R.I.P. Dan Wheldon

[Mayor Qumiby]

Im hearing rumors that the westboro baptist church will be picketing Dans funeral ... what a bunch of scum bags.

[Seal (SmittyIsOurSavior)]

Im hearing rumors that the westboro baptist church will be picketing Dans funeral ... what a bunch of scum bags.

Seriously, or is this sarcasm? If so, what the f*ck does a guy dying in a tragic accident have anything to do with their anti-everything views?

[charlotte49er]

open wheel cars are death traps, seems that something like this happens at least every other year. the sport should be suspended until they get it fixed. getting rid of open cockpits would be a good start.

This certainly was a tragedy, but suspending open wheel racing is ludicris. (And I don't mean the singer.)

NHRA Top Fuel Dragsters are open cockpit and hit speeds of 300MPH in a 1/4 mile!

When you are pushing the edge of a machines endurnace, whether it's Indy Car Racing, F1, NASCAR, NHRA/IHRA, even off shore power boats, things can go wrong in an blink of an eye. I have been an advocate for a while of putting a F-16 type canopy over the Indy Car drivers. Very doubtful that it would slow the cars down, might even speed them up!

Racing is a dangerous sport, there's no doubt about it. But the Indy Cars of today are safer than they ever have been.

Watch at your own risk! A tribute to racers who dies doing what they loved to do best.

[cptx]

Theyre safer than they ever have been? Thats great. People are still dying. No deaths in nascar since dale sr. Safe walls,totally new cars and hans are all a result of that. Hell, johnsons crash saturday night was way worse than what killed sr and he said "it stung a little". There have been a multitude of crashes that were worse. No dead drivers.

Safer than ever isnt an excuse when people are dead. When your head is poking out of the top of a maching going 220 mph bad things can happen. Top fuel is actually worse, they have so much torque and speed in such a short time any accident has the potential to be catastrophic.

[Seal (SmittyIsOurSavior)]

I think IndyCar should stay off ovals. I know the Indy 500 is still the iconic American motorrace, but they could use the infield at Indy instead, like Formula 1 used to do. Open wheels should not be going around ovals at the speeds they do. Keep them on road courses.

[Epistaxis]

This may sound stupid, but wouldn't some kind of bumper on the back, covering the back of the open wheels prevent cars from flying up and over one another?

The wheels would still be technically "open", you just wouldn't have as likely an airborne situation, which seems to me to be a huge issue.

Once they are airborne, they can't do anything but hope they don't end up dead.

Just my very uneducated opinion. Perhaps the purists would take issue.

[Darth Biscuit]

The open wheel cars are so small, they fly easily and the drivers head sticks out and they let them run 225+ MPH... it's a wonder more of the drivers haven't been killed.

Some sort of cage around the driver is the only logical place to go. Epi's idea of "bumpers" may help the flying thing too, but idk how that could be implemented.

The reality of it however is that the human body isn't designed to travel at these speeds. No matter what you do with the vehicles, crashing at 200+ MPH is potentially deadly and the drivers know this.

[Epistaxis]

Several cars in Sunday’s accident went airborne, and there have long been concerns that the 2003 model was prone to doing so. IndyCar officials said that issue has been addressed in the 2012 model developed by Dallara Automobili—and tested by Wheldon.

http://www.ibj.com/fatal-indycar-crash-raises-questions-about-series-future/PARAMS/article/30181

How about THAT.

about the 6 minute mark...you don't want the wheels climbing up over each other, that's when bad things happen....and i don't want any part of that.

And Wheldon was testing this new car.

Too bad it wasn't implemented for this race. it might have saved his life.

[Darth Biscuit]

I bet that would have helped for sure... that piece on the back would force the front wing down instead of tire on tire and making the front end go up.

[byrdmobthedk]

There's a lot that could help increase safety. Like JJ said in an interview, oval tracks are just too dangerous due to the high speeds they run, open cockpit and open wheels. NASCAR has the restrictor plates to slow them down and the new cars that hug the ground. I enjoy Indy racing as well they're just too dangerous and too fast to be put on oval speedways.