R.I.P.
Dan Wheldon
"And…they're off!" The sound of car engines roared as rubber was burned and smoke filled the air.
It was the 2011 Indianapolis 500 race, and Vert's hero was going to win. Vert had exclaimed it to his teammates nonstop.
"Burn rubber, Dan!"
Spinner plopped down on the sofa beside his younger brother and chomped down on his butter-soaked popcorn. "Le's go Da'!" The older Cortez pumped his fist and shouted muffled nonsense as bits of chewed popcorn flew out of his mouth.
"Swallow the popcorn before you speak, dude!" Zoom groaned angrily as he desperately tried to swipe the bits of popcorn that had landed in his hair. "Your spitting on me!"
"Dudes, quiet!" Vert leaned on the edge of his seat as Dan Wheldon started getting ever so closely to the front of the hundreds of other competing drivers.
As time went by, the Battle Force 5 couldn't help but cheer and shout for Dan as he battled to get ahead.
"And here's lap 11!" The announcer proclaimed. "And there's Dan Wheldon coming up on E.J. Viso!"
"This is Dan's third start of the season, as for most of the year, he has been a tester and developer for a new chassis that the IRL will introduce in the 2012 season," the announcer said. "Wheldon said that he and four other drivers are involved in a contest, the contest is if he or one of the other four drivers involved win the race, the driver and a fan will split a prize of $5 million."
After the second announcer was stating this, Dan's car struck the back of E.J. Viso's car, sending Wheldon's car flying through the air, crashing into the catch fence, where, on impact, it destroyed the roll hoop off of the chassis.
Fans screamed all over the Las Vegas Speedway. Putting there hands over their mouths in shock and horror or placing them on their heads in wonder if he survived the terrifying crash.
The Battle Force Five said nothing but sat in icy, blood curdling horror.
"Dan!"
Only minutes later, an ambulance arrived and had taken Dan to a nearby hospital.
"We have just been informed that Dan's injuries are fatal…" The first announcer spoke softly and solemnly.
Hours later, Dan Wheldon took his last breath.
Vert just stared at the television screen in pure frozen, icy shock as people spoke about his hero and what he was to them.
"I don't know what I can say to comfort anybody. I just pray that he rests in peace. Right now, I just want to give my support to his family. He was one of my best friends and one of my greatest teammates back in the day." Tony Kanaan, a former teammate of Dan Wheldon from 2003 to 2005, was barley able to put words together about losing one of his closest friends.
The season's championship went to Dario Franchitti, which was his fourth of his career, but instead, he had to field questions about the loss to one of his fellow drivers.
"Right now I'm numb and speechless," Franchitti spoke softly with absolutely no humor in his voice. "One minute you're joking around at driver intros and the next Dan's gone. We had a couple of fallouts over the way, but we were friends. Everybody in the Indy Car Series considered Dan a friend. You saw the reaction. He was one of those special, special people from when he showed up first in Indy Car. And he was kind of brash, all that stuff, but he was a charmer. Then he became this loving family guy who is still charming, but he had this whole new side to him."
"Vert, are you alright?" Agura put a hand on her leader's shoulder, trying to comfort him as best as she could.
"No…" He murmured. "He was just here…only a months ago…now he's…"
Gone.
"My…hero."
When I heard this happened, I couldn't believe it. It's terrible this happened to such a good person.
I think that there should be a Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 episode in tribute to Dan.