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.
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.
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