New Mobility: The magazine for active wheelchair users

Roll on Capitol Hill
Washington, DC
Jun 16 2013
Kids Sports Spectacular
Philadelphia, PA
Aug 17 2013
Submit an event
See all events

Spin 2.0

A chance to drive really, really fast

Feb 21 09:03

The phrase, “Hey, can you get a speeding ticket in that thing?“ can get pretty old from a wheelchair-user’s point-of-view. It’s usually some old guy saying it at the supermarket, usually directed towards powerchair-users (because we all know how powerful electric batteries are). Manual wheelchair-users, those lucky bastards, they’re exempt from this annoyance.

At the end of the day, no matter the type of chair you use, you always want to get away from the “wheelchair image.” When a stranger asks something as ridiculous as the speeding ticket question, you can pretty much surmise they’ve already put you in the wheelchair person category. And I don’t know about you, but that really bugs me.

There are tons of effective ways to change these people’s minds of course. And what better way to do that than to be that crazy person who’s driving fast like they imagine, except not in your wheelchair, but in a genuine stock car? Accessible Racing, a non-profit based in New Jersey, is making this happen. They travel to events throughout the country bringing their cars with them that are outfitted with hand-controls. Paraplegics, quadriplegics, almost anyone can drive these cars.

In 2012, they will be at motorsport events like the Daytona 500 and Bristol (to bring awareness to their mission) and they’ll travel with the Abilities Expo this year, making racing available at nearby rehab centers (click here for the schedule). Professir X, a quadriplegic and volunteer iReporter for CNN, recently made this video of one of their events. It looks like an amazing opportunity to really unload a few year’s worth of stress. And who doesn’t need that?

These cars may burn gas, and I know cars that use gas are all big no-no’s right now, but GD you can’t take away the raw power of throttling a car. Who cares about changing minds anymore.

To learn more about Accessible Racing, cick here to visit their site

Links

- Check out iRacing - a cool way to virtually race real-time using a Logictech steering wheel

Post a comment about this blog!

Screen Name Please enter a screen name.

Contact Email Please enter a valid contact email.

Add your comments in the field below. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted. Please limit your comments to under 1,000 characters.
chars
A value is required.

Security Code : 369
Re-enter security code :

Spin 2.0

By Tiffiny Carlson

Tiffiny Carlson Disability buzz, travel, fashion and dating — fun things to amp up everyday wheeling life.

Tiffiny Carlson is freelance writer and writes the “SCI Life” column for New Mobility. She's also a C6 quad from a diving accident that occurred when she was 14 years old. A lifelong resident of Minneapolis, Tiffiny has been a writer in the disability community for over 10 years and writes for several publications and blogs, as well as her personal blog BeautyAbility. Her work has also appeared in mainstream publications such as Nerve.com and Playgirl.