|
Schmidt’s spirit was buoyed this year by passions that are not mutually exclusive – open-wheel racing and helping individuals who also have suffered spinal cord injuries. The IRL Menards Infiniti Pro Series™ team owner watched Thiago Medeiros win half of the 12 races and sprint to the championship. He also used the race venues to host the “Day at the Races” program for rehabilitation center patients as part of the umbrella Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation.
“It’s kind of re-motivated me,” Schmidt said of the team’s success in the 3-year-old developmental series. “It’s made it easier to get up and travel and do what we have to do to come to the races. So it’s a lot more fun winning.”
In the beginning
About eight months after Schmidt’s car spun and backed into the Turn 2 wall during testing at Walt Disney World Speedway, compressing the spinal cord between the C-3 and C-4 vertebrae and leaving him paralyzed from the chest down, his wife, Sheila, suggested he “find something” to get him out of their Henderson, Nev., house.
“So we started the (IRL) team,” Schmidt says matter-of-factly.
Schmidt, who had one victory in 27 IRL events, debuted with his own team in the Copper World Indy 200 at Phoenix International Raceway on March 18, 2001, with Davey Hamilton behind the wheel of the No. 99 entry. Jaques Lazier gave Schmidt his first pole position (Richmond) as a team owner and first podium finish (third at Nashville). When the budget to be more than a mid-pack car became too prohibitive, Sam Schmidt Motorsports regrouped and resurfaced in the Menards Infiniti Pro Series in 2002. It’s been a win-win move.
“I found that the Menards Infiniti Pro Series is just a really good fit for me personally, because you can bring up drivers from F2000, F3, Midgets, Sprint cars and all of those things that I drove,” said Schmidt, who won an F2000 support series race preceding the IRL’s inaugural event at Walt Disney World Speedway in 1996.
“It’s really easy for me to try and help them not make the same mistakes I made. The only negative to running in this series is if you do a really good job, you’ve got to try and do it all over again next year with a new driver.”
Sam Schmidt Motorsports had 25 top-10 finishes but no victories with 10 drivers before this season. The combination of veteran crew chief and chief mechanic Chris Griffis, engineer Tim Neff and Medeiros clicked when they came together in January.
“I had great harmony between Chris, Tim, Sam and myself,” said Medeiros, who competed in his first full season in the Menards Infiniti Pro Series with a victory in the finale at Texas Motor Speedway. “We were a really strong team. We knew what everybody was trying to do and we had the same way of thinking.”
Medeiros, driving the No. 11 Infiniti-powered Dallara, won six races from a Series-record eight pole positions. He had four consecutive victories, including the Futaba Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May, and led a Series-high 588 laps.
“It’s just been an absolutely fantastic ride,” Schmidt said. “As many owners will tell you in motorsports -- and drivers for that matter – it’s kind of all about the people. This year, obviously it’s something we would have liked to have accomplished a couple years ago, possibly in the (IndyCar Series) in 2001, 2002. It’s extremely competitive out there. I guess I’ve been learning slowly as an owner.
“We made a few personnel changes over the winter, and kind of just laid it all on the line, so to speak. It does take a lot of energy for me to travel and to manage the team and everything else. I just kind of came to the decision that if we weren’t winning races, competing for the championship, it almost wasn’t worth doing.
“We made some good changes. Of course, Thiago is a heck of a driver. To me, the program has finally been what it needs to be, with the proper level of testing, just the right people in place. Everything’s gone remarkably smooth.”
Helping others and himself
He has incorporated racing into championing the Sam Schmidt Foundation, whose mission is to help individuals overcome spinal cord injuries and other debilitating illnesses by facilitating scientific research, medical treatment, rehabilitation and technology advances.
The organization, through annual events, raises funds to support its mission and in September appointed Ida Cahill as its president/CEO. Its Day at the Races program, in which rehabilitation center patients visit race venues to get a behind-the-scenes look at the IRL and chat with Schmidt, has been inspirational and a means to boost awareness.
"... we show them they don’t have to go home and be a couch potato or be a burden on society for the rest of their life,” said Schmidt, who has seen some progress in his rehabilitation. “Unless you’re on a ventilator, you’re not any worse off than me. It can be done. I get a lot of e-mails in response to that how it motivates people and gives them an incentive to learn a trade or go out and do something after they’ve been paralyzed.
“But really that wasn’t the start of it. The start of it was I feel like if we go 10 years down the road, they create a procedure or something that would fix my situation, I wouldn’t want to be lying around and not be able to take advantage of it. I think race car drivers generally are pretty motivated people.
“So my brain hasn’t changed. I’ve still got to keep busy and keep focused and have something to do. I just couldn’t just check out after this happened. I had to find a way to fix it. That’s really what we’re trying to do. If we can take several hundred thousand people with us, that’s great.”
No stopping now
At the IRL Championship Celebration aboard the Disney Wonder on Oct. 29, Schmidt thanked everyone he could cram into the limited time frame for the byproducts of a successful Menards Infiniti Pro Series season.
He’ll remain a strong supporter of the Menards Infiniti Pro Series while being diligent in pursuing the vision and mission of the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation. There’s much to do on and off the racetrack, and Schmidt won’t allow his physical disability to impair progress.
Through the long therapy sessions in the pool, the tiring days at the tracks and the demands on his time, Schmidt also keeps a dream alive: “Win the Indy 500 and get out of this chair.”
|
