Indycar driver Dan Wheldon killed at Vegas circuit

[chrisupyonder]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...Las-Vegas.html

Chris.

[Chas]

It takes an event like this for us to realise what other go through for our entertainment. I follow F1 and thought that, as a sport, it was the most dangerous, but how wrong I was.

Regards

Chas

[Tobus]

I'm not into racing at all. But seeing this on the news on Sunday really made me wonder why they don't put some more safety into the designs. These cars immediately went airborne, started catching fire, etc. It seemed from watching the footage that even the slightest bump or nudge from another car would make them just fall apart and turn into fireballs. I do realize that racing is all about performance and pushing the limits of engineering, but there's a point where it's just plumb ridiculous to put human lives at unnecessary risk for the sake of entertainment and profit.

Reports as of yesterday were saying that Mr. Wheldon had some concerns about the safety of the track too. He apparently was pressured into going ahead and racing anyway, and he lost his life. Now his wife and children are left without their husband and father. How incredibly sad.

[TexasPete]

There's a lot of safety in those cars. I've seen some frightening crashes of those cars and the drivers walk away from it. The infrequent "launch into the air" aspect, as far as I understand, is a byproduct of the open wheel design.

The commentators on the broadcast that I saw talked about the catch fence above the relatively new S.A.F.E.R. barrier and suggested how the car hit that fence as the cause of the driver's death.

The open wheel cars and the high speed oval tracks seem to be a dangerous mix. There was a race a few years ago at one where they cancelled the race because the drivers reported starting to black out due to lateral acceleration (4-5g nearly the whole way around the track). They've slowed the cars down since then, but when you have a big crowd of cars so close together like that, contact's going to happen.

[tpa]

Thanks for posting that Chris. I'd have missed it otherwise as I don't watch the news much. It's a timely reminder of the risks of motor racing which F1 with it's recent fantastic safety record has to some extent played down. I've followed F1 from my early teens and can well remember when the scenario was very different. Looking at the footage, it's pretty amazing that there were no other fatalities.
My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

[James Hood]

Sympathies for all who mourn his passing.

What better way though, to transition to the next realm, than doing what you love and are so, so accomplished at doing. Is it Native Americans who would say, "He died well."