A TRIBUTE TO DAN WHELDON

  Dan Wheldon, (33) who died tragically at Las Vegas Motor speedway during Indi car World championship race on 16th October was a man born for the dangerous sports of car race. He was behind the wheel of a karting race at the age of four, (even before he learned well to run properly) and since then he was in it  by body and soul until he had to wind up the risky and dangerous life in a 15 car-pile up during the IZOD Indy car world Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  It was the final race of the season with prize money of 5 million.

Dan Wheldon was born in Buckingham-shire, England and was moving to the U.S. on professional reasons.After several trials and errors he found open wheel cars suitable for him. They were his pets ever since.


He had won the Indi car race championship in 2005 along with 5 other championships in that year making him not only rich and famous but also a record winner of 6 championships in an year.The racing profession though very risky is monetarily rewarding for, wheldon who moved to the U.S. finding the car race career  more costly in the U.K. and less affordable for his parents started to earn millions in an year after he established in U.S. But fame or money was not his goal. He was a man for car race and he continued his passion till his last breath.

Wheldon married his Assistant, Susie Behm in 2008 who is also from U.K. and he had two sons, Sebastian and Oliver and the youngest son was born only in last March. His parents are still in UK and he goes to them during the Christmas while his mind is still in the U.S  He lived in St. Peters burg in a magnificent house and when he was not racing he watched his various races in big flat screen Televisions (Yes, Televisions, he adorned his walls with several of them) He was also a compulsive buyer of shoes and God knows how many pairs of them are there in the house.

During his short ten year career in the motor sports, he was in the top ten finishers in nearly fifty percent races and had won 16 races. Motorsport is one of the most dangerous profession and one needs to be very lucky to gracefully retire from it. The cars are run at 220-230 miles per hour with very little elbow room. At such a speed the engines are so sensitive that even a small wrong move might result in a pile up of several cars. It is not enough to be an expert driver, one should also be lucky not to be hit by others as happened to Dan.


 The untimely demise of Dan Wheldon  is a loss for the Motor sports. He was just warming up in the profession. Similarly the loss for his family cannot be expressed in words.

 Dan's life it self was a short speed race.   May his soul rest in peace..