Sunday night. Korea reports done. Not the best race we've ever seen, but -as ever- with some stories to tell. Suddenly, a message from the United States. There has been a horrific accident in Las Vegas. Dan Wheldon may be seriously injured. And then, some two hours after the crash, the inevitable news. Dan Wheldon has succumbed to his injuries.
In the warm up laps, the US commentators had contact via radio with one of the drivers. They asked him about his plans in the race, while he was following the pace car. That driver was Dan Wheldon. He was hoping to win a five million dollar prize in Las Vegas. That was the deal he made with a sponsor. If he could win from the back, he would receive five million, half of which would go to a lucky fan. The other half would be his. In the car, Wheldon thanked his sponsors and his team. Crossing fingers for a good race.
Eleven laps later, no more then five minutes, marshalls were running towards his car. Wheldon wasn't responding and his car was without a rollbar. Just seconds before, he crashed into the back of Paul Tracy's car while in front of him -and behind him- all hell broke loose. The Sam Schmidt driver was launched into the air and thrown in the catch fencing, before spinning back onto the track. Fifteen cars were involved in the accident, two more than at the Belgium Grand Prix in 1998. But this crash happened at 220 mph. Three cars were simultaniously launched, the rest was spinning out of control. And Dan Wheldon was not responding to the medics rushing to his aid.
There's a picture of him, being rushed into the helicopter. And that picture basically confirms what everyone was fearing at the time. Wheldon wasn't going to make it. IndyCar went into mourning. The five-lap salute was deeply moving. Drivers were trying to comfort each other, champion Dario Franchitti was crying when he put his helmet on.
Everyone knows motor racing is a dangerous sport. Everyone knows it could go horribly wrong at any minute. But when the cars are driving, racing, who actually thinks of that? The drivers certainly aren't. If they do that, they can basically hang up their helmet. The spectators aren't thinking about it either. Except when it actually does go wrong. But we have gotten used to drivers getting out of wrecked cars without a scratch. But in the chaos of Las Vegas, nothing could be taken for granted. Three cars were airborne, one of them landed in a terrible way. Suddenly, we know how dangerous our beloved sport actually is.
A good crash is part of the deal. It adds to the spectacle. Think of Mark Webber's flip in Valencia. It was seen around the world, it made it to every year clip. The good thing about that crash was that Mark just got out and walked away. Unscathed. The terrible feeling in your stomach that you get when the driver is sitting motionless behind the wheel...you never get used to that. If you were watching the Giro d'Italia cycling race last spring, you were witnessing the young Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt lose his life. Live, on air. Immediately after his crash, you just knew, from looking at the images, he wasn't going to survive. You were just waiting for confirmation.
Last June, Dan Wheldon was a guest on the David Letterman Show. Letterman was joking about the fact that Wheldon still couldn't secure a full-time seat, not even after winning the Indy 500 for the second time. Dan was a good sport, but after a while, you could see he wasn't seeing the funny side of it anymore. He was the development driver for the new IndyCar model, that will race next year. The car has its rear wheels protected. Because when open wheelers get tangled bad stuff happens, Dan said. Safety first, always.
People are already talking about closed cockpit racing, as they were after the accidents of Henry Surtees and Felipe Massa. It looks a bit like a knee-jerk reaction. Just like the question of who's to blame for all this. Although it's terribly tragic, a driver knows that when he gets into a race car, his faith is partially in the hands of circumstance. But if you tell him he can never drive again, his world falls apart.
There's a YouTube video from 1989. A wee lad called Jenson Button wins a karting race. He's nine. Dan Wheldon comes home in second place, Justin Wilson is third. John Button, Jenson's dad, then speaks about him being terrified when his son is racing. But this is what he wants. And this is what Dan Wheldon wanted to do. This is what he loved. And we're gonna miss him. Just like we miss everybody who died behind the wheel of a racing car. Doing the one thing they've dreamed about since they were youngsters at a karting track.
GPUpdate.net's Ivo Pakvis
Twitter: @ipakvis
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