Rahal helmet auction turns into industry-wide push to help Wheldon family
by Tony Johns on Oct 18, 2011 8:00 PM EDT
in IndyCar News
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Graham Rahal may be one of INDYCAR's younger drivers, but his maturity and leadership outweigh his years. The latest evidence of this is the fundraising auction he is helping put together for the family of the late Dan Wheldon, who lost his life at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.
The 22-year-old Ohio native, who drives the #38 Service Central Dallara for Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing, took the initiative via social media in the immediate aftermath of Wheldon's fatal accident to help organize the auction.
What was initially Rahal's plan to auction his Las Vegas-worn helmet has swelled into an industry-wide push to raise funds that is being supported by stars from all over motorsports, including Max Papis, Jimmie Johnson, Brandon Bernstein, as well as his fellow INDYCAR drivers Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, and Marco Andretti, RACER and AutoWeek magazines, and sponsors like GoDaddy.com and Bowers and Wilkins.
In fact, response has been so great that Rahal's initial plan to open the auction this week on danwheldonmemorial.com needs to be delayed for at least another week.
"There will be auction items for all incomes," Rahal said via his Twitter account Tuesday. "I also hope it will be open for bidding worldwide as there are worldwide items coming in!"
The list of auction items has expanded to include everything from driving school experiences to jerseys to race-worn equipment from an ever-growing list of contributors. Rahal's father Bobby, himself a former IndyCar star, is donating the last of his own race-worn helmets in his collection to the cause. Even fans are getting in on the action, offering up prized memorabilia from their own collections.
Due to the overwhelming response, Graham has asked that those interested in contributing or finding out more information visit his Facebook fan page to get the latest information. The auction will be held online at http://www.danwheldonmemorial.com.
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A commendable initiative.
If I have any credit left on my cards, I’ll surely partake in this, if anything, to contribute to the cause for its simbolic value (as, Wheldon’s family probably still has more money than a fiar share of the population). It’s a fantastic effort from Graham, one that clearly shows his character and values.
In addition to that, would it be too much to hope that GoDaddy and Barnhart’s other partners for the Las Vegas race donate Dan’s share of the prize to his family?
Prize Money
I’m fairly certain that it has been established that the “fund” for the $5 million was in fact an insurance policy that most likely Go Daddy took out and not an actual cash pool put up by the company. This is how hole-in-one contests work at charity golf tournaments – whether a car or cash prize or whatever can be won, what is actually purchased is an insurance policy at a set premium price determined by the likelihood of success. So Go Daddy paid some insurer a premium – that money is spent. The insurer bears the “risk” that the event would have succeeded, that Dan would have won and would have been who would have actually cut the $5 million check had he succeeded. All that being said, it would still be nice to see the insurer, Go Daddy or both make some contribution to the memorial fund.
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