Requiem

It's been a little over 30 hours since the tragedy in Las Vegas that took the life of Dan Wheldon. Many of my fellow bloggers have come up with beautifully worded tributes, far better than I can express.

Personally, I feel for everyone in the INDYCAR family. Obviously, Dan's widow and children top that list along with his immediate family. Deeper than that, it was clear to me in watching yesterday that our sport IS a family. The pictures of Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Danica Patrick, and Sarah Fisher in obvious emotional distress are burned into my mind. My heart goes out to all who mourn this loss, be they fans, drivers, crew members, owners, or media.

I sensed from the hushed tones of the announcers early on during the red flag yesterday that the result was not going to be good. I've often been highly critical of Marty Reid as the lead announcer for the ABC/ESPN coverage. Yesterday, however, Marty must have been channelling his inner Sid Collins, as his words were very reminiscent of Sid's impromptu eulogy of Eddie Sachs during the red flag of the 1964 Indianapolis 500. In fact, the entire ABC crew deserves credit for their respect to the gravity of the situation. Very well done, gentlemen and ladies.

The five lap tribute was heart wrenching. I was dealing with the whole of the reality fairly well until I heard "Amazing Grace" being played over the PA. I'm not ashamed to admit, that was the end of my composure for the day. Most of last night was spent reading tributes, many from media sources, others from the bloggers I follow. I even tried to write my own last night, but when I pulled up my blog, all I could see was my earlier post (that never got published) about the great anticipation of the race to come. After that emotional downdraft, there was no way I was going to be able to put coherent thoughts together. Again, my hat is off to those who could and did.

Those who have been a fan of racing as long as I have, have experienced this before. Back in the 60's and early 70's, death was a far more common visitor to our sport. Perhaps because of the advances in safety and medicine, we have recently become accustomed to horrible looking accidents from which drivers walk away or, at the very least, recover. Only the night before, there was an accident in the NASCAR race in Charlotte that was eerily similar to the one that took the life of Dale Earnhardt. Big impact, but thanks to the SAFER barrier and the HANS device, no serious injury.

The irony is lost on no one that Dan Wheldon spent this summer testing the 2012 Dallara, a car designed to lessen the likelihood of the car getting airborne. That initial testing program will be a legacy for which he will be remembered as 2011 becomes 2012 and beyond. More than that we will remember the joy of this May past, when he captured his second win at Indianapolis by leading about 1/8th of one lap.

Rest well, kind soul.