New Wickens documentary nearing completion

The Weight of Speed, a documentary on the life of racer Robert Wickens, is nearing completion.

The new documentary captures the story of Wickens’ life as a karting phenom in Canada, rise through open-wheel racing, turn to Europe where he became a champion, time as a factory driver in the DTM sports car series, return to North America, the life-changing IndyCar crash in 2018, his fight though paralysis, new driving opportunities in IMSA, and life as a husband and father.

The first private screening of The Weight of Speed is scheduled for next week’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach where Wickens will also open his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season with DXDT Racing in the No. 36 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Further details on the film’s wide-scale release are forthcoming.

“It's exciting,” Wickens said. “We're in the final stages of post-production, and it's out of my hands and I get to see it like everyone else for the first time. My wife and I have seen a rough cut, and they've done such an amazing job. I was always a little weary, more so nervous, of what if I don't like it? Because it's my life, and obviously I'm protective of my life and my story.

“I think I have a pretty unique story, and one that – maybe I'm too close to it – but I felt like it deserved to be told, and we're just grateful for the opportunity to share the journey. It's been quite the path.”

The Wickens family has been capturing Robert’s life on camera since his earliest days in the sport, and while the 2018 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year and 2023 IMSA TCR champion is known for being somewhat private, the film's production team was welcomed into his world and found a treasure trove of assets to include in the film.

“I think trust is the big word,” Wickens said. “I think that director Michael Johnson, right from the beginning, we just felt comfortable with him. Along this journey, we've been with this production company now for a couple of years, but prior to that, we were at some other great production companies. So it's not like this was just a ‘snap of a finger’ idea. We've been filming this, content gathering, since Day Zero of my accident in Pocono in 2018.

“And what's cool about this journey is, if we reset way back to when I started racing go-karts, I had my parents video all my go-kart races. My brother and I, we would go home, plug the camcorder into the TV, and we would watch my race tape, like game tape, and just critique my race. Should I have passed? Should I have defended more? Silver lining of all this is I basically have archives of every karting race I've ever been in. The production crew had a had a field day when they got the terabytes of hard drives of everything that we have. I think the end total was something like 15 or 20 terabytes of footage to make this film.”

Just as he did last year while racing for DXDT at the crossover IndyCar and IMSA events at Long Beach and Detroit, Wickens will spend half of the upcoming weekend focused on driving the No. 36 Corvette and the other half on an Andretti Global IndyCar timing stand, where he serves as a driver coach and performance analyst for the three-car team.

With IMSA qualifying set to finish early Friday evening, Wickens will need to change out of his driving gear and rush to the special screening for his many friends throughout the racing industry.

“I'm just excited for everyone to see it, and no better place than to have an intimate screening in Long Beach, because it's been a place that's been so close to me,” he said. “It’s my two worlds colliding, right? My work in IndyCar. My career in IndyCar as a driver, and obviously the film is going to have a lot of IndyCar presence as well as IMSA presence. Couldn’t think of a better place to show it.”