Motorsport can be an extremely cruel business. This notion couldn’t be more apparent following the untimely passing of IndyCar champion, Dan Wheldon.
A ripper individual by all accounts, the Englishman was a cruel victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time during the IndyCar series finale at Las Vegas.
Wheldon, not racing full-time this season, had accepted a lucrative invitation to compete at the event, where he stood to claim $5 million if he won the race starting from the back of the field.
The tragedy brings back into focus the imperative matter of driver safety.
Obviously, enclosing drivers’ cockpits would be too much of a compromise, it would align IndyCar and Formula One too closely with the likes of V8 Supercars, BTCC and DTM, which would rip the DNA from open-wheel racing, so the next thing which needs to be looked at, is the very circuits on which drivers’ put their lives on the line.
In the week leading up to the IndyCar series finale, many competitors voiced their concerns regarding the state of the Las Vegas circuit, and ultimately, their worries have been realised in the cruellest possible way.
It is a terrible shame that is has taken the death of one of motorsport’s most successful drivers for a sport such as IndyCar to consider asking serious questions of it’s calendar, when there has always been the great unknown of something transpiring as it did last weekend.
Formula One has Hermann Tilke, and although it could be argued that his prototype of circuit design is a tad on the dull side, it is probably time that IndyCar considers taking a leaf from their competitors’ book.
Oval circuits dominating calendars simply isn’t a viable option in open wheel racing these days, especially when those who are due to form part of the action on-track are already bringing the circuit’s credibility into question.
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