That was the only thing I had to do. The race broadcast had just come on Channel 6, ABC. The butterflies in my stomach had started to fly quicker as the seconds ticked by.
I marveled at the amazing, giant 1. Five hours down, thirty minutes to go before the green flag would wave. Only 1. Tick, tock. I turned up the volume so that the television blared the most famous words in motorsports. The butterflies in my stomach continued to fly, but their flight speed increased each second as I watched the 34 well-built machines circle the track for a few warm-up laps. The drivers lined up in 17 rows side by side off of turn four. At once, 34 roaring monsters began to accelerate.
The margin was 2. The field was packed tight, with the two championship contenders, Dario Franchitti and Will Power, running in 17th and 18th positions, respectively. The television had gone to one of their on-board cameras with one of the cars.
The car they currently had an on-board camera on was the car of series veteran Dan Wheldon. He had started in the back, 34th position, and had advanced 10 spots in as many laps. As I watched from his point of view the car circling the track, I saw something out of the corner of my eye that caught my attention. Gray clouds began rising up from a few cars way in front of Wheldon.
The race broadcasters saw this too, so they switched from the onboard camera back to the normal race view mode.
The screen went black, or so I thought. But in the midst of all that blackness, I saw red, orange, and yellow. Then I saw what all of those colors were. The crash began, full-force. The race was stopped as the red flag came out on lap 13 of after fifteen cars, the No. All 19 of the remaining cars that were intact drove into the pits and removed themselves from their cars. All but one of the drivers were in attendance. It was announced that the driver who was airlifted to a nearby hospital was Dan Wheldon.
Was he okay? Was he injured? Would he ever drive an IndyCar again? Those were some of the flashing thoughts that conquered my brain for the next hour and forty minutes.
ABC News came on in a flash. I figured there had to be something reported about the colossal IndyCar wreck from a few hours before. Several hours later, after it had been announced that Wheldon had passed away, it was announced that the remainder of the race — now on lap 13 and under a red flag — had been abandoned. However, there is one little-known fact about this five-lap salute regarding which 19 cars participated in that salute. One of those 19 cars was the 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda of James Jakes, which was also one of the 15 cars that had been involved in the wreck.
It had not sustained much damage, so it was able to continue. That car was the undamaged 98 Honda of Tagliani. More from IndyCar. Next: Top 10 IndyCar drivers of all-time. Beyond the Flag 1 year Indy trend started by Dan Wheldon lives on.
More NFL Rumors ». View all NFL Sites. More NBA News ». More NBA Rumors ». View all NBA Sites. More MLB News ». More MLB Rumors ».
View all MLB Sites. And he really just wanted was in the best interest of the sport. Universal support for that decision, however, was not available. Randy Bernard: I know Mario was very upset. And he had every right to be. He came from a different generation on how racing was looked at.
Fresh off back-to-back final round appearances in Top Fuel, Mike Salinas continued his strong run on Friday, powering to the …. Max Verstappen has been summoned to the stewards on Saturday morning at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for allegedly breaching regulations by ….
As Jan Heylen watched the two cars ahead of him slide off course, he had many thoughts. Among them was relief. He had good reason to feel …. With the sun setting and the track entirely in shadow by the end of the qualifying session, the times set by the DPi cars in qualifying ….
One of the closest battles for a championship that sports car racing has seen comes down to 10 hours. The outcome of the Motul Petit Le …. From The Web. View Comments.
0コメント