A Champion
2005 & 2011 Indianapolis 500
2005 IndyCar Series
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I found out something I would have rather not known; what it's like to attend a race when there's a fatality. I now know how the fans felt at the 1955 Indianapolis 500 when Bill Vukovich lost his life, and in 1964 when Eddie Sachs died.
Those races continued to completion. In those days, racing deaths were commonplace and it's a testament to the dramatic improvement in safety that a mortal injury has become so rare that would cause a race to be cancelled. Maybe if this had been the Indianapolis 500, a Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus attitude of The Show Must Go On would have prevailed, but this wasn't the Indianapolis 500 and the decision to run five ceremonial laps in memory of Dan Wheldon was a perfect one.
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Rows of three to honor a multiple Indy 500 champion.
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All pit crews lined to give homage to a fallen champion.
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Wheldon's #77 alone on top of the scoring pylon.
Radio broadcaster Sid Collins spoke so eloquently in 1964:
"We are all speeding toward death at the rate of 60 minutes every hour, the only difference is we don't know how to speed faster and Eddie Sachs did. So since death has a thousand or more doors, Eddie Sachs exits this earth in a race car."
The same eulogy goes for Dan Wheldon. Dallara has announced that next year's new IndyCar chassis, tested by Wheldon this year, will be named in his honor.
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I took the next photograph below of Wheldon (on left) during an interview with title contenders Dario Franchitti (center) and Will Power (on right) at Mandalay Bay on the day before he died. He spoke of how much he enjoyed his new role as a husband and a father.
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Tony Kanaan led the field of 34 cars.
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An awesome sight.
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Running in tight formation at 225 miles per hour in the spot of the 15-car pile-up a few laps later.
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