Callum Hedge Honors Family by Racing for Special Cause
Callum Hedge races for a special cause.
In 2024, New Zealand-born Hedge made the jump to the INDY NXT by Firestone championship after being crowned the champion in both the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia and Formula Regional Americas championships. He brought with him a Muscular Dystrophy Association of New Zealand sticker to place on the nose cone of his HMD Motorsports entry last season.
He switched teams this offseason, but the sticker is featured on his No. 17 ABEL Motorsports entry this year.
For Hedge, the decal is more than a sticker. The little disc on the nose of his car is a foundation that is special for Hedge.
'A couple years ago, we were walking around the zoo with my nephew (Noah),' he said. 'I think he was 3 or 4 at the time, and he was walking really slow, always really puffed. And we're like, 'That's a bit weird.' We sort of thought nothing of it for a year, and then they went into some testing on him because he really wasn't able to even walk to school or walk up the hills at school.
'So, they went and did some testing, found out it was the Duchenne variant, which is one of the rarest forms of the muscular dystrophy in New Zealand. About 70-ish kids had it at the time.'
Muscular dystrophy is a group of genetic disorders that affects the muscles and causes weakness and loss of muscle mass over time. According to reports, an estimated 2,000 people are affected by muscular dystrophy in New Zealand, with approximately 50 new cases diagnosed each year. While there is no cure for the condition, there are a variety of mobility aids that can help affected individuals.
By comparison, 32 of 100,000 people in the United States are affected by muscular dystrophies.
This news came as a bit of a shock to the Hedge family. Further testing then indicated Noah's younger brother, Thomas, also had the Duchenne variant of muscular dystrophy. As an up-and-coming racing talent and a public figure, Hedge knew he had a responsibility to raise awareness.
'Learning what muscular dystrophy was, it's not really showcased very much at all in New Zealand,' he said. 'I don't know how much it is across the U.S., but learning about it, seeing what it does first-hand in a family sense, I just really felt that I was obligated to do something for them, and the easiest and best way I could do it was to represent muscular dystrophy in New Zealand was go out and do some fundraising. Get some eyes on that team, because they get no government funding. So, to go out there do that fundraising is really important to me and for a lot of kids across New Zealand.'
Hedge finished fourth as a rookie in INDY NXT by Firestone points and began the 2025 season with an eighth-place finish in the March 2 season-opener on the streets of St. Petersburg.
He sees the sticker through his visor every time he straps into his car and wants to deliver for his nephews and everyone else battling the condition.
The sticker creates an inner sense of pride for Hedge.
'There's something really important to me and my family as a whole,' he said. 'Sort of comes as a bit of a shock. To see what it does to them first-hand and how much they struggle to get through life, not only my nephews themselves, but my sister, her partner, their younger brother, they all have to watch them grow up in a wheelchair and really struggle to get through life. So, to carry that logo on my car is pretty important.' in this topic
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