Kimball racing against all odds
“In fact, I may be better because I enjoy it and each time I get into the cockpit, it means more to me now than it ever has before. Because I nearly lost that chance.”
Kimball made the leap to IndyCar in 2011. On Aug. 4, 2013, he became the first winning Verizon IndyCar series driver with Type 1 diabetes, claiming victory at Mid-Ohio.
Kimball, who pilots the No. 83 Honda for Chip Ganassi, enters this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto with three top-10 finishes in 11 starts this season. The 18th-ranked driver, who scored his first Indy podium finish in Toronto in 2013, is looking forward to the challenge the 2.87-km downtown street course presents, as well as the chance to continue his partnership with Novo Nordisk and Diabetes Canada.
His work as a diabetes ambassador is, after all, extremely personal.
Just prior to last weekend’s race in Iowa, Kimball spent a few days at an annual diabetes conference in Orlando, Fla., sharing his story, as he does virtually every race weekend.
“I’ve really enjoyed being able to grow into that role,” he said. “To be able to be a part of this community and share my story and hopefully give back to that group that has given me a lot, it has been really valuable.”
While there are obvious obstacles and extra preparations involved with being a diabetic athlete, Kimball says he has benefited in some ways.
“I say this and people are often surprised, but I find I’m a better athlete because of my diabetes rather than despite it,” he said. “Having diabetes now has forced me to pay attention. To listen to my body better than I ever have before. To really focus on what I was putting into it. All of the different pieces, I feel like I do a better job because I have to. And it pays off.”
As for any young athletes who might be dealing with a similar experience?
“With the right tools and the right medications and the right team around you, there’s almost nothing you can’t accomplish in life,” he said. “If it’s driving a race car, or playing in the NFL, or being a singer, being an Iron Man, whatever it is, I hope to lead by example and encourage the next generation that they can go live their dreams.”
Charlie Kimball has lived with diabetes and raced long enough to witness first-hand the similarities.
“There’s so many correlations between making sure my body’s prepared and what I’m fuelling it with and training it, and how the mechanics and engineers set the car up, to the team around me,” the 32-year-old diabetic IndyCar driver said. “The best driver in the best car is never going to win a race without a good pit crew. The best pit crew is never going to win a race without a good car. It takes all of those elements to be successful.”
Kimball wears a continuous glucose monitor that sends bloodsugar level readings to a digital display on his steering wheel during races. That data is sent in real time to engineers in the pit stand. He has two drink tubes in his car, with the option of plain water or sugar water while racing.
“It’s a piece of information just like lap time and fuel time and where we are through a stint,” Kimball said of the in-car monitor.