Scooter Chronicles

I have been a racing fan for most of my life, and unlike most these days that love NASCAR, my fandom has always involved open wheel cars. And though my interest has waned over the years, and it is harder and harder to get up and watch the Forumla One races on Sunday morning during the 5 year reign of Michael Schumacher, I still make a point of watching the Indianapolis 500. This year the race was won by British sensation Dan Wheldon. This was his fourth win of the season that is only five races old.

Dan Wheldon takes the famous drink of victory milk.

Due to the stupid way the qualifying works at Indy (my opinion), Wheldon started from the 16th position, but worked his way up quickly. It was obvious as the race went on that he was one of the fastest, if not THE fastest on the track. He became the first British driver to win the race since 1966 when legendary Forumula One driver Graham Hill won it.

Of course his win and his fabulous performance was overshadowed by that of Danica Patrick. She became the first woman to ever lead the Indy 500. And if it hadn’t of been for an almost empty tank, her chances of winning would have been very good. She was leading for most of the last 20 laps of the race, was overtaken by Wheldon just before a caution, then overtook him at the restart. But then had to back off fearing that she would run out of fuel, so settled for fourth place.

It was one of the more exciting Indy’s I have watched in a while.