Dan Wheldon loses his life in IndyCar crash
British racing driver Dan Wheldon has lost his life in a multi-car crash on lap 11 of the IndyCar Series season finale at Las Vegas at the age of 33.
Wheldon had won the Indy 500 for the second time in May of this year, which was his first of only three races in the series this season after leaving Panther Racing at the end of last season.
The 2005 IndyCar Series champion was taking part in the series finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a highly promoted one-off appearance for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, starting from the back of the grid with a $5 million prize fund on offer.
On lap 11, an accident unfolded which saw 15 cars caught up in the collision, with Wheldon’s car sent into the wall and turned upside-down on the track, with medical crews extracting Wheldon and taking him to the University Medical Centre in Las Vegas.
After a lengthy red flag period, IndyCar Series President Randy Bernard announced that Wheldon had “passed away from unsurvivable injuries. Our thoughts and prayers are with Dan and his family.”
Dan Wheldon was scheduled to be taking part in the second Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercar race next weekend, sharing driving duties with reigning V8 Supercar Champion James Courtney at the Holden Racing Team.
Many IndyCar drivers from this season are scheduled to be taking part in the event, including Ryan Briscoe, Will Power, Tony Kanaan, Alex Tagliani, Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves and Sébastien Bourdais.
