On Thursday I had a great conversation with Dan Wheldon talking about Sunday’s race in Las Vegas and looking forward to what was coming up for him in 2012. He told me he was very excited about the race in Las Vegas, but that while 2011 was not a great year for him that things would be much better in 2012.
He talked about a big announcement that would be coming soon. A brand new team for for 2012 and we agreed to talk later in the year when he was ready to announce all the details about the team. As always he was upbeat and funny.We wished each other well and he told me to email him a copy of Sunday’s feature story. I told I would and that I was going to watch the race to see if he could go from last to first.
We all know how it ended, a terrible crash and the announcement that Dan had died from the massive injuries he sustained in the crash.
The ABC IndyCar broadcast crew of Marty Reid, Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheevers with fine pit reporting of Rick DeBruhl, Jamie Little and Vince Welch did an outstanding job of covering all aspects of the tragedy.
It would be easy to forget that each member of the crew all knew Wheldon very well and that hearing the news of his death had an impact on them as it did with all the racing community. However, they pulled it together and showed what a fine group of reporters, analysts and broadcaster they truly are by covering every aspect of the story.
Yes there were replays of the crash but on an NFL Sunday you had to expect that viewers would be tuning in at different times to see the story unfold. The team of pit reporters got driver, crew and owners reactions while Goodyear and Cheevers brought their observations to the audience. All the time Reid served as the perfect anchor to the coverage. It was a very tough job telling a very sad story but it was done in the end tastefully and professionally by the ABC crew.
Also worthy of mentioning was the fine job done by the IMS Radio team of Mike King anchor, Josef Newgarden analyst, Mark Jaynes turn and pit reporters Kevin Lee, Jake Query. Nick Yeoman. Michael Young also did a super job of covering the story.
Here is a package showing a bit of the coverage followed by an outstanding essay on the life of Wheldon done brilliantly by Jeremy Schaap.
The Schapp essay on the life of Wheldon
