Kurt Hill was a promising speed skater when a serious accident saw him forced to walk away from the sport.
Five years down the track and Hill still has the need for speed, except now he’s on four wheels.
The Yowie Bay driver will make his debut in the Skip Barber Racing Championship Series in America later this month on his first step to what he hopes will one day be a career in Indy Car racing.
The winner of the 16-race series will receive a $200,000 scholarship and a chance to get a drive in the Mazda Road to Indy series.
Hill will leave for America next week for races one and two in Atlanta, Georgia on the weekend of May 20.
The 19-year-old said it had been a long journey from the ice to the road.
“I used to do speed skating on ice and I snapped my leg doing that, so I had a metal plate in my leg [and] I was looking for a sport I could do sitting down because i couldn’t use my leg very well,” he said.
“And I’ve always been a motor sports fan, so we thought we’d give karting a crack.
“The plate has since been removed and I’m back up running again.
“I was skating and just going around a corner and I think I must have hit maybe a little divot in the ice or something and the blade stopped moving and my leg kept going.”
The teenager began go-karting at Eastern Creek in 2013 and raced in the Australian Kart Championship state series last year.
And Hill is hopeful of using the series as a spring board to his ultimate dream, Formula One racing.
“There are so many other opportunities [in the U.S.] that just don’t exist here in racing,” he said.
“Because obviously the natural progression is drivers keep moving on and they’re looking for the next best drivers.
“This can be a springboard into Formula One, it’s just a different route that not many people have taken.”