It remains to be determined if Robert Wickens will ever race again, but that remains his goal. What is important, however, is the tremendous progress the injured driver has made in order to take a step on his own.
Wickens suffered a serious spinal injury in a horrifying crash on Aug. 19, 2018, at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway.
Wickens’ car went over the nose of Ryan Hunter-Reay’s machine and flew into the catch fence. The car ripped into the fencing and poles, sending it spinning wildly in the air. His injuries included a bruised spine and fractures to his legs, pelvis and arms.
Wickens doesn’t know if he will ever drive an Indy car again, but he knows he will return to the cockpit of a race car someday, even if it’s using hand controls.
“The goal is to get back into an Indy car,” Wickens said. “We won’t know until I try it to see if it’s a reality. Apart from that, there’s been so many remarkable drivers that have succeeded with hand controls in motorsports that it makes me believe that regardless of how my progression goes, I will be in a race car again. It’s just a matter of which car. The dream is an Indy car.
“I know the team has been very outspoken that they’ll always have a car for me when I can race. I think there are also rules and regulations that we have to abide to. I don’t know how many modifications we can make, etc. We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there.”
Wickens also doesn’t know if he is going to walk again, but he’s damned sure going to try.
The bruised spinal cord has left him fighting to regain use of his legs. He has been undergoing extensive rehabilitation at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo.
Wickens has made remarkable progress and is able to stand up on his own, but still requires assistance to get his legs to move.
Wickens was determined to attend the season-opening race for the NTT IndyCar Series March 8-10 in St. Petersburg, Fla. He spent months at the rehabilitation facility and a chance to visit with his fellow drivers in the NTT IndyCar Series was something he eagerly anticipated.
“It’s nice to be back in a world that I’m familiar with,” Wickens said. “I’m doing well. Really, I am. There’s obviously good days and bad days. Being back at a race track makes everything feel a whole lot better, although we just finished practice one, it’s a little bit strange to be on the far side of the pit wall.”
When Wickens watched the race from the Arrow Schmidt Peterson pit area, he found it to be a strange vantage point.
“When you’re driving, you know the engineers are talking and figuring out how to make the car better,” Wickens said. “When you actually listen on a race weekend to the communication that goes on, it’s intense.
“I thought, ‘I’ll put a headset on, chime in, give some insight every now and then.’ I struggled to find my space to make my blurb. It’s all a work in progress, work in progress.
“From my front, I’m getting some stuff back, getting better each day. A long road. You feel like you’re on that road trip. It’s the 100-mile road that’s a straight line the entire time without any scenery and you’re just working as hard as you can to get to the end.
“We’re getting there. One step at a time. It’s basically all I can say, we’re making progress. The thing with a spinal injury is you never know when that day comes where you won’t progress any more. I think right now we’re trying to utilize every day we can to get as healthy as I can.”