Race Season 2009 comes to an End

This year one of our projects was to keep you up to speed with Rainer’s “Mission Impossible”. The racing season took place from April to October and with it we reported from Belgium and France, through Germany into the Czech Republic down into Italy to end up at the prize ceremony in the beautiful and famous St Anton, Austria.

Rainer’s personal goal is to prove it is possible to compensate a functional disability of a highlevel tetraplegia, with the aid of modern technology and ingenuity. This is not only valid within the wheelchair sector, as we are already used to from küschall®. Rainer aims to reach his goal on the same level as the otherwise dominated by able-bodied car racing.
To drive a car means complete freedom for most disabled people. It is the only thing where Rainer can unilaterally decide on the when, what and how he wants something to happen… driving a car gives him complete autonomy, especially when racing along a track at 270km per hour.

It has taken four years of development, of tinkering and refining, but 2009 finally proved what can be done. The sip-and-puff gearbox-system created for Rainer finally worked without hiccoughs and with this achievement a whole new world of possibilities opened up. Rainer felt for the first time ever that he was able to reach good driving performance and with lots of hard work (and the occasional stroke of luck) he made the winner’s podium, driving three times second and twice third place.
Rainer’s final result of 3rd place in the overall SCC Cup 2009 is statically already a noteworthy achievement. However, his “mission impossible” of winning a race could not be completed in 2009. But maybe the solid results of the 2009 racing season are exactly what is needed for Rainer to attract some attention and with it the required support to achieve the impossible next year.

We have definitely come a long way in the past four years. And Rainer’s mission has definitely changed the international car racing sector for good. It is thanks to Rainer’s determination that both participants and enthusiasts see wheelchair users with a whole new level of respect.

We wish Rainer lots of strength and determination for the racing season 2010 and our fingers are crossed for that little bit of luck needed in life to achieve a long fought for mission.