Robert Wickens will set new milestone at Long Beach 7 years after being paralyzed

Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

Robert Wickens will drive a Corvette this weekend in Long Beach. And with that, he will accomplish another feat in his return to elite racing.

Wickens, paralyzed from the waist down in an accident at the 2018 INDYCAR race at Pocono, will compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race on Saturday.

“[This] is the highest level of sports car racing here in North America. … It would be a dream if I could call it a 10-year career here in the IMSA WeatherTech Series racing against the best drivers in the world and one of the best series in the world,” Wickens said.

“In terms of what’s left, there’s always opportunity. But my goal is always to get to the highest levels, and I feel like I’m here.”

Wickens will share driving duties with Tommy Milner in a DXDT Racing car with a hand-controlled throttle and braking system developed by Bosch and Pratt Miller.

In 2023, the 36-year-old Wickens won a class title in Michelin Pilot Challenge — a stepping stone to the top IMSA series — and also has tested a Formula E car. This will be the first time he competes in the top IMSA series in the GT Daytona class.

“Honestly, taking the green flag in Long Beach is going to be an enormous step forward in my career and my journey back to the highest levels,” Wickens said. “Basically you could say, ‘we did it.’ We’re racing against the best cars and the best drivers in the whole sports car industry.

“So I want to win championships for myself, for General Motors, for DXDT. There’s still some work to be done. I think you could say it’s definitely a massive box to check, probably the biggest box that we could check off so far in my return.”

Wickens views Saturday’s race as another sign of progress toward racing full-time in the series with the hopes of running the complete season in 2026. When it comes to the technology being easily applied to other series, he wouldn’t rule out what the future holds.

“What we’re learning here today can transfer into any race car. And then, hopefully, down the road, what we’re developing with the electronic braking system from Bosch, opportunities are endless. Maybe this can evolve into road safety and into everyday road vehicles and accessibility in road vehicles,” Wickens said.

“But short term, we need to perfect this system here.”

The main difference in the system that Wickens will use this weekend is that the brake controls mount to the steering wheel but are independent of the steering wheel. Because sports car racing features multiple drivers sharing the car (because of the length of the races), the ability for the system to seamlessly go from hand controls to pedal controls is key.

For Milner, the car does not feel any different from other Corvettes he has driven.

“The steering wheel that Tommy will be driving or any other teammate that I drive with in this Corvette, it’s the exact same steering wheel that they always know,” Wickens said.

“There’s just a bit of luggage on the backside. What’s great about it is, in theory, it can mount to virtually any steering column as long as you have the right bolt pattern.”

Milner didn’t know Wickens well before they started working on this program.

“For him to go through what he went through and with his drive and determination to get back in a race car again and be competitive and win races, that’s something that can be an inspiration for anybody,” Milner said. “Anybody who’s gone through some sort of hardship like he has, it’s what you make of your life and that situation.

“You can tell that it does change parts of his life. But the one thing that he doesn’t want it to change realistically is him driving race cars and driving them as fast as he does.”

Wickens remains active in INDYCAR as a driver coach for Andretti Global. He analyzes data from Andretti drivers and from all drivers to give suggestions and tips on how to attack turns.

During race weekends, Wickens works out of the team engineering truck.

“It’s hard to — if you’re not a driver — really know what a driver needs,” said Andretti driver Kyle Kirkwood. “You have another driver kind of looking over things and paying attention to what other people are doing and picking out certain things and then sharing that with you when we are very limited on how much time we have to look over stuff. He’s been a huge, huge help.”

Wickens won’t be able to spend too much time in that role this weekend since he’ll be racing.

“It’s a little bit of a loss for us but a huge win for him,” Kirkwood said. “We’ll be excited to watch him and see how he does this weekend. I think he’s going to have a lot of fun doing it.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.