While it's easy to dismiss those things as fairly routine to do, for Schmidt, it was everything. "All of these things that were taken for granted 21 years ago, we've been able to tick those boxes," Schmidt said. He has also driven with his son, Spencer, in the co-pilot seat. He took Sheila out in San Francisco in 2017. He's called that the best day of his life since the accident.ĭriving his wife to that date is up there, too. Schmidt made headlines worldwide when he was able to walk his daughter down the aisle using an "exoskeleton" suit, also built by Arrow. While competing is one thing, the SAM car and the partnership with Arrow have opened up a whole new world to him. I just want to go faster and move up that chain and try and beat more people. "We're starting to get into competitions against able-bodied folks. "The car has evolved a tremendous amount. "They keep saying - what do you want to do next, what do you want to do next?" he said.
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Like any racing driver, Schmidt could only think about how to keep making the car better. Schmidt's SAM car finished six minutes behind the winner in a conventional car. In 2016, he took on the intimidating Pike Peaks challenge - 156 turns over 12.42 miles. As he got better and more used to the SAM car in different demo runs, he started to compete. Schmidt drove for the first time in 2014 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the place he had dreamt of winning at for so long. That was key for Schmidt's hopes of returning to competitive racing.
Schmidt has a co-pilot in the car with him at all times who can take over controls using a conventional steering wheel, if needed. It's got really good brakes even if you don't want them." You can be going on the straightaway and then suddenly you blow in and the thing is going to flat stop on a dime, it's not what you want to do. "When you're driving now you have to make a conscious effort what you're doing. I've had to work a lot on core strength and exercises to be able to operate this car. "Going from there to having no diaphragm and no diaphragm muscles but being able to operate this car. "To think I was on a ventilator and they said I'd never breathe on my own," Schmidt said. It even has built-in technology to detect and ignore Schmidt sneezing. He exhales to accelerate and inhales to decelerate, using a small sensor that looks like a straw. Schmidt wears sunglasses fitted with motion-tracking sensors, which link up with cameras mounted on the dashboard to steer the car based on how he moves his head from side to side. It is controlled like no other car in the world. The final product - called the semi-autonomous mobility (SAM) car - was a modified 2014 Corvette Stingray. It was the culmination of several years' work with American company Arrow Electronics, who set themselves the goal of creating a car for a person unable to use their arms or legs. The premise of the car that made it all possible is as audacious as the idea of Schmidt's survival must have seemed back in that hospital room in 2000. Not only did Schmidt drive again, he raced competitively again. "I never had a dream of driving again in 2000. "At that point it was all about survival and just day by day.
"In 2000 they didn't give me a week, let alone 21 years to live," Schmidt told ESPN. It was beyond anything he had thought was possible. Then, he discovered a way he might be able to get back behind the wheel. He returned to the Indy paddock and founded his own team a year later. Schmidt's life since has been all about defying expectations. If he was still alive at the end of the week, she should look for a nursing home for her husband as he would be on a ventilator for the rest of his life. When his wife, Sheila, arrived at the hospital after a red-eye flight from their home in Nevada, the best case scenario presented to her was grim. The impact severely injured his spinal cord, leaving Schmidt a quadriplegic. In a flash, he lost control of the car and he hit a concrete wall at 180 mph. It was during a routine lap of a routine test at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Florida, when it happened. His goal that year was to win the Indy 500. He wasn't even meant to be alive at that point, not after what happened to him in January 2000.īack then, Schmidt was a racing driver, doing what he loved the most, preparing for a new Indy Racing League season. SAM SCHMIDT had to wait 17 years to drive his wife to a date. Inside the incredible world of Sam Schmidt, quadriplegic racer
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