By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

Charlie Kimball is comfortable driving over 200 miles per hour; he does it for a living.

Many young drivers on the open road are a bit skittish driving at normal highway speeds and reacting to highway drivers.

If any of those teens also are diabetic, working to regulate their blood-sugar level before they even click the seat belt and turn the key, the experience can be mind-numbingly harrowing.

Kimball, who was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic just as his racing career was reaching high gear, can sympathize.

The 27-year-old has been able to adjust his lifestyle and career to what he called his “manual transmission pancreas” to compete on the IZOD IndyCar Series and even lead three laps en route to his eighth-place finish at this year’s Indianapolis 500. Now, through charitable work with Children With Diabetes and a partnership with Car Control Clinic, Kimball is trying to offer teens who share his condition some help in the cockpit.

The racer was a part of a program Tuesday at Celebration High School in conjunction with the CWD Friends For Life annual convention. The clinic offered hands-on, behind-the-wheel experience teaching new drivers and their parents what to do when something goes terribly wrong in the traffic stream. The clinic emphasizes on the challenges facing new drivers who also have type 1 diabetes.

CWD President Jeff Hitchcock said that the event was in the Orlando-Kissimmee area for the 14th time (out of 42 national events).

“All three of my children have taken and benefitted from the New Driver Car Control Clinic, including my daughter who was diagnosed at age 2 (with type 1 diabetes) and is now 25,” Hitchcock said. “Science shows that diabetics can lead healthy lives, but the stats also shows they have a higher percentage of being involved in accidents. This program looks to reduce that.”

After a classroom session as part of the Friends For Life convention, participants took to the Celebration High parking lot to take part in evasive braking and steering exercises under the watchful eye of Car Control Clinic and with Kimball offering helpful tips.

“We want to offer a way to offer these teens a way to overcome the challenges of limited on-the-road driving before they head out there with everyone else,” Kimball said. “Most people, not just teens, don’t have an indication of short-term braking and how ABS systems work, and here the worst thing they can hit is a cone, and they don’t have feelings.”

The main exercise was turning and braking, simulating avoiding an unexpected obstacle in the road. When it came time for the teens to switch from driver to passenger and let their parents have a turn, he could see how much the young drivers had improved over the course of just a couple hours.

“I feel more confident right now in the kids than the parents,” Kimball said as the elder drivers started their tests. “Once the kids learn that it’s okay to hear tires squealing as long as they stop safely, they know they can handle an extreme situation behind the wheel and add to their arsenal for being safer drivers. Of course, they’re combining that with the added challenge of driving with diabetes.”

Kimball became involved with this cause four years ago, right around the time he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He was a rookie on the Firestone Indy Lights series, the precursor to the IndyCar series then, and has since worked with his Chip Ganassi Racing team to develop telemetry to monitor his condition in the cockpit along with all of his other necessary specs.

“It’s all there. For me it’s speed, lap time, RPMs, blood sugar, water temperature,” Kimball said of his racing checklist. “These kids have access to the same kind of information when they drive with the continuous glucose monitors on the market.”

For information on Children With Diabetes (www.childrenwithdiabetes.com), a community for families affected by diabetes, or New Driver Car Control Clinic (www.carcontrol.com), visit their websites.