Racer Overcomes Odds At 39th Chili Bowl Nationals

Ahead of the 39th Chili Bowl, drivers are fine-tuning their vehicles for race day. We sat down with one racer from Pennsylvania, Darren Kauffman, who has a special way he competes.

Q: How are you feeling about the 39th Chili Bowl?

"This is actually the third time I've gotten the chance to race, and it's a blast every time. There is obvious nerves, there always is no matter how many times you do it, it's just going down the ramp and everything, but basically once the green lights come on, you have no time to think about anything else, you just have to race,”  said Kauffman.

Q: What inspired you to start racing?

"Growing up, I was an inline speed skater, and I won a world championship in 2004 in Italy. I was paralyzed in 2007. Regular vehicle accident...one car just rolled over," said Kauffman. "After that, we were just looking for something else to do and just naturally found racecars because it was competition, and I would still be able to compete just like everyone else. I started racing roughly about 10 years ago." 

Q: You race in a unique way. How?

"I race completely with hand controls. It's throttle on the right, brake on the left. It's a lot but we make do and basically get to compete like everyone else," said Kauffman.

Q: How do you feel about what happened to you? How does it inspire you to race?

"Really, just kind of, you get over it, and there's multiple ways, I mean, some people get down about it, others you understand it's a situation, but then you look for some things that you can still do, and it's crazy that we're able to put this together to be able to race here," said Kauffman.

You can follow Kauffman's racing journey HERE.