran the five laps. It was impressive that the people who stuck around stood and applauded and all the fans got up and saluted him at the end. But look at the people who die every year in football. I know that’s probably apples and oranges, but the thing is we kind of get used to this. In racing, we’re not used to it anymore. It used to be commonplace that fatalities were a part of racing and guys would look at each other in the first picture of the year and say, ‘How many of you guys will be around next year?’ We’ve kind of been numbed down to the fact that guys might break their arm or leg but no one’s going to lose their life.”

Despain: He was 33 years old and had a new deal (in 2012). He was a two-time Indy 500 champion and a former IndyCar Series champion, but is it conceivable that his best years might have still been ahead of him?

Miller: “If you look at Dario Franchitti’s career path, absolutely, just because he seems to get stronger. Being out of a car fulltime, Wheldon told us on Friday, he goes, ‘Man, it really makes you appreciate having the chance to go run fulltime again because you miss it so much.’ And there was just something about Wheldon. He was as brave as any guy who came down the pike. When he took the Versus TV job this year, he was so good in the booth, and people were telling him how good he was, he said to me one night, ‘Man, I appreciate people saying that but I don’t want to be a commentator yet. Man, I’m only 33 years old. That’s seven years down the road. I don’t want to do that yet.’ But he was a natural in the booth. He had great enthusiasm and great insight. He was going to be a very big presence on television when he got done driving Indy cars.”
[/spoiler]

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ ... ar-series/


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:57 pm 
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dicksplash wrote:
I think this is vital to the development of Indycar:

It is quite long so here it is in spoiler. It is the conversation between Dave Despain and Robin Miller from Windtunnel.

[spoiler]
Quote:
Despain: You’ve covered this type of racing for many years, back when death was the rule and not the exception. Your thoughts on Wheldon? I know you two tangled some, as recently as this week, but you also had some good times together.

Miller: “He was one of those guys that the media gravitated toward because he was pretty quotable but the fans really liked him because he went out of his way to make time for them. When he wasn’t running fulltime, I got emails from people saying, ‘When is Wheldon coming back? He used to come by and have a cookout. He’d come and talk to us and he always was a great guy.’ I just remember him coming up through the ladder, coming up and winning races. He had no money behind him. He just had talent behind him. He was an American success story. Gene Simmons said on Wind Tunnel one night, ‘You need to promote those Americans like Dan Wheldon (a Briton).’ The thing that Wheldon brought to the table was he was a fiercely intense driver, especially on ovals. He kind of got mad at me about a year ago because I said he was kind of an endangered species without having a fulltime ride because he was so good on ovals but not nearly as good on road courses, which was what he grew up on winning races. So, we kind of had a cooling off period but then we got back together this year and it was fun. When I wrote the story Friday that he was going to Michael Andretti’s next year to take Danica’s (Patrick) Go Daddy ride, he asked me, ‘What are you doing that to me for? Couldn’t you wait until Monday to write that story? All these people are coming up to me and now I’ve got to lie to all these people.’ So, I just think he was one of those guys who moved to St. Petersburg and he became kind of an American hero. He always was one of those guys that people liked to cheer for.”

Despain: Racing has become dramatically safer but we were reminded today it still is dangerous. The inevitable question out of this is whether the type of racing we saw today is too dangerous, and if so, what is to be done about it?

Miller: “Way too dangerous. I’ve been writing stories since the ‘90s that this kind of insanity, this wide-open mile-and-a-half pack racing … We got lucky. Kenny Brack’s crash was on the backstretch at Texas and all that stuff went in the grandstands but there was nobody there. Ryan Briscoe was in turn three at Chicago and didn’t hit anybody and they both were able to survive. But when you’re on top of each other and these cars are so stuck and they’re going 220 miles-per-hour, and you can’t get out of the throttle because someone will run over the top of you, it’s not racing. It’s like a big game of chicken. Adrian Fernandez was here this weekend and he was smart enough to quit in 2004 because he said, ‘That ain’t racing. I’m not getting involved in it anymore.’ He was in the IRL a couple of years. He said he’s never seen the drivers as anxious and nervous as they were before the start of this race. He said, ‘I’m not talking about one or two. I’m talking about every guy I talked to.’ So, racing is inherently dangerous. When I grew up in the ‘60s, it seemed like it happened every other week in USAC, but the most important thing to remember is these tracks were built for NASCAR stock cars that are going 50 or 60 miles-per-hour slower. When you’ve got pack racing and you rub wheels with somebody and you get somebody out of shape and there’s 25 cars bearing down on you, there’s no driver reaction, there’s no way to survive it.”

Despain: So, is there a fix that enables Indy cars to continue racing on those type tracks? If you take away those types of tracks, oval Indy car racing becomes a one-race deal – the Indy 500.

Miller: “Exactly. We’ve lost Milwaukee, Phoenix and maybe Loudon – the three tracks that are real oval tracks where the drivers have to drive. If you’re going to stay on these mile-and-a-half bowls built for NASCAR, you’ve got one option. You go back to the Handford Device like they used to have in CART in the late ‘90s. It made the cars pass each other. It allowed cars to slingshot each other past. You didn’t run next to each other in a big pack. Guys were passing each other. There were 165 passes at Michigan once. They’ve shown you can run at Michigan and Fontana and big tracks like this and still put on a show and make it relatively safe. But you can’t do that. I was talking to Steve Horne tonight and he said, ‘This is a fixable problem but it has to be fixed immediately. You can’t do this again until the problem is fixed.’ You either fix the problem or you quit racing at places like this and you become a road course and street course circuit highlighted by the Indy 500.”

Despain: 15 cars involved, four of them airborne to some degree, and the catchfence involved, is it not noteworthy that 14 of those drivers walked away? When you compare that to the performance of Indy cars 10 or 20 years ago, that’s a pretty remarkable accomplishment of its own as we look ahead to those 2012 chassis.

Miller: “No doubt about it but I also think it plays into the fact that some of these drivers don’t have much experience on an oval; and they don’t have much experience at 200 miles-per-hour; and a lot of them have never spent a night in the hospital; and they didn’t drive a sprint car midget and run over somebody’s wheel. They don’t understand what happens when you interlock wheels in an open wheel race car. So, the bravery factor really goes up because it’s easy to go flat-out on a track like this (Las Vegas Motor Speedway). Well, guess what? That is a recipe for disaster, and thankfully, the cars are 50 times more safe than they were back in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. But at the same time … I said Thursday afternoon watching practice that I didn’t even want to watch practice. It was frightening to watch them run three abreast going through the corner. They’re down in the corner going 224 miles-per-hour. What happens if you puncture a tire or the suspension breaks? You don’t even have a chance. Racing should be about the drivers braking, getting in and out of the throttle, handling traffic. That’s what oval racing was built on.”

Despain: We have this tremendous increase in safety overall over the years … I’m curious about how the society has changed over time. The tolerance for the kind of thing that happened today isn’t what it once was. Sure, there was the little bump in interest that NASCAR got when Dale Earnhardt died. He was a national hero and everyone knew who he was. I’m wondering what the impact – not just his death – but the decision not to finish the face and the season ending on such an incredible down note – is on the series. How big a hit is this for the series?

Miller: “Good point. It’s a big point because you think you have some momentum – you’ve got new cars, new engines, kind of a new attitude, if you will, and when you watched the drivers walk into the drivers’ meeting and talked to them after the red flag, I told my camera man, Jim, ‘They don’t want to race and they’re going to tell them they don’t want to race,’ and out of respect to Dan, they ran the five laps. It was impressive that the people who stuck around stood and applauded and all the fans got up and saluted him at the end. But look at the people who die every year in football. I know that’s probably apples and oranges, but the thing is we kind of get used to this. In racing, we’re not used to it anymore. It used to be commonplace that fatalities were a part of racing and guys would look at each other in the first picture of the year and say, ‘How many of you guys will be around next year?’ We’ve kind of been numbed down to the fact that guys might break their arm or leg but no one’s going to lose their life.”

Despain: He was 33 years old and had a new deal (in 2012). He was a two-time Indy 500 champion and a former IndyCar Series champion, but is it conceivable that his best years might have still been ahead of him?

Miller: “If you look at Dario Franchitti’s career path, absolutely, just because he seems to get stronger. Being out of a car fulltime, Wheldon told us on Friday, he goes, ‘Man, it really makes you appreciate having the chance to go run fulltime again because you miss it so much.’ And there was just something about Wheldon. He was as brave as any guy who came down the pike. When he took the Versus TV job this year, he was so good in the booth, and people were telling him how good he was, he said to me one night, ‘Man, I appreciate people saying that but I don’t want to be a commentator yet. Man, I’m only 33 years old. That’s seven years down the road. I don’t want to do that yet.’ But he was a natural in the booth. He had great enthusiasm and great insight. He was going to be a very big presence on television when he got done driving Indy cars.”
[/spoiler]

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ ... ar-series/


I was just about to post that.It's a good read...


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:17 pm 
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Yeah, I imagine there will be some pretty big changes.

I've been quite busy today and had a lot of distractions, but every so often I just keep thinking about Dan. I've sadly been through the deaths of Ratzenberger, Senna, Moore, Earnhardt and Surtees live on TV, yet this one seems to hurt the most. I'm not sure why. The crash keeps playing in my mind like something out of a horror film. It genuinely freaked me out.

I just had a bad feeling about it from the very start of the weekend. I knew we'd have a multi car accident, but nothing prepared me for what happened. The opening laps were so intense. It was so exciting, but just too scary at the same time.

Obviously don't want to speculate but I saw a different angle of the accident from the backstraight camera, and it's far more obvious seeing Wheldon get into the catchfence. I suppose it could have been contact with one of the other cars. I just don't want to see it too many more times.

Thank God for this forum. I don't know where else I'd be able to open up and talk about this. You guys rock. :thumbsup:


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:36 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:40 pm 
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Still very shocked about the news yesterday. Dan Wheldon was such a sweet guys, always a good & clean racer, and glad he has won the Indianapolis 500 2 times & the championship in 2005. You'll never be forgotten for sure.

Was so excited about this race yesterday (like I was for Fontana back in 1999 with the championship battle between Franchitti & Montoya) especially because of the number of cars on the grid and the championship contenders were in the middle of the pack and both races ended badly. I already had goosebumps even before the start of the race, I was so looking forward to this one. Was hoping for a clean race but when I saw the speed of the cars and how close they were at the start (I didn't watch the practices highlights etc...), my first reaction was "WOW Men that's crazy" but didn't want to think about the worst case scenario which unfortunaly happened.

This is the worst crash I have ever seen live with Greg Moore's one and hope it won't happen again anytime soon. US Open Wheel Racing is still one of my favorite racing series (CART/IRL), I always like the racing in this series compared to what we have in Europe. Close finish, awesome battle, the variety of the tracks etc... Just need a better chassis and it will even more awesome (maybe next year?).

Condoleance to Wheldon's family, friends and the whole Indycar team for this terrible lost.


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:43 pm 
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Close to 24 hours on..... and I still can't believe it :(

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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:45 pm 
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De Cesaris fan wrote:
The crash keeps playing in my mind like something out of a horror film. It genuinely freaked me out.


Exactly the same.

After a few laps I was thinking "this will not last...it simply cannot last for 200 laps". I was expecting a scare, and I thought the touching-of-wheels between Tagliani and [another car] was it. When were onboard with Wheldon I was absolutely amazed at how many cars were jostling...fair enough in NASCAR you've got a nice ton of metal all around you and your wheels aren't sticking out, but with open wheels in cars that are known for their notority in going airborn, I was pretty much watching behind my hands.

And then I saw the smoke...the first few cars spinning into the wall and thought "shit...well that'll calm them down" and literally as that thought entered my mind I saw the fireballs erupt and the cars flying through the air like toys and I just went white and covered my face.

We've all become so conditioned to seeing a car smash into a wall, or flip a dozen times, or do both, and seeing the driver walk away, or even stretchered away whilst giving a hardy thumbs-up...this has shell-shocked everyone so much because I think most people were under the impression that fatalities were not a thing to ever consider nowadays.

But all you need is the right concoction...and a tragic, utterly unpredictable occurence, and suddenly you're back to realising how insanely dangerous what these people do every other weekend is.

RIP Mr Wheldon. I can't say I followed you avidly, nor am I a devout Indycar fanatic by any means...but it has shocked me much more than I care to say I thought it ever would, seeing what I saw.

:flag:

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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:04 pm 
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StefMeister wrote:
RtN wrote:
phil1993 wrote:
I don't want to sound callous here, but I'm assuming - judging by the fact the monocoque was in okay state - Dan suffered massive head injuries? Sorry if anyone's offended by my asking, I just never really thought about it.


Spoiler'd as it may upset some people.

[spoiler]The quote that has been circulated is 'unsurvivable internal injuries'. The current working theory is that another car (presumed to be Pippa Mann's) entered the cockpit.

Obviously they tarped it because there was blood or something else visible in the cockpit, and judging by the long-lens photos of Wheldon being stretchered to the air ambulance he does not appear to be bleeding from the head, so the blood possibly came from his body.

The full story may come out at some point, it may not.[/spoiler]


[spoiler]I've seen the replay a couple times on various news reports over the day & I think it was more likely some form of head or neck injury. Looked to me like the car went into the catchfencing pole cockpit 1st & this is what tore the rollhoop off.[/spoiler]

Also think the news reports are putting too much emphasis on the $5m bonus. He'd have raced & would have been racing through the field like he was even without the bonus.


[spoiler]Actually, you are right, the line was changed and Barnard is now quoted as saying 'unsurvivable head trauma', caused by Dan's car hitting the top of the wall upside down.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/r ... xid=cnnbin[/spoiler]

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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:15 pm 
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So very similar to Greg Moore's tragic accident then :(


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:22 pm 
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I'm like many of you, I'm still in shock and I don't really know what to do with myself. Its all so surreal and I keep thinking we'll wake up from this nightmare any second. Its going to take several days to really sink in.

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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:24 pm 
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Apparently Tracy was on CNN a few minutes ago. Anyone got a clip?

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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:28 pm 
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buster hymen wrote:
Apparently Tracy was on CNN a few minutes ago. Anyone got a clip?


Which show? I'll cap a replay


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:28 pm 
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Speedworx wrote:
I'm like many of you, I'm still in shock and I don't really know what to do with myself. Its all so surreal and I keep thinking we'll wake up from this nightmare any second. Its going to take several days to really sink in.


Well spoken!

I was watching the Indy 500 2011 race during my vacation in the States...
I was twice in Las Vegas (2009 & 2011) and really enjoyed it...
I was watching a Jochen Rindt documentary during the Indycar race on Sunday...
I never met Dan in person, but it hurts a lot...

:cry:


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:32 pm 
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Its not Rocket Surgery or Brain Science is it?
Its not Rocket Surgery or Brain Science is it?
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I only heard the end of what Tracy said, but I heard him say that he believes the cars themselves are relatively safe, but those cars are not designed for pack racing. Also, he believes the next thing safety wise to be improved is the catchfence.


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:33 pm 
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StefMeister wrote:
RtN wrote:
phil1993 wrote:
I don't want to sound callous here, but I'm assuming - judging by the fact the monocoque was in okay state - Dan suffered massive head injuries? Sorry if anyone's offended by my asking, I just never really thought about it.


Spoiler'd as it may upset some people.

[spoiler]The quote that has been circulated is 'unsurvivable internal injuries'. The current working theory is that another car (presumed to be Pippa Mann's) entered the cockpit.

Obviously they tarped it because there was blood or something else visible in the cockpit, and judging by the long-lens photos of Wheldon being stretchered to the air ambulance he does not appear to be bleeding from the head, so the blood possibly came from his body.

The full story may come out at some point, it may not.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]I've seen the replay a couple times on various news reports over the day & I think it was more likely some form of head or neck injury. Looked to me like the car went into the catchfencing pole cockpit 1st & this is what tore the rollhoop off.[/spoiler]

Ditto
[spoiler]I'm pretty sure that the injuries were caused by the collision with the fencing alone. It ripped off the roll hoop, and after the crash you see Dan's helmet above the line of whats left of the top of the car. The helmet is intact because it is not a crushable object, whereas the rest of Dan was.. my opinion is that the impact probably pushed his head down into the cockpit causing horrible injury to his body, which was strapped into the seat and not moving anywhere.
One can only hope that an instantaneous blow to the head from the fencing knocked him out straight away.[/spoiler]


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 Post subject: Re: Indycar @ Vegas
PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:37 pm 
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Mann has been succesfully operated for burns on her right hand.


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