When Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week (HDAW) organizers began their search in 2018 for speakers to follow futurist Daniel Burrus’ keynote presentation at this month’s event, the group didn’t have a single person in mind, but a particular type of person.
The organizers wanted to find someone who understood technology and is an advocate for it. Someone whose life had been permanently (and positively) altered by technology and could share that experience. Someone who could accurately describe the potential and hope technology can provide.
Enter Sam Schmidt.
Known on the IndyCar circuit as a former driver and co-owner of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Sam Schmidt made history in 2016 when he completed the 12.42-mile and 156-turn Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 15 minutes in a modified Chevrolet Corvette Z06. Schmidt wasn’t racing in the event — his run up the mountain followed 102 official competitors — but his feat was notable for two reasons:
- Schmidt’s time was better than nearly 20 competing racers.
- Schmidt has been paralyzed from the neck down since 2000.
“[Daniel Burrus’] message is to not be afraid of technology and I am proof of that,” says Schmidt, who became paralyzed due to a crash during a training lap while preparing for his fourth IndyCar season in January 2000. “Technology has had a massive effect on my life … my hope is that I am able to show that [at HDAW] and communicate that technology has the ability to change all of our lives forever.”
Schmidt says technology has been at the forefront of his life since becoming paralyzed. He founded Conquer Paralysis Now in 2000 in the wake of his accident and over the last 18 years the organization has become a leading authority on spinal cord injury (SPI) research and treatment. Schmidt’s ascent up Pikes Peak — and surpassing 150 mph during qualifying at the 2016 Indianapolis 500 — was the result of the organization’s partnership with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Arrow Electronics to showcase the potential of merging vehicle and SPI technology to help disabled drivers get back behind the wheel.
Schmidt says if technology can put him back in the driver’s seat, there’s no question it can revolutionize the aftermarket.
“One point I want to make about technology and embracing technology is you don’t have to be a technology expert to use it in your business,” he says. “I have no clue, literally no clue, of everything that was put into the Corvette but I know that I trust it and it works.”
He says similar leaps of faith are required to truly maximize technology in one’s business. A wait-and-see approach minimizes expenses but it doesn’t maximize opportunity.
Distributors “have to open their eyes” to how technology can improve their businesses, Schmidt says, adding he never would have made it up the mountain had he not embraced technology as his method to getting there.
“[Technology] has the ability to improve and save people’s lives,” he says.
This is the third of seven presenter previews for HDAW 2019. Please check back in the next two weeks for more information about each HDAW workshop presenter. Previous HDAW 2019 preview articles are available HERE.
