[Peterson]

Not F1, but still sad nonetheless....

Indy Car driver Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a horrific 15 car pile up during the Las Vegas 300 race.

RIP

[UKjovi]

Originally Posted by Peterson

Shame he couldn't convert it into a win. Never mind.

Set my alarm for 6am, but just switched it off and went back to sleep, watched the race on the bbc iplayer when I woke up. Glad I slept in, not much excitement apart from the Petrov/ Schumi crash and the Hamilton/ Webber battle.

You wont see me getting up early, not while it can be recorded
Real shame about Dan Wheldon. Did you see the footage?

[Walkerboy]

The incident at Vegas was horrific. Unfortunately Wheldon stood little chance of survival. IndyCar racing is far too dangerous. Too many cars on too small tracks and too high speeds. As we saw last night, one small mistake can cause utter carnage.

RIP Dan Wheldon

[Peterson]

Originally Posted by UKjovi

You wont see me getting up early, not while it can be recorded
Real shame about Dan Wheldon. Did you see the footage?

Yeah, I saw the footage last night, as walkerboy said, amazing how one small mistake can cause such carnage. Shocking.

IndyCar really need to look at their safety levels and try to improve rapidly, can't help but think if that had been an accident in F1, all would have survived.

[ticos_stick]

A terrible tragedy.

The sport is crazy and yesterday they added fuel to the fire (pardon the pun) by offering $5m to the winner if Wheldon started at the back.

It's such a shame that Wheldon had helped produce a new safer car for next season which would have help cause far less carnage, if none at all in yesterday's race. Watch this Letterman interview from 5 Mins to see the car and Wheldon talk about it, very eerie -

YouTube

[Walkerboy]

It was the wall/fence that killed Dan Wheldon. It's ridiculous to think that they still drive at such high speeds on oval tracks, with solid concrete walls. What's more amazing is that this hasn't happened on such a scale before.

Apparently he'd just signed a deal to replace Danica Patrick at Andretti next season.

Personally I don't think the whole $5 million deal had anything to do with the accident. If it hadn't been Wheldon it WOULD have been someone else. It's not like he caused the accident by chasing first. He was still down in 24th at the time.

[ticos_stick]

Well that's something neither of us will ever know.

But I'm sure the $5M prize was buzzing around all the racers minds, and at 200MPH with wheels inches apart it's not something that would have helped.....

[Walkerboy]

Wheldon picked up just under $3 million for winning the Indy 500.
The $5 million on offer yesterday was being split 50/50 between the winner and a fan/charity.
I believe Wheldon was the only driver out there yesterday who was eligible for the challenge as all others were driving under contract.
Like I said, he was still down the pack and not driving dangerously.

Fact is, he didn't cause the accident, just got tragically caught up in it.

[Walkerboy]

So apparently New Jersey will host a GP in 2013.
Rumour has it they will use the freeway that runs alongside the Hudson......

[Peterson]

Originally Posted by Walkerboy

So apparently New Jersey will host a GP in 2013.
Rumour has it they will use the freeway that runs alongside the Hudson......

Yeah, I saw a pic of the rough track layout on twitter, will see if I can find it and post it.

EDIT: found it.... http://twitpic.com/7542se