Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: albitz on 16 October 2011, 22:20:21

Title: Dan Wheldon
Post by: albitz on 16 October 2011, 22:20:21

Just saw on the news that he has been badly injured in a horrific 15 car accident in Indycar today. Hope he comes through it okay. :(

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: SIR Philbutt on 16 October 2011, 22:36:05

and here it is

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/story/_/id/7111712/dan-wheldon-injured-fiery-indycar-crash-las-vegas (http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/story/_/id/7111712/dan-wheldon-injured-fiery-indycar-crash-las-vegas)

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: SIR Philbutt on 16 October 2011, 22:44:55

looks like a bad crash - hope everyone is ok

(edit button please !!!)

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: Nickbat on 16 October 2011, 23:18:02

Sadly reported dead according to the Washington Post.  :'(

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/othersports/autoracing/indycar-driver-dan-wheldon-has-died-in-a-fiery-15-car-wreck-in-las-vegas/2011/10/16/gIQA9p3WpL_story.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/othersports/autoracing/indycar-driver-dan-wheldon-has-died-in-a-fiery-15-car-wreck-in-las-vegas/2011/10/16/gIQA9p3WpL_story.html)

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: robbo299 on 16 October 2011, 23:37:57

Sadly confirmed that he has died on american news channel. Very sad.

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: Rods2 on 17 October 2011, 00:50:11

Very sadly, ESPN confirming that he had died from unsurvivable injuries. RIP

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: TheBoy on 17 October 2011, 08:36:52

Quote from: Philbutt on 16 October 2011, 22:44:55

(edit button please !!!)

Its getting boring now.

The edit button is currently disabled due to problems, and is way down the list of priorities of things to fix currently.

I'm sure everyone knows this, as I must have posted it 50m times

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: Lazydocker on 17 October 2011, 09:10:47

How very sad when a talented young man loses his life :'(

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: TheBoy on 17 October 2011, 09:44:31

Quote from: Lazydocker on 17 October 2011, 09:10:47

How very sad when a talented young man loses his life :'(

Any young man, talented or otherwise.

We know motorsport is dangerous, and we know the crowd like the thrills and spills of close racing (except the F1 lot), this reminds us that it can be dangerous. Nobody should be dying :(


Or maybe the risk is part of the appeal to the competitors?

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: bob.dent on 17 October 2011, 10:03:12

Very sad news indeed. :'(

He was a superb racer and twice winner of the Indy 500. I often thought he would end up in F1 but he obviously decided that he had better opportunities in the Indy Car series.

RIP

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: TheBoy on 17 October 2011, 10:30:33

Quote from: bobdent on 17 October 2011, 10:03:12

I often thought he would end up in F1 but he obviously decided that he enjoyed racing, rather than gayly following around other cars.

Fixed that for you Bob.Dent ;)

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: Varche on 17 October 2011, 11:05:07

Sad end to a talented life.

I never could see the attraction in oval type racing. Not much in the way of safety run off areas

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: TheBoy on 17 October 2011, 11:12:08

Quote from: Varche on 17 October 2011, 11:05:07

Sad end to a talented life.

I never could see the attraction in oval type racing. Not much in the way of safety run off areas

I think the safety is based around non movable walls, and that you will give them a glancing blow, due to proximity, rather than head on smash. Bit like our central reservation barriers on motorways.

Not sure how safe/unsafe Indy series is TBH, not something I follow, but it seems to be all about speed, far faster than F1, so everything - mechanical and organic - is stressed higher.

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: tigers_gonads on 17 October 2011, 12:02:15

Just seen the video  :o

Not a good way too go  :( :(

There is now talk about the amout of cars on the track
Apparently somebody wanted to limit the amount of cars running to 30 on saftey grounds but it was over ruled  :(

Rip Dan   :(

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: SIR Philbutt on 17 October 2011, 18:02:16

On Jeremy Vine this afti one caller remarked that it is only when there is tragedy that the sport or the injured are worthy of mention. A full 30 mins dedicated to the fact that he had died (and why), previously 0 mins about his success. What is the adgenda ?
 
Dan Wheldon was a well known, successfull, driver within the sport and it's followers, with a good career ahead of him and will be mourned among his peers and fans.

Any human endeavour requires risk and learning from mistakes, some do this for us and to entertain and enthrall us. Without them we will not improve and move forward. This loss and the many that have gone before will improve the sports safety, but may make it a little less dangerous and therefore less thrilling and newsworthy (like some think F1 has become)

I have watched this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N9-QrRl1Uk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N9-QrRl1Uk) a number of times and shows that this is now a very rare thing to happen.

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: albitz on 17 October 2011, 18:10:53

An interesting report on his early career from Anglia news archive.
http://www.itv.com/anglia/dan-wheldon-archive58836/

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: TheBoy on 17 October 2011, 18:26:55

Quote from: Philbutt on 17 October 2011, 18:02:16

Jeremy Vine

he moron somes up everything that is wrong at the BBC  >:(

Title: Re: Dan Wheldon
Post by: cem_devecioglu on 17 October 2011, 18:52:10

sad news..  :(
 
I have watched the accident many times in slow motion.. from helicopter camera its obvious that 3 drivers who fly to the sky insisted not to brake..  if they rammed the brakes at the first smoke and fire , at least they wouldnt fly over other cars and hitting to wall :-\