Former NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver Robert Wickens returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend for some unfinished business. Wickens and co-driver Harry Gottsacker drive in the No. 33 Hyundai Elantra N TCR for Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian in the Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR class.
The fact Wickens is competing professionally in a race car as a paraplegic is amazing.
Wickens was left paralyzed following a violent crash late in his 2018 NTT INDYCAR SERIES rookie season at Pocono Raceway. He worked tirelessly to walk again but despite having some feeling and movement back, the nerves in his leg wouldn’t allow him to walk on his own.
Toronto native Wickens didn’t give up his racing dream despite the obstacle. In 2022, he returned to driving again in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with BHA, competing in a car with adapted hand controls.
“My instincts never changed,” he said. “So, that was the one thing that was actually quite frustrating at the beginning of relearning how to drive with hand controls. I knew what I wanted to do instinctively, but I was having a hard time doing it. That was something in my career that I'd never experienced before.
“When you're a rookie as a kid going karting, you don't really know what you don’t know. You’re learning and making mistakes along the way, but you don't really beat yourself up, because frankly, at the time, you might not even know what the correct thing was to do.
“Now, I knew how to drive a car. I knew how I wanted to trail-brake into a corner. I knew how I wanted to manipulate the car balance to the driving style that I've been working on for 20-odd years. In the beginning, not being able to do that was really frustrating, but it took a lot of hard work, and it took a full team behind me, with Bryan Herta Autosport and Hyundai, to continue. They didn't just give me a hand control system and be like, ‘Well, figure it out.’”
His second season in 2023 resulted in a championship in the TCR class despite not reaching victory lane. Wickens and Gottsacker nearly won last year’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks race weekend around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course but ultimately came up one position short, finishing runner-up to Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor in the No. 17 Audi RS 3 LMS TCR for Unitronic/JDC-Miller Motorsports.
Wickens lost the lead late, but that was a byproduct of looking at the bigger picture. As much as Wickens would have loved to visit victory lane at this iconic racetrack, a championship was on his mind.
Wickens and Gottsacker accumulated six podium finishes in the first eight races. With a faster team that was third in points approaching in the closing laps, Wickens didn’t want to risk too much of a battle. A second-place finish was a great points day.
This season, the team has reached victory lane at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park but is second in the standings, trailing Miller and Taylor by 170 points and needing a victory Saturday to keep its championship aspirations intact.
“Last year when we got to this race in the season, we were the championship leaders and just had to run conservative races where we still had to score really good points,” Wickens said. “I probably could have fought harder to hang on to that win, but I got put in a position where we’re both crashing or the guy’s going through. I opted to take the still good points day and finish second.
“This time around, if we want to win the championship again, we have to win the last two races. Frankly, all we can do is control our destiny and score as many points as possible. It’s up to them to either play the conservative game or be aggressive. That’s the game plan for us. We’re going to be running more aggressive strategy, always trying to make every opportunity. The point differential is large, but it's not impossible.”
A victory Saturday at the Racing Capital of the World, even though it’s not in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, would be a bucket list item for Wickens. The two-hour race starts at 1:05 p.m. ET.
“I think any track that has that much history, even if it’s not the flagship event, is always cool,” he said. “You get to go on the same podium and do kind of the same post event festivities.”
Tickets and information for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks are available at IMS.com.
