Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

Post by alenigma »

Yes, he is quite the fighter. Every time I visit this thread I say a few prayers for this tough young man.
Let the Next Generation Emerge! :s_bomb
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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

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Robert continues to work and improve.


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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

Post by Annalee »

Amazing...So happy to see him standing.....Cute couple... :s_thumbsup
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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

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Wickens To Make IndyCar Paddock Return At St Petersburg

Robert Wickens will return to the IndyCar paddock at St Petersburg this weekend in what will be his first public appearance since suffering spinal injuries in a crash at Pocono last September.

The Canadian is scheduled to participate in the autograph session on Friday at 12:30pm, followed by a meet and greet at the Firestone display in the Fan Village at 10am on Sunday. He laid down a marker at last year’s St Pete race by claiming pole on his series debut, and while a late clash with Alexander Rossi denied him the chance to convert it into a strong race result, he scored his first podium next time out with a second place at Phoenix.

While a timeline for Wickens’ recovery remains open-ended, he has been actively updating fans with his progress in rehabilitation via social media through the winter, culminating in a recent video in which he surprised fiancée Karli Woods by standing up from his wheelchair under his own power.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsport has reserved Wickens’ No.6 car in anticipation of an eventual return to the cockpit, instead allocating its No.7 entry to new arrival Marcus Ericsson for the 2019 season.

:arrow: https://racer.com/2019/03/06/wickens-to ... etersburg/


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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

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Robert at the St Pete Indy Car season opener. What amazing progress he's made.










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St. Pete Grand Prix: Left paralyzed by a fiery crash, Robert Wickens aims to drive again

‘I want to finish this journey’, the Canadian IndyCar driver said upon his return to St. Petersburg.

By Martin Fennelly | Tampa Bay Times

ST. PETERSBURG — He wants to dance at his wedding in September. At this time last year, the plan was to be an IndyCar race champion.

Friday, Canadian driver Robert Wickens returned to the track where he made his debut last season, to the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, where he was the pole sitter. He was cheered when people spotted him on pit row. His heart filled. He smelled the race fuel, that distinctive aroma. He felt like he was home. Then he pushed his wheelchair some more.

“It’s still strange to be on the smart side of the pit wall,” Wickens said.

Wickens, who turns 30 next week, wants to drive again. He was left paralyzed after a fiery crash seven months ago during Indy 500 qualifying at Pocono Raceway ended his rookie season. It could have ended his life.

Wickens ducked his head inside his racing shell that day as he went airborne. That probably kept it from hitting something solid. His career was over. Only someone forgot to tell Robert Wickens.

“I want to finish this journey,” he said.



His life goal is to get back on the other side of the wall, to drive again, here, there, everywhere, inspiring as he goes.

“The amount of progress he’s made has been amazing,” said fellow IndyCar driver Jack Harvey, who is Wickens’ friend. “I think more than that, and I say this to him: His way he’s dealt with this adversity. … He’s been the person I think we all hope we would be if we were in that situation. His determination, his positivity.”

But, again, as always, the question:

Why do they do this?

The question that never deserts us as we watch them violently whizz past us before disappearing. There is a lot of disappearing in this sport, too much, including the greatest of the greats.

I’ve watched men die in race cars at race tracks. Eighteen years ago. I saw them pull a tarp over Dale Earnhardt’s car at Daytona. Earnhardt was on his way to the hospital, already dead.

I’ve been to memorial services. Like the one here 13 years ago, during Grand Prix week, for driver Paul Dana, who had died a week earlier in a crash at Homestead. After the service, I asked driver after driver: Why? Face after face looked uncomprehending. Why not? I followed driver Danica Patrick to an autograph session. I asked her: Why?

“Why do you even ask that?” Patrick said.

They all know the rules going in, the simple facts.

“What we do is dangerous,” said two-time defending Grand Prix champ and St. Petersburg resident Sebastien Bourdais, who survived a harrowing crash at the Indianapolis 500 in 2017. “We travel at 220 miles per hour plus. When things go wrong, they can go really wrong. It’s part of the sport. It will never go away. Anybody who thinks it’s safe is not serious.”

Or look at Robert Wickens in that chair.

Wickens was a star as an IndyCar rookie last season. He won the St. Petersburg pole, the first driver to do that in his debut since Nigel Mansell in 2993. In the St. Pete race, Wickens led all but two laps, but came together late with Alexander Rossi, which opened the door for Bourdais to win. In May, Wickens was named Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year after leading for two laps and finishing ninth. He had four podiums and seven top-10 finishes in 14 starts. Then came Pocono. And the chair.

Wickens was racing side by side with Ryan Hunter-Reay. Neither man backed down. Wheels touched. Wickens’ car went over the nose of Hunter-Reay’s car and into the catch fencing and broke apart. He was cut out of what was left of it.

His spinal cord was not severed, only severely bruised, providing some daylight. Wickens works four to six hours a day, six days a week.

“I’m getting some stuff back,” Wickens said. “I get better each day. But it’s a long road. You feel like you’re on that road trip, a 100-mile road in a straight line without any scenery and you’re just working to get to the end. We’re getting there, one step at a time.”

“I think when you see something like that happens, you never want it to happen. But when it happens to a friend, it pulls on your heartstrings. All you want him to do is get as healthy as he can. From there, we’ll see how it plays out. The hope is that he will. ...”

Wickens has documented his progress on Facebook and Twitter. There is video of him managing to stand and hold his fiancée, Karli Woods, though she holds him up, too. Racers from around the sport responded with tweets.

“Amazing,” wrote NASCAR great Jimmie Johnson.

“Keep pushing, brother,” wrote Formula I star Lewis Hamilton.

“With spinal injuries, you never know when that day will come when you don’t progress anymore,” Wickens said. “… They’ve told me the six- to nine-month frame is where you’ll see the most progression. And I’m kind of right at the beginning of that. Hopefully, I didn’t peak too soon.”

The goal remains the same, believe him or not.

“Yeah, 100 percent, the goal is to get back in an Indy car,” Wickens said. “We won’t know until I try it to see if it’s a reality. There have been so many remarkable drivers who have succeeded with hand controls. That makes me believe, no matter how my progression goes I will be in a race car again, just a matter of which car.”

Again, the question.

“Why?” Wickens said. “It’s all I know. That’s the biggest thing. From such a young age, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I told my parents when I was like 9 or 10 that I wanted to be a race car driver. They kind of laughed … this unachievable thing I wanted to do, like telling them I wanted to be the first man to go to Mars.”

Now, about the wedding. It’s in September.

“You know, even what I did before was hard to call dancing,” Wickens said with a smile. “Even if I stand perfectly still I can just wiggle my upper body. I don’t know, what defines dancing? That’s the big thing. If we can just stand and awkwardly stare at each other for three minutes, that would be pretty good as well.”

He might not walk again. He wants to race again.

“I want to finish this journey, not only for myself but for the whole racing community,” Wickens said. “I don’t want to fall short in any way.”

He smiled. Then he wheeled himself out of the room. The wedding is in seven months.

:arrow: https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2019/03 ... ive-again/
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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

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Godspeed Mr. Wickens!
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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

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Re: Bad Indy wreck at POCONO...........

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Working hard, making progress.


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