Dan Wheldon was on top of the racing world five months ago after winning his second Indianapolis 500 crown.
At IndyCar’s season-ending race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the weekend, Wheldon lost his life after getting involved in a huge accident involving a total of 15 other cars. Wheldon’s car flew over another vehicle, before hitting the catch fence and catching fire as race marshals scrambled in to check on the race car driver.
Wheldon was immediately airlifted from the track to University Medical Center in Las Vegas where he was later pronounced dead from "unsurvivable injuries".
IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard issued a statement shortly thereafter, in which he said: "IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its drivers and owners, have decided to end the race."
In addition to ending the race, the drivers all partook in a five-lap tribute in his honor.
Personally speaking, we’re huge fans of Dan Wheldon and we’re delighted to see him take a spectacular run to win the 100th installment of the Indianapolis 500 earlier this year.
His death is as big a blow to us, as it is to the entire racing and sporting community.
By now we’ve seen the footage of Tanner Foust, aka Hot Wheels’ ’Yellow Driver’, and his remarkable record-setting jump for the longest of a four-wheeled vehicle at the Indianapolis 500.
The feat in itself is very impressive considering the dangers and risks involved in such a daredevil stunt. But while we applauded and congratulated Foust for his courageous derring-do, what we didn’t know at that time was that the whole jump almost never happened.
In a recent video that was just released by Hot Wheels, the company took us back to one of Foust’s previous practice sessions and showed us just how close he came to severely crashing his four-wheeler.
The video goes into detail about how a perfect jump is supposed to happen - Foust was supposed to hit the ramp at a speed of 109 mph and continuing to accelerate - and how Foust got it wrong on one of his attempts, a mistake that almost proved fatal were it not for the modified suspension system in the four-wheeled vehicle.
Check out the video and watch how a practice stunt that almost went wrong could have severely injured one of Top Gear USA’s hosts.
Yesterday’s running of the Indianapolis 500 - the 100th anniversary of the inaugural race - will go down as one of the most dramatic auto races in the series’ long and illustrious history.
23-year old rookie J.R. Hilderbrand already had the race won until he lost control of his car and crashed at the very last turn before the checkered flag. Hilderbrand’s misfortune paved the way for Dan Wheldon to make the pass just before the caution came out, leading to a stunning win that left everybody at the Brickyard and all those watching on TV shocked and completely speechless.
But that wasn’t the only notable item to happen during the weekend. Just before the start of the Indy 500, the long-awaited world-record jump attempt by Team Hot Wheels, dubbed "Fearless at the 500", finally took place. The team’s "Yellow Driver" - later revealed to be Top Gear USA’s own Tanner Foust - drove a specially prepared truck down a 90-foot ramp before blasting off into another ramp, clearing 332 feet through the air and setting the record for the longest jump of a four-wheeled vehicle in the world.
For everybody who’s ever had dreams of riding a stunt like this - we know we did at one point in our lives - Foust’s record-setting jump was a surreal moment, one that probably saw a lot of kids doing their own "world record jumps" in the backyard of their homes after watching the spectacle.
If you missed the whole thing, you can check out the video that Hot Wheels released of the jump in its entirety.
The IndyCar Series will be getting its fair share of changes when the 2012 season rolls around with the most notable of which being the entry of Dallara as the official chassis manufacturer of the racing series.
As early as this week, the company has presented two new concepts of what the 2012 IndyCar racer will look like. Using the same chassis but with a different design, the two concepts have differing set-ups, one being set-up for oval racing while the other being prepared for road circuits. Dallara went with this presentation to show teams the lengths of which aerodynamic modifications on the car can be done while still sticking with the current set of car regulations handed down by the series’ governing body.
Both concepts are still in the testing and development phase so expect some changes – whatever they may be – to come when the race car concepts are put through the paces out on the track. Above everything else, Dallara is making safety and technological performance the top priorities in the development of the 2012 IndyCar racer.
For now, you can check out the two concepts and you let us know what you think about them in the comments section below.
Formula One uses a Mercedes SLS AMG. The Indianapolis 500 has a Chevrolet Camaro SS. Now, you can add a Lexus LF-A to the growing list of high-powered pace cars that have been used this year by a bonafide racing event.
The 2011 LF-A, Lexus’ resident supercar, served as the official pace car of the 2011 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, an open-wheel racing event held every year at the streets of Long Beach, California. Just in case you need a refresher, the race is part of the Izod IndyCar Series calendar. It was actually held last weekend where England’s Mike Conway emerged as the winner for Andretti Autosport.
Dressed in black with matching white stripes and looking the part of a Japanese zebra, the LF-A Pace Car was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise for a lot of us. We don’t know if the car will be used in other IndyCar races for the rest of the year, but we’re certainly hoping to see more of it down the road, hopefully even at a race that doesn’t have Toyota as a title sponsor.
As a brief refresher, the 2011 LF-A is a supercar that’s powered by a 4.8-liter V10 engine that delivers a maximum output of 560 horsepower with a 0-60 mph time of 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 202 mph.
