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Dan Weldon

I saw the news when I got home last night, truly a sad day for sports fans and especially racing fans. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family & friends.
 
Saw this on Twitter last night, thoughts and prayers going out to his family and his family inside racing.
 
So sad. I was watching the race live and it was one of the worst racing wrecks I had ever seen. Honestly, and I don't mean this to be prude, but IndyCar is lucky that 5 people didn't die in that wreck. My friend met Dan in St. Pete last year and said he was the nicest guy at the track all weekend. I think I had a tear roll down my eye when I saw Danica's interview and Dario crying in his car. RIP Dan.
 
Saw this today on SportsCenter...definitely the worst crash I've seen, and the footage that Will Power's cockpit cam had of the interior of that hellstorm of car wreckage and flame was so striking. I do remember reading about the deaths of Ayrton Senna, Roland Ratzenberger, and others in these types of cars and it really demonstrates how dangerous that sport is...but at least he died doing what he loved doing. It's too bad when anyone, sporting superstar or not, dies that young.
 
Such a shame. Reminded me of Greg Moore.
 
I've been around racing all of my life to some degree. My mothers dad raced and built sprint cars, from the later 1940's well in to the early 70's. He knew just about everyone that ran at Indy from the 40's thru the 70's. He also built Offenhauser engine's for tons of people in the midwest back in those years. When he passed away in 1982, it was to a point a who's who of people in racing that paid their respects. I go to Indy every year and to some local sprint races, but no one is really left from his day with maybe the exception of AJ who knew my grandfather well. I remember my grandfather telling me many times about all the guys he knew who raced but had been killed. The list was long and he hated every bit of that part, and rarely talked about it.

Racing has some great rewards for many, but there is for sure a dark side. Pretty rare now days, but it happens none the less and it will happen again. Just makes you sick for sure. It would have been very sad yesterday had it been anyone, but DW was in the news a lot recently because he was the lead test person for the new chassis, which BTW, has fenders, more of less behind the rear wheels to keep the cars from riding up the wheels and getting airborne. It will be standard in 2012....go figure, ONE race to late in this case. He was of course also doing the $5 million dollar promo thing yesterday and there was going to be an announcement this week that he had signed a new deal to run next year with Andretti Racing. They interviewed him of course before the race, talk to him in the car on the warmup lap and showed his on board camera several times in the early laps. Just soooo odd that it had to be him. Death never makes sense I guess.
 
I don't understand how Indy can be so unsafe!?!?
A 15 car accident like this is only possible on an oval track. I am not a fan of Indy or any other racing that does not included turns in both directions. It is a sad thing to happen.
 
Being born and raised in Indy, and having spent more time at the track than most (until I joined the military), I've seen a ton of wrecks. I've seen horrible pit fires, crew members getting run over, and I was there in turn 3 when Gordon Smiley hit the wall and died.
When I got home from the weekend outing and saw this video, I let out a gasp that actually surprised me. I've never seen anything like that crash. Horrible.
R.I.P. Dan.
 
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HoosierGolfer said:
Racing has some great rewards for many, but there is for sure a dark side. Pretty rare now days, but it happens none the less and it will happen again. Just makes you sick for sure. It would have been very sad yesterday had it been anyone, but DW was in the news a lot recently because he was the lead test person for the new chassis, which BTW, has fenders, more of less behind the rear wheels to keep the cars from riding up the wheels and getting airborne. It will be standard in 2012....go figure, ONE race to late in this case. He was of course also doing the $5 million dollar promo thing yesterday and there was going to be an announcement this week that he had signed a new deal to run next year with Andretti Racing. They interviewed him of course before the race, talk to him in the car on the warmup lap and showed his on board camera several times in the early laps. Just soooo odd that it had to be him. Death never makes sense I guess.
Click to expand...

That is some really tragic irony....
 
T0AD said:
Being born and raised in Indy, and having spent more time at the track than most (until I joined the military), I've seen a ton of wrecks. I've seen horrible pit fires, crew members getting run over, and I was there in turn 3 when Danny Ongais hit the wall and died.
When I got home from the weekend outing and saw this video, I let out a gasp that actually surprised me. I've never seen anything like that crash. Horrible.
R.I.P. Dan.
Click to expand...

Just a note; Danny Ongais did not get killed. Alive and well. You could be thinking about Gordon Smiley?
 
HoosierGolfer said:
Just a note; Danny Ongais did not get killed. Alive and well. You could be thinking about Gordon Smiley?
Click to expand...

If he saw Gordon Smiley's crash, I really do not envy him. Reading about the crash was enough for me...it was so ugly....
 
Holy crap, you're right, it was Gordon. Danny was in a similarly bad one though, was he not?

That was a lot of years ago, thanks for the correction.

But yeah, I found it scary how absolutely quiet a hundred thousand people could get after that wreck. We knew.
 
My wife and I were at the race and it was awful to witness. We had shared a fun meet & greet with the drivers just the day before. Dan Wheldon was one of our favorites. A class act!
 
Yeah Weldon was truly a class act. My prayers are with his family

TapAhoy!
 
Got back from holiday 2 weeks ago to hear the sad news. Having seen the footage it is amazing that no one else was killed.

He got no recogintion in the UK for his achievements in the US outside of the motorsport press, much like Dario Franchitti.

Dan was a great driver and a great guy. R.I.P. Dan, you won't be forgotten.
 
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