Dan Weldon dead

[enjenjo]

He was killed in an accident at the track in las Vegas during the Indy car race. A real shame.

[wayne petty]

i turned the race on late...

everybody was sitting stunned... heads down... faces in their hands...

i am still sad.. will be sad for a long time...

adam..

dale...

dan..

[348tripower]

I tuned in late too.  Absolute shame.

[jaybee]

I was watching.  It was a horrendous, violent, fast-developing wreck but you've probably seen the footage and know that.  A friend of mine was in the stands and we traded text messages during the stoppage.  While the focus wasn't immediately on Weldon he said the scanner chatter on the TV channel contained a lot of "Oh no" and "We can't show that."

Clearly IRL has a real need for the new car which will debut next year.  Very sad that the series didn't get one more safe day in before retiring the existing car.  Weldon did nearly all the development driving for the 2012 car because he didn't have a full time ride this year.

The Iowa race was one of those days when Dan didn't have a ride.  He was in the broadcast booth that weekend.  I was listening on the scanner and the guy was a natural.  He asked great questions in the pre-race and commercial breaks, pointed out likely stories of interest to the broadcast team, and sounding like a seasoned professional on air even while computer equipment crashed repeatedly during the Indy Lights race.

Dan Weldon was still a young man, but the sport lost a great one this time, a driver who is gone before having the chance to write much of his story.

[WZ JUNK]

Racing is a very dangerous sport and the loss of anyones life is very sad.  During the years that Hooley ran at Bonneville, four drivers died at the salt flats.  Two of those were in competition coupes, the same class that Hooley was in.  It really started to bother me.  The thought of him being injured was on my mind so much that I told him I would no longer be able to participate.  Hooley would always tell me, when I buckled him in, that he was doing what he chose to do and that if things went wrong, he was doing what he wanted to do.  The responsibility and choice was his.  Even though he told me this, I knew I would never be able to separate myself from him if something did go wrong.  I knew it would be on my mind the rest of my life.

So today, not only do I feel for the members of Weldon's family and friends, but also all of the team members and those that worked with the team.

John