Dan Wheldon, British IndyCar driver, died from a racing accident he was 33.

Daniel Clive "Dan"   was a British racing driver from England. He was the 2005 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series champion, and winner of the Indianapolis 500 in both 2005 and 2011. Wheldon died from injuries shortly after a collision at the 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on 16 October 2011, at the age of 33.

(22 June 1978 – 16 October 2011)

Early life and career

Wheldon, who was born in Emberton, near Olney, Buckinghamshire, England, took up karting at the age of four with funding from his father. He progressed through the junior ranks of motor racing during his school years. Attending Bedford School until he completed his GCSEs at age 16, he frequently took time off to race. During his early career in open wheel racing, he developed a rivalry with Jenson Button before ultimately leaving the United Kingdom to race in America. The reasoning behind the move was that the level of investment needed to fund his racing career in the UK was beyond his family's resources.^[1] Moving to the United States in 1999, he spent several years in lower open-wheeled circuits like the U.S. F2000 Championship Series, ^[2] the Toyota Atlantic series and the Indy Lights series.

IRL IndyCar Series

Dan Wheldon signs autographs for fans following Pole Day qualifications at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2007.

In 2002, Wheldon moved up to the IRL IndyCar Series for two events with Panther Racing as teammate to Sam Hornish, Jr.. The following year Wheldon joined Andretti Green Racing, taking the spot of Michael Andretti following his retirement, and collected league Rookie of the Year honors. In 2004, he won his first IRL race at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, ultimately finishing as runner-up to teammate Tony Kanaan in the championship with three wins.
He won the 2005 Indianapolis 500, as well as that season's IndyCar Series championship. His six victories in 2005 also broke the record for most victories in one season (under IRL sanction), previously held by Sam Hornish, Jr. with 5. His win at Indy was the first for an Englishman since Graham Hill's victory in 1966. In November 2005, it was announced that he would be driving for Chip Ganassi Racing in the IndyCar Series in 2006. Shortly after his first test with Ganassi, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance sports car race with Ganassi teammates Scott Dixon and Casey Mears.
He began the IndyCar season by beating Hélio Castroneves by 0.0147 seconds at Homestead-Miami, a sombre race due to the earlier death of Paul Dana in a practice session. Wheldon retired at St. Petersburg due to contact with Sam Hornish, Jr. during a caution period. At the end of the 2006 IndyCar season, Wheldon and Hornish were tied for the lead with each driver having 475 points. In the event of a tie, the driver with the most wins for that particular season is declared the champion. Hornish had four wins for the 2006 season to Wheldon's two; therefore Hornish was declared the 2006 IndyCar champion.
During the close season he was offered a place in the BMW Sauber Formula One team, but declined on discovering he would not be assured a regular drive. "I do want to race in F1. When my contract expires with Chip, I'll take a serious look at Formula One."^[3]

Wheldon practicing for the 2007 Indianapolis 500.

Commenting in 2007 on the perception of him as 'difficult', Wheldon said "I put everything into my racing, and I expect the same back. If I see people who aren't giving it I'm not afraid to say so but that sometimes comes out a little brash. That could be improved a little bit."^[4]
On 22 June 2008, his 30th birthday, Wheldon took his 15th career victory in the IndyCar Series after winning the 2008 Iowa Corn Indy 250 over Hideki Mutoh and Marco Andretti. He donated his winnings to help the victims of the recent tornadoes and flooding which had occurred in Iowa.^[5]
Wheldon was released from his drive at Ganassi on 2 September 2008.^[6] He was replaced by Dario Franchitti. "I have enjoyed these last three seasons with Target Chip Ganassi Racing but will be moving on to pursue a very exciting opportunity for 2009," Wheldon said. This would later turn out to be a return to former team Panther Racing.^[7] Wheldon drove the Panther car to a second place finish in the 2009 Indianapolis 500, the second Indy 500 runner-up finish in a row for the team. However, his strong start to the season faded and Wheldon failed to crack the Top 10 in 7 of the last 8 races of the year. The following year Wheldon finished second at the 2010 Indianapolis 500. This gave Panther its third straight runner-up finish at Indy. This time, Wheldon remained competitive all year, challenging for wins on the oval tracks.

Wheldon won his second Indianapolis 500 in 2011 in a one-off entry for the Bryan Herta Autosport team.

Despite strong showings in the Panther Racing No. 4 car, Wheldon still failed to win a race during his time with the team. This led to his being replaced at Panther Racing by the young American driver (and 2009 Indy Lights champion) J.R. Hildebrand. Wheldon attempted and won the 2011 Indianapolis 500 with Bryan Herta Autosport on the 100th anniversary of the race, soon after JR Hildebrand smashed into the wall on the final lap and slowly slid towards the finish allowing Dan Wheldon to pass, after trying to pass the decelerating Charlie Kimball. Dan Wheldon with the win became the first driver in Indy history to win the race by leading a single lap. While the National Guard team congratulated Wheldon and said they had a good day despite the shocking finish, and while Wheldon was celebrating, he heard Panther Racing the owner of JR Hildebrand's contract, say that Wheldon made an illegal pass on Hildebrand under yellow. IndyCar denied this and said that the caution wasn't thrown until after Wheldon made the pass and crossed the finish line and even if the caution was thrown before the pass Hildebrand's car was wounded and therefore be allowed to pass on the final lap. The finish resembled the NASCAR Sprint Cup series race, the Coca-Cola 600's finish which started a few hours after Indy was completed; (where Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the final stages but ran out of gas on turn 4 on the final lap thus giving second place Kevin Harvick the win.)^[8] Wheldon was very emotional after the win, due to his not having a ride for the rest of the season and the news that his mother had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.^[9] It was Wheldon's first series win in three seasons.^[10]
Over the rest of the 2011 season, Wheldon helped IndyCar and Dallara test the new IndyCar chassis that was to debut in 2012.^[11]

Personal life

In 2008, Wheldon married his long-time personal assistant, Susie Behm, originally from Armstrong, British Columbia, Canada.^[12] They had two sons, one of whom was born in February 2009, and the other born in March 2011.^[13] They lived in St. Petersburg, Florida.^[14]

Death

An overhead view of the fatal accident. At the bottom of this picture, Wheldon's car has just left the racing surface and has gone airborne.

The same image as above, cropped to focus on Wheldon's car (the car in mid-air)

At the IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on 16 October 2011, Wheldon was involved in a 15-car accident during lap 11 of the race, in which Wheldon's car flew approximately 325 feet (99 m) into the catch fence with the cockpit area first into a pole lining the track before landing back on the ground.^[15] The carnage and ensuing debris field resulted in race officials throwing a red flag almost instantly.^[16][17][18] Wheldon was extricated from his car by the Holmatro Safety Team and their Las Vegas-based colleagues and was airlifted to a local hospital with what were described as "unsurvivable injuries."^[19] He succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 1:54 PDT.^[20] He was 33 years old.^[21][22]
The IndyCar officials and drivers determined after vote and input from drivers and team owners that the race would be abandoned, and that a five-lap, three-car–wide formation salute would be held in Wheldon's honour, with his number 77 being displayed alone at the top of the scoring pylon.^[18] He had been the only driver participating in Go Daddy's IndyCar Challenge where he and a randomly selected fan, would have been eligible for $2.5 million each if he won the race, starting from last place.^[23][24]
An autopsy conducted on 17 October 2011 concluded that Wheldon died of blunt force trauma to the head.^[25]
Wheldon's funeral was held on 22 October 2011 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Fellow drivers Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, and Tony Kanaan attended the funeral, and served as pallbearers along with Wheldon's brothers.^[26] IndyCar held a public memorial service for Wheldon a day later at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.^[27]
Wheldon was the fifth Indianapolis 500 winner to die in a motorsports accident in the same year as winning the race, and the first multiple-winner to do so. Preceding him were Gaston Chevrolet (1920), Joe Boyer (1924), Ray Keech (1929) and George Robson (1946).^[28]

Aftermath

After Wheldon's death, Michael Andretti revealed that Wheldon had officially signed with Andretti Autosport on the morning of 16 October 2011 for a multi-year deal to replace driver Danica Patrick starting in the 2012 season.^[29] Andretti Autosport, previously known as Andretti Green Racing, was the team with which Wheldon won the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship. As a result of the crash IndyCar declared that starting in 2012 they will not race at Las Vegas, for an indefinate time.
On 5 December 2011, a charity race honouring Wheldon was held in Milton Keynes in England.^[30] The location of this race was less than 10 miles from where Wheldon was born and raised. The drivers in this race included Dario Franchitti (who took part in the race where Wheldon was killed), Anthony Davidson and Jenson Button.^[31] All money earned by this charity race was donated to a charity chosen by Wheldon's family.

Other projects

Dan Wheldon was a guest star in the voice cast for the TV series Hot Wheels Battle Force 5.^[32]
On 9 August 2011, Ignite Game Technologies announced that Wheldon would assist the physics development for its online auto racing game, Simraceway. Wheldon commented "It was pretty obvious that Ignite was not looking to build just another racing game, so the opportunity to influence Simraceway's physics directly was pretty appealing."^[33] It later emerged Wheldon would also be playing a role in the company’s performance driving center at Infineon Raceway.

Motorsports career results

American open-wheel racing results

(key)

U.S. F2000 National Championship

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Rank	Points
1999	Jayhard/Primus Racing	PHX 2	LOW1 2	LOW2 1	MOS1 24	MOS2 1	MDO1 2	ATL1 26	ATL2 24	TRR 3	MDO1 1	MDO2 2	PIK 1	SEB1 1	SEB2 1	1st	315

Toyota Atlantic Championship

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2000	PPI Motorsports	HMS1 1	HMS2 2	LBH 4	MIL 13	MTL 3	CLE 6	TOR 3	TRR 2	ROA 2	LS 1	GAT 7	HOU 4	2nd	159

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2001	PacWest Lights	MTY 5	LBH 2	TXS 10	MIL 3	POR 10	KAN 3	TOR 7	MDO 2	GAT 1	ATL 1	LS 5	FON 2	2nd	149

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2002	Panther Racing	HMS	PHX	FON	NZR	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI 10	TX2 15					36th	35
2003	Andretti Green Racing	HMS	PHX	MOT 7	INDY 19	TXS 20	PPIR 19	RIR 8	KAN 21	NSH 4	MIS 20	STL 5	KTY 8	NZR 7	CHI 4	FON 4	TX2 3				11th	312
2004	Andretti Green Racing	HMS 3	PHX 3	MOT 1	INDY 3	TXS 13	RIR 1	KAN 9	NSH 13	MIL 18	MIS 3	KTY 3	PPIR 3	NZR 1	CHI 4	FON 3	TX2 3				2nd	533
2005	Andretti Green Racing	HMS 1	PHX 6	STP 1	MOT 1	INDY 1	TXS 6	RIR 5	KAN 2	NSH 21	MIL 5	MIS 2	KTY 3	PPIR 1	SNM 18	CHI 1	WGL 5	FON 6			1st	618
2006	Chip Ganassi Racing	HMS 1	STP 16	MOT 2	INDY 4	WGL 15	TXS 3	RIR 9	KAN 2	NSH 2	MIL 8	MIS 3	KTY 4	SNM 6	CHI 1						2nda	475
2007	Chip Ganassi Racing	HMS 1	STP 9	MOT 2	KAN 1	INDY 22	MIL 3	TXS 15	IOW 11	RIR 3	WGL 7	NSH 8	MDO 10	MIS 12	KTY 17	SNM 7	DET 3	CHI 13			4th	466
2008	Chip Ganassi Racing	HMS 3	STP 12	MOT1 4	LBH1 DNP	KAN 1	INDY 12	MIL 4	TXS 4	IOW 1	RIR 4	WGL 24	NSH 2	MDO 17	EDM 7	KTY 5	SNM 4	DET 20	CHI 6		4th	492
	Panther Racing																			SRF2 11
2009	Panther Racing	STP 14	LBH 5	KAN 10	INDY 2	MIL 10	TXS 7	IOW 4	RIR 10	WGL 10	TOR 14	EDM 15	KTY 11	MDO 16	SNM 12	CHI 22	MOT 8	HMS 21			10th	354
2010	Panther Racing	SAO 5	STP 20	ALA 11	LBH 9	KAN 15	INDY 2	TXS 9	IOW 11	WGL 6	TOR 10	EDM 20	MDO 14	SNM 25	CHI 2	KTY 3	MOT 10	HMS 9			9th	388
2011	BHA with Curb Agajanian Sam Schmidt Motorsports	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY 1	TXS1	TXS2	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	NHM	SNM	BAL	MOT				28th	75
	Sam Schmidt Motorsports																	KTY 14	LVS3 Canc

^a Wheldon lost the title on the tiebreaker—he won only two races compared to Sam Hornish, Jr.'s four after the two tied on 475 points

¹ Run on same day

² Non-points race

³ Event cancelled after a 15-car incident on Lap 11 involving Wheldon, who would later succumb to injuries sustained in the accident.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (non-win)**	Top 10s (non-podium)***	Indianapolis 500 wins	Championships
10	5	133	5	16	27	50	2 (2005, 2011)	1 (2005)

** Podium (non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team	Summary
2003	Dallara	Honda	5	19	Andretti Green Racing	Wrecked in turn 4, flipped
2004	Dallara	Honda	2	3	Andretti Green Racing	Running
2005	Dallara	Honda	16	1	Andretti Green Racing	Running; 157.603 mph
2006	Dallara	Honda	3	4	Chip Ganassi Racing	Running
2007	Dallara	Honda	6	22	Chip Ganassi Racing	Crashed on backstretch
2008	Dallara	Honda	2	12	Chip Ganassi Racing	Running
2009	Dallara	Honda	18	2	Panther Racing	Running
2010	Dallara	Honda	18	2	Panther Racing	Running
2011	Dallara	Honda	6	1	Bryan Herta Autosport	Running; 170.265 mph

Sports car racing

24 Hours of Daytona results

Year	Class	No	Team	Car	Engine	Co-drivers	Laps	Position	Class Pos.
2005	DP	2	Howard-Boss Motorsports	Crawford	Pontiac	Dario Franchitti Milka Duno Marino Franchitti	528	33 DNF	16 DNF
2006	DP	02	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Riley MkXI	Lexus	Scott Dixon Casey Mears	734	1	1
2007	DP	02	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Riley MkXI	Lexus 5.0L V8	Scott Dixon Memo Rojas	538	41 DNF	21 DNF
2008	DP	02	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Riley MkXI	Lexus 5.0L V8	Scott Dixon Alex Lloyd Salvador Durán	515	44 DNF	18 DNF

Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

Year	Team	Make	Engine	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Rank	Points
2005	Howard-Boss Motorsports	Crawford	Pontiac	DP	DAY 33/16	HOM	CAL	LAG	CMT	WAT1	BAR	WAT2	DAY2	MDO	PHX	WAT3	VIR	MEX		79th	15
2006	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Riley MkXI	Lexus	DP	DAY 1/1	MEX	HOM	LBH	VIR	LAG	PHX	LRP	WAT1	DAY2	BAR	WAT2	INF	MIL		77th	35
2007	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Riley MkXI	Lexus 5.0L V8	DP	DAY 41/21	MEX	HOM	VIR	LAG	LRP	WAT1	MDO	DAY2	IOW	CGV	BAR	WAT2	INF	MIL	75th	10
2008	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Riley MkXI	Lexus 5.0L V8	DP	DAY 44/18	HOM	MEX	VIR	LAG	LRP	WAT	MDO	DAY

To see more of who died in 2011 click here