By Andrew Tarantola on Gizmodo
It takes a special breed to enter the Indy 500, but to attempt to do so without the use of your arms or legs is simply out of the question. Until now, that is. With the aid of his semi-autonomous race car, former Indy Racing League driver Sam Schmidt is in it to win it—or at least the four promotional laps he'll be racing before the actual event.
Schmidt, who became a quadriplegic after crashing at Florida's Walt Disney World Speedway in January 2000, is now racing as part of the Arrow SAM (semi-autonomous motorcar) Project. This collaboration brings together Arrow Electronics, Ball Aerospace, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the nonprofit Falci Adaptive Motorsports in an attempt to return the ability to drive to physically disabled motorists.
Photo: USAF
