A young Dan Wheldon (with Jenson Button, standing but truncated) sits on Anthony Davidson's wheel at the 1990 British cadet championsips. Photo from Davidson on Twitpic.com - click through to see full version

Of the trio, Wheldon was the only one never to race a Formula One car – but that had much to do with his success in America. By the time F1 came knocking, he was already so deeply embedded in the US open wheel scene that he was happy to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’.

His 2005 IndyCar Series championship was not repeated – he lost the following year on a tie-break, having matched Sam Hornish Jr for points but won fewer races.

He did, however, pick up a second victory in the Indianapolis 500, his 2005 win being topped by the astonishing finale to this year’s race. Wheldon, without a full-season contract, took part as a one-off entry for Bryan Herta’s fledgling IndyCar team and won the race on the final corner when JR Hildebrand crashed.

Fun-loving, handsome, tireless with fans, hard working with sponsors such as the American National Guard and quietly committed to good causes such as Alzheimer research and children’s hospitals, Wheldon had become one of the biggest stars in American open wheel racing.

A new deal to race in 2012 for Andretti in a car that he had helped develop and test, a joyful personal life as a husband and father and a burgeoning reputation as a broadcaster all suggested his future would be as bright as his career to date.

Instead, all that remains is memories.

Dan Wheldon, 1978 – 2011

The young Dan Wheldon in the 1996 Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship, with an earlier version of the famous smile

In the 1997 Formula Ford Championship at Brands Hatch

September 2005 brought an IndyCar Series victory in Chicago

By the end of 2005 the IndyCar Series championship trophy and the Borg-Warner were both his

Posing at Daytona for Flickr user The359: one of the first photos ever used on BritsOnPole.com

In a thoughtful mood at Indy in 2008

Victory in Iowa for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, 2008

Each year Wheldon held a helmet design contest for children in hospital: here's the 2008 victor's work

A rainy day in Toronto during the 2009 season

Wheldon always had time for fans of the sport, and they loved him for it

The four Indy 500 champions: Franchitti, Wheldon, Castroneves and Dixon before the 2010 race

The unlikely victor: Wheldon's 2011 Indy 500 victory was straight out of a storybook

Richard the Lionheart was a constant fixture on Wheldon's ever-changing helmets

The scoring pylon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway pays lonely tribute

The pitiless Nevada sun beats down as spectators and race crews watch 19 IndyCars salute Dan Wheldon

Fans gather to lay tributes beneath the memorial banner at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

"Rest in peace, we love you Dan."

Dan Wheldon after his Indy500 victory in May

The 33-year-old from Emberton in Buckinghamshire was one of 15 drivers caught up in a lap 12 crash that saw cars flying through the air and bursting into flames as they hit the wall of the 220mph Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Series CEO Randy Barnard confirmed the news two hours after the race was red-flagged, announcing that the drivers with undamaged cars would do five laps of the circuit as a salute to their fallen rival and comrade.

New series champion Dario Franchitti sat sobbing in his car as he prepared for the tribute, as news emerged that he and Tony Kanaan – two of Wheldon’s closest friends in the series – had taken on the heavy task of breaking the news of his death to the other drivers.

Barnard’s announcement to the press that Wheldon had “passed away from unsurvivable injuries” came after a period when the mood at the circuit had grown grimmer and grimmer as the silence from the University Medical Centre continued.

In the immediate aftermath, veteran racer Davey Hamilton, who survived a serious accident in the series a decade ago, told American television: “All I could see was cars flying and going upside down. It’s without a doubt the worst thing I’ve seen in my racing career. It’s sad, man. It’s sad.”

Tomas Schekter, another driver caught in the crash, said on Twitter immediately after: “Leaving track, don’t want to hear news, seen enough. Walked past something I pray never to see again.”

Injured drivers included Britain’s Pippa Mann, who was driven to University Medical Centre after struggling to stand unaided when helped from her car, and championship contender Will Power who suffered back pain.

But by far the most serious fears were over Wheldon, who was competing for a $5m purse that he would share with a randomly chosen fan if he could win the race despite starting on the back row.

He had already gained 10 places in the first dozen laps when disaster struck. An impact further up the field triggered a chain reaction that sent Wheldon, Power and one other driver – reported by some to be Mann – flying high into the catch fence.

Several cars erupted into flames as the high-speed oval was reduced to what many drivers later described as looking like a scene from a war movie.

One-by-one the affected drivers climbed – or were helped – from the wreckage of their cars, eventually leaving the focus of everyone’s fears as Wheldon, who was airlifted to University Medical Centre with his family following by road.

Although Franchitti’s wife Ashley Judd raised hopes by tweeting how her husband had been told his vital signs were strong, his injuries proved too great.

Power’s retirement handed Franchitti his fourth series championship, but the Target Chip Ganassi driver was one of many who criticised the decision to hold the race at all.

He told American television: “Within five laps people were starting to do crazy stuff. I love hard racing, but that, to me, is not really what it’s about.

“I said before we tested here, having driven a stock car here, this is not a suitable track. We’ve seen it today. You can’t get away from anybody. People get frustrated and go four-wide. You saw what happens.”

Wheldon started his career in England but crossed the Atlantic in 1999, moving up to the IndyCar Series in 2002. He won the 2005 championship and that year’s Indianapolis 500, but was pipped to the following year’s title on a tiebreak.

In recent years he found drives harder to come by, but he won this year’s Indy 500 as a one-shot entry for Bryan Herta Autosports when leader JR Hildebrand crashed on the final corner.

That led to the idea of his entering the Las Vegas season finale from the back of the field – a gamble aimed at promoting the IndyCar Series that instead lead to the most tragic of outcomes.

While Lewis Hamilton struggled through another difficult race in his frustrating season, Button recovered from a start-line elbowing match with Sebastian Vettel to take a confident win ahead of Fernando Alonso.

The victory represented the only hope of delaying Vettel’s confirmation as the 2011 world champion – but the Red Bull driver’s third place finish ensured he cannot be overtaken for the crown.

“Seb has done a great job all season and he deserved the title,” said Button. “He was given the equipment and just got on and did what was required of him. But, for us, there’s still more that we can achieve this year.

“I’d love to go out and fight to win the next few races, and I think we have the car and the team to go and do that. We’ll keep pushing and hope to get some more wins this year, but we’re also in a very good place right now – and I think that’s key to success in 2012.

“This was a hard race – the last five or six laps were extremely tough, I had to really look after the tyres and try to save a bit of fuel to get the car home, but it was an amazing victory.

“Sebastian came across at me on the start – he kept coming and didn’t stop, so I got on the grass and had to back out of the throttle, otherwise there would’ve been an almighty shunt into Turn One. He said he didn’t see me until he saw me backing out, so that lost me a place.

“But fighting back was so, so satisfying: the performance has been in the car all weekend. It’s such an emotional victory for me: there’s so much history at this circuit, and the crowd here has been amazing, this is second only to a home victory for me.

“I want to thank every single person here in Japan who’s supported us – hopefully we’ve planted a happy memory in their minds, because a lot of Japan has been through difficult times this year. We did our best and we put on a fantastic show.”

Photo gallery

Mark Temple, performance engineer to Lewis Hamilton, talks the viewer round the track in this new video from the team.

He describes how Lewis and team-mate Jenson Button will be tackling the fast and slow corners, talks us through the braking and DRS zones, and gives his thoughts about where overtaking might be possible.

It’s a must-see video before this weekend’s race – enjoy!

But the series, now marketing itself as a ‘nations cup’ event rather than a football league, says it would like to reassure fans that it will be back up to strength in 2012.

It says that it was forced to pull out of the trip after terms between the championship and local authorities could not be reached.

Planned rounds in Beijing, Shanghai and South Korea in late October and November have all gone thanks to what organisers describe as “negotiations at deadlock”.

They say that the championship has been left with no other option than to abandon the Asian races and end its 2011 campaign early.

The series originally planned a world tour involving events in Europe, New Zealand, South America and Asia – but, in the first year after its Sonangol sponsorship ended, only events in Belgium and the Netherlands came to pass.

Robin Webb, Superleague’s Director of Competitions, added: “While everyone at Superleague Formula recognises this is an unsatisfactory outcome for the thousands of fans, it was simply not possible to travel to China with certain details still to be agreed.

“That this announcement has come so close to the first scheduled event is testament to the championship’s tireless attempts to stage the races as planned, especially after the warm welcome we received in China last season.

“Naturally I am as frustrated as anyone that the championship will not be visiting Asia this year.”

He said that he would like to reassure fans that plans are already well advanced in putting together a much-improved package for 2012 and promised announcements in due course.

As part of the build-up to this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren has released footage from its race simulator of what a lap of the Marina Bay Street Circuit looks like.

Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer Andy Latham talks viewers through a rather sedate-looking simulated lap by his driver. The sun is down, most of the city is little more than ghostly shapes in the distance – but the traffic arrows and other road markings show clearly how this circuit more usually serves as a highway.

The series has announced that its South American events, scheduled for mid-October, will no longer take place. The reasons given are overrunning track resurfacing work at Brazil’s Goiânia Circuit, and the knock-on effects on a planned second round in the region timetabled for a week later.

The series Competitions Director Robin Webb explained the cancellation as follows: “Unfortunately time has run out for us to commit to transporting the cars and equipment across the Atlantic.

“For a European-based operation it is simply too much of a risk to send everything there without being wholly confident Goiânia is ready to hold a race. It’s also unfair on our teams and drivers who have understandably been seeking our assurances on this matter.

“I know our colleagues in Brazil are as frustrated as I am but realistically there was no other satisfactory decision we could consider. I want to make it clear however that this has in no way affected the chances of hosting a race next season.”

The cancellations throw into sharp relief the difficulties of any spec series attempting to set up and run a World Championship-style event that genuinely takes in countries around the globe.

The last to try it was, of course, A1 Grand Prix – a project that lasted four years before the costs of transporting its cars around the world helped to bring it to its knees at the start of its fifth. It ended up with those cars impounded after it was unable to pay their freight costs.

It also faced occasional scheduling difficulties due to lack of preparation at circuits or clashes with other events.

In Formula One the transport costs are defrayed to individual teams rather than being borne by the series itself, and many races are paired on geographic grounds to help with logistics, as Superleague also attempts to do.

F1′s drawing power and established relationship with circuits also ensures it rarely suffers infrastructure problems – although it has taken a couple of years to get the Indian Grand Prix firmly on the calendar, and Bahrain’s 2011 race was moved due to political unrest.

Superleague’s calendar now show no confirmed events at all for this season. Races in China and Korea from the end of October through November are all marked ‘subject to contract and FIA approval’. A New Zealand event scheduled for mid-December is marked similarly, but lacks a venue after Taupo said it could not host it.

Two events took place earlier in the season, at Zolder and Assen, with the Alan Docking Racing-run Australia car driven by John Martin leading the championship.

Michael, who has worked for Williams in management positions for a decade, parted company with the Grove squad earlier this year (effective at the end of the season) after management changes and a run of poor form saw his star begin to wane.

However, he was not expected by many people to be seeking gainful employment for long.

And so it has proved. The Australian, who has an 18-year F1 pedigree and also worked for Jordan and the original incarnation of Lotus, is set to become McLaren’s Sporting Director for the 2012 season.

McLaren says his new role will involve joining the senior management team in addition to taking specific responsibility for the development and management of the team’s trackside operations.

The team said in its annoucement: “His vast experience and profound understanding of race operations will enhance the team’s on-track capability, adding significantly to its already impressive technical management strength-in-depth.”

Michael added: “I’m extremely excited to be joining Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. Being a racer my whole life, I know that McLaren is one of the all-time greats of Formula 1.

“I already know and respect many of the team’s senior technical management figures, and becoming a member of that excellent working unit was one of the prime attractions of this new position.

He said that he had spent some time closely observing McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, and that he admired them greatly, considering it an enormous privilege to be able to work with both of them.

“I’ve spent 11 seasons with Williams F1, have many fond memories, and truly wish them all the best.

“In the near future, however, I will become 100 per cent focused on Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, and will be aiming to ensure that the team’s famous rocket-red victory T-shirts will be seen many times over the coming years.”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren Team Principal, said Michael would be an important senior addition to the team: “He’ll bring a very valuable blend of experience and expertise to our pitwall, and will also enrich the technical management we provide for our drivers.

“I’m certain he’ll work extremely well with our senior technical management team, which I firmly believe will now become the strongest in all of Formula 1.”

Sir Frank Williams, founder and Team Principal of Williams F1, said of the move: “I am delighted that Sam has found a new role that will enable him to continue to apply his energy, passion and experience to Formula One.

“On behalf of everyone at Williams I wish him a successful move to his new team. I would also like to thank Sam for his help in enabling a swift and smooth transition to our new technical leadership.

“Mike Coughlan and Jason Somerville are settling in very well and the restructuring will be complete when Mark Gillan joins us as Chief Operations Engineer on 19 September.”

During the July event no fewer than 767 Jaguar E-types took part in a special parade lap of the Grand Prix circuit in a celebration of the marque’s 50th birthday.

The car was first produced in 1961 and more than 1,000 E-types were present at Silverstone on the day to celebrate its anniversary.

More than 800 E-types actually took to the track – but organisers point out that the record of 767 is based on the number of participating cars meeting the strict record verification criteria. Event director Nick Wigley described it as “an incredible sight”.

Among the parade were famous E-types with registration numbers 9600 HP, 77 RW and 848 CRY as well as the Lindner/Nocker low-drag racer:

• 9600 HP is the oldest surviving E-type and the only 1960 prototype in existence. It was the original launch car, the 150 mph road test car and the subject of the book The Most Famous Car in the World.
• 77 RW is the earliest surviving production roadster and an original press car. 848 CRY was the twelfth roadster produced and the most active racing E-type in 1961; it also appeared in the film “The Italian Job”.
• The Lindner/Nocker low-drag lightweight racer was one of the 12 original Lightweight E-types, raced in 1963/64 by Peter Lindner and Peter Nocker and the subject of a famous recent restoration.

This year’s Silverstone Classic is expected to take place on July 20-22. For more information, visit its website here.

The two companies unveiled details of the Lola-Drayson B12/69EV at an event at the Rockingham circuit last week, announcing that announced that organisations including Cosworth, BAe Systems and the University of Warwick would be contributing to the project. View the full list of partners here.

The partnership to build an electric powered LMP (Le Mans Prototype) car was first announced in July. Previously Drayson Racing had worked with the company on the development of a biofuel-powered series competitor that recorded a number of successes and competed in the 24 Hours race.

Robin Brundle, Managing Director of Lola Group (and younger brother of F1 driver and commentator Martin), and Lord Paul Drayson, founder and Chairman of DRT, said their Lola Drayson all-electric sports car will be the fastest electric powered race car to lap a circuit.

It will also showcase technology including inductive charging, composite battery power, moveable aerodynamics and electrical regenerative damping, the B12/69EV will be one of the most advanced zero-emission competetion cars to enter competition.

Brundle said: “Lola has been known throughout its history as a technically adventurous company that has helped shape the motorsport industry.

“Today’s announcement evidences our commitment to ensuring that with our partners and suppliers we can be the leaders in pioneering future technologies that will be an intrinsic part of both the automotive and motorsport industries.”

Lord Drayson added: “Everyone involved in the Lola-Drayson B12/69EV project is committed to green innovation and developing new green technologies.

“Cutting edge systems with an emphasis on sustainable and renewable power are the key elements of the Lola-Drayson B12/69EV all-electric LMP demonstrator.

“The collection of hi-tech, innovative science and technology companies that DRT and Lola have formed will be instrumental to the success of this landmark vehicle.”