Toronto, Canada’s Robert Wickens was living his racing dream in the NTT IndyCar Series in 2018 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Then, a violent crash at Pocono Raceway paralyzed his legs.
His injuries threatened to end his career. Today, he has overcome those injuries to resume it. This year, he has paired with DXDT Racing to compete in five races in 2025 driving the team’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Wickens posted the second-fastest GTD lap during the 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and reflected on his first IMSA race with DXDT, where the team finished 15th after contact between Tommy Milner and Robby Foley in the Turner BMW in the final corner caused cosmetic damage in the final minutes of the race while running fourth.
“The whole event was obviously pretty unique,” Wickens told Frontstretch. “Ahead of it, we all didn’t know what to expect. People said, ‘How would you categorize a success coming out of Long Beach?’ Man, I couldn’t even tell you if we were going to be fighting for a win, top-three, top-five. Are we going to be last? I don’t know, hopefully, somewhere in between. Going quickest overall in final practice before qualifying – I feel like it changed our whole outlook on the event for the better. Going into qualifying, if we play our cards right, we have a shot for pole. Unfortunately, myself and team – we just didn’t execute the perfect session.”
Wickens’ strive to find perfection even in his first race back drives him to become a better driver, especially in his five races with DXDT in IMSA.
“I’m just still getting more and more comfortable inside that Corvette Z06 GT3.R,” Wickens continued. “The reality is even with my day and a half of testing that I got at Laguna, I still have less than five days total in the car. With Long Beach, we had a 60-minute first practice where I only drove for probably 12 minutes of the session. I got a very good session in Practice No. 2 where I got a majority of the track time. I drove for pretty much exactly 35 minutes [in the race] and got out of the car. They didn’t want [me] to be exposed by a potential safety car risk. I feel like I still haven’t driven the car much.”
Wickens is able to race thanks to the introduction of the Bosch electronic braking system which uses hand controls to apply acceleration and braking to the car. Wickens first used the technology in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Bryan Herta Autosport’s Hyundai Elantra N TCR car.
“The first time I used the Bosch electronic braking system when we we’re developing it in the Hyundai Elantra N TCR car, it was just a massive breakthrough for me in my career, Wickens said. “We knew, obviously, the system was young when we were running it in the TCR car, developing it and debuting it at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the IMSA event. It just does everything that I want it to do.”
The Bosch system was a major step up from older technology that forced Wickens to alter his driving style.
“I felt like I really had to change my driving style a lot to suit the old braking system, and when we introduced the Bosch electronic braking system into the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, it honestly took a massive step forward,” Wickens explained. “It was just a big evolution from where it was in the TCR car. I feel like it shows. From my first laps in Sebring, I felt immediately comfortable with the braking system itself, and I could just focus on driving the race car. I’m not learning how to apply the brakes and understanding how the system works. It’s just perfectly living in the background as a braking system should.
Wickens credits and showed thankfulness to the team at both Bryan Herta Autosport and DXDT Racing for giving him the opportunities to compete and giving him a chance while using his Bosch system.
“For me to get where I am today, it’s down to a lot of key people at the right times, and Bryan Herta Autosport were the first ones to give me a lifeline with Bryan Herta and Sean Jones giving me a chance to drive a race car again,” Wickens said. “I never doubted that I forgot how to drive, but I never knew when I’d get the chance or if I’d get the chance to drive again. It just took good people believing it could get done and also not seeing it as a distraction but as an opportunity.”
“With DXDT, it’s exactly the same,” Wickens continued. “All I needed was a good person to believe in me. We were constantly figuring out how can I make the next step into that elite level of racing again. David Askew, similar to Bryan Herta and Sean Jones, just saw it as an opportunity that it was just the right thing to do. He has an engineering background by trade, and I think that the hand control system provided by Bosch – it’s fascinating for any engineer. For me, it’s just this black art that I don’t really fully understand what’s going on, but I apply the brake, and the car stops. So, it’s great. I’m very grateful for the opportunities that I’ve had for people to believe in me and to believe that we can do something special together.”
Wickens appreciated having Milner as a teammate at Long Beach to help him understand the Corvette more and master its capability on the Southern California streets and beyond.
“To get him for my first race at Long Beach was just a pleasure,” Wickens said. “He’s so intelligent. He’s so fast. There was really no better teammate I could have for my first race in GTD. What better than to have the guy that basically developed the entire race car to have alongside you. I was just harassing that man for hours. When we weren’t in interviews or in the car, I was asking him questions, and I’ll continue to ask questions because, unfortunately for him, he gave me his phone number. So, I’ll be contacting him for a long time to come.”
Teamwork makes the the dream work! Robert Wickens first pit stop during a race with the DXDT Racing Corvette
— IMSA (@IMSA) April 12, 2025
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Wickens also felt the love from the fans at Long Beach, who welcomed him back to racing with open arms.
“I think we all felt the love that weekend,” Wickens said. “The amount of times I was stopped for people wishing me good luck or how cool it is we’re doing it. I feel like I’m just living my dream here, and I’m just so fortunate to have it. It was just an amazing weekend, probably one that I’ll remember the rest of my life.”
Thank you to everyone who made the Long Beach GP one I’ll always remember. Not the result we wanted but we have a strong foundation to build on for Laguna Seca in a few weeks. pic.twitter.com/W3eNqawGss
— Robert Wickens (@robertwickens) April 17, 2025
The ultimate step for Wickens to find closure would be to potentially make a return to IndyCar for the Indianapolis 500, and Wickens said that the Bosch system can be installed in the current IndyCar model today.
“For me and closure on my journey, to do a big, smokey burnout leaving an IndyCar pit box again would just be the coolest feeling,” Wickens explained. “Even just the opportunity to drive an IndyCar again would be huge. To race in the Indianapolis 500 if I was given that opportunity – the fact that there’s so much history around that track and around that race to do something that’s never been done in a race that has done [109] starts, it would be an honor just to achieve something that’s never been tried in a race with so much history would be cool.
However, the biggest obstacle for Wickens, as he explains, is both the physicality and the safety aspect if he were to be in a crash.
“The issue is not having power steering and not only from a physicality point because I feel physically, I’d be up for the challenge,” Wickens said. “It wouldn’t be easy, but I’d be up for the challenge. It’s more the safety. We all see, in IndyCar accidents, people taking their hands off the steering wheel to avoid breaking their thumbs, their wrists, their fingers. It seems like every year at least one driver goes down with a hand injury from a relatively simple incident. In my scenario, my brakes are on the steering wheel. So, I can’t really let go of the steering wheel. I think I just need it to make sure that, especially at Indianapolis Motor Speedway if you’re going 200-something mph if you do have an accident, I’m going to want to stop my car at some point. I’m going to have to get my hand on the steering wheel to apply the brakes.”
Additionally, Wickens wants to be the best at whatever he races. With DXDT he competes to win and not just to participate. His goal is to also get on podium in his remaining four races with the team.
“In this whole journey with racing with hand controls and racing paralyzed, I just don’t want to be a participant out there. I want to be a competitor,” Wickens said. “I don’t want to be pitied or be on the grid for marketing reasons. I want to create awareness and be marketable because I’m successful and not because I’m just there.”
“If I could stand on the podium at some point in 2025, that would be an amazing win for me,” Wickens continued. “I understand those don’t come easy. We experienced it first hand in Long Beach. We’re just going to have to keep fighting.
Wyatt Watson has followed motorsports closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretch as a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt is one of Frontstretch's primary IndyCar correspondents, providing exclusive video content on site. He hosts Frontstretch's Through the Gears podcast and occasionally The Pit Straight.You can find Wyatt's written work in columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monsteras well as exclusive IndyCar features. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media team, posting unique and engaging content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattWRacing