Daytona Beach, Florida – It’s safe to say Robert Wickens circled this weekend in red when he and DXDT Racing announced plans to compete in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) category of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. After all, Wickens originally hails from Guelph, Ontario – a Toronto suburb – and the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) is the WeatherTech Championship’s only visit to Canada this year.

 

“There’s lots to be excited about and I’m just trying to embrace a home race. It's been a long time since I've been in the headline event at a hometown race,” admits Wickens. “The last was IndyCar in 2018 (streets of Toronto, where he finished third). The Canadian fans are always passionate and always super loyal, and it's going to be awesome to see everybody out there.”

 

It’s also safe to say that having run countless number of laps at CTMP, Wickens knows the 10-turn, 2.459-mile circuit inside and out – witness his two IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Touring Car (TCR) class wins there for Bryan Herta Autosport (BHA). Call it advantage number one for Wickens who was injured in a crash back in 2018 and now operates the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R using hand controls including Bosch’s electronic braking system.

 

It's equally safe to say Wickens will heavily lean on another advantage this weekend, namely Josh Gibbs. After all, Gibbs plays a uniquely vital role in the Wickens + DXDT equation for he is the crew member responsible for lifting Wickens into and out of the No. 36 DXDT Corvette during driver changes with Wickens’ co-driver, Alec Udell. Efficiently executing Wickens’ ingress and egress from the cockpit during pit stops can win or lose positions on the track.

 

“It’s a cliche, but you can win and lose a race during a pit stop,” says Gibbs. “You’re literally carrying a human body around the car, around the tires and the rest of the crew doing their jobs, other cars coming in and out of the pits and constantly keeping your head on a swivel for safety sake.”

 

Prior to Wickens’ GTD debut at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this season, he and Gibbs joined the team in spending a full day practicing pit stops at the DXDT shop in Charlotte, North Carolina under the watchful eyes (and remorseless stopwatch) of team manager Bryan Sellers. 

 

“But by the end of the day we were under six seconds for getting Robert out of the car,” Gibbs says. “So the next target was five seconds …” 

 

Gibbs did not come by this job by accident. A standout center on the Saginaw Valley State University football team, he didn’t hear his name called during the National Football League draft so, instead, he turned his attention to becoming a strength and conditioning coach for the Arena Football League’s Reno Express and later worked with AMA Motocross/Supercross champion Nico Izzi.

 

Subsequently, Gibbs worked in a spinal cord recovery clinic, where he met Michael Johnson who was paralyzed in a motocross accident at age 12 but who returned to racing go-karts and, later, using hand controls, race cars.  

 

When Johnson moved to race cars, Gibbs took on the added responsibilities of assisting his driver getting into and out of the cockpit, successfully as it turned out. Johnson won the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Lime Rock Park in 2018 before joining BHA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge effort in 2021. Fortuitously, when Johnson brought the curtain down on his racing career, one Robert Wickens was quick to contact Gibbs.

 

“When Michael took the personal family ‘out’ Robert called and said ‘Hey, I’ll take you!’” Gibbs recalls.

 

“It’s crazy how effortlessly Josh can toss me around getting in and out of the car,” says Wickens.

 

However, it turns out there’s more to the job than brute strength. As Gibbs noted, helping Wickens in and out of the DXDT Corvette amid the helter-skelter action in the pits is daunting enough. Ultimately, doing it quickly takes second place to doing it carefully. 

 

“It’s a strong and powerful grip,” says Gibbs, “but it’s actually not hurting the way I do it. There is an art to it. I guess over the years I’ve perfected the grip and the moves, such that it’s not a ripping grab. I’m looking at the head. I’m looking at the arms. I’m looking at the body. I’m looking at which path we’re taking so that we’re not hurting anything.”

 

With Wickens’ GTD program limited to the non-endurance races on the WeatherTech Championship schedule, this weekend marks just the third time this season the Wickens/Gibbs tandem will be working together in the heat of competition. Wickens concedes there is work to do. 

 

“We’re still working to find time getting me into the car,” he says. “We’re quick but not as consistent as we’d like. Getting out is relatively easy, but there’s a lot more moving parts to get connected getting into the car. 

 

“We got the pit stops down to 16 seconds at Long Beach but even then we lost some time. At Laguna Seca the whole pit stop was a disaster, beginning with our car getting hit by another car. But like anything else in racing, we keep practicing, keep working to do what we need to do to be competitive.”

 

And to continue developing their fair advantage.