Dan Wheldon has passed away aged 33 after shocking incident - Updated as of 11pm

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A very serious situation apparently.
May your god be with him.

Update on Situation

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and 2005 IndyCar Series champion Dan Wheldon has died from his injuries sustained in a crash at the IndyCar Series finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it has been confirmed. He was 33.

Wheldon was moving his way through the 34-car field after starting from the back of the field, which was part of his $5 million challenge to win the race. His was one of the last cars to get involved in the crash, and was sent flying from the bottom of the racetrack into the wall on the outside.

Wheldon's Sam Schmidt Motorsports car suffered severe damage to the topside, including its rollhoop structure, and once he was extracted and other drivers were treated at the scene, his car was quickly covered with tarpaulin.

Wheldon was airlifted from the circuit's infield care centre to University Medical Centre in Las Vegas, but all medical efforts were to no avail.

Series chief Randy Bernard confirmed the news at 3pm, local time, and said: "IndyCar is very sad to announce Dan Wheldon passed away from unsurvivable injuries.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Dan and his family. IndyCar, its drivers and teams have decided to end the race."

The race was red-flagged on lap 12 and was abandoned some two hours later. The drivers instead returned to their cars and performed a five-lap salute in Wheldon's honour.

The most senseless death I can remember in F1 was that of Tom Pryce in South Africa in 1977. Highly promising driver from North Wales, absolutely tragic death - hit one of two marshalls who were crossing the track.

Further details can be googled, too gruesome for a public forum, but proof if any were needed for the Indy Car people if anything can go wrong it will certainly go wrong.

As for Indy Cars racing on an oval designed for NASCAR, remember also that even for three-wide racing, bumping the car beside you as all fair in NASCAR and the cars are designed for it. No such wiggle room in open wheel racing. It would be Dan Wheldon's best possible legacy if Indy Cars were banned forever from NASCAR ovals.

What worried me when I look back is that it had been marketed just like that, with the three wide racing. All fine and well in NASCAR, where 'rubbing is racing', but seriously, you just can't do that in open wheel!

I mean, 225mph?? 227 was the pole speed at Indy and it's a mile longer.

Kwini

I saw something about the Tom Pryce accident on a documentary a few months ago - marshall carrying a fire extinguisher tried to run across the track in front of his car but misjudged the speed (read on Wikipedia earlier that the 'Marshall' was just a teenage kid who'd volunteered - cost both him and Pryce their lives)

The 'Car of Tomorrow' NASCARs are extremely strong, and the SAFER barriers seem to be very effective at dissipating the energy when a car spears into one - problem for Indy cars is that they commonly clear these barriers and go into the catch fencing above.
Vegas needs either extensive modification or to not be used for open wheeled racing.

d_h,
You hardly ever hear about him but Pryce was a helluva driver, probably just about to break through, a couple of podiums, plenty of top tens . . . . . .

Senseless. But not much more so than Las Vegas.

The reason for Dan's tragic death has been revealed and that's head trauma

Dan Wheldon's life will be celebrated in a special Sky Sports documentary to be screened this week.

Dan Wheldon, A Tribute will be shown on Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports HD2 on Thursday, October 20 at 10pm.

The hour-long documentary will focus on Wheldon's rise through the motorsport ranks from junior motorsport in the mid-1990s, through to his emergence as one of IndyCar's top drivers, his title win in 2005 and his pair of Indianapolis 500 victories.

Sky Sports IndyCar presenter Keith Huewen, who broke the news of Wheldon's death in a 15-car pile-up at the IndyCar finale at Las Vegas to viewers in the UK on Sunday, paid tribute to the 33-year-old Briton.

"Dan's death touched the hearts of everyone at Sky Sports," Huewen told AUTOSPORT. "And on behalf of the entire Sky team our sincere and heartfelt condolences go to the Wheldon family.

"I'd also like to extend my particular gratitude to [studio guests] Jonny Kane and Johnny Mowlem who showed true professionalism in their contribution last Sunday."

The on board camera on Dan Wheldon's car shows the right front wheel flying towards Dan's head. It's not clear that it hit him - it seems to bounce off his car just in front of him. Anyway as others have mentioned there could have been several killed with cars flying in the air and bursting into flames at 220 mph. Hopefully this will allow more to recognise that IndyCars shouldn't be racing on NASCAR oval tracks where the driver has his foot pressed to the metal (no breaking - maximum speed) throughout the race.

I'll try and catch the tribute. Funny really. I'd never heard of the guy until last weekend, but after reading how big a success he was in the US, I feel I should know more about him.

I was amazed (and relieved) that more drivers weren't seriously hurt or killed. As for Dan Wheldon, even if the flying wheel didn't hit him, its quite possible just having his head banged around the cockpit from the impact, would have done sufficient damage.

Does raise another question though: do Indycars have F1-style wheel tethers? They don't always work, but at least they help reduce the risk of flying wheels.

I just hope this accident serves as a wake-up call to the Indycar organisers and US motorsport authorities, that major changes are needed to improve safety.

Graham Rahal is running an auction on the Dan Wheldon Memorial site on 31 October 2011. What started off as just Graham auctioning off his race helmet, other drivers from various racing disciplines along with sponsors and other companies have contributed to the auction, and it's growing every day.

All monies raised from the auction will go to the Dan's two little boys.

The Indy 500 wasn't the same without Dan today. Never realised how much he is missed.