This year at the ‘24 hours of Le Mans’ sports car race, Frédéric Sausset, a French business man who is also a quadruple amputee, fulfilled his dream of racing, despite only four years ago losing all of his limbs to a rare disease. He and his team finished in 38th position out of 60. What a result.
At this year’s Le Mans, 60 cars took part, racing flat-out on the same 8.5 miles circuit for 24 hours straight. During the race, each team alternates between three drivers who take turns driving the same car. It is a tremendous feat of endurance for both the cars and for the drivers. The drivers need to be physically fit to cope with the demands and the fatigue of the event, and in fact, many are previous Formula 1 drivers.
One of the cool things at Le Mans is ‘Garage 56’. Historically this was a spare garage when there used to be space for only 55, but it is now reserved for racing new or innovative technology.
However, this year the garage was taken by the Sausset Racing Team 41. What made this entry particularly special was that one of the drivers, Frédéric Sausset was also a quadruple amputee. He lost all of his limbs in 2012 after a scratch on holiday lead to a rare ‘flesh eating’ infection (necrotizing fasciitis). Rather than let the fact that he had no arms or legs get in his way, Frédéric chose instead to focus on his dream of racing at Le Mans. This year he achieved it.
The team converted their race car so that Frédéric could drive it, but importantly, the conversion was fully removable so as not to compromise the ability of his two able-bodied teammates. He used a special steering wheel which connected to a prosthetic on his right arm and he had two thigh operated paddles built into his seat insert for the accelerator and brake.
Safety was also a big concern. Whilst Frédéric could use the assistance of his team to get into and out of the car in the garage he also needed to escape unaided in less than seven seconds in the event of an accident. The solution to this was to develop a unique ejector seat that would allow him to escape from the cockpit and roll away if the car crashed.
Just to finish the 24 hours of Le Mans is an achievement for any team, but Frédéric and his race team finished in 38th position out of 60, which is just incredible. It just goes to show what can be achieved, both technologically and with willpower and passion.
Here’s a video with more (in French):
Image source: SRT41
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