The accident was scary.
During the Indycar race in 2018, Robert Wickens’s bikes attached those from Ryan Huntera-Reay’s car, launched Wickens Airborne and to the fencing surrounding the racing Pocono. Among the injuries that Wickens suffered, the thoracic spinal fracture, neck fracture, tibia and fibula fractures on both legs, fractures in both hands, four broken ribs and pulmonary bruise. He also had a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from his waist down.
At that time, Wickens was on top of the star in one of the premiere series Motorsports. That year he had the seven top five at 14 races, finished ninth in the Indianapolis 500 and won the honor of Indycar’s Rookie of the Year. These injuries shortened the promising career of Indycar and could mean that Wickens’ days ended when a professional racing car driver ended. But the thought never exceeded the mind of the 36 -year -old.
“I thought I would take the first (Indycar) race in March of the following year,” Wickens said. “We always talked about what (races) would look like if I used the controls of hands. It was never a question; it was a question” how? Where? “I knew it was something that was possible.”
Wickens, which has regained some use of the legs, but lacks full ability to use them while driving, has returned to a competitive plant a little over three years after an accident using a hand -controlled throttle and brake system for car control. He competed in the pilot challenge of IMSA Michelin and in 2023 he captured the drivers championship.
And it’s not done. The new chapter begins this weekend when it moves to an even higher level of racing by competing at the IMSA Sportscar championship in the Long Beach streets in California.
Wickens will be partly on Long Beach because of the electric hand -controlled throttle system, developed by Bosch and Pratt Miller, who was able to use from returning to racing.
Without it, Wickens’ career would probably end in August 2018. However, the system proved to be an equalizer, allowing him to compete mostly on the field level. And the continuing technological improvement of Bosch has narrowed a gap in the area of performance between the vehicle operated by hand controls and is operated by traditional pedals.
Robert Wickens’s own steering wheel gives him the ability to control his racing Auto Corvette – throttle, brakes and all – completely manually. (With the kind permission of Chevrolet Racing)
Hand control acts as similar systems that can be installed in road cars, except this, is more tuned to allow Wickens to drive almost as if using a throttle and a brake on foot. During rotation, it can easily click the brake, thus carrying a higher speed in the corners.
“The best thing on my new Bosch system is that the tuning can occur in the background because it is an electronic brake system,” Wickens said. “So if I want more brake feeling or less braking, I can have a button on the steering wheel that I tune from the brake pressure that I have to apply to the brakes.”
“The old system I used when I first started was a system of very mechanical system, where there are a lot of bindings and levers that just pushed a proficient pedal with a brake down, but I would squeeze something at the steering wheel.
Because Wickens and fellow citizens Tommy Milner must compromise Corvette, Bosch had to develop a direct way to switch between Milner using pedals and manual controls.
“It’s quite impressive,” Milner said. “There is only one button that one of us must push to put it in the mode we want, and that it switches all systems in a second.”
As soon as Wickens has been resolved again, the challenge of navigation for costs and insufficient availability only complicated efforts. Finding sufficient sponsorship is often sufficiently problematic in races; Wickens also had to persuade the team owner to install manual check in his car.
“There are people racing around the world with disabilities,” said Robert Wickens. “I’m just lucky to have a platform to show my progress.” (David Rosenblum / Icon Sportswire through Getty Images)
After passing through the process alone, Wickens would like to see such functions more easily available in commercially produced vehicles. Like manufacturers, automatic plants use technology that can be applied to passenger vehicles, Wickens wants to see the same principle applied to hand -controlled systems to make it convenient and cost -effective.
“I have naive dreams that Robert Wickens, who can only fit in every road car in the world, could exist,” he said. “I imagine it’s like,” Oh, yeah, just engage it as a USB or something and you’re on your way. “But I know it’s not how it works.
“The fact is that right now that I go on the road and I want to change the lane, for example, I have to consciously exaggerated speed, because when I take my hand off the throttle to put on my direction, I slowed down and my hand is not on the cut.
Long Beach is the first of five events in 2025 in which Wickens will drive DXDT Racing Corvette. Plans outside this season are still determined. It is open to ensure full -time ride at IMSA Sportscar championships if an opportunity appears. He would also like to compete again in Indianapolis 500.
Wickens downplayed the idea of being an inspiration, but those who know him wonder how he refused to let go of his dream of being a professional driver when he had all the reasons to stop. He also wants to help others face a similar situation.
“Personally, I don’t feel like I am inspired for someone, but I’m always a little humble when people tell me I’m,” Wickens said. “After being paralyzed and my medical coma, I tried to understand what my life I had. I just worked hard to try to get myself and my wife’s best quality of life.”
“There are people racing all over the world with disabilities. I’m just lucky to have a platform to show my progress where others may not be.”
(The best photos of Robert Wickens: with the kind permission of Chevrolet Racing)
