In the season finale of the IndyCar Series season at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, Justin Wilson was involved in a six-car incident that resulted in “non-operable pelvic fractures and a small pulmonary contusion.”
Three months later, Justin Wilson says that he is healed up and ready to go for the 2014 season.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “I mean, the recovery went well. I was back walking five and a half, six weeks after the accident, so I was very fortunate the way my pelvis broke, it healed fast. Didn’t need any surgery. I had some good doctors, good advice.”
Wilson has yet to be in an IndyCar since the injury, but has been back racing as he took part in practice for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona two weeks ago.
“I felt great when we tested here two weeks ago for the Roar Before, and it was good to get back in the car,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to competition. Hopefully it’s going to be a good 24 hours for us, and nothing would please me more than repeating what happened after my injury in 2011 and winning the Daytona 24 Hours the following year.”
In 2011, Wilson fractured a bone in his back following an incident in Saturday morning practice ahead of the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. He was sidelined for the rest of the season and the first race back was the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona, where he took home the win.
“I think it’s great,” Wilson said of the Rolex event. “I mean, it’s the perfect way to start out your year and get seat time when there’s not a lot happening in IndyCar. The teams are just prepping, getting things ready, and you come here and get plenty of seat time, get some good racing in, and some really good competition. The thing that attracts me is nothing else is going on this time of year so you don’t have to worry about you’re missing something else, and you’re racing against some of the best guys from all over the world, and you come here and try something different out.
“It’s really a test of everything: Your patience, trying to deal with the traffic, timing, getting through that traffic. There’s so many things that can go wrong that stop you from winning this race, and you’re just trying to not make any of those mistakes, fall down any of those traps.
“It’s just, like I said, the perfect way to get up to speed, blow off the cobwebs and get ready for the new season.”
Wilson will be competing in this year’s race once again with Michael Shank Racing.
“It’s great to keep that relationship going,” he commented. “I think it works really well together. Everyone is comfortable around each other. We’re not ‑‑ we all want to be the quickest on the team, but we’re not going to risk damaging the car to get that. We try and do everything we can to try and get the most out of ourselves and the equipment without taking any risks.
“Mike has a fantastic race team, great people, all pulling in the same direction, and it’s always a pleasure to be part of that and come down here and try and help them out. I feel very privileged to have built these relationships with some great people, now great friends. Like I said, hopefully we can repeat what we’ve done before. We’ve been on the top step. We’ve been second, been third. We want to get back to the top step again.”
Wilson will be looking to get some testing in before the IndyCar season though as he will once again race for Dale Coyne Racing in 2014. Current plans have his first pre-season test being February 3rd.
“I’m looking forward to getting back in the IndyCar,” he said. “I’ve got a new engineer this year, Michael Cannon, and Bill Pappas left at the end of last year, went to Rahal Letterman, but looking forward to working with Michael, and hopefully we can gel quickly and do what we need to do, and hopefully we can win some races.”
There were some discussions that Wilson may not be back with Dale Coyne in 2014, but plans changed after some conversations.
“He promises me he’s going to get a couple of critical people in the right places and allow us to be more consistent and make life easier,” Wilson explained. “I think we had some good performances last year, but definitely felt like we need to work on that consistency and try and execute a little bit more in every aspect, not just the team, but the strategy, my driving, pit stops.”
The 2014 IndyCar season will kick off in March with the St. Petersburg, Florida street course.
“It’s a very challenging track,” Wilson commented. “You’re on the airport runways and then you go out to the city streets. It’s a really cool combination, and I think it’s a good event.
“I enjoy it. I’m looking forward to that, and hopefully we can be competitive. Last year was actually my worst year at St. Petersburg competitive‑wise. Before that I’ve always run really well. But we seemed to miss the setup last year and had a slow start to the year. But we recovered well after it.
“I’d like to think we’ve learnt a lot since then and can come back this year and be near the front again.”
