Around this time every year, I’m usually finalizing my arrangements to head to Germany for the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Unfortunately, with travel costs spiking at the moment and my personal and professional schedule not working out, I won’t be able to attend the 2026 race, but Hyundai recently sent over a nice reminder of what made last year’s event so much fun for me.
The email from one of my buddies at Hyundai contained a link to a rough cut of a forthcoming video they shot last year detailing Robert Wickens’ journey to the checker at the ’25 24, which you should be able to see on YouTube by the time you’re reading this column. It’s an unqualified recommendation from me, as the crew really did a great job at capturing Robert’s challenges and the tools he used to overcome them on his way to a podium finish at the event.
As a quick recap, Robert Wickens is a Canadian racer who was IndyCar’s Rookie of the Year less than a decade ago, before losing the use of his legs after a devastating crash at Pocono. Three years after that incident, he climbed back into a race car for the first time–a Hyundai Veloster N TCR with special hand controls. He’s now back on track at the highest levels of sports car racing with Hyundai as well as with DXDT in the IMSA GTD division in a Corvette.
[This is the unique hand-control setup Robert Wickens uses to win]
Not covered in that video, however–I assume it will be in the expanded edition when it gets released–was my incredibly specific and obscure contribution to his success, so I’ll detail it here before Hyundai drops the supplemental footage that will certainly cover it.
Anyway, at dinner one night a couple days before the race, Bryan Herta Autosport PR ace Katie Brannan was lamenting not being able to find an accessory Robert needed for the car. In addition to her PR duties, Katie kind of serves as the team’s fixer, since she’s one of the few people associated with the effort with the capacity to leave the track and go get stuff in more metropolitan areas.
Katie needed some tennis racket overgrip tape–Robert uses it on his steering wheel, which also serves as the paralyzed athlete’s brake, throttle and shifter controls–and an Amazon delivery couldn’t have it at the track in time for the race.
“Katie, you’re not going to believe this,” I began. As it turned out, the grocery store that I’ve been frequenting for years, right near the village where I always stay, has a full-service tennis shop in its lobby area, and it was barely a 20-minute drive from the track. Katie made a quick run over, and the tape I helped source makes a nice cameo in the video–along with a quick, blurry shot of one of my calves.
Photograph courtesy Hyundai.
But yeah, it’s worth a watch, and Robert is a really compelling dude. I know media always leans into inspiring stories of athletes with disabilities overcoming challenges, but when I spent some time with him in Germany, the whole concept of a “disability” gets kind of skewed. Sure, his legs don’t work, but in the context of motorsport, he seems to deal with it in the same context as every other motorsport challenge, like not having enough camber or brake pad knockback or a mid-corner push.
His real frustrations seem to lie with the non-motorsport world, where he has to compete in the adaptive division in golf tournaments and cycling races, or deal with the crappy engineering that goes into consumer-grade hand controls for his street car, or put up with a world that seemingly does the bare minimum–if they even do that–to provide accommodation to anyone who might be different from whatever the most influential majority decides “normal” is.
In motorsport, there’s no “disabled” divisions. Robert’s lack of working legs is just another engineering and execution problem to be solved by smart people from Hyundai, Bryan Herta Autosport, Bosch and the other individuals and companies making it possible for him to compete at such a high level. Motorsport in general has not always been one of the most socially progressive or inclusive communities, but in this regard, at least, there seems to be some spots of light.
So please do check out the video, as it’s a good way to spend a half hour. It’s inspiring in all the right ways, and it does a good job at scratching the Nürburgring 24 itch in a way that I won’t get to do directly this year.
And if you should ever get the chance to shake hands with Robert Wickens, I strongly recommend you do not try to big dog him in an attempt to outgrip him. To get full brake pressure on his hand control levers, he has to exert over 150 pounds of force, sometimes using only three fingers since he’s still got to grip the wheel. Among the many ways a guy like Robert will inspire you is that you will never again skip forearm day at the gym.
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J.G. watching the rough cut like:
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