The accident was horrible.
During an Indycar 2018 race, Robert Wickens’ car wheels cut those of Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car, launching Wickens Airborne and in the closing surrounding Pocono Raceway. Among the injuries suffered by cottons, there was a thoracic vertebral fracture, a fracture of the neck, the tibia and the perony with both legs, fractures in both hands, four fractured ribs and a pulmonary contusion. He also underwent a spinal cord injury which left him paralyzed the size down.
At the time, Wickens was at the dawn of celebrity in one of the first series of car sports. That year, he succeeded in the past seven in 14 races, finished ninth at the Indianapolis 500 and won the honor of the recruit of the year of Indycar. These injuries shortened a promising Indycar career and could have indicated that the days of Wickens as a professional racing car driver were over. But this thought has never crossed the 36 -year -old spirit.
“I thought I was going to do the first race (Indycar) in March the following year,” said Wickens. “We were always talking about what (the race) would look like if I used hands controls. It was never a question; It was a question of “How?” Or? I knew it was something that was possible.
Wickens, who has regained some use of his legs but does not have the full capacity to use them during driving, returned to competitive races just over three years after the accident, using an ACUI and a braking system to control cars. He participated in the IMSA Michelin pilot challenge, and in 2023, he won the pilot championship.
And he’s not finished. A new chapter begins this weekend when he moves into an even higher level of racing by participating in the Sportscar IMSA championship in a race through the streets of Long Beach, California. He will co-win a co-core-erased chevrolet fueled by Dxdt Racing in the highly competitive GTD class, going against Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche and other exotic sports cars Top Flight.
Wickens will be on the long beach gate partly in part to an electrical system and a hand -controlled hand brake system, developed by Bosch and Pratt Miller, which he has been able to use since his return to the race.
Without this, Wickens’ driving career would probably have ended in August 2018. However, the system turned out to be an equalizer, allowing it to compete on a mainly level field. And the continuous technological refinements of Bosch in recent years have reduced the performance gap between a car operated by hand controls and one of the traditional pedals.
Robert Wickens’ personalized steering wheel gives him the opportunity to control his racing car Corvette – Gaz, the brakes and everything – entirely by hand. (Thanks to Chevrolet Racing)
Hand control operates like similar systems that can be installed in road cars, except that it has been more adjusted to allow Wickens to drive almost as if used the accelerator and the brake on foot. It can slightly type the brake while turning and thus transport a larger speed in the corners.
“The best thing about my new system with Bosch is that the setting can occur in the background because it is an electronic braking system,” said Wickens. “So, if I want more braking feeling or less braking sensation, I can either have a button on the steering wheel that I stage the braking pressure that I get to apply on the brakes.
“The old system I used when I started, the system was a very mechanical system where there is a bunch of links and levers that simply pushed the body to melee brake pedal, but I would squeeze something with my hand upwards. … The fall of this is that there was a lot of latency in this system and a lot of unconsciousness.”
Because Wickens and his colleague Tommy Milner must develop the conduct of the corvette, Bosch had to develop a simple way to switch between Milner using pedals and parapists of the hand.
“It’s quite impressive,” said Milner. “There is only one button that we need to press to put it in the mode we want and that changes all the systems in a second.”
Once Wickens is committed to running again, the challenge of navigating expenses and the lack of accessibility has only complicated the effort. Finding sufficient sponsorship is often sufficiently problematic in the race; Wickens also had to convince a team owner to install a hand control system in his car.
“There are people who run all over the disabled,” said Robert Wickens. “I’m just lucky to have a platform to show my progress.” (David Rosenblum / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
After following the process itself, Wickens would like to see such features more easily available in commercially produced vehicles. Just as manufacturers use the racing to develop a technology that can be applied to passenger vehicles, Wickens wants to see the same principle applied to hand -controlled systems to make it both practical and profitable.
“I have naive dreams to think that there could be a Robert Wickens steering wheel which can simply adapt to each road car in the world,” he said. “I imagine it’s like: ‘Oh, yes, connect it like a USB or something and you are on your way. But I know it’s not how it works.
“The reality is that, at the moment, when I drive on the road and I want to make a change of track, for example, I must consciously on the spot because when I remove my hand from the accelerator to put my turn, I slow down, and my hand is not on the track. Then, then I take my hand.
Long Beach is the first of the five events in 2025 in which Wickens will lead the DXDT Racing Corvette entrance. The plans beyond this season are always determined. It is open to securing a full -time tour in the IMSA Sportscar championship if the opportunity arises. He would also like to run again in Indianapolis 500.
Wickens minimizes the idea that he is an inspiration, but those who know him marvel at the way he refused to let go of his dream of being a professional driver when he had every reason to stop. He also wants to help others confronted with a similar situation.
“Personally, I do not feel like I am an inspiration for anyone, but I am always a little humiliated when people tell me that I am,” said Wickens. “After being paralyzed and out of my coma induced by medical, I was trying to understand what I had. I just worked hard to try to make my wife and wife were the best quality of life possible.
“There are people who run all over the world with disabilities. I am lucky to have a platform to show my progress where others might not do it. ”
(Top Photo by Robert Wickens: graciousness of Chevrolet Racing)