Five Disabled Motor Racing Game Changers

Yesterday, to tie in with the final week of the 2014 Formula One Championship, we wrote about the ways which less able drivers can take part in motor sports. But we decided, since the F1 are doubling up this week with double points, we’d do something similar. Here’s part two of our disabled motor racing series – a look at five less able drivers who may inspire you to take the wheel yourself!

Alex Zanardi was a successful racing driver before he had his legs amputated and remains a successful racing driver after having his legs amputated. In fact, the amputation has only served to show that Zanardi is incredible in many other respects too. He designed his own prosthetic legs to suit driving, he designed a new hand-cycle and rode it to victory in the London 2012 Paralympics and he’s even completed an Iron-man race with a top 10% time. After a four year break from motor sport he returned in 2014 and drives for BMW. An incredible, unstoppable man – one of those people who are so good at everything that you think they can’t possibly be nice too… but, look here, he is!

Steve Tarrant also lost his leg (this is an odd expression) after a crash on a race track, although in his case he was a marshal rather than the driver. After the accident his enthusiasm for motor sport remained as high as ever and earlier this year he made his own claim to fame by breaking the record for the longest distance covered in 24 hours on a mobility scooter. Using the TGA Breeze S4 GT scooter he drove through the night to record a distance of over 190 miles. It might not be the fastest achievement on this list but it certainly required a lot of passion and endurance!

Mike Newman, of Speed of Sight, has broken record after record in his time as a visually impaired speedster.  Overall he’s broken seven records on land, water and in the air and he is the only blind driver to set a world record for driving a car solo at over 200mph. Mike and his team have proven over and over again their ability to break motorsports records and show no signs of slowing down (figuratively and literally speaking).

Murray Hambro is a double amputee, with no legs from just below the knee and races motor bikes. The impressive thing is that, although he’s been riding since he was seven, he’d never actually raced until after his legs were amputated. Now he’s racing with True Heroes Racing – an organisation which gets injured Service personnel into motor sport. He approaches life with a sense of black humour (something that seems quite common amongst less able ex-servicemen) and has the word “legless” emblazoned on the back of his racing leathers. He also jokes that he’s been called an inspiration and a warrior but as far as he’s concerned he’s just “bloody stupid”.

Much more than just Lewis’ brother, Nic Hamilton is going places fast in his motor racing career. As someone with Cerebral Palsy he probably never expected to get to where he is but he’s shown that determination and talent can take you a long way quickly. He only started driving in 2010 and is already a professional racer with a following.  Certainly his brother is a huge fan and flew over from Malaysia to see Nic make his debut in 2011. He’s proving that it’s not just the able bodied and amputees who can be top racing drivers.