The pile of flowers, candles, photos and trinkets continued to grow, as if a small mountain of memories inspired by the 33-year-old Ind圜ar and Indy 500 champion lost Oct. “God speed, champ.”įor seven days or more, Boles remembers, you couldn’t walk by IMS’s unofficial entrance without setting eyes on a grieving race fan or two, sometimes hand-in-hand or embracing each other in a bear hug, sobbing on one another’s shoulders. “RIP Dan Wheldon,” fans wrote in blue Sharpie. One diehard race fan had even left tickets from that May’s Indy 500, zip-tied to the fencing. “There’s already people putting stuff on Gate 1,” she said.īritish flags.
Boles was calling Elliott, he said, so they could meet in four hours or so in the dead of night to begin crafting a plan to remember Speedway’s unofficial son.Įlliott, who lives a block or so from IMS, had news to deliver to Boles. A longing for that previous night – even earlier that morning, in hopes of hanging onto someone who was no longer there.Īs Boles dialed up longtime IMS PR rep Suzi Elliott, unbeknownst to him, the sadness that had engulfed the racing world in Sin City had already taken over his second-home at 16th and Georgetown. Instead of breaking out drinks as the plane soared into the air for its journey across the midwestern plains, there was near-silence.
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