Latest news with #RobertWickens
Motor 1
08-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor 1
The Technology That Got Robert Wickens Back In Top-Level Racing
Even by the standards of elite racing drivers, Robert Wickens is remarkable. After a 2018 IndyCar crash at Pocono rendered him with paraplegia, he never for a second gave up on racing. In 2022, he made his comeback in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series with Bryan Herta Autosport in a Hyundai Elantra N TCR with hand controls. The next year he won the championship. Now, he's in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series, racing a Chevrolet Corvette Z06.R GT3 with DXDT Racing. That's been made possible by a crucial piece of technology from Bosch, and a close collaboration with Corvette and Pratt Miller. Wickens' first hand-controlled race cars were purely mechanical, with just a simple rod connecting a hand lever to the brake pedal. That sort of thing is fine in a road car, but in a race car, it's extremely difficult to generate enough force to brake competitively, and to feel out the threshold of grip. Bosch's Electronic Braking System (EBS), developed for sports prototypes, was a better solution. Today's LMDh cars require brake-by-wire to blend friction and regenerative braking. But, as this new documentary series from our colleagues at Autosport reveals, Bosch engineers realized that it could be adapted to Wickens' needs. A brake-by-wire system typically translates the signal from a position sensor on a brake pedal to an electronic command to the actual brakes. But you don't need a brake pedal to generate that signal. You could use hand controls. Pratt Miller, the longtime builder of Corvette race cars, developed the controls to work with the Bosch system, giving Wickens a bit more feel through his hands, and it works incredibly well. In his first test with the Corvette Z06.R GT3 at Sebring, he was at competitive pace by the end of his first stint. It's a testament to Wickens' character that he can bring people together to do incredible things. His drive to be back at the top of racing is an inspiration. So enjoy this first episode in a coming series on Wickens' IMSA WeatherTech run. More Corvette Racing The Indy 500's Pace Car Has More Power Than the Race Cars The Corvette C6.R Will Always Be My Favorite American Race Car Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
NBC Sports
12-04-2025
- Automotive
- NBC Sports
Wickens completes first stint at IMSA's top level
It may have been an "uneventful" first stint for Robert Wickens in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but he hopes to prove he belongs at the top level as he continues to learn to maximize the hand controls.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Wickens returns to elite racing with use of hand controls 7 years after he was paralyzed in a crash
Driver Change assist Josh Gibbs pulls Robert Wickens, who was paralyzed from the chest down after a 2018 IndyCar crash, from the car as Tommy Milner gets in the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3R as they practice driving changes, Friday, April 11, 2025, in Long Beach Calif., for Saturday's IMSA auto race. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer) LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Nearly seven years after he was paralyzed in an IndyCar crash, Robert Wickens will return to elite competition on Saturday when he drives a Corvette in the IMSA sports car race on the downtown streets of Long Beach. Wickens has raced since the crash at Pocono left him paralyzed from the chest down but considers the IMSA event a true completion of his comeback. Advertisement 'My goal from the outset of this was to get back to the highest levels of motorsport again. I've always seen that (IMSA) is the highest level of sports car racing here in North America,' Wickens said. 'It would be a dream if I could call it a 10-year career here racing against the best drivers in the world and one of the best series in the world.' Wickens will drive for DXDT Racing with teammate and longtime Corvette driver Tommy Milner. The Corvette is equipped with a hand-controlled throttle and braking system developed by Bosch and Pratt Miller. The brake controls mount to the steering wheel but are independent of the steering wheel so that Milner can seamlessly transition from hand controls to pedals when he's the driver. '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. 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,' Wickens said. '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. 'But short term, we need to perfect this system here.' Advertisement Wickens has most recently been a driver for Bryan Herta Autosport in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, which is a lower division of IMSA and in 2023 he won a class title. He's tested a Formula E car, did a demonstration for Honda in Canada, where he's from, and now will make his debut in IMSA's 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. 'You could say, 'We did it. We're racing against the best cars and the best drivers in the whole sports car industry.'' The car Wickens and Milner are competing in is eligible for the GTD championship. 'I want to win championships for myself, for General Motors, for DXDT,' he said. '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.' Advertisement He'd like to race full-time in the series next season. He and Milner are just getting to know each other, as well as the nuances of the car with the system Wickens must use versus how Milner will drive it. 'In Robbie's case he has to do all of his driving with his hands. This system is basically set up so that he can do all that with the steering wheel itself,' Milner said. 'There's a brake ring and there are throttle paddles that take the place of what I would normally use in the pedal box. The system is quite impressive with how it functions and how it works. With just one push of a button, the system switches from the able-bodied driver controls to the hand controls, which obviously is important for sports car racing where we have driver changes. 'Fundamentally, everything happens on the wheel. And it's a system that took me initially a little while to sort of understand in my own brain, how it is supposed to work, how to find lap time out of it and things like that.' Advertisement Milner has also been inspired by Wickens' journey since his life-changing crash in his rookie season of IndyCar racing. Aside from working with developers to create the technology needed to get him back to racing, he also works for Andretti Global as a driver coach in a multifaceted role in which he studies data analysis, driver guidance, and offers direct support at races. '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.' ___ AP auto racing:
Forbes
09-04-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Paralyzed Driver Robert Wickens To Race In Grand Prix Using Bosch Tech
Race car driver Robert Wickens behind the wheel of the DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R outfitted ... More with Bosch Automotive hand-operated brake controls. Wickens's legs were paralyzed after a 2018 on-track crash. Race car driver Robert Wickens will get behind the wheel of a DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R at Saturday's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Unlike his competition, Wickens will speed through the course without the use of his legs, operate the race car with only his hands, and use, an electronic hand-braking system developed by Bosch. It will be the first time the system will be in a race car at the Grand Touring Daytona level and Wickens's initial race on the circuit as well. It's a significant step in an excruciating battle that began almost seven years ago after an accident at a 2018 IndyCar Series race at Pocono Raceway. DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R equipped with Bosch hand-operated brake controls, driven by Robert ... More Wickens whose legs were paralyzed in a 2018 on-track crash. The way he tells it, he and another driver were fighting for position when their wheels touched, and his car hit a track catch fence. 'I think basically at my point of impact, I was going 212 miles an hour,' Wickens explained in an interview. 'It became a very sudden stop, very quickly, and more of like the kind of the rotation of the car is what did the damage to my body.' The damage was fractures to both hands, his right arm, left and right leg and some broken ribs, but the multiple injuries to his spinal cord were the most devastating of all, paralyzing his legs. He went through years of multiple surgeries and rehab, at hospitals and rehab facilities in Colorado, Indiana and Pennsylvania, suffering multiple setbacks but never giving up on the idea of returning to the racetrack. Race car driver Robert Wickens in front of the DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R he plans to drive ... More in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach using hand-operated braking controls. 'The question never came to mind that I didn't want to do it,' he recalled. 'Whenever drivers would come to visit me the talk was, oh, I'll make the start of next season. I'll be back. I'll make St. Pete and yeah, and I'll get back on the horse and get after it.' By 2021, Wickens did get back on the 'horse' driving for the first time since his accident when another paralyzed driver, Michael Johnson, offered to let him take a spin in a car outfitted for him with hand controls for the brakes. The next year, Hyundai hired Wickens to drive, also with the use of hand controls, but, he said, it was an off-the-shelf, mechanical system he described as 'clunky' that was not satisfactory because of the lag time between squeezing the control and the brakes engaging. That's dangerous, especially at high racing speeds. Wickens says he knew what he really wanted in a hand-controlled system and began some research. His breakthrough came when he was introduced to folks from Bosch Motorsport, which had developed an electronic braking system, also known as by-wire. Wickens worked with Bosch to get to the other 20% to meet his requirements and after a year of development debuted the system at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the final rounds of the 2024 Touring Car Class championship in a Hyundai race car. 'Bosch was really my savior, because they, they solved 80% of the puzzle,' Wickens said. The experience was quite different from that mechanical system in Johnson's Hyundai. 'With the Bosch system, the first time I applied the brake, it was like a hallelujah moment where it's just like it was perfect, instantaneous breaking exactly when I want to hit the brakes,' Wickens said. 'The brakes applied for the same amount of force that I was expecting the brakes to apply with. It feels like it just belongs in the car, like it was just always a component in there, like it was never an afterthought.' For the upcoming Grand Touring Daytona race in Long Beach, Bosch, Chevrolet and vehicle builder Pratt Miller and DXDT Racing collaborated to adapt the system to the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. 'Robert came to us with a challenge we knew our by-wire technology could help solve — and potentially shape the future of racing,' said Jacob Bergenske, director of Bosch Motorsport North America, in emailed comments. 'From the beginning, our concept was to make the system adaptable to a variety of race cars through a modular software framework. Robert has a bright future ahead, and we're excited to see how this collaboration supports his journey in the years to come.' 'Our team at Pratt Miller delivered a fully integrated solution in a remarkably compressed timeframe—one that enables seamless transitions between hand control and traditional pedal operation with the push of a button,' said Ben Johnson, motorsports technology group executive director, Pratt Miller, in a statement. Wickens will be sharing the driving with Corvette Racing factory driver Tommy Milner. Aside from simply being able to race, reaching the Grand Touring Daytona level represents a long-sought goal. 'What it means is I'm in the headline race again. You know, in my opinion, I'm racing at the highest levels of motor sport,' Wickens said. 'Being on that grid, taking the green flag in a Corvette Z06 GT3.R, it's going to be awesome.' The green flag just gets him started. There's that black and white one Wickens has his eyes on, along with sending a message to others in his physical situation. 'The goal is obviously to win. I always want to win.' Wickens says. "But whether if that's a realistic goal or not, we'll have to wait and see. But one thing that I feel like I've made very clear through this whole journey is, I, I love that I'm raising awareness for spinal cord injuries and for anyone disabilities to prove that anything's possible.
Fox Sports
07-04-2025
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Robert Wickens will set new milestone at Long Beach 7 years after being paralyzed
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. recommended Get more from NTT INDYCAR SERIES Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more in this topic
