letting you boys know...

Today, I lost a friend and had the displeasure of watching his life perish before my eyes (as did many of you). I want to announce that I will be taking a short break from TORA to gather my thoughts. If you see me online you're more than welcome to say hello but please dont ask me about TORA related stuff. If you do have questions for me please dont hesitate to ask the other staff members who will answer you to the best of their ability. Thank you for your time gents cheers!

Louis

Thank you to the guys who were online tonight to help me put another page of the grieving process behind me, I feel I can cope now after yesterday having my big break down and after the fun tonight. For those who don't know (especially the newer members) I do in fact know Dan Wheldon. Knew him well enough to call him a friend. Anytime he wasn't doing Indycar or other contractual obligations Dan would race with us in Karts (although we met and started to know eachother from his Rolex 24 endevours). I do however want to share with you guys a story about Dan just to show what kind of person he was off camera "the real Dan" I guess you could say.

Dan was notorious at playing a game of 20 questions with anyone he saw fit. In this particular instance it was a young female karter he was conversing with. She thought she wasn't giving him anything to use against her (which the questions were very off the wall) but god was she wrong! The one question in particular he asked was what she thought of Animal cruelty. She replied that any animal that is killed is killed for a reason. Later that day when she was on the track she almost hit a squirrel and swerved to avoid it. when she came back in the pits Dan asked her why she swerved and she said "I didn't want to hurt the poor little thing." Dan very quickly replied "What do you care you don't give a s&%t about animals, when they die they die for a reason!"... Dan Wheldon was a genuine ball buster but you loved him for it!

All I can say gents is cherrish the time you have with your friends and family you never know when it will be the last time you see them and it can happen in the blink of an eye that they're taken from you.

Thanks again for your time gents and hope to see you on track.
Louis

Louis football was fun

that was beyond fun mate and hope to do more of it, to bad one of the team colours isn't yellow because that would have been perfect for the school bus you were driving... i mean hummer

It was good to see you racing with us Louis, it must have been tough over the past few days. He souned like a gentlement, and the world will be a little less special without him in it.

Hopefully we'll get another game of football soon and we can start up some ISCC testing soon

thanks mate and yes hopefully a little both, just working on getting cars and leveling up just like many others. but I don't call you guys my friends for no reason because its always a good time and usually walk away in a better mood.

Hope you're doing alright Louis, and thank you for the vinyl on Forza, me and a few friends that I kart with are getting stickers for our helmets to commemerate him.

God, we Brits are losing everyone we've loved...

Richard Burns, Colin McRae and now Dan Wheldon. Well, RIP I guess, but nothing's real to me anymore.

Hope you are doing okay Louis. I was devastated on the Sunday, and ended up taking the Monday off. I didn't know Dan, and it hit me very hard, so I can't even begin to imagine how tough this was for you.

Louis, if you ever need a chat dude let me know I know must be really tough but hang in there

Remember Dan's kindness and greatness and what awesome guy he was

I hope that you're coping ok through the grieving process mate? I know it's extremely tough to loose someone that is very fondly thought of.
Characters like Dan Wheldon are irreplaceable and will never be forgotten, almost one of a kind in this modern society of ours. Thats why many people (even newer generations like us) still think of people like Jim Clark and Ayrton Senna for instance.
Just remember the great man for who he was, and what made him such a legend in motorsport.

We hope to see you back on the track soon mate. Just take all the time you need. We are all here for you as Duncan says.

To see him go on live TV must be devastating. Remember him for who he was. A great guy who would go karting with you before his race and the good times you had. Take it easy mate.

Thanks for sharing that little story too Louis.

Thank you all for the support getns it really does mean a lot. He truely was a great person and everyone had some sort of connection with him even if you never met him. Grieving process is going well and like i said my big break down moment on monday helped out a lot and having a great time with you guys last night helped just as much as well. So thank you all and hope you all are doing ok with his passing as well.

@nicky you're very welcome.

Dan Wheldon was better than the record books will say. I think the DW01 will be out hell of a car due to him.

It was good to see you racing the other night mate. Hope you're doing ok. Skype's always open if you wanna chat.
Can't say I knew DW outside of Indy, he WAS Indy to me so Sunday was really shocking, especially as it's probably the only race I've watched this year outside of the 500.
Love that story though, he really does sound like a fantastic character. People like that don't ever really die.

All the best buddy and see you on the track again soon