All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

Looked & felt a LOT like the Kenny Brack crash, to me. Maybe you have to be an open wheel fan to remember that one....but it feels a lot the same.

 

In the accident according to Timing and Scoring: Cunningham, Hildebrand, Bell, Howard, Scheckter, Kimball, Tracy, Viso, Wheldon, Lloyd, Mann, Power and Rice. Placed 22nd to 34th.

 

That Brack crash was pretty ugly, too. And at another mile and a half oval.

 

Doesn't sound good for Wheldon

 

Wheldon airlifted to the hospital.

Amazing pic of Will Power flying through the wreckage: http://twitpic.com/71fef7/full

 

Wheldon helicoptered to University Medical Center, no word on injuries; Mann and Hildebrand to same hospital via ambulance.

Exactly like Brack's for Wheldon, probably a feet-first impact, which is never good. Also like a long-ago crash in Atlanta where about 11 cars piled up in a night race. Everyone walked away, and Al Unser Jr., walked right to his motorhome. This, with the possible exception of a crash at the start at Surfer's Paradise in the rain, is the largest crash in an Indycar race, any sanction, since the start of the 1973 Indianapolis 500, an 11-car accident (all but Salt Walther started the re-start two days later). The 1996 U.S. 500 had a 10-car accident before the green flag.

 

The thing is, it was abundantly clear to everyone, except perhaps Indycar brass, that putting 34 cars on that track was a dangerous move. No driver interviewed so far is surprised that something like this happened.

I'm getting a sick feeling that Dan Wheldon did not go on that copter alive.

 

That Atlanta crash was pretty bad. I'm pretty sure that was the last race there, too.

 

I know these folks are wired up differently than most folks, but I can fathom getting back into a car, after that. Danica sounded ready to end her Indycar career right.....now.

 

Feet first = better than cockpit first.

 

Hell, what's the point? Dario has clinched the championship, so there's not even a competitive reason to run it.

 

F1grid twitter site reporting Wheldon "seriously injured." Hope they're wrong.