On the 16th of October, 2011, thirty three year old Dan Wheldon began his day with a lot of hopes. Having obtained a slot in the season finale Indicar race, he was a man who stood to gain a lot of attention from racing teams and a bonus prize of five million dollars, US, if he managed to win the race.  For a man who had been twice crowned champion at Indicar, he'd been down upon his luck, of late, as he did not even have a steady racing position in any of the racing teams.

Wheldon had been offered a seat at Andretti Autosport for the next season, but there probably was the fear that it too could peter out, if he didn't have a strong performance against his name. Truly, for Dan Wheldon, this was a make or break race.  While the money would have done very nicely indeed, for the out of job father of two, a strong finish was a much more realistic and achievable target.

The race started without giving any inkling that it was going to be marred by tragedy and controversy. Within half an hour of the race start however, a rival's car seemed to suffer a technical glitch and slowed down all of a sudden, in the middle of the fastest part of the Las Vegas motor speedway, leaving cars hurtling down the banked track with no escape route.  As the cars started colliding with each other and forming a huge pile of twisted metal, Dan tried his best to avoid the stricken cars in his path and very nearly succeeded too, but fate had other plans for him, on that day.  His car's front left wheel rode up the rear right wheel of a paralyzed car in front of him and instantly became airborne.  With virtually no runoff area having been provisioned for, his car flipped over, mid air, and crashed into the concrete and steel catch fence with fatal consequences, for Dan. He was rushed to the hospital but could not be saved. In all, fifteen cars were involved in the pile up which left many drivers injured, but for Dan Wheldon, it was a crash he failed to walk away from.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the organizers have been coming in for some serious flak. While it may be argued that all forms of motor sports are inherently dangerous, it becomes the responsibility of the organizers to ensure that spectator thrills don't come at the cost of driver safety. Experts have time and again voiced their opinions and concern about the lack of several necessary safety norms in Indicar for a really long time, but had until now been rather conveniently ignored. In stark contrast with Indicar is the sport of Formula One (F1) whose organizers go to great lengths to ensure driver safety.

While F1, today, is one of the safest sports around, it has not always been so. It took the deaths of two racers, Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, who died on consecutive days during the dreadful race weekend at Imola, Italy, in 1994, to lead to the changes that have made modern Formula One racing as safe as we now know it to be. Hopefully, the death of Dan Wheldon will lead to similar changes in the world of Indicar racing and prove that his death did not come in vain.


Roland Ratzenberger (4 July 1960 – 30 April 1994)


Ayrton Senna (21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994)


Daniel Clive 'Dan' Wheldon (22 June 1978 – 16 October 2011)
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