Indy Race Car Driver Charlie Kimball Manages The Diabetes Course
DETROIT (WWJ) - Charlie Kimball drops into Detroit with a special message: diabetes doesn't have to slow you down.
Kimball is the only Indy driver who has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes reports WWJ's Sandra McNeill.
He makes it work by watching what he eats and he has a glucose monitor linked to his race car which displays his blood sugar right in view on his dashboard.
Kimball was just 22 in 2007 when he was diagnosed with the chronic illness. At the time he knew little about the disease and didn't know if he'd be able to continue racing. But he knew he had to.
With no power steering, no power brake and speeds over 200 mph these drivers are athletes -- so he has a slightly modified car.
"I wear a continuous glucose monitor and that display actually plugs into my car's data system; so on my dash I've got speed, lap time, oil pressure, blood sugar, water temperature, gear -- my car and body data right there together," says Kimball. "Now if that shows me going lower than I'd like to be during the race, I have a drink bottle mounted in the car full of orange juice."
"Last year at Texas Motor Speedway I ran 15-20 laps side-by-side another driver at 210 mph so I don't have a lot of time to look at my dash - I was checking lap time every now and again, but if my blood sugar had changed they could radio to me and say, 'hey, we need you to get a drink of orange juice,'" he says.
Kimball will be among the racers in the Detroit Grand Prix in June 3-5.