Skip to main content

Billy Monger Back Behind the Wheel in Beetle Fun Cup Car

Some of you may remember a few months ago hearing about a young driver who lost his legs after hitting a stationary car during a Formula 4 event at Donnington Park. Billy Monger was 17 at the time and hoped to someday drive at Le Mans when that accident took the lower half of both his legs.

It seems now, though, that Monger’s dream may still come true. That’s thanks to Team BRIT, a race team that aims to put people with disabilities (such as lost limbs or PTSD) behind the wheels of race cars.

One of Team BRIT’s cars, a Beetle Fun Cup car, is set up with its specially designed hand controls. The team recently invited Monger to a track day at Brands Hatch to let him test it out.

“It’s been really good just to get back behind the wheel,” said Monger. “Team BRIT had two steering wheels for me to try today, I’ve decided which one I prefer.”

Now that he’s chosen which wheel he prefers, all that’s left to do is to perfect a new driving technique. He wasn’t quite ready to go out racing, it only having been a scant few months since the April accident, but wants to perfect his technique until he’s winning races again.

During his time at the legendary track, Monger met Team BRIT’s founder, Dave Player.

“I hope today has been useful in helping him back on his journey, getting him back on the track, and helping him re-gain his race license,” said Player.

Player says that the point of Team BRIT is to normalize disability, by showing that so-called disabled racers can compete on an even playing field with anyone.

To that end, Player ultimately wants Team Brit to compete at Le Mans with a team of disabled drivers, a team that could someday include Monger.

That’s for later, though. For now, the young racer just needs to get back on track, something he has vowed to do after turning 18.

“People keep saying I’m the inspiration but I think all these people coming together to support someone who has gone through an accident like this, they’re the true inspiration,” he told the BBC.

The post Billy Monger Back Behind the Wheel in Beetle Fun Cup Car appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2uqLztm
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Saying Goodbye to the CC V6

For all its size and its global reach, Volkswagen is still, in many ways, a deeply human company. There was, for instance, the Bugatti Veyron an ego project if ever there was one. Then the purchase of Ducati, a move most called folly. And then there was the Phaeton, the Volkswagen that most folks can’t afford. Not only were these moves all strange, I’m sure that they made VW’s accountants furious. None of them made good business sense, but they were all deeply interesting and they all are evidence of the heart that beats at the center of VW. Among these follies is the CC, a car that everyone agrees is rakishly handsome, but that no one really wanted to buy. The car couldn’t last, but the world is brighter for its having been in it. With the approach debut of the Arteon, it seems like a good time to look back on its sadly departing predecessor. The version I drove, because I live in Canada, is a V6 Wolfsburg Edition, which apparently isn’t available in the States. Nor is the V6, not as...
Post a Comment
Read more

T-Prime Makes World Premiere at Beijing

[ See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com ] The SUV segment is one of the fastest growing segments in the world and Volkswagen is showing the world how to do it. With the new T-Prime Concept GTE that was revealed today, the company is showing off all of the technology you can look for in its coming models. The T-Prime is a full-size hybrid SUV that can go up to 31 miles on a charge and gets 87 mpg. The hybrid power station is good for 375 hp and 516 lb/ft of torque and puts the power down with 4MOTION all wheel drive. It’ll get you up to 60 in six seconds. The concept’s real party piece, though, is its interior, which features exclusively touch, gesture, and voice controls. Everything from the infotainment, to the display, and even the gears are controlled by touch-screen. The T-Prime Concept GTE is bigger than the Touareg, and design elements are likely to find their way into all of their SUVs, of which there will be many. Volkswagen is also announcing that they expect to make an S...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Transport Does a Whole Hell of a lot More than Transport

Petrolicious doesn’t only feature million-dollar classics, it also features the more generally neat, like this 1996 T4 Transporter that became Instagram famous and started and is starting an empire. Callum Creaser’s T4 started life as a panel van, but over the years it has become a homebrew camper van that has gone on adventures around the world. After posting about his adventures to Instagram, the diesel van gained a following and launched The Rolling Home, a series about other people’s small spaces and homey cars. Based on a 1.4-liter diesel with no ECU, Callum says his T4 is easy as pie to work on since information is widely available from sources like ours. The post Watch: The Transport Does a Whole Hell of a lot More than Transport appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2KR01Sv via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more