INDIANAPOLIS 500 Rookie driver challenged by diabetes

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

Charlie Kimball is facing the biggest challenge of his racing career Sunday.

Yes, it’s his first Indianapolis 500 start, and for Kimball, it’s an opportunity to show the world that diabetics can race, too.

“The main thing is preparation,” said Kimball, a California native who will become the first diabetic driver who has knowingly been allowed to race at Indy. “It starts long before the green flag flies.”

The 26-year-old is not the first diabetic to compete at Indy.

That distinction is believed to belong to Howdy Wilcox II, the 1932 race runner-up. He hid his condition from race organizers and in 1933, Wilcox II collapsed at the 2.5-mile speedway after drinking some beer with friends. Doctors misdiagnosed it as an epileptic seizure, though his friends knew enough to feed him some candy. Wilcox never raced again at Indy and spent the next several years embroiled in a legal controversy over his condition.

The message to other diabetics was simple: Don’t race.

But Kimball, the son of a race car design engineer, will gladly talk about his diabetes, especially now that he is about to start the longest, and perhaps hottest, race of his career. The early forecast calls for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-80s, which could create dehydration concerns for any driver.

Kimball is convinced he won’t have any problems this weekend.

“It was hot at Barber [Alabama], and other than getting out of the car and feeling like I had raced 200 miles, I felt pretty good,” he said, referring to that 81-degree day in April. “Diabetes wise, I didn’t feel anything.”

Kimball watches his diet closely and logs his blood glucose readings frequently. He uses a Velcro strip to attach a monitoring device that runs from his abdomen to the steering wheel. His team will install two bottles in the car’s sidepod, one with regular water and one with sugar water. By flipping a switch he can drink either one during the race.

So far, he’s never had a problem.

“It’s like anybody else; there are some people who take very good care of themselves and there are other people who don’t,” IndyCar director of medical services Dr. Michael Olinger said. “There are people who have blindness, kidney failure, that type of thing from diabetes, and there are people like Charlie who take good care of his disease.”