RICHMOND, Va. — A local financial advisor has been on the CBS 6 7:30 news here many times, providing insight on financial topics, especially ones that pertain to your retirement savings.
But Sandy Wiggins of Wealthspire in Midlothian visited the station Friday to talk about his company's race car sponsorship with DXDT Racing, whose driver, Robert Wickens, has overcome serious adversity to compete.
Wiggins said his company's involvement happened because he loves racing and he heard Robert's story. "I knew one of the key members at DXDT, and August of last year, we were chatting, and it just fell into place," Wiggins said. "It made all the sense in the world to get behind Robert, and be a part of his journey back to the top tiers of racing."
Wickens is paralyzed from the waist down. He had a very promising career and in 2018 was competing in the Indy Car series. He won the pole position in one of his first races, but in a race soon thereafter at Pocono, suffered a terrible crash.
How did he come back from that?
"The effort that he put in was just blood, sweat and tears," said Wiggins. "He worked very hard, obviously, on the physical side of the equation, but he's got such determination, and he's supported by a wonderful family. His wife is just rock solid, and so he had a vision, a passion, to get back into the race car. But really his life changed, and his purpose in life evolved as well. He now has such a strong connection with people that have mobility issues. He's even helping develop hand controls with Bosh that hopefully will change the world one day."
Wiggins points out DXDT has a second driver that uses the car but the technology works so both can easily jump in and out.
"They just disengage the hand control components," Wiggins said. "And it doesn't get in the way. It doesn't add an advantage to the race team. This last weekend in Long Beach Robert qualified. The car got pole position and led for the majority of the race. And then as racing goes, there was a little bit of scuffling, and we ended up cycling back to the fifth position. But, you know, the determination and the teamwork all came together very well."
Wiggins said the DXDT Racing team has had strong season so far.
"The first race was in Daytona," said Wiggins. "We had a mechanical issue with the transmission. We were, I think, in second place at the time. That was a 24-hour race. [The Long Beach race] was the third or fourth race so far, and we've got another five or six left in the season. It ends in October, so a long way to go, but we're feeling really good about the results of Wealthspire's involvement the team doing is very well."
Wiggins pointed out that safety is always top of mind with a driver who has mobility issues.
"Any time you're in a race car, there's obviously risks, but the safety crew around the racetracks know all about Robert and have made special considerations for his participation," Wiggins said. "The other part of it is driver changes, so Robert starts unbuckling and gets out as quickly as he can, and there's one person on the crew that reaches in and helps extract him from the car, move him off to the to the side of the pit wall and get a new driver in and get back on track."
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky | Facebook | Instagram | X | Threads | TikTok | YouTube
