Dan Wheldon of Emberton, England died today at the age of 33 during an IndyCar race in Las Vegas. It was the final race of the 2011 IndyCar season.
A total of 15 cars were involved in the fatal accident. It happened on the 11th lap. The race ended at that point and did not continue.
Dario Franchitti of Scotland won the IndyCar drivers’ championship and James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, Ontario was named the rookie of the year.
Wheldon was racing for Sam Schmidt Autosport. He also won the Indianapolis 500 in 2005 and was the Indy Racing League IndyCar series Champion that year as well. He previously raced for Panther Racing, Bryan Herta Autosport, Andretti Green Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing.
Ironically Schmidt was in a huge crash at the Walt Disney World Motor Speedway in 2000 that left him a quadriplegic.
Wheldon was married with two young sons, aged two and five months.
It’s another jam-packed week on 15 Minutes of Fame, as we hit our 50th episode!
This week: Will Sidney Crosby miss time this season? Will the SJ Sharks finally get that Stanley Cup this year and is Drew Doughty going to be a holdout for the Kings? Are the Winnipeg Blue Bombers the “real deal” in the CFL? Also: Is this the Year of the Work Stoppage in pro sports?
In this week’s GABBYs: The NY Yankees, the BBC and Sir Alex, BYU, IndyCar and North Korea’s women’s World Cup team!
Australian Will Power is the 2011 Edmonton Indy champion.
Power, who was second on the pole, passed Japan’s Takuma Sato early in the race and held on for the lead convincingly throughout the rest of the competition.
It was an excellent day for team owner Roger Penske as Power finished first and his teammate Helio Castroneves of Brazil finished second.
Overall, the Edmonton Indy was significantly cleaner than the Toronto Indy, where there were less crashes. But I felt from a fan perspective, it wasn’t all that exciting near the top of the leaderboard. When Castroneves moved his way to second place, he didn’t make a strong attempt to catch Power, basically because they were teammates.
As for Danica Patrick, it was an excellent day for her as she moved her way up to ninth from starting 22nd on the grid. There has been a lot of speculation that Patrick might be moving to NASCAR next season, but she made an attempt to dismiss those rumors while in Edmonton.
As for the Canadians, it was a disappointing day for Paul Tracy of Scarborough, Ontario, who was in a crash with Sebastian Saavedra very early on. James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, Ontario was 15th and Alex Tagliani of Montreal was 17th.
Over the last two years, some of the most interesting IndyCar races have happened in Edmonton. Two years ago, Brazilian Tony Kanaan suffered first and second degree burns to his body when a splash of fuel got into his cockpit and ignited him and his car.
Then last year, Brazilian Helio Castroneves, who was the leader after 92 laps, was black flagged for blocking on the restart and finished tenth. The eventual winner was New Zealand’s Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner.
Fast forward to 2011, where Dario Franchitti of Scotland has been the driver so far on the IndyCar circuit. He won two weeks ago in Toronto, and has also won in St. Petersburg, Florida and Milwaukee. He leads Australian Will Power by 55 points.
Organizers have changed the layout of the 2011 Edmonton Indy, giving competitors more opportunities to pass.
The race starts Sunday at 12:45pm on TSN.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Saturday & Sunday–10am–Senior British Open–TSN–I wasn’t go to watch this, but now I will. Rod Spittle of St. Catharines, Ontario is the co-leader with Americans Mark Calcavecchia and Lee Rinker. Spittle shot a -5 on Friday to tie for the lead at -7. The emergence of Spittle, 56 years of age, is remarkable because he never played on the PGA Tour. He won the Canadian Amateur in 1977 and 1978, but decided to sell insurance instead of turning professional. Now he is one of the world’s top senior golfers.
The Women’s World Cup soccer game between the United States and Brazil was not the only controversial sporting event on Sunday.
On the streets of Toronto, Scotland’s Dario Franchitti won a controversial Indycar race.
On the 57th lap, with Franchitti and Australian Will Power battling for the top position on the track, Franchitti nudged Power and temporarily stalled his car.
Franchitti was initially given a penalty that would have cost him valuable positioning on the track. But race officials later analyzed the incident and changed their minds.
No penalty meant victory for Franchitti. The decision not to penalize Franchitti infuriated Power who was quoted by The Globe and Mail as saying:
“It doesn’t surprise me that Dario doesn’t get a penalty. I’m really disappointed in him. I always race him clean and he always races me dirty.”
The race also had Canadian confrontation as well. Paul Tracy of Scarborough, Ontario and rookie James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, Ontario were battling for sixth place at the time when they collided on the track. Tracy got a flat tire and Hinchcliffe had a damaged front wing.
Scott Dixon of New Zealand finished second and Ryan Hunter Reay of the United States was third. Hinchcliffe was the top Canadian in 14th place.
The Power-Franchitti and Tracy-Hinchcliffe rivalries should continue in Edmonton in two weeks time.
Canadian auto racing legend Jacques Villeneuve had some interesting comments about Formula One on Monday.
He called the circuit boring. This is the primary reason I have never got up in the middle of the night or very early in the morning to watch the sport myself.
Apparently Villeneuve doesn’t like the passing that is taking place on the circuit this year with the drag reduction system or adjustable rear wing.
I admit. I have not watched the Formula One circuit enough since the rule changes were put in place to state a strong opinion, but the lack of passing in the first place is what turned by attention initially to IndyCar.
If there is any one driver to voice a credible opinion on a global scale about auto racing, it is definitely Villeneuve. He has won an Indianapolis 500, Formula One World Championship, and now at the age of 40, has been competing recently on NASCAR’s Nationwide Series for team owner Roger Penske.
The boys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back at it this week with another great sports-filled episode – this week we’re talking about Brendan Shanahan’s new job, the latest on “That Winnipeg NHL Team,” possible landing spots for upcoming free agent Brad Richards, a big rookie mistake at the Indy500 and FIFA corruption!
In the GABBYs: U2 shout outs, first time faceoffs, Jose Bautista, baseball death threats, a bargaining chip for players unions & more!
The NBA’s championship series is all tied up after a couple of games in Miami…and if you’re a basketball fan, you should be glad!
That’s because the NBA and the players union appear to be a trophy presentation away from a lockout that could end up eating up part, or all of the 2011-12 season. By the time the Heat/Mavericks series is all over, we’ll be just a week or two away from an expired collective bargaining agreement and what could be a long summer for sports fans.
League commissioner David Stern said this week that it’s going to be “a challenge” to get a new deal signed in time to avoid a lockout.
The situation is pretty similar to the one that the NHL had back in 2004-05 and the one that the NFL is experiencing right now: basically, the owners say they’re losing money and they want the players to take a big pay cut and the players are saying no! (After the Jump: Will the Heat have to dismantle the Big Three? Prospect goes from the CFL to the NBA and some real life Hot Wheels action!) (more…)
Dan Wheldon of Emberton, England has won his second Indianapolis 500.
A member of Bryan Herta Autosports, you could argue that Wheldon didn’t win the race, but American rookie JR Hildebrand lost it.
Driving with meters left from the finish, Hildebrand hit the wall and was passed by Wheldon at the finish. Hildebrand finished second for Panther Racing, despite crossing the finish line with only three wheels.
Granham Rahal, son of 1986 winner Bobby Rahal, finished third, despite not racing for his dad, but for Chip Ganassi.
Bertrand Baguette of Belgium, racing for the Rahal Letterman team, and Danica Patrick, were leading the race with about ten laps to go, but each had to make a pit stop late in the race, ending their chances of finishing on top of the podium.
As for the Canadians, it did not go well at all for Paul Tracy, James Hinchcliffe and Alex Tagliani. Hinchcliffe and Tagliani did not complete the race because they hit the wall, while Tracy hit the wall as well, but was able to finish the race, finishing in 25th.
Notes: This was the 100th anniversary of the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911…Wheldon first won the Indianapolis 500 for Team Andretti Green in 2005.
The greatest auto race of the year takes place Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis.
It is the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500. (The race was not held for two years during World War One and for four years during World War Two). In 1911, Ray Harroun of the United States was the first winner. Over that time, drivers from ten separate nations have won the coveted race including Canada’s own Jacques Villeneuve in 1995.
Well in 2011, Montreal’s Alex Tagliani has a great chance in joining Villeneuve in making Canadian history. He will be on the pole representing Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, Ontario, an IndyCar rookie will start 13th, and Paul Tracy of West Hill, Ontario will start 24th.
There are also four women in the race. Joining American Danica Patrick, are Switzerland’s Simona de Silvestro, Brazil’s Ana Beatriz, and Great Britain’s Pippa Mann.
It was a great day in the history of Canadian auto racing on Saturday.
Alex Tagliani of Montreal, Quebec captured the pole position for the Indianapolis 500. Tagliani posted a speed of 227.472 miles per hour, .132 miles per hour faster than Scott Dixon of New Zealand.
Tagliani has never won an IndyCar race, but does have one ChampCar victory. In 2004, Tagliani defeated Rodolfo Lavin of Mexico to win the 2004 Road America race in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
So far in 2011, Tagliani has two top ten finishes with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. He finished fifth in Long Beach and sixth in St. Petersburg.
Saturday was also a solid day for Canadian Indycar rookie James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, Ontario. He will start 13th.
I’d like to start this blog with a riddle: What weighs 3,500 pounds, happens 57 days before the Edmonton Indy and will probably be the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?
Oh, I don’t know – maybe a NASCAR-sized truck zooming down a real-life Hot Wheels track before the Indy 500, hoping to break a world record for the longest jump by a four-wheeled vehicle? Yeah, I said it.
About an hour before the May 29th race, an unidentified driver will hop into an 850-horsepower truck, which will be sitting at the top of a 100-foot-high structure somewhere in the infield area of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The driver will then take the vehicle down a steep drop and launch it into the air, hoping to glide the 302 feet required to set a new world record. (After the jump: Who is the Hot Wheels mystery driver? Plus – St. Louis Rams LB talks WWE and a soccer player shows off some unique skills!) (more…)
A good friend of Edmonton’s Prospect Magazine has signed a two year deal with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
Paul Tracy of West Hill, Ontario was featured in the magazine’s fall, 2009 edition, as he contributed in the “Words from the Next Level” segment.
Tracy has competed three times on the IndyCar circuit in 2010, and recorded his best result in Edmonton, finishing sixth.
At 41, Tracy has shown he still has a lot of skills left in the tank. His energy level remains excellent and is very competitive every time he gets in a car.
His 30 career wins on the Champ Car/IndyCar circuit, and his 2003 Champ Car World Series Title will make Tracy appear in the Canada Sports Hall of Fame one day.
For now Edmontonian race fans and all open wheel auto racing fans worldwide will get to see Paul Tracy in action over the next while. This in itself is great for Canadian sports.
You know there is controversy when an incident is compared to the TSN top ten altercations lists of all time.
That was the case yesterday at the Honda Edmonton Indy when Brazilian superstar Helio Castroneves grabbed an official after being penalized a lap for blocking teammate Will Power with three laps to go in the race.
Kiwi Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi was the eventual winner. The New Zealander won his second Edmonton Indy. He previously won two years ago in 2008.
CBA for the NBA?
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