When two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon was killed
last month at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it was a tragedy, of
course, but also a shock. Thanks to fireproof suits, neck-
stabilizing helmets and walls that give on impact, fewer race-
car drivers die on the track these days than ever before. The
last American superstar to die behind the wheel, before Wheldon,
was Nascar's Dale Earnhardt in 2001. And the last Formula One
driver killed in the cockpit was Brazilian racing sensation
Ayrton Senna, who died in Italy during the opening laps of the
1994 San Marino Grand Prix.  Understandably, Senna's death did
not register with most American fans, for whom racing means Indy
cars and Nascar, both competing mostly on oval tracks. But in
Europe, it's all about road racing—a fiercely competitive realm
that includes not only Formula One's high-tech, open-wheel cars
(the kind that Senna was driving) but sports cars that resemble
standard production models from famous manufacturers like
Mercedes and Ferrari. The