Pikes Peak Freightliner

Sam Schmidt wanted to drive a car again, Arrow Electronics wanted to get the word out about their Value Added to Life department, and Pikes Peak just sat there as a challenge to them both (thanks Steve!)

Sam Schmidt once raced in the Indianapolis 500. He raced in the big one three times before a testing accident at Walt Disney World, of all places, rendered him a quadriplegic.

Schmidt is paralyzed from the chest down. He’s been in the chair for 17 years.

He will steer his car, the specially equipped No. 5 Arrow Electronics Corvette, by turning his head to and fro, activating sensors in his hat. He will speed up and slow down by blowing and sucking through a tube.

“Fifteen years ago, doctors told Sam Schmidt he’d never move his arms or legs again. They didn’t say anything about driving.”

That was the inspiration behind the SAM Project, and the SAM car.

SAM is an acronym for Semi-Autonomous Motorcar. It’s also short for Samuel. That its driver has the same first name was not a coincidence.

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.

But it was the value-added services that brought Sam Schmidt and Arrow together. Schmidt has a foundation that supports a brain and spinal injury facility at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, of which the Arrow company also is a benefactor.

The Arrow company provides value-added services for these Las Vegans, and for other injury victims who are sent to Colorado for treatment, rehabilitation and therapy.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/motor-sports/paralyzed-henderson-resident-sam-schmidt-reaches-pikes-peak-summit

http://community.arrow.com/sam/

https://www.facebook.com/SchmidtPetersonMotorsports/?fref=nf

1955 Victress... it sounded familiar, so I looked it up. and this was 2nd at the 1958 Pikes Peak behind Ak Miller in the Hot Rod Magazine Special in the sports car class

Built from a hodge podge of good parts, the Victress was a fiberglass body mounted on a Mercury chassis, powered by a Ford 312, with a four speed Jaguar trans and a early Ford truck rear end

Runner-up only because the shift knob popped off and Max Day, the driver, had to endure incredible pain when shifting through the gears, the metal lever cutting deep into his bleeding hand.

The fact that he still managed to reach Pikes Peak in second place, just 1.6 seconds behind Ak Miller in his Hot Rod Magazine Special gives ample testimony to the potency of this superior Victress.

http://canadianautonetwork.com/detail.php?TypeID=42&ListingID=106

http://www.californiaclassix.com/archive/55_Victress.html