When INDY NXT Firestone Driver James Roe steps onto the racetrack, every move he makes is a testament to his keen vision. For high-intensity athletes in motorsports, clear vision and advanced eye health exams are essential for the driver’s performance and safety. To support this, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) has acquired advanced ophthalmic solutions from Topcon Healthcare. This state-of-the-art technology will enhance the physical and medical exams of NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone drivers throughout the race season.

Video Transcript

Everything you do on a racetrack, every judgment you make, every breaking point, or, you know, how much speed you carry through a corner ultimately all comes down to your vision.
High intensity athletes, they perform at a higher expectation than mere normal mortals like you and I.

Racing inches apart at two hundred and forty miles an hour and five g’s through the corners, it is strenuous and is stressful.

We’re making split second decisions, you know, street courses, road courses, ovals, racing wheel to wheel. Everything comes through your vision and your sense of judgment and depth perception. That’s the first thing to get right when you’re a race car driver.

For our drivers, they count on their eyes. They’re traveling a football field in less than a second, so they’re looking way down the road. So without their eyes and the ability to see what’s in front of them and react to things that happen there, they’re not gonna be successful on the racetrack. When people are on track, your drivers are on track, or our customers in the grandstands, we’ve got a full on hospital right in the middle of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

What’s cool is that we use this standalone facility also to do our driver physicals for the IndyCar and IndyNext series as well. We do, visual acuity exams and a very advanced optometry exams for our drivers. We have the strictest eye requirements mostly because of the speeds and the g forces that our drivers experience.

Vision testing is number one when it comes to receiving your hard car to compete as a driver. Make sure the driver has the correct vision to go and compete for the given season.

Being able to work with Topcon Healthcare and the equipment that they provide us to make sure that our drivers are ready to be safe on the racetrack is instrumental and we couldn’t do it without it.
Topcon’s always been top of the line.

The optics are so much better. I’m gonna trust my interpretations of the cornea and the lens and the retina better. We can bring up a test from last year and say, is there a change? Isn’t there a change?

Topcon is thrilled to be collaborating with IMS because it is important to us to provide the best possible care and equipment for the drivers and racing staff. It really was a no brainer. Topcon Healthcare understands exactly what we do. It’s about cutting edge technology. It’s about precision. It’s about customer service
To partner with a global corporation such as Topcon, it’s an absolute honor to tie the crossover from speed, innovation, accuracy, both major pillars of the motorsport world into their world.
And to do that week in, week out throughout North America and across Europe and into Asia is, the icing on the cake.