10 Minutes With Sam Schmidt

Editor's Note: Sam Schmidt is the owner of Sam Schmidt Motorsports, which has fielded cars in the IRL IndyCar^TM Series in past seasons and this year is fielding three cars in the IRL Infiniti Pro Series.

Schmidt, 38, was a standout driver in the IndyCar Series when he became a quadriplegic after suffering a spinal-cord injury in a testing accident in January 2000. Since then, he has focused his inspiring and considerable energies on his race team and the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation, which works to find a cure for spinal injuries and help those who have suffered spinal injuries. Recently, Schmidt spoke about the 2003 season with Indy Racing Online.
 

I would like to focus on your expansion to three teams and how you came to your final decision with drivers.
 

We were definitely positioned with equipment and personnel to run two cars. Tom (Wood) has been locked in for a while, but we really didn’t have the second car locked in for the whole season until December, when we got the deal with Brandon Erwin. Brandon came along with the Natural Golf deal, and his sponsor wanted to run the whole year. I think they both have a chance to run consistently for the (IRL Infiniti Pro Series) championship, which is good. We knew from last year’s situation that it wouldn’t be a bad deal to bring in a third car. From a numbers standpoint, it was cost-effective since we already have an engineer, a team manager and a number of the team personnel in place. From a transportation standpoint, it doesn’t really take much more to bring a third car, and really from an information and competitive standpoint, we feel that it is an advantage to have three drivers and three cars. When we go to the big tracks, like the mile-and-a-half and larger, lets face it, it is a drafting situation. I feel that if our team is to work together, cooperatively, we can have a big advantage there.
 

How did you go about choosing your specific drivers? Was your decision criteria based on how they would blend as a team or strictly their past experience?
 

I really, especially the way it is working out, doubt if we will have anyone in that third car all year long. We will probably have three different people make up the 12 races. The nice thing about that is we will really have a variety of backgrounds. Tom is, as we recall, a little older and a little wiser (laughter). He has a lot of oval experience, a good feel for the car and can give good feedback. Brandon is from a sprint-car background, a brief IRL (IndyCar Series) background, and he drives the car differently from Tom. It gives us different feedback, which is all very positive.
 

Mentioning the sprint cars, how are your drivers expected to split their time? Will Brandon continue to split his time between different races, or will his primary focus just be the IRL Infiniti Pro Series?
 

My understanding is Brandon’s primary focus is to win the championship in the Infiniti Pro Series. I am totally supportive, though, if he wants to run a few sprint-car races down in Texas in between. The reality is, until June or July, we don’t have a lot of races; there is a big gap. I would rather have a guy race and get some seat time than to not drive a car for a month. I think the more seat time, the better for anybody.
 

What is a realistic timeline for drivers to progress from the Infiniti Pro Series to the IndyCar Series?
 

I think, realistically, if a guy comes from go-karts, then it may take a process for him to get used to the oval-track racing and the intricacies that are involved within racing these cars. Then he could really go for the championship. But a guy like Brandon, who actually did a couple of races in the IndyCar Series and just didn’t have the funding to do it right, is probably overqualified for the Infiniti Pro Series. His expectations are to go out and consistently run in the top five and compete for a championship. It is a one-year deal. You pretty much either grow in the program and get into the IndyCar Series the next year, or you come back and try to go after the championship (in the Infiniti Pro Series) the next year. The lineup that we have for the rest of the year in the third car is going to be a lot of fun. You know, we started out with Lloyd Mack, who has a karting background and a little bit of a stock-car background. That will probably transition into another person with probably some European F3000 background, and then probably toward the end of the year a World of Outlaws driver will be in the car.
 

Emotionally, does the race in May (Freedom 100) hold more importance, or is it just another race in the progression of the series?
 

I think it is, for a lot of reasons, tremendous. For me personally, emotionally, it is huge. I have been lobbying for this for three months, ever since I kind of heard it was a remote possibility. It is really what the series needs. It is a little big for the cars, per se. It is going to be like Michigan and Fontana. It is a big track, but it is the Holy Grail of racing. I guess on another level, the series was originally slated to be very, very cost effective, and the fact is the series is already getting more and more expensive. We have to be able to give more to the sponsors; we have to be able to rise to the budget. Indy allows us to do that. Indy is probably worth as much to the sponsors as all of the other races combined. From an emotional standpoint, I’m very supportive if it. I wanted to be involved with something during the month of May, and this gives me, our team, that ability. It is like a bonus, and everyone is very supportive of it. From a hospitality and entertainment standpoint, to be able to bring sponsors to that place, to that day, is just a tremendous opportunity. I think from a PR and media standpoint, it is just huge for the drivers to be able to drive there. With the gate admission fee being just $5 for the whole day, that is the best value during the month of May. It is a Saturday; the kids are out of school; you can head over with a cooler, watch an entire day of the IndyCar Series superstars practicing, as well as the Infiniti Pro Series running for five bucks. You can’t go to a movie for five bucks.
 

Give us an update on the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation benefit that takes place during the month of May.
 

The dinner has officially been renamed ‘Racing to Recovery: An Evening with Christopher Reeve.’ I’m very excited about that. We are sending out invitations April 1, and we will probably send a press release just prior to that so everybody can watch for that. It is now going to be catered by Ruth’s Chris Steak House. We are expecting a spectacular event. We are going to do an hour’s worth of media at the track that day, May 12, with Christopher Reeve, and we will be talking about the latest in stem-cell research. If you saw the latest on CNN, he just had some electronics put in his diaphragm so he can actually breath without the ventilator. I mean, for two-and-a-half years I have been talking to the motorsports media about my progress and all that I have been doing with the foundation, but this really gives them the opportunity to ask the figurehead of fundraising and the person responsible for heading up research in this area. It gives all the motorsports media and national media the opportunity to ask questions. He will be making an appearance also that night at the event. We are going to raise the level of the event from an Indianapolis 500 local motorsports community event, to a national, probably 800 to 1,000-person, event that encompasses a whole different realm of people.
 

How you are doing personally?
 

Still doing great. I still maintain therapy (laughter), actually as we speak. It is about three to four hours a day, and I feel great. Which my feeling great at the level of my injury is a testament to the work we have been doing and the advancement in the last three to four years.
 

Is there anything you would like to share with the readers of Indy Racing Online?
 

Stay tuned for more information on the foundation event. We are really excited about that. About the team, we have been a little under the radar screen. We have extremely high expectations for the balance of the season for both of the drivers, really all three everywhere we go. Hopefully we can get on everybody’s radar screen a little better.
 

A force to be reckoned with?
 

Exactly.