Pursuing Dreams on His Terms
By Michelle Madden
Photo by Mike Paniccia
“If someone says “no” to me, I just want to do it even more. It didn’t work so well for me when I was young, but since my 20s it’s been a very effective strategy.” Torsten Gross has spent his lifetime defeating the no’s, and in doing so has become an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, founder of a non-profit, race car driver, and now star of a soon to be released television series. Oh and he happens to be a quadriplegic.
“We all have our version of a “wheelchair,” some of ours are just more visible than others. The moment we can turn what we think holds us back into our strength, we are truly free to achieve anything,” says Gross. Since he was 15 years old and broke his neck into 36 pieces in a diving accident, he has been shattering misperceptions of what people in a chair can do. He holds tight to the belief that we all achieve in our own way. It’s the results we need to focus on, not doing things the way others think you should do them.
Like race car driving. “My car moves no differently from any other car, I just use hand-controls rather than foot-controls.” Gross took a spin in a hand-controlled car at Lime Rock Park three years ago and was hooked, “I’ve always had a need for speed and thrills,“ he confesses,“ but this was life changing.”
For the past year, a camera crew has been following Gross, documenting his pursuit of speed as he travels the country, racing at the Virginia International Raceway, the Formula-1 track in Austin, Texas, and the Daytona International Speedway—not in a division for wheelchair athletes, but against the most elite race car drivers in the world. (Joey Logano, a two time NASCAR winner, appears with Gross in a Pennzoil commercial.) Gross is quick to note that the goal for the documentary is not just to demonstrate what a disabled individual is capable of, but to show all of us what is possible when we release the internal chains that bind us.
Two years ago, Gross founded the non-profit, “Just Hands” to give disabled individuals the opportunity to feel the sense of freedom that he experiences on the race track. Though based at Lime Rock, its mission is to normalize hand-controlled driving, by facilitating the outfitting of hand-controlled cars at all race tracks across the country. The four-year waitlist for a reservation seems proof-of-concept enough.
A benefit screening of the show takes place, Saturday, March 30 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville and includes a pre-screening chance to drive a hand-controlled Porsche or BMW around the track! All are welcome! Wheelchair not necessary…
Tickets to the screening are available at justhands.org.
