The reaction to the news of Robert Wickens’ impending IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut with DXDT Racing was unanimous. To borrow a now-famous line in the interface of the video game Fallout 4: “Everyone liked that.”
Within minutes of Wickens’ announcement that he would run five IMSA sprint races in DXDT Racing’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, the worldwide sports car racing press had gathered to hear from the man himself about the next chapter of his racing career.
“It’s an amazing day to finally move up to top-tier competition in the IMSA WeatherTech Series, racing in GTD with DXDT with the Corvette,” Wickens said in his press conference last week. “A hero of mine growing up was always Ron Fellows, so the fact that I’ll be driving a Corvette, like he made so famous many Canadian drivers, it’s going to be just a lot of fun.”
“A little bit of baptism by fire for sure, right? You know, why not learn IMSA WeatherTech racing with a track with no runoffs and walls everywhere,” he said with a chuckle. “But I think for me, the emotional journey of having my debut on a race weekend that we share with IndyCar is going to be pretty special. I think there’s gonna be a lot of friends around – you know, old drivers, current drivers, it’s just gonna be really cool to see. And I’m sure the support is going to be really nice.
“Honestly, there’s definitely more excitement than nerves. I just want to get my feet on the ground into that Corvette and see how it goes.”
It’s the first time that Wickens will have driven a rear-wheel drive race car in anger in competition since his life-altering accident in the 2018 IndyCar Series race at Pocono Raceway, which left him paralysed below the chest and abruptly stopped his promising IndyCar career short of the promise shown in 14 races.
He’s not yet tested the Corvette Z06 GT3.R with the second-generation Bosch Motorsport hand control system that he introduced at the penultimate round of the Michelin Pilot Challenge series last year. And he’s joining a DXDT Racing team that’s brand-new to the series.
But this is what the 35-year-old Canadian driver has been working for ever since his second racing career began, back in 2022 when he made his return with Bryan Herta Autosport in the Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR class. He’s never been coy about his ambitions, but only now does he have the opportunity and the technology to make it possible.
“I can’t thank DXDT enough for the opportunity, [and] Bosch for, frankly, making it all possible,” Wickens said. “I’ve been wanting to move up to WeatherTech for quite some time. I felt like I was fairly transparent in that messaging.
“But it was always a difficult communication, trying to convince the OEMs or the team owners to put me in the car like any other racing driver – and then say, ‘Oh, by the way, you have to design a whole braking system that doesn’t exist.’
“So the fact that Bosch came to the table with their technology, it’s already proving that it’s giving me the opportunities that I want in my career. Not only just in this next journey, moving up into the IMSA WeatherTech Series, but we already raced it in the TCR category for the final two rounds of the Michelin Pilot Challenge series with great success.
“We’re really looking forward to the future, frankly. The off-season already feels too long, now that I know kind of what 2025 looks like – and [I’m] just ready to get started.”
Wickens was frank in his assessment of where he stood as a driver after his comeback, but even if he was only ‘about 85 to 90 per cent’ of the driver that he was in 2018, he’d still measured up well against the Pilot Challenge field in three seasons – culminating in a TCR title in 2023 alongside co-driver Harry Gottsacker.
And before then, he’d already proven himself to be the equal or superior to drivers who later became World Champions of motorsport in many disciplines, and winners of the biggest endurance races on the planet.
But he has no reservations about DXDT Racing’s ability to quickly get up to speed in the ultra-competitive IMSA GTD class after years of competing in SRO GT World Challenge America.
“They’re a phenomenal team. They’re going to be new to IMSA, but they’re not going to be new to running at the front,” Wickens said of his new team – which enjoyed the most success of any team in the world with the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in 2024. “I think the way they adapted to the Corvette this year, and got them their first North American victory, and continued on – even though they missed the first rounds – to bring it to the end for a championship in SRO was nothing short of spectacular.”
Corvette Racing works ace Tommy Milner and co-driver Alec Udell (who was already announced as part of DXDT Racing’s Michelin Endurance Cup line-up) took eight consecutive Pro class victories in GT World Challenge America, seven out of eight overall wins, and finished the season second in points behind Wright Motorsports’ Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer despite the car not being ready until the fifth race of the season.
“And they did it all in different ways, was that it takes a great team to do. They didn’t just win every race on sheer pace. They won it on good teamwork, strategy – they stole a few, which is what great teams do. So for me, you know, we’re just gonna have to wait and see.
“[I’m] just going to try and do good stints, if that can get us into podiums and wins, it’s going to be the best days ever. But if that’s not the case, I just wanna make sure I can be a placeholder in the IMSA WeatherTech Series for years to come,” he admitted.
He expects his first GTD races to be an amplified version of what he experienced in Michelin Pilot Challenge, when he was racing TCR touring cars in a field that also included faster GT4 sports cars. Outside of the GT-exclusive round at VIRginia International Raceway, Wickens and his to-be-named co-driver will have to fight for class position while also sharing the road with faster prototypes in GTP and LMP2.
“Everything’s just taken up a notch, right? Like, once you get into the IMSA WeatherTech Series, regardless if it’s GTD or GTD Pro, they seem to race each other exactly the same, right? You fight for every inch, and it’s nearly a 30-car field of GTs. So it’s going to be intense, which is exactly what I’m looking for,” Wickens remarked.
“I think coming up from TCR, being the slower car of that multi-class of the Michelin Pilot Challenge, I think that trains you well, knowing that you’re the slowest car in a GTD. So checking your mirrors, and doing the things you’ve got to do to make sure you don’t lose much time in a stint when faster cars are passing you.”
Wickens’ biggest adaptation will have to come from driving a rear-wheel drive car with hand controls for the first time since his accident, but it’s one that he looks forward to. “Obviously, I’ve only driven cars that are front-wheel drive with my hand control system so far. So it’s going to be nice to have a rear-wheel drive car again. I definitely have a lot more experience in a rear-wheel drive race car over my life,” he said.
“I think it’s going to honestly suit my driving style a bit more, and it’s something that I’m looking forward to.”
And Wickens has made it clear that he wants to be a full-time competitor in 2026, driving in all of IMSA’s marquee endurance races such as the Daytona 24 Hours – which he last drove in 2017 – and the Sebring 12 Hours, and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta – which he’s never raced at before.
“My goal is to be a full-time driver in 2026,” he said.
“When people ask you what race you’re looking forward to the most, and it’s like…you look at the calendar, it’s so hard to pick one, right? Obviously, there’s the 24 Hours of Daytona, which every driver from around the world seems to participate in. The depth of competition there is just insane.
“And then you go straight to Sebring – it’s very rare to have so many marquee rounds in a championship. IndyCar has the Indianapolis 500, Formula One has Monaco, then you have Le Mans. But then IMSA has, seemingly, three world-renowned events that take place over the course of a season. And then every other race still knocks it out of the park!
“It’s going to be fun to hopefully get the opportunity to participate in all those great events.”
Wickens’ preparation for his next step begins in earnest later this month when he begins driver-in-the-loop simulator training. He’ll get in the Corvette for the first time in January for a straight-line test, and by February or March, he’ll have completed his first “performance running” test, as he puts it.
He’s open to supplementing his racing calendar with outings in the Pilot Challenge – and when he’s not racing with DXDT, he’ll be immersing himself within the team at the Daytona 24 Hours.
“Even if I’m not driving, I want to be in an engineering meeting, understand how the team works, how the IMSA WeatherTech races roll – with strategies, driver changes, all the above. So I’m definitely going to be in Daytona. I’m going to be in Sebring, just trying to be a team member and help if I can – and if not, just be a sponge and absorb as much information ahead of my debut in Long Beach,” Wickens confirmed.
It’s the continuation of what’s already been a great story. Robert Wickens has been a source of inspiration for people who have suffered life-changing spinal cord injuries and have likely been told, more than once, that pieces of a ‘normal life’ aren’t possible.
But after the years of rehabilitation just to get behind the wheel of a race car, the work he’s put in to develop the technology needed to continue racing, and the accolades he’s accomplished since – Wickens will not be satisfied just to make up the numbers for a few races.
“For me, I want to raise awareness for disability and for spinal cord injury not just by being a participant,” he said. “I want to be competing and I want to be fighting for podiums and victories and championships…showing the next generations that are coming up with disabilities that anything is possible.
“Hopefully when this whole thing’s done, we’ve created a bit of a curriculum for the next generations of what racing with a disability might look like, regardless of what their disability is.”
Images © Brian Simpson / Stillhouse Media; Brandon Badraoui / IMSA
