Baj Posted 16 October, 2011 Share Posted 16 October, 2011 RIP. Wont claim to know anything about the guy, but by all accounts he was a class driver and twice winner of the Indy 500. Seen the crash on YT and its truly horrific. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/15330202.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted 16 October, 2011 Share Posted 16 October, 2011 Truly appaling crash. I wont embed this picture because it really is horrific and some people might not want to look at it. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/17/article-0-0E67AD7000000578-967_634x371.jpg (What's left of) Dan's car is impacting the fence on fire, top left. RIP. I don't follow Indy, but he is one of half a dosen drivers I knew of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_Jonny Posted 17 October, 2011 Share Posted 17 October, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMMHu8lnepM&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_809745 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted 17 October, 2011 Share Posted 17 October, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMMHu8lnepM&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_809745 It's just horrible to watch, but I just can't help myself. At 0:40, there is a secondary collision. 2 white cars and 2 red cars getting together on the left and 2 black cars run in to the back of them. Dan is in the second black car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightysaints Posted 17 October, 2011 Share Posted 17 October, 2011 Just woken up and seen the news. Dan was a great guy. I personably met him on a number of times at the Festival of Speed and he always had time to chat. We had a good hour this year taliking about his Indy 500 win and how he was working on deals for next year. He Would of done well in F1. RIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFrost Posted 17 October, 2011 Share Posted 17 October, 2011 (edited) RIP Dan Wheldon You have to say the safety of Indycar racing is light years behind other open wheeled formulas even with the higher speeds involved. I remember seeing youtube footage of Gordon Smiley's fatal indycar crash from back in the 80s. One youtube user's comment summed the crash up perfectly. "Holy S**t" Edited 17 October, 2011 by JackFrost Sentence structure: youtube wasn't around in the 80s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted 17 October, 2011 Share Posted 17 October, 2011 Personally I think racing open wheeled, open cockpit cars on an oval at those speeds is just mental. Can you imagine cars going through Eau Rouge at Spa, 4 abreast with no run off areas? Just seen Smileys crash on youtube, that wasn't nice. Even in a modern car, nobody is going to survive that impact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFrost Posted 17 October, 2011 Share Posted 17 October, 2011 Personally I think racing open wheeled, open cockpit cars on an oval at those speeds is just mental. Can you imagine cars going through Eau Rouge at Spa, 4 abreast with no run off areas? Just seen Smileys crash on youtube, that wasn't nice. Even in a modern car, nobody is going to survive that impact. I wonder if it is partly a cultural thing but what I don't get is why the only thing around the outside on an oval seems to be a concrete wall? Surely they could and should have come up with a safer solution years ago. I just don't see how in this day and age it can be considered acceptable, especially if you compare this with Smiley's crash 30 years ago and to me their not THAT dissimilar in the way the car has broken up and the general safety of the circuit. Compare an F1 crash from anytime even in the 90s to now and there is a very apparent difference in the standard of safety. Watching Indycars crashing now reminds me of F1 in the '70s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
once_bitterne Posted 17 October, 2011 Share Posted 17 October, 2011 I wonder if it is partly a cultural thing but what I don't get is why the only thing around the outside on an oval seems to be a concrete wall? Surely they could and should have come up with a safer solution years ago. I just don't see how in this day and age it can be considered acceptable, especially if you compare this with Smiley's crash 30 years ago and to me their not THAT dissimilar in the way the car has broken up and the general safety of the circuit. Compare an F1 crash from anytime even in the 90s to now and there is a very apparent difference in the standard of safety. Watching Indycars crashing now reminds me of F1 in the '70s It's not just concrete anymore. That changed in 2001 after one of US sport's biggest names, Dale Earnhardt, was killed after hitting the wall at Daytona. Nowadays every oval used by NASCAR and Indy has to have this. However, this played no part in Wheldon's tragic death as he went airborne and was killed by the imapct with the catch fence not the wall. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safer_barrier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFrost Posted 17 October, 2011 Share Posted 17 October, 2011 I see Scheckter wants his son out of Indycars http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/15335428.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winnersaint Posted 17 October, 2011 Share Posted 17 October, 2011 Was channel hopping last night and saw accident as it happened. Horrific doesn't even begin to describe it. The most chilling thing since was seeing in car footage just seconds before a person's life was lost. Not a petrolhead or particularly interseted in motorsports, but it strikes me that it takes some kind of courage to race on the edge at 220mph RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ribbo Posted 18 October, 2011 Share Posted 18 October, 2011 The Walls are a lot better than they used to be and certainly better than posted barriers, but the catch fencings not, they rip apart spaceframed stock cars and i've seen first hand this year an Mr2 ride the catch fencing at brands hatch, open wheel cars + catch fences are always worst case. Dallara named the next indycar chassis after Dan, he did the majority of testing for it, the safety cell is a lot stronger and the car wider to help in the wheel to wheel aspect of oval racing, cant quite shake the thought that some more ground effects would help though to stop cars getting airborne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFrost Posted 19 October, 2011 Share Posted 19 October, 2011 It's not just concrete anymore. That changed in 2001 after one of US sport's biggest names, Dale Earnhardt, was killed after hitting the wall at Daytona. Nowadays every oval used by NASCAR and Indy has to have this. However, this played no part in Wheldon's tragic death as he went airborne and was killed by the imapct with the catch fence not the wall. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safer_barrier I remember Earnhardt's death because that's when they were first bringing in the HANS device and Earnhardt was one of its biggest critics. He refused to wear it as they weren't compulsory back then. Sadly they reckon the HANS device would have almost certainly saved Earnhardt's life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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