Irony; a sick and twisted thing

I have a friend, well ... more of an acquaintance really ... that I went to visit today. This particular person and I have mutal friends and that is how we met. I actually approached him a few months go on the recommendation of one of our mutual friends to see if the company he works for could help me out with a particular issue. As it turned out, he wasn’t able to help me out but I was able to follow a lead he gave me about someone else who might be able to help and it turned out his advice was bang on.

When I first met this guy we seemed to hit it off and he told me that I should drop by his place one day and he’d show me some of his favorite racing collectibles. So I was able to get out of work a little early today and I went to go visit him on my way home. And that is when the sick humor of Irony hit me.

This particular gentleman has a small collection of autographed diecast cars and race used equipment, and he does not discriminate - he has NASCAR, F1 and Indy artifacts in his collection. One piece of his collection that struck a chord with me was his race used autographed Dan Wheldon helmet.

Given the circumstances of the last few weeks seeing that helmet, and actually holding it in my hands, was quite an honor for me and then the irony of the situation hit me. Hard.

Not only am I holding an actual helmet used by Dan Wheldon, but I’m holding it on the 12th anniversary of the death of Indy driver Greg Moore. I mean, what are the odds that I’m holding recently deceased Indy driver Dan Wheldon’s helmet on the anniversary of the death of fellow Indy driver Greg Moore, who died in similar fashion as Wheldon?

Canadian Greg Moore, an outstanding driver in the now defunct CART series, crashed on lap 10 of the Marlboro 500 on Oct. 31st 1999 at California Speedway and died of the injuries he sustained in the single car crash. Ironically, he was hit the day before by a passenger vehicle in the paddock area while on his scooter and he suffered a broken finger, a deep cut to his hand and a bruised hip. He wasn’t in contention for the series Championship and no one would have blamed him for not driving in the the final race of the season, but he did and the rest is, sadly, history.
About five months before Greg died he visited McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario as part of a promotional tour for Molson Breweries. The tour was to provide good public relations for the beer company in promoting a ‘Drink Responsibly’ campaign as well as to promote the upcoming Molson Indy running a few months later down the highway in Toronto.

Greg’s visit wasn’t heavily advertised as the target audience was university students, so not too many people knew about his visit off of the University campus. I happened to be taking a night course at the University on Mondays to help move myself up higher on the pay grid at work. One Monday evening I noticed a flyer posted near the cafeteria about Greg’s visit later that week in the middle of the day (I’m almost positive it was a Thursday at about 2:00 pm) and immediately started thinking of how to get out of work so I could go. My dedication to work won out and I did not go, and given what happened a few months later I now regret that decision - but hind-sight is 20/20 as they say.
I’m a teacher, and at that time I had an 8th grade class. One child in my class was a huge Greg Moore fan, about as big of a fan of Greg’s as I was of Dale Earnhardt - and those of you who know me know how much of an Earnhardt fan I was and still am. Anyway, I called this student’s parents and told them about Greg coming to the University and that I thought he should go if they could arrange it. They were a little apprehensive about taking their son out of school to go visit a race car driver, but I reassured them that meeting his hero would have a far greater impact on his life than the boring History and Math lessons I had planned for that afternoon. Education is not just about what you learn in school, it is also about experiencing things. I was able to sell the parents on the idea and the boy’s mother ended up taking him along with his cousin to see Greg.
The two boys were the youngest people there, the only kids in fact, and the mom was the oldest and she was only in her late 30’s at the time. Anyway, Greg gave his lecture, answered questions and signed autographs. Once most everyone left, Greg went over to the two boys, sat down and talked with them for about 45 minutes. They talked about the aerodynamics of Indy cars, which the two boys had learned about in science class recently and he was impressed about how much they knew about drag co-efficients and so on. He was also surprised that they found out about his appearance through one of their teachers and that he suggested they take the time off of school to go and see him. He then pulled out some pictures of himself and signed them for the kids, and then he asked my student what my name was and signed a picture for me, which I got the next day.
Every time I look at that picture now I remember that student’s face when he was telling me about his experience of meeting Greg and how he took the time to sit down with him and talk. It really was rewarding for me to see his face light up about his encounter with Greg. Yet when I look at that autographed picture I’m also sadden by the great loss of a person who was as genuine as any one person can be. Racing really lost a good one in him, and he didn’t even have his career fully off the ground when he died. Imagine what could have been.
The racing deaths of Greg Moore, Dale Earnhardt, Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Aryton Senna, and and now Dan Wheldon are all tragic and emphasize the need for better safety features on the track and in the race car. Every time a car wreck occurs on the track we all hold our breath, pray, and wait, and hopefully breath a sigh of relief as we see our favorite drivers get out of their wrecked vehicles. We all know the realities of racing and every now and then something like Wheldon’s crash happens to remind us of them - I just hope these reminders become less and less as we learn from them and develop new safety features to protect our racing heros, otherwise the deaths of these drivers (and others not listed) will be in vain.