Dan Wheldon, killed in Vegas race

[sperry]

He got collected in the IRL equivalent of "the big one" and hit the catch fence with the top of the car.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/indycar-s...ycar-accident/

2 time Indy 500 winner... including this year's. RIP.

[MattR]

That was one of the worst motor racing wrecks I've ever seen. It was surreal looking the way multiple cars went airborne. RIP Dan Wheldon, he was a great driver and good ambassador for drivers in general. I hate any loss in motorsports, it's a sad day.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by MattR

That was one of the worst motor racing wrecks I've ever seen. It was surreal looking the way multiple cars went airborne. RIP Dan Wheldon, he was a great driver and good ambassador for drivers in general. I hate any loss in motorsports, it's a sad day.

Yeah, it was a messy, awful wreck. Only 12 laps in... so everyone was full of fuel, and every other car in the wreck was on fire. That just doesn't seem acceptable.

Apparently, Wheldon was the test driver for the new, safer cars debuting next season.

[Nick Koan]

Sad sad day.

[Dean]

Sad, horrific, unfortunate and avoidable???

Maybe this will wake up Indy like Dale Sr. in NASCAR. They have lagged behind other bodies for some time on safety IMHO, at least compared to F1 and NASCAR.

The new safer car should have been done years ago but they were too busy dealing with engine manufacturers, CART, etc...

[sperry]

I think part of the delay was the time they wasted designing crap like this:



Then again, what they did eventually come up with is nearly as horrific:



But they do have covered rear wheels, which really should have been done for all the oval cars years ago. It would have probably saved Dan's life yesterday.

[Kevin M]

Yeah, I'm not sure what you could have done about it without ditching the open wheel style of car.

[AtomicLabMonkey]

I flipped onto the race right after the caution came out. As soon as the workers started covering a car with tarp and the rescue bird was spinning up, you knew that was not ending well for someone..

Sad day & RIP.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Kevin M

Yeah, I'm not sure what you could have done about it without ditching the open wheel style of car.

Well, the era of open-top racecars may be over. Le Man P1 cars have already put roofs one them. F1 has been threatening for years and with the big rules changes coming, I wouldn't be surprised to see them with closed tops.

But really, you simply can't have oval racing with open-wheel, open-top cars. At least, not if they've got so much aero they're flat around Vegas at 220 mph. Tire to tire contact at those speeds means turning cars into missiles. Really, it's amazing only 1 person died. Hell, at 200+ mph, a car could easily be launched over the catch fences into the crowd.

Indy probably should go to fendered/roofed cars for the ovals, or just stop racing at ovals entirely. Or just take all the wings off the cars so they're only going 150, and have to brake for the turns.

[A1337STI]

boo. Hopefully they can find ways to increase safety with out taking away from what they are doing (racing open cockpit, open wheel cars) and with out taking away from the speed either. but that's like asking for fast, reliable and cheap ...

[Kevin M]

Originally Posted by sperry

Well, the era of open-top racecars may be over. Le Man P1 cars have already put roofs one them. F1 has been threatening for years and with the big rules changes coming, I wouldn't be surprised to see them with closed tops.

But really, you simply can't have oval racing with open-wheel, open-top cars. At least, not if they've got so much aero they're flat around Vegas at 220 mph. Tire to tire contact at those speeds means turning cars into missiles. Really, it's amazing only 1 person died. Hell, at 200+ mph, a car could easily be launched over the catch fences into the crowd.

Indy probably should go to fendered/roofed cars for the ovals, or just stop racing at ovals entirely. Or just take all the wings off the cars so they're only going 150, and have to brake for the turns.

Yeah, race cars are just too fast now, as dumb as that sounds on the surface. Imagine how fast NASCAR would be if they gutted the cars, increased available aero and had bigger tires. If one of those cars had made it into the crowd this past weekend, you have to wonder if the series could even survive that.

[A1337STI]

As long as the spectators stay safe, I think there will be enough spectator (in person and on TV) interest to keep the series alive.. (IE Advertiser revenue is greater than costs , both logistics and lawyer based)

if people in the crowd get hurt the lawyer side of the costs goes up a lot and there's a good chance advertiser revenue will go down, and that would make it go bye-bye in a hurry.

If the officials and what not think the crash was close to involving spectators i bet we will see some changes on the next oval race.

What is Indy gonna be with out the Indy 500 though?

[AtomicLabMonkey]

NASCAR was far faster (i think the lap record was 212+ mph) at their big speedways 25 years ago. They only added restrictor plates to slow the cars down after a 'big one' where a car nearly made it through the catch fence right along the front stretch.

Open wheel cars have been too fast on ovals for a long time now. This is nothing new. CART was doing 240+ at Cali speedway a decade ago. Drivers were practically blacking out at Texas a couple years or so ago from the sustained G force. The only thing that's surprising is that there haven't been more deaths. Most people just have no appreciation for the impact energy involved when you hit a solid object at speeds that high, even if its a 'safer' wall, and then are shocked when someone finally dies..

[sperry]

Marco Simoncelli died yesterday in the Moto GP race at Sepang.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/motogp-ne...iple-injuries/

Low-sided the bike on lap 2 and got hit by the two riders behind him. Don't go looking for the video... it's not gruesome, but it's kinda horrifying.

[MattR]

Yeah, once a helmet comes off a Moto rider, all bets are off. Horrible crash.

[A1337STI]

Wow i think i turned the race off just before that happened.

did anyone catch the V8 super car race, they were doing basically a Pro-Am, and a few of the ams were indy car guys . i missed the actual race cause i was Tivoing Transformers 2 , and Jeana wanted to watch something else ... (think i should have recorded the super cars and recorded transformers 2 later)

[MattR]

I never miss a V8 supercars race...It's the best touring car series by far. The GoldCoast race was cool, I wish a few more big name North American drivers could perticipate, but there were some great co drivers this year....Bordais, Said, Priaulx, Turner, Briscoe, etc...

[MattR]

Oh, and to stay slightly on topic, Dan Wheldon was originally scheduled to participate in the race. In his honor, event organizers now have a "Dan Wheldon" trophy awarded to the top performing guest driver.