July 2nd, 2016: sam & SAM

[xoxoxoBruce]

Sam Schmidt was a race car driver, raced in the Indy 500 three times, but a crash at Disney World left him a
quadriplegic. He co-owns the Schmidt-Peterson race team but has been confined to a wheelchair for 17 years.
Sam sponsors a foundation that supports a brain and spinal injury facility at Craig Hospital in Englewood, CO.
Arrow Company, also a benefactor of Craig Hospital, is builder of the other SAM, Semi-Autonomous Motorcar.

Arrow Electronics is a Fortune 500 company with headquarters in Centennial, Colorado. It has around
17,000 employees and annual revenue of $23 billion. It specializes in distribution and value added services
relating to electronic components and products such as computers. It has an aerospace and defense division,
and other divisions.

Arrow wanted to get the word out about the things they do to make a person’s life more worthwhile.
They decided to build a car for a quadriplegic. They tapped Sam and he was all for it, but you can’t just do
that and turn them loose on the highway so a race car was it. A racecar he could steer by turning his head
and control speed by blowing/sucking a tube. Being a team owner he had access to the Indy track shooting
for 100 mph. He only turned 97, but with some mods to the car he turned a 107mph, then a trap speed of 158.

The next challenge was Pikes Peak, The Race to The Clouds. Now I’ve driven the Pikes Peak road and it’s
damn scary. Dirt, with very few guardrails and drops off the edge of… forever.

The starting line is little more than a clearing in the road. It is 9,390 feet above sea level. The summit,
where the checkered flag is waved, is 14,110 feet above sea level. There aren’t any pine trees at the summit.
There isn’t much of anything, really. Just a restaurant that isn’t open, and a bunch of cuddly marmots, and
a majestic wide-open space that sprawls endlessly below.
The serpentine Hill Climb “track” measures 12.2 miles. It consists of 156 turns. And scant few guardrails.

They call it The Race to the Clouds for good reason.

Much more here.