Nimrod

Congratulations are due for Dan Wheldon who hails, originally, from Emberton, England!

What a race! What a finish!

http://www.danwheldon.com/

ira

Egad,

Is this worse than the French rejecting the EU constitution?

Nimrod

I miss your point here. There have been countless threads over the years about Lance Armstrong winning the TDF -- I like motor racing and am proud that Wheldon won. Have a problem with that, Ira? Must all my threads, or anyone else's for that matter, be correlative?

ira

Hi Nimrod,

I did not intend to ruffle your feathers. It was meant only in fun, as there are many Americans who would consider Wheldon's win more of a setback for Western Civilization than France's vote.

Sorry to have not affixed an emoticon.

JOHNOD

TGhe real story is the 100lb 23 year old woman who led the race several times and finiished fourth. Once again they finished under a caution and not racing to the end, but congrats to the winner.

flanneruk

Why should this be surprising?

Virtually all Indycar engines, and around half the cars themselves, are built in England - whether the cars appear to come from American, Italian or Japanese companies. Just as for F1, and for most of the higher-tech components for Nascar, England's Motorsport Crescent (a 100-mile strip roughly centred on Oxford) is the major supplier of the technology for all the world's racing cars.

We just don't go on about it.

ira

>..real story is the 100lb ...woman ..<

Sure, her car was about 150 lb lighter.

Scarlett

ira,

"Sure, her car was about 150 lb lighter"
a fact that Robbie Gordon did not let pass..even though he was not even planning on racing, he said he would not race against her. Big baby

jules4je7

He must have been speeding.

Scarlett

LOL, jules!
Which makes me wonder, what side of the track was he driving on?

Zeus

I wonder if Mario Andretti was considered a cheater since he's about 5'5" and maybe 140 lbs? Maybe Robbie Gordon should rejoin the fat slobs of NASCAR. That's right - He couldn't win there either.

RufusTFirefly

C'mon guys, Ira was just making a joke. The vast majority of Americans couldn't care less where the winner of the Indy 500 (or any other sports star for that matter) comes from.

Graham Hill was one of my favorite drivers--er, guess I'm dating myself a bit with that one. I was quite young at the time.

ira

I was partial to Phil Hill.

dcespedes

Danica Patrick is the name of the 100 lb wonder and she is awesome. A very exciting race yesterday!!

derekflint

Eleven times in the last sixteen years the Indy 500 winner was not American.

1989 Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil)
1990 Arie Luyendyk (Netherlands)
1993 Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil)
1995 Jacques Villeneuve (Canada)
1997 Arie Luyendyk (Netherlands)
1999 Kenny Brack (Sweden)
2000 Juan Montoya (Columbia)
2001 Helio Castroneves (Brazil)
2002 Helio Castroneves (Brazil)
2003 Gil De Ferran (Brazil)
2005 Dan Wheldon (UK)

Barbara

I remember Graham Hill too - a great Formula 1 driver. Even greater was Jim Clark, from Scotland, who won the Indy the year before Graham Hill in 1965!