Even by the standards of elite racing drivers, Robert Wickens is remarkable. After a 2018 IndyCar crash at Pocono rendered him with paraplegia, he never for a second gave up on racing. In 2022, he made his comeback in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series with Bryan Herta Autosport in a Hyundai Elantra N TCR with hand controls. The next year he won the championship. Now, he’s in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series, racing a Chevrolet Corvette Z06.R GT3 with DXDT Racing.
That’s been made possible by a crucial piece of technology from Bosch, and a close collaboration with Corvette and Pratt Miller. Wickens’ first hand-controlled race cars were purely mechanical, with just a simple rod connecting a hand lever to the brake pedal. That sort of thing is fine in a road car, but in a race car, it’s extremely difficult to generate enough force to brake competitively, and to feel out the threshold of grip. Bosch’s Electronic Braking System (EBS), developed for sports prototypes, was a better solution.
Today’s LMDh cars require brake-by-wire to blend friction and regenerative braking. But, as this new documentary series from our colleagues at Autosport reveals, Bosch engineers realized that it could be adapted to Wickens’ needs. A brake-by-wire system typically translates the signal from a position sensor on a brake pedal to an electronic command to the actual brakes. But you don’t need a brake pedal to generate that signal. You could use hand controls.
Pratt Miller, the longtime builder of Corvette race cars, developed the controls to work with the Bosch system, giving Wickens a bit more feel through his hands, and it works incredibly well. In his first test with the Corvette Z06.R GT3 at Sebring, he was at competitive pace by the end of his first stint.
It’s a testament to Wickens’ character that he can bring people together to do incredible things. His drive to be back at the top of racing is an inspiration. So enjoy this first episode in a coming series on Wickens’ IMSA WeatherTech run.