Robert Wickens makes a powerful statement after racing at Long Beach following paralysis: “We proved we belong here”

Robert Wickens again got behind the wheel of a DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R for IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Saturday. Following his return to the high octane world, he made a powerful admission of belonging to the world of racing.

In 2018, Robert Wicken's horrific IndyCar crash at Pocono with Andretti's Ryan Hunter Reay had pulled him out of motorsports and the incident had left him paralyzed below the waist. However, seven years after severing his spinal cord, he made a comeback to active racing.

He drove his machine with hand controls featuring fly-by-wire braking devised by Bosch, Wickens and Tommy Milner. Despite a spectacular drive and climbing to fifth place finish in a 16-car field, Wickens' teammate Milner was black-flagged for a dangling fender following contact near the finish line. Despite the bittersweet result, Wickens' was ecstatic to have competed in the race. He said,

“There are a lot of positive takeaways from the weekend. We proved we belong here, that we can be competitive. The Bosch hand-control system worked flawlessly. DXDT Racing gave us a great Corvette. The car was very good all weekend and I feel like we had one of the cars to beat. We just couldn't maximize it, and that is what hurts right now."

Robert Wickens was a Formula 1 Test driver with Lotus Renault GP Team and also a winner on Rookie of the year award at 2018 Indy 500. Presently, he serves as a data analyst for Andretti Global.

Kyle Kirkwood reacts to Robert Wickens' return to racing

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The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship shared the Long Island Grand Prix weekend with the NTT IndyCar Series Championship. Winner of the IndyCar race, Kyle Kirkwood appluaded his performance analyst and driving advisor, Robert Wickens' return to racing.

After the third round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series Championship, Kyle Kirkwood is in second with 108 points. The weekend marked Wickens' and Kirkwood's first win together and the formers comeback was the cherry on top. Speaking to Racer.com, Kirkwood expressed his joy witnessing Wickens' in action and credited him for being an important member of his team. He said,

“It was a huge, huge weekend for him in general. So great to see him back in a car, top-tier motorsports in IMSA, something that is absolutely taken off in recent years.

"It was really cool to see that, and to cap it off for him, to get out of the car doing his own race, then come back to help us and roll out of here with a win. … He’s a big part of our team, and things are looking up for Robert Wickens,” Kirkwood added.

The next race, which is the fourth round of the NTT IndyCar Series Championship, will be the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, on the 5th of May 2025.