The motor racing world was left reeling on Monday from the death of two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon, while the search for answers into what triggered the horrific crash began.
Wheldon’s death in the IndyCar finale at Las Vegas Speedway on Sunday left fans stunned and plunged series officials into crisis management mode as the season-ending celebration turned to disaster.
In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, the finger pointing had already begun as drivers questioned the wisdom of running the race on a lightning quick, high-banked 1.5 mile (2.4km) oval that had not staged an IndyCar event in 11 years.
Others expressed concern over the decision to run a large 34-car field sprinkled with part-time drivers unprepared for the extreme speeds and a 200 lap wheel-to-wheel dogfight.
Shaken IndyCar officials had no immediate response to the concerns, instead keeping the focus on Wheldon as condolences continued to pour in from around the sporting world.
The shock of the Briton’s death has cut across all sporting boundaries and generations as past driving greats and casual fans mourned the 33-year-old father of two.
English soccer star Wayne Rooney and LeBron James of the National Basketball Association were among those to express their grief via Twitter, as did Formula One champions Lewis Hamilton and Emerson Fittipaldi.
“I have seen many fine men/racers leave us prematurely over my lifetime,” said Fittipaldi, a Formula One champion and Indy 500 winner who drove during one of motor sport’s most dangerous eras. “It is an unfortunate part of our sport.”
IndyCar’s initial handling of the tragedy has been respectful and well-managed, said Ernest DelBuono, a crisis communications counselor for Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.
However, as the days go on, he said officials must be prepared to respond to hard questions about safety and what could have been done to prevent the carnage that left Wheldon dead and sent two other drivers to the hospital.
“They [IndyCar] need to continue over the next several days to celebrate a championship driver, his accomplishments and sympathy for his family,” said DelBuono, vice-president of Levick Strategic Communications. “And then they need to be thinking strategically. They need to be talking safety. They are going to have to discuss safety concerns.”
Ironically, Wheldon had spent much of the year testing IndyCar’s “Car of the Future,” a car with enhanced safety features that is to be introduced next season.
In an attempt to drum up interest in the season finale and highlight the skill of IndyCar drivers, series chief executive Randy Bernard had offered a US$5 million bonus to any qualified driver believing he could get into car and beat the series’ best.
Bernard had hoped to attract a few big-name former Formula One or NASCAR drivers to add some spice to the season-ender, but found no takers.
“I don’t think Formula One guys have an appetite for ovals,” Bernard said in an earlier interview. “All I’ve heard is that they fear them. That’s what separates our drivers and these are the points we need to get out there. IndyCar isn’t for everyone, it takes someone who has a lot of guts to get behind a wheel and go 230mph around an oval.”
Without a full-time ride this season, Wheldon was the only one to accept the offer, but the Briton was far from an IndyCar novice having twice won the Indy 500, including the 100th anniversary race in May and the driver’s crown in 2005.
Not everyone in the field had the benefit of Wheldon’s experience and with 34 tightly-bunched cars going flat out, it added up to what many drivers described as a recipe for disaster.
In the aftermath of the deadly crash, some drivers, such as NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, have called for an end to racing open-wheel IndyCars on ovals.
“Within five laps people started to do crazy stuff,” Dario Franchitti said. “I wanted no part of it.”
Motor racing fans, like drivers, accept that the sport comes with high risks, but space age technology and new safety advances, in the car and at racetracks, have made crashes more survivable.
The last driver to die in IndyCar before Wheldon was Paul Dana, who was killed during the warmup for the 2006 season-opener in Miami.
Despite all the advances, Wheldon’s death provided a chilling reminder of just how dangerous the sport remains.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with