Opinion: David Malsher-lopez
It’s 10 years ago this weekend since the British Indy ace was killed at Las Vegas. Here’s the view of someone who knew him Stateside
“I should have had greater faith in the idiom, ‘Speak as you find’. Dan was mesmerising”
Once upon a time, I reckoned Dan Wheldon was superficial, a pretty boy who found racing and winning came too easy because he was driving for a top team in the Indy Racing League. His winsome, cheeky smile, his bonhomie with TV cameramen and interviewers, his tendency to say only the right things in public, the kidding around with team-mates… From a distance, it all came across as somewhat forced and artificial.
And then I met him. Turns out I had been the superficial one, because I’d been judging the Emberton, Uk-born lad only on what I saw or read in the media. I was on the other side of the US open-wheel split, covering the last few years of the Champ Car World Series. But at the end of 2005 I was given the opportunity to interview Wheldon, the first Uk-born winner of the Indianapolis 500 for 39 years, and now also the Indy Racing League champion. Long before the end of our one-on-one time, I realised I should have had greater faith in the idiom,
‘Speak as you find’. Dan was mesmerising.
Of course he was in sparkling form as he explained the great experiences he’d had at Andretti Green Racing and why he was joining Chip Ganassi Racing for 2006. But what really left an impression was how ferocious was his will to win. I left the interview convinced that he’d retain‘500’and Series crowns.
And he could have done. His #10 Ganassi car led three quarters of the 2006 Indy 500, but lost track position due to the way the cautions fell in the closing stages. Then he ended the season tied on points with champion Sam Hornish Jr, but missed out on the crown because of fewer wins than the Team Penske driver.
Wheldon’s three years at Ganassi produced six wins but, while he boosted Scott Dixon’s oval form by constantly striving for set-up perfection, the shy Kiwi inadvertently highlighted the fact that Wheldon’s skills on street and road courses had been blunted. My own theory is that with ovals being so predominant in the IRL, Wheldon’s desire for success meant he focused on what might lead to more Indy 500 wins and more Indycar championships to the detriment of evolving his talent on courses that demanded right as well as left turns.
His chances of achieving series titles took a dive after the 2008 merger of IRL and Champ Car, as the number of road/street courses started to increase. Also affecting Wheldon’s ability to win was the move from Ganassi to Panther Racing, a team that had conquered races and championships in the IRL era but was struggling to find its feet away from the ovals.
In fact, even on left-turn-only tracks, things were becoming ever tougher, for John Barnes’s team ran only one car full-time, and the Indycar field was becoming deeper in quality. Naturally, Wheldon was missing someone with whom to share data in practice sessions and thereby halve the amount of time it took to investigate potential race day set-ups. That particularly hurt when the 1.5-mile ovals were 99% down to the speed of the car.
But mercifully, Indianapolis Motor Speedway remained a major driving challenge in that era, and there Wheldon was magic. In both 2009 and 2010 he drove his Panther entry from 18th on the grid to finish runner-up, and while we’re fond of saying that there’s no race where second place means less, his results on those two Memorial Day Weekends were the result of Wheldon’s maturity in the practice days. He knew that wherever he qualified, he could make his way to the front, so focused on making his car one of the best in traffic.
His Indy performances immortalised Wheldon, and that was appropriate. No other racer besides Al Unser Jr has ever conveyed so passionately the fact that he was bewitched by Indy, and no one other than Rick Mears and Dario Franchitti has more eloquently explained the techniques, demands and quirks of the Speedway.
At the end of 2010, Wheldon left Panther and was without a full-time ride – besides being test driver for Indycar’s next-gen chassis and engine. But former Andretti Green team-mate Bryan Herta, whose eponymous squad had started just one other
Indycar race – the previous year’s Indy 500 – knew exactly who he wanted for his team for the 500 in 2011.
While many of us thought this pair’s reunification was a cool story, few reckoned it was a winning combo against the Ganassi, Penske and Andretti hordes. But Wheldon believed it, Herta was optimistic, and their blend of gung-ho demeanour and meticulous analysis pervaded the little team throughout the Month of May. The #98 Bryan Herta Autosport machine qualified on the second row, ran in the top six seemingly all day, and Wheldon was in position to pounce on the final lap of the race when JR Hildebrand’s Panther entry struck the wall. Indy win number two was in the bag.
After one of the most amazing final laps anyone could remember, many onlookers were mentally torn between empathising with the devastated Hildebrand and sharing the exhilaration of Wheldon and Herta. What happened at Las Vegas Motor Speedway less than five months later reminded everyone of what real devastation at a race track felt like – and made us truly gratified by the Indy outcome.