It was the carbon copy of the accident of Alex Zanardi and Alex Tagliani happening at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz back in September 2001, when the Italian lost both his legs being hit by the Canadian`s car like a cruise missile. But this time the driver coming from behind sustained fatal injuries. Only three minutes of the warm up of the first round of the 2006 Indy Racing League season were gone, when Ed Carpenter of Vision Racing had spun to crash into the wall. Sliding along it Carpenter`s car spun for another time to drop down the track to the inside. Five or six other competitors were able to pass the wreck with out problems. Six seconds after yellow lights had been put on Paul Dana of Rahal Letterman Racing (the team owned by former CART champion and Jaguar Formula One boss Bobby Rahal and famous chat show host David Letterman) rammed Carpenter`s car from behind without braking before. As Rahal explained to the press later, Dana, a 31 years old former journalist competing only in his fourth IRL event, had been informed of Carpenter´s crash via radio by his spotter. After hitting Carpenter`s vehicle at estimated 280 km/h Dana`s car took off and broke into two pieces. Both the drivers were taken out of their cockpits by the rescue teams within a quarter of an hours and taken to hospital by helicopter. While Carpenter survived with minor injuries Paul Dana died some two hours after the crash. Team Rahal Letterman withdrew their remaining cars of Buddy Rice and Danica Patrick. The Toyota Indy 300 was won by Briton Dan Wheldon (Ganassi Racing) closely ahead of the Marlboro Team Penske drivers Helio Castroneves (BR) and Sam Hornish (USA).

Images by project * 2000

© 2006 by researchracing

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