Dan Wheldon 1978 – 2011

[Rich Maskell]

I'm not a massive fan of Indy. But from the 6 minutes of footage I have seen, the commentators seem to be suggesting that it was just a matter of time before "the big one" happenned in Indycar.

Something is graveley wrong in any Motorsport if that is the case.

Just tragic

 

[Ben Eastman]

Racers dying is a tragedy but I think it would be better to die battling to be the best at what you love then to die slowly.
RIP, going to have to look this up on YouTube. Hopefully it wasn't graphic like the Tom price uncut videos( that nearly made me puke)

 

[Emil Praga]

 

[Paul Lock]

A tragic loss to motorsport and all his family and friends.

R.I.P Dan Wheldon

 

[Holty]

RIP Dan such a sad loss for the world of Motor Sport condolences to his family and friends :'(

 

[Tim Ling]

I'm not a massive fan of Indy. But from the 6 minutes of footage I have seen, the commentators seem to be suggesting that it was just a matter of time before "the big one" happenned in Indycar.

Something is graveley wrong in any Motorsport if that is the case.

Just tragic

I agree. Maybe the powers that be in Indycar will pay more attention to safety after this awful accident.

 

[Ivo Simons]

I believe they get that new safer car for next year.
Bit of a double feeling as this was the last race with this car.

 

[Kevin Ascher]

RIP Dan


I am not much into Indy Car Racing and you may correct me if I am wrong, but my feelings tell me that there can be no car safe enough to run so close to each other at these speeds. It is simply insane.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

RIP Dan


I am not much into Indy Car Racing and you may correct me if I am wrong, but my feelings tell me that there can be no car safe enough to run so close to each other at these speeds. It is simply insane.

I've thought this for a while about IndyCars.
I often wonder why they don't adopt F1-style safety precautions with regards to fuel tanks and the monocoque.
Put 15 Formula 1 cars in that crash and I'm pretty sure there would be no casualties.

Very sad day for motorsport though. RIP Dan.

 

[Dave Fussell]

R.I.P sad day

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

There is very little to do in this kind of accidents, a car airborne crashing in the wall in that orientation. Open-wheel oval racing is for the simmers, not for the real-world, IMO. In F1 the case is the same, the noses are so high thesedays that it is a miracle that there hasn't been serious headtrauma when cars are sliding in top of each other. Closed cockpit, open wheels sounds like a reasonable combo. If not then the aerodynamic parts in side cockpit should be completely illegal, the driver should be able to be extracted when unconscious with out moving anything else but unlocking safety harnesses.

 

[Iain Wilton]

RIP Dan.....

I was actually at the race yesterday and saw the crash. It was unbelievable! The parts of cars flying everywhere, and fire balls from them hitting the walls was.........well I have no words to describe it.

The 5 lap drive past in tribute to Dan was a nice touch and was very well received by all that were there.

 

[Greg Woods]

God Awful crash. R.I.P Dan

 

[speedometer]

another horrivic accident making its way to the history books.
condolences to his familie, friends and the team.
i hope they learn from such a loss of life and make the sport safer,
these things shouldnt happen.

 

[Edgar Herrero]

RIP Dan ... always with us and with the mosport world

 

[David Carter]

R.I.P Dan, I am deeply saddened that one of Britains and the worlds top racing drivers has gone in such a tragic way.

When you are racing at 220-225 mph, inches apart from each other and with solid concrete walls as barriers, the cars has to have constant saftey updates from season to season. I heard that the cars that was driven yesterday are a 9 year old design and in those 9 years, there has been a huge development on saftey measures and technology. America in whole have always been slow on keeping up to date with cars in general and I think that the new car for next year has come far too late.

F1 has done loads of Technilogical saftey updates over the years from saftey cells to putting grooves into the tyres to slow the cars down (till 2008), so there is no excuses for any other race series to not keep up to date.

 

[Chris Bell]

RIP Dan, very sad to see anything like this, it has to be said that things like this should not happen anymore, no matter what series/event, the tech is there to prevent fatal accidents!! Any comments from Dallara??? (They still build the chassis' right??)

 

[Jacques Weijers]

Rest in peace.it's just sad that he's dead

 

[Andy Booth]

R.I.P Dan. Racing for ever now. Thoughts go out to his family!!!!!

 

[David Jundt]

I believe they get that new safer car for next year.
Bit of a double feeling as this was the last race with this car.

Even worse, Dan was the one testing it when he was without drive and thought of it to improve the safety in IRL:frown: