MFW podcast episode 60

Thank you for the podcast this week and for your podcasts this season. I started listening to it this season and have followed the season with you every week.

I don’t really know where to begin properly, but I want to talk about the interaction between myself, the Indycar community, and Dan Wheldon. I have followed the series from 2009, though more in earnest from 2010 where I became hooked. I am from Dan’s native England, and when at university I became friends with others who love motorsport. Despite this, I was the only one to follow Indycar, however I managed to convince two of my friends to watch the races, and they became fans of the series too.

I worked in the U.S. over the summer of 2010 in a summer camp which allowed me two weeks to travel once the camp was over. I was desperate to get to the Kentucky Indycar race, but being totally on my own with no feasible way of getting to the track or place to stay, I realised that I would have to postpone my dream. This year I graduated from university in July, and moved to a new town where I started my first proper job.

It has been through More Front Wing, Trackside, Robin and Marshall on Speed.com, Twitter etc. that I have felt closely attached to the Indycar world, and I have completely distanced myself from F1 which was my love for over 10 years. It is a weekly event for me to listen to you both, a favourite time of the day being my commute from work on my ipod. Through this I’ve tried to spread word of the series to my friends, and empowered by your show. Whilst I’ve never met or particularly interacted with you both, I consider your familiar voices to be like friends who I keep in touch with once a week. Being in a new town and situation, Indycar and motor-racing has been one of the few constants over the last two months.

I move to Sunday. I was up very early to watch the Korean Grand Prix, and then I watched the MotoGP. However it was the Indycar race which I was most excited about and had been for the whole week. On the phone to my dad about an hour before the race I told him that whilst the F1 was interesting, Indycar had become my real passion. I told him that the Vegas weekend had been so exciting, and that I was seriously considering going there in 2012 for the race. I would be able to save enough money, and to be in a venue where I would be able to interact with the drivers and teams for the whole weekend it would be amazing. Looking back on my conversation with him now I’m grief stricken.

I felt so alone watching the race. New town, no close friends near, nobody to talk too. Still I’m totally devastated by what happened. I have been looking on Twitter and do feel like I have shared in the grief of others, though my own grief has not dissipated. The races are on in the evenings/nights here so I had to cry myself to sleep not an hour after confirmation that we had lost Dan. Now for your to share your thoughts it helps, and it means a lot to hear others go through the same things which I’m thinking. I feel so alone but having the close community there is a great support. The news here has focused on safety and the apparent insanity of racing cars on ovals, and the newspaper stories written by people who have no understanding of the sport really hurt and makes me very angry. It is disgraceful to Dan and his memory.

I’m sorry for writing such a long post on your wall, but I’ve not had an outlet to what I’m feeling and I have to express it somewhere. I realise that it’s been very self centered and I haven’t really mentioned Dan. Seeing Dan in the Indycar media he won me as a fan, and to see the way he matured as an individual, it saddens me to think that his children will never know their father. His win this year at Indianapolis made me so excited and proud as a Brit, and because of the transformation in Dan which we saw. A brilliant ambassador for the series and his sponsors, he is irreplaceable. He leaves such a legacy for Indycar. The off season will be very long for all.

Thank you for being a part of my life this year, through the highs and unfortunately the lows which we have experience now.

R.I.P. Dan Wheldon. God bless.

Tough show, guys, but thanks for sticking with it and doing one in the most difficult of times. Thanks to the both of you for all the hard work you do all season long.

Rest in peace, Dan.