Vale

What an awful week in motorsport. Indy Car driver Dan Wheldon should have been driving a V8 Supercar at the Gold Coast this weekend, but instead we saw his coffin carried out of a chapel in Florida.

Watching this on the news last night, I talked to a friend who isn't in to motorsport how rare a fatal accident is these days. As the words came out of my mouth, the broadcast switched to that terrible image of Marco Simoncelli lying motionless on the MotoGP track.

I hadn't heard of Dan Wheldon, but I've only just read Matt Oxley's interview of Simoncelli in Bike magazine. He was a young man with a zest for life and a great attitude to being at the pinnacle of two-wheel racing.

We sit in grandstands or in the forest or on the couch every weekend cheering these men and women on, hoping for a thrilling incident or a big save without a thought for the people that risk their lives to entertain us.

If motor racing was safe or easy, no one would do it and no one would watch it. But this really does give us a moment to pause and think.