Dan Wheldon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Wheldon
| Dan Wheldon | |
|---|---|
 Dan Wheldon in Washington, D.C. in February 2010 | |
| Nationality | British |
| Born | 22 June 1978 Emberton, Olney, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 16 October 2011 (aged 33) Clark County, near North Las Vegas, Nevada, United States |
| IRL IndyCar Series | |
| Years active | 2002–2011 |
| Teams | Chip Ganassi Racing Andretti Green Racing Panther Racing Bryan Herta Autosport Sam Schmidt Motorsports |
| Starts | 128 |
| Wins | 16 |
| Poles | 5 |
| Best finish | 1st in 2005 |
| Previous series | |
| 2001 2000 1999 | Indy Lights Toyota Atlantic Championship U.S. F2000 Championship Series |
| Championship titles | |
| 2005 | IRL IndyCar Series Champion |
| Awards | |
| 2003 2005 2011 | IRL IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year Indianapolis 500 Winner Indianapolis 500 Winner |
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[edit] Beginnings
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, the Toyota Atlantic series and the Indy Lights series.[edit] IRL IndyCar Series
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 triumph 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 Ganassi NASCAR driver 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 thanks 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..."[2]
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."[3]
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.[4]
Wheldon was released from his drive at Ganassi on 2 September 2008.[5] 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.[6] 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 again showed strong at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, finishing 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.
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 in stunning and ironic fashion after inheriting the lead with metres to go after Hildebrand wrecked going into the final turn trying to get around the decelerating Charlie Kimball with too much velocity, being the first driver in Indy history to win the race by leading a single lap.[7] Wheldon was very emotional after the win, due to not having a ride for the rest of the season and concerning his mother who had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, to whom he partially dedicated his victory.[8] It was Wheldon's first series win in three seasons.[9]
Over the rest of the 2011 season, Wheldon helped IndyCar and Dallara test the new IndyCar chassis that was to debut in 2012.[10]
[edit] Personal life
Wheldon married his long-time personal assistant, Susie Behm, originally from Armstrong, British Columbia, Canada in 2008.[11] They had two sons, one of whom was born in February 2009, and the other born in March 2011.[12] They lived in St. Petersburg, Florida.[13][edit] Death
At the 2011 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.[14] The multi-car pile-up resulted in a red flag.[15][16][17] Wheldon had to be extricated from his car and was airlifted to a local hospital with what were described as "serious injuries."[18] He subsequently died of his injuries at 1:54 PDT.[19] He was 33 years old.[20][21]An autopsy conducted on 17 October 2011 concluded that Wheldon died of blunt force trauma to the head.[22]
The IndyCar officials and drivers decided that the race would be abandoned, and that a five-lap salute would be held in Wheldon's honour, with his number 77 being displayed alone at the top of the scoring pylon.[17]
He had been the only driver participating in Go Daddy's IndyCar Challenge where he and a randomly selected fan, Ann Babenco, would have been eligible for $2.5 million each if he won the race, starting from last place.[23][24]
After Wheldon's death, Michael Andretti revealed that Wheldon had signed with Andretti Autosport for a multi-year deal to replace driver Danica Patrick starting in the 2012 season [25], which would have seen him return to the team with which he had achieved his greatest success in IndyCar[citation needed].
On 18 October, Italian manufacturer Dallara confirmed that the 2012 series car would be named after Wheldon in honour of his work testing the car.[26]
[edit] Other projects
Dan Wheldon was a guest star in the voice cast for the TV series Hot Wheels Battle Force 5.[27]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."[28] It later emerged Wheldon would also be playing a role in the company’s performance driving center at Infineon Raceway.
[edit] Motorsports career results
[edit] American open–wheel racing results
(key)[edit] 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 | STL 1 | ATL 1 | LS 5 | FON 2 | 2nd | 149 |
[edit] 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 | NWH | 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 canceled 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.
[edit] 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 |
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