There’s something about Canadian Tire Motorsport Park that brings out the best in Robert Wickens.
Since returning to full-time racing with Bryan Herta Autosport in the Michelin Pilot Challenge series in 2022 — four years after a scary crash during an IndyCar race left him paralyzed from the chest down — Wickens has two victories and a runner-up result at the historic Bowmanville, Ont., circuit.
Wickens, whose second win came this past weekend with co-driver Harry Gottsacker, isn’t exactly sure why he’s had so much success at his home track, but it sure seems to suit his driving style just fine.
“If the whole championship was at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park we’d be making a strong championship run,” Wickens said with a smile during a Zoom call Wednesday. “It’s just an amazing facility, and it’s amazing what they’ve done and how they continue to evolve the track. Obviously, it’s close to me, it’s my heart, but seeing where it was not even a decade ago to where it currently stands with the help of Canadian Tire and [track owner] Ron Fellows and all hard work from all the men and women there, it’s awesome. It kind of makes me really proud of what it’s become.”
The 35-year-old from Guelph, Ont., spent his formative years on the go kart track at the venue and recalls riding his bike through the woods to catch legends like Fellows racing on the main circuit in his yellow Corvette.
Oddly enough, Wickens actually didn’t have much experience on the track as he only raced there a couple of times during his junior years before venturing overseas to Europe. Now that he’s competing in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, the lone Canadian stop for the series is the one circled on the calendar and a highlight of his year.
“It’s such a raw, old school track,” Wickens said. “It’s fast, it’s flowing, it bites you if you make a mistake and maybe that’s one of the reasons why I like it.
“One of the best things about North American tracks in general is they all have so much personality. In Europe, when I was racing over there for over a decade, a lot of those tracks, I call them like video game tracks, with infinite runoff areas and curves that are like always picture perfect and are the same at every track that you go to. Whereas here, the curve in turn one at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is different to the apex curve of turn two, and it’s different to the apex curve of turn three. You really have to learn the track to know what you can do and what you can’t do.”
Wickens’ path through the motorsports world has taken several unique turns, from finishing second in the 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship and 2010 GP3 Series to capturing the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 Series title, while also serving as a test driver for Marussia Virgin Racing in Formula One that same season. Wickens then competed in the German-based DTM touring car series for six seasons before returning to North America and open wheel racing in IndyCar in 2018.
Wickens made an immediate impact as he qualified on pole position during his IndyCar debut in St. Petersburg and was leading the race with only a couple of laps remaining until a collision with Alexander Rossi took him out of contention. It wasn’t long until Wickens landed on the podium, though, as he finished runner-up at the following race in Phoenix. Points and podiums continued to accumulate, including a third-place result on home soil in Toronto, until his devastating crash late in the season at Pocono that resulted in life-altering injuries.
Now in his “second career” post-injury, Wickens is grateful for the opportunity with Bryan Herta Autosport to drive a Hyundai Elantra N with hand controls in the TCR class of the Michelin Pilot Challenge series while continuing to aim his ambitions high.
“Prior to my injury, the last eight years of my life was that pinnacle level of each discipline of motorsport, whether it was touring cars in Europe or open wheel racing in North America or being a part of a Formula One team,” Wickens said. “As a reserve driver, just seeing how they operate and being around that atmosphere, it just made me hungry to get back.
“Once I knew I wanted to race again, which frankly I never doubted that I wanted to race again, I didn’t know what that would look like. I didn’t know if I would return straight into an Indy car. There’s no script for this. There’s no curriculum for how you come back and how you race a racecar with hand controls.”
Instead, he’s writing his own script. The all-electric Formula E series has been on Wickens’ radar since its inception, and he was even approached by a team at one point, but the offer came just days after he had already committed to IndyCar.
After learning Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds was going to be in Indianapolis last year to meet with the Andretti team, Wickens reached out to see if he’d be interested in grabbing coffee, lunch, dinner — anything — to chat about his goals for the future. Since Formula E cars don’t require shifting gears, adapting one to suit Wickens’ needs would be simpler.
One thing led to another, and last month, Wickens took an adapted Formula E GEN3 car for a test drive in Portland. The fact it was the first time Wickens had driven an open wheel car since his accident hadn’t even dawned on him until he was asked about it during a press conference on the day of the test.
“For me it was just another racecar and another opportunity. It was like riding a bike,” Wickens said. “There’s something always so special and nostalgic for me to be back in an open wheel car given my entire junior career was in open wheel. I only went to a closed-cockpit car when I raced for Mercedes in DTM, and then I actually went back to open wheel in IndyCar.
“It felt great. It was really just an awesome opportunity. It only made me hungrier to try to get to that upper echelon of motorsports.”
For now, Wickens remains focused on the Michelin Pilot Challenge series and defending his TCR class championship. Although Wickens and Gottsacker didn’t score a victory last season, a strong run of consistency was crucial to securing the title. That alone may not cut it this year as the pair sit third in the standings, while championship leaders Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor have dominated winning four of the first six races.
Miller and Taylor experienced a mechanical issue at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and Wickens credits a full team effort to capitalize on the opportunity and close the gap in the points.
“They were our main championship contender last year, it went right down to the wire and they’ve hit the ground running this year, so them not finishing the race at CTMP was a gift,” Wickens said. “You always try to make the most of it when that happens. … I think we’re still a decent chunk away, but we’re not going to win the championship just on consistency this year. We’re going to have to get a few more wins.
“There are four races left. Four more wins would make a big impact, but the goal is pretty clear. We came into this year trying to defend our championship and until we’re mathematically eliminated from that we’re going to try our best.”