Date 18 October 2011
"Dan Wheldon died on Sunday 16 October in a high speed crash on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was 33.
I first had the pleasure of meeting Dan when he was eleven and already a multiple champion. He was one of a golden generation of British racing drivers. As a child and later as a teenager he won multiple national and international titles in go-karts. Without access to the immense sums needed to progress in motor racing in Europe he had the courage to leave his family and go to race in the USA.
Given his talent it is no surprise that he was an immediate success and quickly progressed to the Indycar Series, the top level of open wheel racing in the USA. Success continued and in 2003 he joined one of the best teams. He dominated the sport in 2005 becoming Indy Champion and winning a record six races that season. Included in those victories was the Indy 500, the greatest and one of the oldest motor races in the world. With this victory he became only the third British driver to win the race following in the footsteps of two legends of motorsport - Jim Clark and Graham Hill. He won the Indy 500 again this year.
Dan has been a friend of mine for nearly fifteen years, as a man he was perhaps the nicest of the many champions I've worked with and he will be sadly missed by his family, his friends and the motorsports community. The world has lost a great champion and one of the most relaxed and friendly race drivers I've ever had the fortune to know."