My sister and I spent the whole race (what there was of it) standing right behind Dan's pit. When they all started crying and packing up, we did the same. We were all the way to our south Las Vegas home before they announced to the audience. What a horrible way to end a perfect Sunday at the track.
My heart goes out to his family and the whole team.
My SSR: "Kate" a Haughty Redhead, '06 Redline FPR 6 spd. #23333 Build Date 2/16/06
Although we see this type of tragedy too often it is nevertheless very shocking when these things happen and especially sad when it happens to such a nice young man with a young family.
A note of interest is Dan Weldons first Indy 500 victory was in 2005 and for the parade lap he rode on Glenn McMinn's #51/74 Indy Parade SSR.
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"Such are the Vagaries of Life"
Ah, I'm Just Truckin' With Ya!
And to think he was in this race just to promote Indy car racing, which he has been doing winning the 500 this past May. May God bless you Dan and your family.
Dan Wheldon bought a home in St. Petersburg, Fl on Snell Island in 2005 and moved there shortly before winning the Honda Grand Prix and the Indy 500 that same year.
He loved the area and decided that St. Petersburg would be a great place to raise a family. Dan and his wife, Susie have two boys. Dan said "I love it here" he told the Paper in 2009.
Dan has been very active in our community. Dan and Susie raised money for the St. Petersburg's All Children's Hospital and have a suite on the hospital's Baby Place floor, the Dan and Susie Wheldon Suite.
The City plans to hold memorial for Wheldon but details are not worked out.
We followed Dan a little more closely being a hometown boy.
R.I.P., Dan.....a huge loss to the world of auto racing, but an even bigger loss to his family and friends.
Growing up in Indianapolis and having attended several Indy 500's in years past, I've always been a fan of open wheel racing, and admired the drivers' courage and trust in each other to drive at those almost ridiculous speeds, many times wheel to wheel, inches apart.
Indy Car made some serious mistakes with the race and too many drivers, etc. But I will say that while nothing they could do could have made up for the tragedy that happened yesterday, terminating the race, and they way they did the 5-lap tribute to Dan was extremely moving.....probably the classiest way that sort of difficult situation has ever been handled in all the forms of auto racing that I've ever seen through the years.
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