AFP - The Englishman Dan Wheldon, twice winner of the Indianapolis 500, died Sunday after a terrible accident at the Grand Prix of Las Vegas, last race of the IndyCar season, died before the application of security measures that it was testing.
Wheldon, 33, was working on new security structures on a chassis for the 2012 North American IndyCar series. They shall include an expanded cockpit for better driver protection, facilities, and aerodynamic reducing the speed limit the risk of flying cars. That of Wheldon flew in Sunday's fatal accident that involved 15 competitors.
"Some things happened in this race, and it is hoped that with these changes he could not," said the American Eddie Cheever, former Formula 1 driver and Indy. "We all had a bad feeling before the race," added the Spaniard Oriol Servia: "The track was too much slope. We were too close to each other. We knew what could happen." The organizers must listen to the drivers and make sense of things between races excitement and safety, Cheever continued: "Maybe we went a little too far away to make more show." "They would make service if they listened a little more drivers (...) and the concerns they express," he said. "Let's get started, and find a solution," approved the Scot Dario Franchitti, who won for the third consecutive year the IndyCar championship.
In Formula 1, no drivers are more dead in the race for the Brazilian star Ayrton Senna in 1994 in Imola (Italy). In stock cars, since the star Dale Earnhardt, the arrival of the Daytona 500 in 2001.
In both cases, the death of famous drivers also resulted in a major overhaul of safety regulations. Moreover, the English and American Pippa Mann JR Hildebrand who had been hospitalized after the accident were able to leave the hospital Monday, the first having had an operation on a finger severely burned and the second with injury the sternum.
The Australian Will Power, the second of the final championship standings behind Franchitti IndyCar underwent tests Sunday for back pain and then left the hospital. Click here to find out more!
