October 18, 2011
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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It is amazing to me, how the racing community can be so divergent one moment, yet rally as one the next. There are many forms of racing -- F1, GT, NASCAR, Indy Car, just to name a few. In some cases, like myself, I like pretty much any form of racing that involves four wheels, and this weekend have happily watched three NASCAR races and an F1 race.
Blessedly, in the seven years I have been a racing fan, the most serious injury I have witnessed in a car was Dario Franchitti's broken leg in a NASCAR Nationwide race a few years ago -- and in total, Shane Hmeil's broken back that to this day he is recovering from.
In those seven years, no driver has lost their life in the course of a race.
Until Sunday.
I have looked at the pictures of the immediate aftermath of the deadly crash involving Dale Earnhardt in 2001 and wondered how people could sit and wait for news. Wasn't it nerve wracking not knowing what had happened?
The world hadn't been introduced to Facebook or Twitter back then, and you had to rely on TV or radio to get you information.
We have become a world based on instant gratification -- we want to know about it and we want to know about it now. We tweet and post on Facebook as we watch races, and often times, dozens of us post the same thing at the same time. You can almost suffer information overload. I have actually tried to curb my race updates -- especially when I am not at the track -- because I know I am just repeating the same thing another member of the NASCAR media is posting.
Sunday I chose to watch the Indy Car race instead of my usual Sunday filler of football because it was the final race of the season, and it was Danica Patrick's final full time Indy Car race before her move to NASCAR. Plus, there was the side show of the Championship being close enough to be interesting between Franchitti and Will Power, and Dan Wheldon had decided to take on the challenge of trying to win a race from the back of the field for a bonus of $5M -- which he would split with a lucky fan.
I remember the interview with Power about his name, and the "History of Danica" piece on how she came into racing, and why she was moving to NASCAR.
Briefly they showed Wheldon being introduced, rising from the floor of the stage, waving to the fans before crossing over to hug the IZOD equivalent of Miss Sprint Cup. Later, they spoke to him about the $5M challenge and why he was doing it, and how he had been testing the new car they were going to race next year, and how he was looking forward to next year.
I remember the well done National Anthem, and commenting on how nice it was to see foreigners like Franchitti and Power standing quietly for it, even though they were not American.
As I watched the tweets as the cars took the track to make the pace laps, I remember comments being made about what a mess this start had the potential to be, because there was a full 34 car field on a mile and a half oval -- not ideal for an Indy car race. Indy media were talking about how they felt there would be a crash as the cars fought for track space.
And I remember @sbpopoffvalve commenting "A sudden sense of foreboding just washed over me. Hopefully baseless. Hope everyone is safe out there today."
Oh, how could he have known?
We have become so complacent about seeing crashes in racing that in many cases, we don't think much about the fact the person inside might actually be hurt. We have become used to the SAFER barriers absorbing much of the impact, and HANS devices saving a driver from snapped necks. In NASCAR, it is easy to tell if a driver is OK, because as soon as they can, they drop their window net. But in Indy, there is no window net. There isn't even a roof.
When Sunday's crash first happened, my first reaction was to the fire. There was so much of it. I didn't really count how many cars had gone airborne. I just knew there were smoking masses flying along the wall and fence, and flames trailing behind them. Cars, and pieces of them, came to rest all across the track.
My tweet stated simply "Dear God!"
But one by one, we saw drivers start climbing out of the cockpits, just as we expected them to.
When NASCAR had a similar crash at Talladega two years ago with Carl Edwards, he just hopped out of his mangled car and trotted across the finish line.
It was hard to keep track of the drivers who were safely out of their cars, but it seemed that almost everyone was out within a few moments except Pippa Mann and Dan Wheldon. They focused more on the extrication of Mann, who eventually climbed out of her car -- albeit shell-shocked --and mentioned Wheldon in passing, so I thought that it was just due to the complications of getting them out of the twisted metal that was taking so long.
Then, they showed the helicopter warming up.
I have seen the medical helicopter parked unmoving at every race I have ever been to. I have never seen it turn on its rotor, much less leave the track.
They then showed Wheldon's car, and it had a tarp over it.
Rule in NASCAR -- a car doesn't get tarped on the track unless something reallllly bad has happened inside.
ABC/ESPN began interviewing drivers coming out of infield care, and you could tell after they spoke with Paul Tracey that maybe Dan's injuries were bad.
After all, Tracey had seen death in the cockpit of a race car first hand. And he said Wheldon looked very bad.
People became transfixed by Twitter, hungrily hunting for updates on Wheldon from someone at the track.
"Leaving the track don't want to hear news see enough" tweeted Tomas Schechter, who was also involved in the crash.
"Entire top roll area of Wheldon’s car sheared off" tweeted Dan Blount of ESPN.
Then they showed Danica in tears on pit road.
This is when I started feeling sick about the possible outcome.
Someone, in a sick twist, decided to fake a retweet from Ashley Judd, wife of Dario Franchitti, saying she had been told Dan was dead.
In an effort worthy of an award, the ABC broadcasting team of Marty Reid, Eddie Cheever and Scott Goodyear in the booth, and Jamie Little down at the infield medical center, did yeoman’s work trying to keep fans up to date without adding to the drama unfolding.
When they called all of the drivers into a closed meeting, I kind of knew deep down inside that this was not going to turn out well. And when the drivers left the meeting and reporters were told none of them were doing interviews -- instead they went straight to their teams and called them together to talk to them, I was sure that I had witnessed my first driver fatality.
I looked at Tony Kaanan sit on the pit road wall with his wife, head bowed so the TV couldn't see the tears falling, and my heart broke, because I knew he, and every other driver in the field, had just lost a brother.
ABC/ESPN cut away to the official announcement, but I wasn't really paying attention. I looked at Randy Bernard, CEO of Indy car, and in my mind I was seeing the video of Mike Helton announcing the passing of Dale Earnhardt. The next few minutes seemed to be a blur, because my mind was having a hard time digesting this fact. I had actually MET Wheldon once, back at Richmond in 2008. The first -- and only to date -- Indy car race I have covered. Tony Kaanan came in first, Wheldon finished fourth. He was racing for Chip Ganassi at the time.
I'm not supposed to have met a driver who has died in a race. Drivers these days don't DIE in races.
Right?
I had tears in my eyes, but was working on holding them back as I watched the drivers climb into their cars to make their tribute lap.
They showed Dario in his car, visibly weeping, and my tears started to fall. This poor man, on the day he wins the Championship, should be celebrating. Instead, he is in his car, crying over the loss of a man he has known since the man was a boy of six.
As the cars took to the track, I heard in the background strands of "Danny Boy", and I began to openly weep. No more fitting a tribute to the driver we had just lost, than his racing family making laps in his honor, with this sad Irish song playing over the sound of the engines.
"Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so."
This was followed with the playing of "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes.
Oh my, how I cried.
Words of sympathy began to pour in from all sides of the sport.
Jimmie Johnson, who had been in a crash last night tweeted "My thoughts and prayers go out to the Wheldon family... My heart hurts for all of the IRL community."
Jeff Gordon added "Spent a little time with Dan Wheldon several years ago in Paris for Race of Champions. Great guy, great driver. Will certainly b missed."
Dave Moody posted "Racers have always been my heroes. Today more than ever."
Darrell Waltrip, who himself had to face the loss of a dear friend while live on television said "with tears in my eyes and a sadness I can not describe, I pray for Dan, his sweet wife and children and his family, Stevie and I are so sorry."
Hours later, the Indy drivers themselves started posting their thoughts. "There are no words for today. Myself and so many others are devastated. I pray for Suzi (sic) and the kids that god will give them strength." were Danica's thoughts, while Will Power, himself involved in the crash and taken to the hospital, noted " Such a sad day... to lose a champion like Dan Wheldon...my thoughts and prayers are with Susie and his kids."
In the end, it was Reid who was so prosaic with the words he used to sign off from what was likely one of the hardest broadcasts he had ever had to do.
"Many people ask me why I always sign off 'Till we meet again.' Because goodbye is so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon."
It may take a while for all that happened Sunday to actually fully sink in. I don't think I will ever take the men and women who race for a living for granted again.
Racing might seem safe to those of us who watch it from outside of the car, but make no mistake, when you are driving over 200 miles an hour, the laws of physics can and, very occasionally will, catch up to you in a very bad way.
God Bless you Dan Wheldon.
Follow Kim on Twitter: @ksrgatorfn
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