INDIANAPOLIS – During his Indianapolis 500 career as a driver, Sam Schmidt made three four-lap qualification attempts to make the starting lineup of the race from 1997-99. Schmidt’s best qualification effort came in 1999 when he started seventh in the 33-car starting lineup.
Yet Schmidt made his most impressive four-lap run in May 2014, when he drove a specially prepared Corvette Stingray around the 2.5-mile oval.
First, a little background.
In 1999 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Schmidt drove to his only career IndyCar win for Treadway Racing, and it appeared that he had a bright future ahead of him.
But, in a test session at Walt Disney World Speedway on January 6, 2000, Schmidt crashed his IndyCar and was paralyzed from the neck down. Schmidt did not let his disability keep him out of a racing. He soon became a successful team owner in the Indy Lights and IndyCar Series. In fact, Simon Pagenaud drove Schmidt’s Dallara/Honda IndyCar to a near championship in 2014.
Despite the fact he does not have the use of his legs or hands, Schmidt drove a simulated four qualifying laps in the SAM Project (Semi-autonomous motorcar) passenger car in a specially equipped 2014 Corvette C7 Stingray. It was the first time that a semi-autonomous passenger car has been drive at speed on a racetrack using integrated advanced electronics.
Schmidt was able to control the car through head movements and breathing to get the car to respond to his commands.
Schmidt got emotional during his drive, but not for the reasons he thought he would.
“I thought it would be great to be at IMS and the history of tradition at this place,” Schmidt said. “This place was founded on automotive innovation so all of that meant a lot. But what got me choked up was the immense satisfaction and feeling of normalcy I haven’t felt in 15 years.
“To be able to drive a car for the first time in 15 years was extremely normal and I don’t get that feeling a lot. I don’t get a chance to toss the football with my kids or dance with my daughter or all those normal things that other people get to do. This was incredibly normal and that is what got me so emotional.
“Then to come into the pits and see my mom and dad crying really added to the emotion of it.”
His four-lap average was 73 miles per hour, but his top-speed when he crossed the “Yard of Bricks” on the frontstretch was over 100 mph.
“There isn’t one word to describe it (laps around the Speedway),” Schmidt said. “It’s exhilarating, it’s unbelievable, it’s amazingly normal – that’s the big thing. It just felt natural, that was the biggest surprise. When you turn your head, push my head back to go faster, and the braking system, it just felt like I was driving again.”
