Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation

 

Sam Schmidt was a race car driver that our mom and dad used to watch race at Indy in the late 1990's.

But he got paralyzed in a really bad crash practicing at Walt Disney World Speedway in 2000.

 

 

Since he couldn't race anymore he started a race team to help other drivers race.  

 

He now owns cars that race (and win alot) in the Indy Lights Series and in Indycar (where he got his first win with Simon Pagenaud in Detroit on Sunday). 

 

 

 

He also started a charity to help find a cure for paralysis.

 

 

 

Each year for the past 14 years before the Indy 500 there is a Racing to Recovery Gala and auction to benefit the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation. 

 

Many drivers attend the event and support the foundation.  This year included Tristan Vautier, Katherine Legge, Simon Pagenaud, Pippa Mann and Ed Carpenter.

 

 

Our dad is paralyzed too, just not as badly as Mr. Schmidt, so this is one of our favorite charities that was started by and is supported by drivers.

 

We hope they continue to raise lots of money to cure paralysis some day.

And THANK YOU to Sam Schmidt for starting his foundation, and to all the drivers who support it!

 

 

Tristan Vautier

Tristan Vautier

We thought it would be fun for our blog readers if we emailed the drivers and asked them some questions they may not have answered before. 

The very first driver to email us back was Indy 500 rookie Tristan Vautier.  

THANK YOU TRISTAN!

So here's some things we found out about Tristan when he answered our questions.

* He has two cats back home in France that his mom takes care of for him since he travels so much.

* If he was stranded on a desert island with a fellow driver, he would choose his girlfriend Alya Agren, who races in the F1600 Series (that's pretty cool).   If it couldn't be her, he would choose his best friend , and former teammate, Mikael Grenier, who races Indy Lights.

* His worst habit is wanting all of his stuff symmetrical and put a certain way.

* His least favorite chore as a kid was cleaning the dishes, although he said he would usually find a way out of it.  (Our next question should be how he got out of chores, we could use ideas.)

* When he was little, he said that his favorite stuffed animal was a black panther, but he lost it when he was four and it took him a year to get over it.  


And some other stuff you just might not know about Tristan.

* He first got in a kart at age 4 and entered his first race at age 10

* He's from France

* He won the Indy Lights Championship as a rookie in 2012 and won the Star Mazda Championship in 2011

* He's one of four rookies trying to make the 2013 Indy 500

*  His teammate at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports is a fellow Frenchman, Simon Pagenaud