Classic motorsport moment: Wheldon’s last-gasp Indy 500 win

Motorsport has always brought us highs and lows, but rarely are they as extreme as the final few moments of the Indy 500 in 2011; the 100th anniversary of the fabled race.

The drama centred around rookie JR Hildebrand, who - in his first appearance in the event, driving for Panther Racing - looked set to make a daring, fuel-saving strategy stick as more experienced rivals were forced to give up the chase one by one.

Hildebrand inherited the lead as front-runner Bertrand Baguette dived into the pits with three laps to go, and the 23-year-old looked certain to secure his first ever IndyCar victory in front of the 300,000-strong crowd.

Never have the words ‘To finish first, first you have to finish’ been more cruelly applied. Heading into the very last corner of the 500-mile race, Hildebrand left the racing line to lap backmarker Charlie Kimball: in doing so he slid onto the less grippy part of the circuit and smashed into the wall, literally in sight of the chequered flag.

Hildebrand very nearly rescued the situation, bravely keeping his foot on the gas in a desperate bid to cling on to victory, but with just a few yards to go Dan Wheldon swept into the lead and gave Bryan Herta Autosport its first taste of success at Indianapolis in only its second attempt.

The race had lasted for just shy of three hours: Wheldon led it for less than four seconds.

On two wheels Hildebrand still limped home to take second place, the fourth time in a row that Panther Racing had had to settle for the runner-up spot. And can you guess who they’d fallen short with in the previous two years? Yep, that man Dan Wheldon.

The incredible win was Wheldon’s second at the Indy 500, having triumphed at the speedway in 2005 after a late battle with Danica Patrick. He became the 18th person to win multiple Indy 500s, and only the second British driver to do so after Dario Franchitti had achieved the feat the year before.

Unfortunately the story didn’t end there. Five months later Wheldon was killed in a high-speed pile-up at the season finale in Las Vegas. He was 33.