It may have been in a different style race car and in a different racing series, but for the first 25 laps of Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach IMSA race, Robert Wickens was no longer a shadow of his former self. He was right where he belonged, like he was in much of his brief IndyCar career: leading the field.

And convincingly at that, building more than a six-second lead at one point over his fellow drivers. Had he not been for a pre-planned driver change with teammate Mason Filippi, it would not have been a surprise if Wickens had held on the rest of the way to earn his first win in IMSA competition.

Rather, he drove as he did in his outstanding rookie season in the IndyCar series in 2018 – before his life and racing career were both forever changed by a brutal crash at Pocono Raceway that left him a paraplegic.

Before that fateful day, Wickens was an IndyCar star in the making. Driving for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, he was a lock to win Rookie of the Year honors, having scored four podiums and four other top-six finishes in his first 14 races of the 17-race season. In fact, one race before his life-altering crash at Pocono, Wickens had finished a close runner-up at Mid-Ohio.

Yet even with the functional loss of his legs below the waist, the Canadian driver never gave up his dream to roar back in a race car, and since 2022, he’s been doing just that, primarily in sports cars.

Best friends with former IndyCar driver, current TV analyst and fellow Canadian James Hinchcliffe, Wickens is part of a unique fraternity that has not let great adversity stop them from continuing to pursue their dreams. Among those:

* Former IndyCar driver Alex Zanardi lost both legs in a race, yet still continued on with prosthetics.

* Multi-champion Wayne Rainey was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident, but came back to lead the MotoAmerica Series as its president.

* Former IndyCar driver Sam Schmidt, who was paralyzed in a crash at the former Walt Disney World racetrack, went on to build a winning IndyCar team as an owner before he merged with Arrow McLaren.

* Jay Blake was blinded in an industrial accident, but that didn’t stop him to become both a sightless team owner and crew chief – and he’s moving up this year in class to NHRA Funny Car after 20 years in Top Alcohol Funny Car! He is the perfect example of the charitable foundation he founded over 20 years ago, Follow A Dream.

* And there’s also former NHRA Top Fuel driver Darrell Gwynn, who also was paralyzed in a racing mishap during an exhibition race in the United Kingdom, but who has gone on to be a great ambassador not only for spinal cord research (for athletes and regular folks, as well), but also for the sport that he gave his career to, drag racing.

Starting from the pole position Saturday, his first pole in seven IMSA GTD class starts, Wickens, driving the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, only saw open track ahead of him until he finally came into the pit for the driver change.

Wickens clicked off each of the first 25 laps with ease. He was by far the class of the field. Nobody could keep up with him, let alone catch him.

“I don’t know what happened to (his closest competitors at the start of the race), but suddenly we had quite a decent amount of space behind,” Wickens said. “We were a little nervous for our driver change on if we would lose time or at least maintain status quo. So the goal for me was to build a gap, just in case.”

While Filippi started off strong in relief of Wickens, he eventually fell back during his 43 laps behind the wheel, particularly due to the faster GTP cars also in the event as well as lapped traffic, yet still managed to give the team a respectable sixth-place finish.

“Mason did an amazing job, and I am pretty sure I just found out we had the fifth-fastest in the pit lane,” Wickens said. “I’ll take that all day.”

In all seven of his career GTD starts, all with DXDT Racing, Wickens has now managed to earn two top-five (including a best showing of fourth in Canada last season) and four other top-10 finishes, including Saturday’s sixth-place showing. Most drivers would be envious of a record like that – and yet Wickens has accomplished those feats, well, without his feet – no pun intended – using only his hands and specially-equipped Bosch hand controls to steer, accelerate and brake.

After he was carried from his race car for the planned driver change, two things happened that said the same thing: When Wickens took off his helmet, he had one of the biggest smiles he’s ever had on his face, pounding the pit road wall in joy at what he had just accomplished, while at the same time almost everyone in the estimated 40,000 fans in attendance cheered and stood up to give him a well-deserved standing ovation.

“To be honest, that was a fairy tale stint,” Wickens said. “The Corvette Z06 GT3.R was just so nice to drive around this track. Every lap is a dream. It was a good stint.”

Wickens, who still dreams of one day being able to race in the Indianapolis 500, may never get all the way back to what he was before the Pocono horror, but he’s already proven to himself and everyone else that anything is possible.

And when his next IMSA start comes up in two weeks at Laguna Seca (May 1-3), the next natural progression is for Wickens to not only take the pole again, but more importantly, finish this time with a win.

And if there’s anyone that can – no, wait, scratch that, make that if anyone WILL do it, it most definitely will likely be Robert Tyler Wickens.