Wickens Eyes Comeback Momentum in IMSA Return

Wickens Eyes Comeback Momentum in IMSA ReturnBrandon Badraoui - Getty Images

After a celebratory season in 2025, Robert Wickens returns to this year’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach for the first of five GTD races in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship.

Last year, the paraplegic driver made his WeatherTech debut on the Long Beach streets in DXDT Racing’s Z06 GT3.R. A day later, as a technical consultant at Andretti Global, he celebrated Kyle Kirkwood’s win from the pole in the IndyCar race.

Wickens came close to podiums in IMSA driving a Corvette equipped with hand controls in addition to joining three Hyundai Motorsports co-drivers to finish second in the TCR class at the Nürburgring’s 24-hour.

In September, Wickens and his wife Karli welcomed twins and now have three children.

Amid all the success, however, Wickens’ suffered a major setback. He failed to land enough money to drive DXDT Racing’s Corvette in the Michelin Endurance Cup events this year as well as the sprints.

“When you are with a customer team in sports car racing, it tends to come with a price tag to it,” said Wickens. “It’s no discredit to any of the customer teams. It’s just kind of the circle of life of sports car racing, and I wasn’t able to put together the funds required to do a full season.”

Three years removed from a Michelin Pilot Challenge championship, can Wickens once again jump-start his career with winning ways in IMSA’s premier series? Having suffered paralysis in an IndyCar crash at Pocono in 2018, it’s not wise to count him out.

A strong showing in Long Beach alongside Mason Filippi, one of his co-drivers in Germany, would be a good start. “I am hoping to continue the momentum that we started to create in 2025, although it feels like a lifetime ago now since I last drove the car (at Virginia International Raceway in August). But really just excited to continue with DXDT Racing and Corvette and most importantly, with Bosch and my electronic braking system and hand controls that help make the whole thing possible.”

Wickens and Filippi will be up against a stout field of 17 cars in the 100-minute race limited to the GTP and GTD classes. Pfaff Motorsports and AO Racing will move from the Pro ranks to GTD and Vasser Sullivan will enter two Lexus RC F GT3s. Fourteen entrants will have one gold-rated or platinum-rated driver in a class that requires at least one silver or bronze driver. Wickens and Filippi are both rated as silver.

Last year, Wickens co-drove with Corvette Racing veteran Tommy Milner, who suffered contact in a long-shot bid for the podium. This year, improved hand controls and quicker pit stops, which require crewman Josh Gibbs to lift Wickens in or out, can help in the second go-round with DXDT.

Bosch, which devised his hand controls, has improved the braking system so Wickens can be more sensitive to the precise amount of pressure he’s applying.

“Each corner, each track brings its own challenges, and that’s kind of what we’ve constantly been working on and tuning,” he said. “It’s been a really fun journey and to have people like Bosch alongside me and the amazing men and women that support my program. I’m honored to represent them. It’s exciting to kind of see it all grow and hopefully in the future we can create a product that the next generation of disabled drivers can use.”

Robert Wickens at the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR last year.Brandon Badraoui - Getty Images

With the help of Gibbs, Wickens anticipates a better driver exchange this year during the all-important mandatory single pit stop.

“By the end of last year, it was a sub-16-second driver change putting me into the car. That was something we could have only dreamed of at Long Beach. There are definitely going to be some walkthroughs and maybe some slow driver changes to kind of get back into the rhythm of things. But once you kind of find that rhythm and you find what works and the ergonomics of the whole thing, it’s kind of like anything else, right? Slow is fast. As soon as you start rushing, that’s when you start making mistakes.

“Whether it’s myself or Mason qualifying, that’s to be determined,” continued Wickens. “At a track like Long Beach, you know track position is vital. So, there is a lot of emphasis on that qualifying session itself. And that was the one area when I think back to my Long Beach race last year where I kind of kicked myself. I felt like I didn’t execute a good enough job, and that kind of set the groundwork for our ultimate results.”

Filippi, starting his fifth WeatherTech race, is DXDT’s fulltime driver. He is the founder of OpenFender, a fund-raising platform for racers that has helped him raise money and locate corporate sponsorship. The two drivers fell short of the full budget required to drive the entire season together.

“Mason and I already have great chemistry,” said Wickens. “We talk every day. We were scheming and plotting throughout the whole winter on how we could be teammates for the full season together. Alec Udell was my teammate last year for the sprint races—an amazing driver and an amazing person. But there was always that get-to-know-you phase that we had when we first started working with each other. With Mason, that’s just eliminated. I have a really good idea of how to communicate my feedback and driving styles and everything already, so we can hit the ground running in Long Beach.”

One of the missing elements for Wickens is a team-associated simulator that can be used to prepare for races. A simulator can be set up for hand controls, but a regular opportunity has yet to materialize. Wickens instead relies on his passion for participation.

John Lamparski - Getty Images

“Even though I wasn’t in Daytona and Sebring, I was still in constant dialogue with DXDT’s team manager, Bryan Sellers,” he said. “I wasn’t driving the car, but I am well aware of where the team’s at currently, where the strengths are, where we need to work. I think that the best way to prepare is just through good communication. I am probably going to find time here in my private life to try to do a little bit of iRacing to remind myself what Long Beach is like in a Corvette. But apart from that, it’s just a lot of watching onboard videos and stuff from 2025 when I did the race. So little refreshers on that, little bits of data to understand your gears and stuff, minimum speeds for each corner. And it’s pretty much all you can do.”

The thrill of racing continues to be intense for Wickens. “For sure the butterflies are still there,” he said. “I haven’t been away from a racetrack since August. My work in IndyCar with Andretti Global as a driver coach there helps me feel like I’m still at a racetrack every weekend but doing a slightly different role. It’s going to be exciting to get the helmet on again, suit up and put my theories to the test.”