Charlie Kimball Car Quotations

Racing is what I live for, and it makes my world go around. Having said that, without the support of the diabetes community, I may not have gotten back into the race car after my diagnosis in October 2007.

I have a lot of great racing memories growing up in Europe as a young boy - playing with car parts on my dad's desk, watching the races on Sunday afternoons to try and spot him on TV, even having the chance to go to Formula 1 races where he was working.

While I'm driving, I've got speed, gear, lap time, water temperature, blood sugar, RPM, oil pressure. I've got car data and body data all together. It's all on the dash.

Gone are the days when you could lie on a beach between races and still be in good enough shape to compete. Gone are the days when simply wearing a brand on your firesuit was enough to justify the marketing expense of an Indy Car. Racing an Indy Car is only about a quarter of my life as a racing driver.

As the son of a racing car designer and mechanical engineer, I was exposed to motorsports from day one.

People ask how hard it can be sitting down for work during a 500-mile race? Well, without power steering or power brakes, holding onto 650 horses in a car that has nearly 3,000 pounds of downforce and can produce up to 4Gs vertically and laterally can be extremely tough - even sitting down.

When I turned 16, I got my driver's license like the rest of my classmates, but I also got an extra present: a two-day practice session in a Formula Ford: my first open-wheel racing car and the first step on the ladder toward becoming a professional driver.

My team fills two separate drink bottles for me in the car. One is water, and the other has orange juice. I just turn a valve and go from water to juice... to adjust my glucose levels.

You don't get a mix of ovals and road/street course racing with this level of competition and speed anywhere other than Indy Car, and I think that's why it has remained a popular choice for so many young drivers.