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Horrendous Indy car crash in Vegas -- Update: RIP Dan Wheldon

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by westcoastvol, Oct 16, 2011.

  1. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    Maybe I'm missing something, but are you sure the in-car camera you get for the actual flying, crashing part there is Wheldon's and not Power's?
     
  2. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Pretty sure that's from Will Power's car
     
  3. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    It is. Power drives the No. 12 car. Wheldon was in the 77 car.
     
  4. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Speaking of IndyCar and finances, one thing I noticed from the videos was all the empty seats in the stands during the five-lap salute. Were the stands full during the race and a lot of people ended up leaving, or was that reflective of the actual attendance?
     
  5. Mira

    Mira Member

    http://espn.go.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/7111348/indycar-series-dan-wheldon-death-stuns-racing-world

    Michael Andretti told ESPN.com that Dan Wheldon signed a contract to fill the seat Danica was vacating.

    Dan was a classy person, great interview and talented driver. RIP.
     
  6. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    It looked like, from earlier shots, a lot ot trackside seats were empty. Fan safety (the ironies abound)?
     
  7. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    Wouldn't the trackside seats be some of the last to sell and so remain empty if there's not a sellout? I would guess that the view is probably better from slightly higher up, rather than at eye level. You see that in soccer, for example. Watching that from field level seats sucks.
     
  8. Layman

    Layman Well-Known Member

    At the green flag, they actually had (by ICS standard) a pretty decent crowd. the upper 2/3 of the main stand was basically full. This was driven, at least in part, by a ticket give away that Indycar did in the early part of the season. I don't remember all the details, even having attended 4 ICS races this season, but if you bought a ticket to a race earlier in the season, you could send in for freebies to the Vegas race. Vegas was intended to be the big celebration / champion crowing / blow out event to cap the season & they tried to ensure a good crowd (and...full field). We gave pretty serious consideration to going, but couldn't make the scheduling work.

    The crash happened on lap 15 & the red flag went for the better part of two hours. I'm guessing (unless they were part of a casino bus deal) most folks had left, by the memorial laps.
     
  9. derwood

    derwood Active Member

    What kind of moron hires a Rodeo promoter to run a racing series?
     
  10. Layman

    Layman Well-Known Member

    The kind of morons who inherit a race track??
     
  11. murphyc

    murphyc Well-Known Member

    IndyCar will survive for the same reason it survived in the early years: the Indy 500.
    Also, recall the ratings spike NASCAR had post-Dale Earnhardt Sr.: people who weren't fans previously wanted to see what this whole NASCAR thing was about because the news of Earnhardt's death was everywhere. Big difference is the 2001 Daytona 500 started the season and there was a race the following week; Wheldon's death came in the finale of a series that doesn't race again for about six months.
     
  12. sportbook

    sportbook Member

    Bubbler, why does a two-time Indy winner not have a full-time ride? I apologize in advance for my ignorance.
     
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