Russian Roulette at the Vegas Bullring: R.I.P. Dan Wheldon

The entire racing world grieves with the Indycar Racing Series and Wheldon family over the tragic loss of driver Dan Wheldon in the horrific 15 car wreck that claimed his life on Sunday, October 16th.  Without a doubt, racing is dangerous under normal circumstances but it's even worst under the most precarious! Regardless of the need for ratings, "a great show"  or whatever reasoning comes together to consider precarious conditions, the utmost safety of everyone involved should prevail.

Ironically, Dan had spent a good deal of his "off time" without a ride this past year working on the new design that the Indycar Racing Series will debut next year. Wheldon had joked about being the "crash test dummy" for the new design all year but stated that the safety improvements were significant.

Las Vegas isn't called the "bullring" without good cause and precarious was an  understatement for Sunday's race with Indycar. Despite the concerns expressed by many drivers over the high speeds in excess of 225mph, and the potential for more aggressive driving too early on in the race, the race proceeded as usual only to end early in tragic chaos by Lap 13. Several drivers had expressed major concerns before the race began.

According to Oriol Servia, he said, "We all had a bad feeling about this place in particular just because of the high banking and how easy it was to go flat. And if you give us the opportunity, we are drivers, and we try to go to the front. We race each other hard because that's what we do. We knew it could happen, but it's just really sad."

And their worst fears came to pass quickly. On Lap 11, as one car got loose and squirreled into the path of another car, the unrecoverable chain reactions began the chain of events that would result in a melee disaster the likes of which Indycar hadn't seen in many years. "Big Ones" don't happen in Indycar like they do in NASCAR, but the "Big One" struck today like a shotgun blast and claimed 15 cars. Still with all the factors pre-staged in this race, it was like Russian Roulette because everyone knew something bad could happen, and so the one "bullet" (the "Big One" wreck) claimed the life of Dan Wheldon in it's aftermath on Lap 13.

Ryan Briscoe explained his view, "I'll tell you, I've never seen anything like it. The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there's just stuff everywhere. Crazy."

With flaming debris flying everywhere, driver's described the track with dismay and horror at what they experienced. Danica Patrick gave her view. "It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible," said Patrick, who was making her final IndyCar start. "It was debris everywhere across the whole track. You could smell the smoke. You could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered."

The race was red flagged and drivers just stood by their machines looking around at the nightmare scene as they realized several of their own were wrapped up in the wreckages. But, when the tarp covered the 77 car and the helicopter fired up to airlift Dan Wheldon out of the track, their worst fears were realized about one of their own. In the end, the race was capped with a tearful 5 lap salute to Wheldon by the drivers as teams stoodby on pitrow.  

 

Yet underlying all this was the gargantuan efforts of Indycar CEO, Randy Bernard  who strived to put this race on the map as a grand season finale. From renting the track to the $5 million dollar promotion for a driver to win the race from the last starting position that had been promoted all year long, Bernard worked out every detail to put on a great show. He even convinced the Las Vegas Strip to close in order to parade the cars in pre-race festivities, host a special Black Jack tournament and distirbute massive amounts of free tickets in order to insure a crowd to watch the Grand Finale of their schedule.  Desperately trying to revive sagging ratings, he even put his job on the line for it. Bernard had it all covered, including ABC-TV live coverage and promised the board for Indycar that he would tender his resignation if they didn't secure an .8 in the ratings.

Only Wheldon, who was without a ride for the season but slated to take Danica Patrick's next year when she vacated hers to move to NASCAR, had accepted the $5 million dollar promotional challenge. Naturally, Wheldon just wanted to race. As a racer, it's only natural that he wanted to be part of the bigger picture and part of a history making moment and challenge. After all, he WAS the Indy 500 winner, who could resist? As much as the media hyped about the "money deal," with racers, it's never all about the money.

Farewell STOCKCARREVIEW.COM! Thank you Matt!

Farewell STOCKCARREVIEW.COM!

It has been my honor to be associated with and writing for you for all this time. Thank you for a great run!

The following editorials were from SCR and are posted here for preservation.

From 3/17/2011... Is it economy or the sport? Bristol Won't Sell Out (and didn't).

The economy appears to be taking it's toll on the auto racing world, particularly on NASCAR, as seen with this Sunday's race at Bristol. At a track that normally enjoys sellout crowds, it will not sell out this Sunday's Cup race. High gas prices to travel, paycuts hitting almost every home's pocketbook and in general higher costs of living across the country without an increase in income all in the midst of extremely shaky world events, seem to be affecting ticket sales.

 

Bristol Motor Speedway's string of 55 consecutive sellouts ceased last spring when attendance fell to an estimated 138,000 for the Food City 500, per NASCAR. The speedway seats 160,000, but barely fell short of a sellout for last August's night race despite a crowd estimated to be at 155,000.

Jerry Caldwell, who is president and general manager at Bristol said BMS is still dealing with a sluggish economy that has adversely affected the ability of long-time season ticket holders to renew their packages and attend Bristol's two races every year. And given a choice, both he and Bruton Smith, who is Chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, admitted that fans tend to choose the August night race over the spring Sunday afternoon event.

Caldwell stated, "I'm really encouraged. Ticket sales are strong. We are slightly down from where we were last year. Year over year, from Jan. 1 to today, we're up. But we're still down with the after-effects of that economy -- especially at the end of last year, last August, September, October when we did our [season-ticket] renewals. The things we hear from the race fans continue to play out. They still want to come to the races and they still love Bristol. They may have their job, but they're still very cautious with their money -- so they're probably going to come to one event and not two. Ticket sales are playing out that way."

But Bruton Smith disagrees. He continued to profess his belief that, "There has been too much of this points racing. I have found that it turns fans off," Smith said. "They want someone who is battling to win. Winning, really in any sport, is everything. It's out front and it's all there is. I would like to take half of the money from the points fund and give it to the winners of the races. I'd like to see a $300,000 to $400,000 difference between first and second place. That would get the drivers' attention and you know the fans would love it." Smith also felt that with the renewed success of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon back in victory lane and Danica Patrick making a splash in the sport, that fans will still come out to the races moreso if it's for wins and not so much points racing. The success of these particular drivers were helping but tbey could still do move he said.

I find it interesting that the general manager of his speedway believes the economy is affecting the ticket sales, but the CEO beleieves it's the sport itself and how it plays out for the victory in the end. Is this a 'blame game' or are both are somewhat right? If the speedway can blame the sport for not doing enough, they are releived of any responsibility for making the track, race, ticket prices and facilities, more attractive or accomodating to the fans. Seriously, what family with more than 2 children can afford to attend araie So which one has the most affect? Both affect the bottom line of the actual business of the sport and that's to sell tickets! While Brian France has gone on record to say he couldn't be more pleased with the turn out of this season, shouldn't he wait til at least Daytona in July to declare success or not?

The Bristol Motor Speedway guarantees one thing: excitement. After Daytona with it's incredible speeds, duel drafts, new rule engine failures and mega-wrecks kicking off the season with a fairy tale finish for Trevor Bayne, and Phoenix and Las Vegas in between as the usual mile and half tracks, everyone looks forward to Bristol. Bristol is where everything goes because everything can and everyone has a chance. For those who've been behind the eight ball already this season, Bristol can help them make up a lot of ground because it's their kind of track!

So, is it economy or the sport? Does it matter? Race fans have priorities, and though the economy is surely crunching our common sense, somehow we find a way to the races. Maybe not as many as we want to, but we find a way. If NASCAR really wants to boost the sport, forget about points racing, forget about fancy marketing ploys and deals, forget about getting the most the market will bear and make it affordable for families to go who have children they want to take to a live race. Have family sections that will be the best ticket prices for families only so a family of 4-6-8 could afford to come! Keep the sections family oriented and family friendly. Now, there's an idea that would fly in the face of any economy.