The following was written by Adrian Rickard, who some years ago in happier times shared a Hospital Radio studio with yours truly. He had a first hand experience of the sad events of last Sunday. Here is his account from his viewpoint, courtesy from Across the Bricks.
The 13th Lap : Dan Wheldon (1978 - 2011)
Editor's
note: The following is a contribution to AcrossTheBricks from our good
friend Adrian Rickard, who was in attendance of the IZOD IndyCar World
Championships in Las Vegas as well. I found it to be a very moving
piece, and I have the utmost gratitude and respect for Adrian (@rkid84)
allowing me to share this tremendous piece of writing.
This
is something new to me, I have never put pen to paper, or finger to
button to reflect on a life lost in such tragic circumstances, nor do I
think do I want to again. I have been a motorsport fan for over 15 years, and in my time I have seen serious crashes on television, sadly some fatal. But last Sunday brought my worst fear in life to a horrid reality.
I am talking about Dan Wheldon dying in a crash at the Indy Car World Championship race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I
don’t intend for this to be an obituary, there are far more talented
wordsmiths who can tell you everything you need to know about Dan’s
career, those who knew him both professionally and personally, many I
have read in a beautiful manner from fellow competitors and those in the
media.
I
was sat in the grandstands towards the pit exit watched the first
twelve laps unfold, good progress, Dan had made up a few spots, but as
any fan of oval racing knows, 200 laps is a long time, until the
thirteenth lap started, I saw one car lose its grip hit another and a
pendulum effect that took out more cars than I could see. My
most vivid memories are about four or five cars catching fire, the
instant flashes as contact was made with barriers, other cars, and more
seriously, the fencing. Clouds of white smoke bellowed
into the clear skies, quickly turning black, this is when sudden
realisation hit me that this was not just a few cars ‘coming together’
to coin a Murray (Walker) phrase, I could see that there was barely over
half the cars still running the lap as the red flag came out. The jaw dropped, eyes gapped wide open, I think I muttered ‘oh shit’ to the people sat around me. Trying to work out the cars, who was in the pit lane, who was on the leader board, my mind wasn’t working.
Slowly (understandably), news came through on track PA who was involved, who had got out ok, and gone to the medical centre, and who we were waiting news on. Still no news on Dan Wheldon, my phone buzzed, a text from back home in the UK, “that was a mess, Mann hurt, Wheldon trapped”. Many
drivers have spoken of the surreal nature of the events and how it
looked, the same was in the stands a couple hundred meters away.
Then
came the ninety minutes of waiting... there is something of a British
saying, “no news is good news”, not in motorsport, drivers crash, they
get out, wave to the crowd move on. Every minute that
ticked by fear overtook hope, mumblings and speculation grew, the car
was tarped up (covered in a tarpaulin), others compared it to when Greg
Moore was killed in the last CART race in the 1999 season with the lack
of news. Natural gut feeling took over, everyone knew it before it was announced. A drivers meeting was called, that passed, stories of drivers breaking down crying. I think we all knew then.
A
press conference had been called, the Indycar CEO, Randy Bernard's
voice came over the tannoy. I didn’t see the screens at first, the only
word I heard was ‘passed’ and something about a parade, I then found out
the race had been called off, this was inconsequential, I didn’t want
to be there now.
Without
pushing the patriotic side, there were seven British drivers in the
race, I bought myself a union (jack) flag, with the intention of getting
the British drivers to sign it, was going slow gave up so went for the
whole field. I had this draped over myself, just shocked, I
never thought I would see a fatality at a race, let alone someone who I
was a fan of and had a massive amount of respect as a person for. Suddenly
it hits you, I was gone head down, lost the battle with holding it
together. A number of people, none of whom I have met before, and likely
never will again came up to me consoling with me shaking hands,
although the American public had taken him to heart, Dan was still a
Brit.
The parade of the drivers who were still able to drive their cars around commence, to the sound of Amazing Grace
and Danny Boy, it was such a heart wrenching moment, beautifully
observed by all watching, twin checkers waved at the fifth and final
lap.
Being
parked infield I knew it was going to take a while to get out, needed
to do something to keep going, I went down to the pits and paddock still
draped in the flag, just as I walked in turned towards the Indycar
garages I saw Martin Plowman (who drove in three races this year), who I
had met earlier in the pit line prior to the start of the race in
happier times, we looked at each other, eyes covered by sunglasses, but
we knew what lay beneath, he grabbed my hand and we hugged, just not
knowing really what to say, he checked I was ok and able to get back,
which took me aback, I had just lost a favourite driver, he had lost a
friend.
For
about an hour I walked around the paddock area, waiting to go back to
the hotel, I managed to speak briefly with a few other drivers,
expressing my sympathies and best wishes. I was able to
chat with one driver who said what the meeting was like, I won’t give
details but it was hard to listen to, but understood why the decisions
were made about the race.
One
thing that this tragedy confirmed is what a close community Indycar is,
like no other high level competition I can think of, between the
drivers, their crew, teams and fans. I was lucky to meet with other fans over the days leading up to the race, had arranged to go out to a benefit concert that Sunday night,
but with events happening, I dint feel like going, so messaged them and
got them together at the hotel for a drink to remember Dan and just get
us through the night, 6 of us were there from all corners of the
country (and world), apart from those who were related, none of us had
met before this race weekend.
So
a few personal recollections about Dan Wheldon, like I said before
there are plenty more who can offer a more personal look at his career
but I can add that I the 3 times I have met him this year he has always
been great to talk to, interested and appreciated the support of someone
flying across the Atlantic to support the series. He
had a great charisma and love of Indycar and beloved in what the series
was doing and where it was heading (only just discussing this at the
Fan Village at Mandalay Bay during a webcast), not forgetting his
ability on the race track either, a series champion, rookie champion,
and a two time Indianapolis 500 winner. Most
of all a caring father, son and husband, something that hits home the
most having seen some great pictures of him and his family after his
Indy 500 win this year.
He will be sorely missed by all those who knew him on and off the track.
A
final note, the flag, I had all bar three drivers signatures on it, but
I did get Dan Wheldon’s, which I got when walking around the paddock on Friday morning near his garage. I
approached him asked him if he didn’t mind, as per usual, not at all,
we had a brief chat about the race when we heard a large bang, we both
looked up, and back towards the back of the track, there was a brief
flicker of flames from a car travelling from turn 2. He apologised that
he had to go check on who it was and if they were ok, running off
towards the pit area and his crew. Little did we both know 48 hours later our attention would be focused again on turn 2.
“People ask me why, when I sign off I say 'until we meet again'. Because goodbye is so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon.” - Marty Reid, ABC / ESPN Commentator
Adrian Rickard
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