Paralyzed in a crash, Robert Wickens kept on racing, and now he's adding a new chapter
The crash was horrifying.
During a 2018 IndyCar race, the wheels of Robert Wickens' car clipped those of Ryan Hunter-Reay's car, launching Wickens airborne and into the fencing surrounding Pocono Raceway. Among the injuries Wickens suffered were a thoracic spinal fracture, a neck fracture, tibia and fibula fractures to both legs, fractures in both hands, four fractured ribs and a pulmonary contusion. He also had a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
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At the time, Wickens was on the cusp of stardom in one of motorsports' premier series. That year, he had seven top-five finishes in 14 races, finished ninth in the Indianapolis 500 and won IndyCar's Rookie of the Year honor. Those injuries cut short a promising IndyCar career and could've meant Wickens' days as a professional race car driver were over. But that thought never crossed the now 36-year-old's mind.
'I thought I was going to make the first (IndyCar) race in March the following year,' Wickens said. 'We were always talking about what (racing) would look like if I used hand controls. It was never a question; it was a question of 'How? Where?' I knew it was something that was possible.'
Wickens, who regained some use of his legs but lacks the full capability to use them while driving, returned to competitive racing a little over three years after the accident, using a hand-controlled throttle and braking system to control the cars. He competed in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, and in 2023, he captured the drivers' championship.
And he isn't done. A new chapter begins this weekend when he moves into an even higher level of racing by competing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in a race through the streets of Long Beach, Calif. He'll co-drive a Chevrolet Corvette fielded by DXDT Racing in the highly competitive GTD class, going against Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche and other top-flight exotic sports cars.
Wickens will be on the grid at Long Beach due in part to an electric hand-controlled throttle and braking system, developed by Bosch and Pratt Miller, that he's been able to utilize since returning to racing.
Without it, Wickens' driving career would've likely ended in August 2018. However, the system has proven to be an equalizer, allowing him to compete on a mostly level field. And continued technological refinements by Bosch over the past few years have narrowed the performance gap between a car operated by hand controls and one operated by traditional pedals.
The hand control operates like similar systems that can be installed in road cars, except this one has been more fine-tuned to allow Wickens to drive almost as if he were using the throttle and brake by foot. He can lightly tap the brake while turning and thereby carry greater speed through the corners.
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'The best thing about my new system with Bosch is that the tuning can happen in the background because this is an electronic braking system,' Wickens said. 'So if I want more brake sensation or less braking sensation, I can either have a button on the steering wheel that I tune out of brake pressure that I get to apply to the brakes.
'The old system that I was using when I first started, the system was a very mechanical system where there's a bunch of linkages and levers that just pushed the able-bodied brake pedal down, but I would squeeze something with my hand up by the steering wheel. … The downfall of that is there was a lot of latency in that system and a lot of inconsistency.'
Because Wickens and fellow driver Tommy Milner must trade off driving the Corvette, Bosch had to develop a straightforward way to switch between Milner using pedals and Wickens the hand controls.
'It's quite impressive,' Milner said. 'There's just one button that either of us has to push to put it in the mode that we want and that switches all the systems over within a second.'
Once Wickens was committed to racing again, the challenge of navigating the expense and lack of accessibility only further complicated the endeavor. Finding sufficient sponsorship is often problematic enough in racing; Wickens also had to convince a team owner to install a hand-control system in their car.
Having gone through the process himself, Wickens would like to see such features more readily available in commercially produced vehicles. Just as manufacturers use auto racing to develop technology that can be applied to passenger vehicles, Wickens wants to see the same principle applied to hand-controlled systems to make it both convenient and cost-effective.
'I kind of have naive dreams of thinking that there could be a Robert Wickens steering wheel that can just fit into every road car in the world,' he said. 'I'm imagining it's like, 'Oh, yeah, just plug it in like a USB or something and you're on your way.' But I know that that's just not how it works. …
'The reality is, right now, when I'm driving on the road and I want to make a lane change, for example, I have to consciously over-speed because when I take my hand off the throttle to put on my turn signal, I slow down, and my hand isn't on the throttle. Then, I have to signal and put my hand back on the throttle, make the lane change, and then take my hand off the throttle to stop your signal. It's just a lot of extra steps.'
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Long Beach is the first of five events in 2025 in which Wickens will drive the DXDT Racing Corvette entry. Plans beyond this season are still being determined. He is open to securing a full-time ride in the IMSA SportsCar Championship if the opportunity arises. He'd also like to race again in the Indianapolis 500.
Wickens downplays the idea that he is an inspiration, but those who know him marvel at how he's refused to let go of his dream of being a professional driver when he had every reason to quit. He also wants to help others facing a similar situation.
'I personally don't feel like I'm an inspiration to anybody, but I'm always kind of humbled when people tell me that I am,' Wickens said. 'After I was paralyzed and out of my medical-induced coma, I was trying to understand what life I had. I was just working hard to try getting myself and my wife the best quality of life possible.
'There are people racing all over the world with disabilities. I'm just fortunate that I had a platform to show my progress where others might not.'
(Top photo of Robert Wickens: Courtesy of Chevrolet Racing)
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