Tragedy in Las Vegas

[Chilli Dipper]

Today is an incredibly sad day. Dan Wheldon, twice champion of the Indy 500, has been killed in a crash at the IndyCar season finale at Las Vegas. A great champion, and a great man, has been taken away from us far too soon.

[mymizunosrock]

Very sad news. Was he a guest commentator at the Brickyard 400 this year?? I saw the replay of the crash. What a mess. Im a huge motor sport fan, and I hate to hear of any driver losing their life regardless as to whether I know them as a driver or not. Jimmy Johnson was very lucky over the weekend too. To me, that looked like a bigger lick than what killed Earnhardt, yet he walked away from the wreck..

[Chilli Dipper]

The tragic irony is that Dan had spent this season as the R&D; driver for the new Dallara IndyCar chassis that is being introduced for 2012. The current car design, being raced for the last time today, was notorious for its tendency to launch uncontrollably when one car ran into the back of the other. The new car was designed with features aiming to prevent the very kind of accident that claimed his life.

[jamo]

I saw a YouTube video of the broadcast and his in-car camera was on screen right before the crash. If they had stayed with it all the way through the crash... boy that would have been horrifying.

[namkrats]

Very tragic. Just watching response from other drivers on sport centre and Danica's response is very very touching. Thoughts and condolences go out to his family and friends

[DoGolf Jonathan]

I saw that the other day.  Extremely tragic and my condolences go out to his family.

[newtogolf]

Those catch fences are designed to protect the spectators and are deadly for the drivers.  Unfortunately Dans car hit the fence with the cockpit up against the fence so it was the worst case scenario for him.  Danica said she had a weird feeling right before the accident happened and took her foot off the gas, it probably saved her from being right in the middle of all the carnage.

If they can't figure out how to keep these cars on the ground they need to redesign the catch fences, discontinue oval racing or go to some sort of restrictor plate that keeps the speeds under control.