This Army veteran was left paralyzed after being shot by a sniper in Iraq. But despite being confined to a wheelchair, he's finding new purpose in racing - and helping other disabled veterans get behind the wheel, too!Dillon Cannon may be confined to a wheelchair, but that hasn't stopped him from developing a passion for racing.
"I got shot in the neck by a sniper," said Cannon. "Bullet entered the front of my throat and exited the back. Whenever it entered my body it missed all my arteries, hit my C6 and C7 vertebrae, shattered both of those vertebrae, and the bone fragments hit my spinal cord and caused it to swell, which left me paralyzed from mid-chest down."
"Fighting depression and trying to keep yourself active was a little difficult," said Cannon. "I wanted a purpose, I wanted a drive, so I reached out to the VA and said, hey, I want to work again.", a premier road course race track in Angleton, Texas. He got a job as a parts manager, but was asked if he wanted to learned to race. At first, he didn't know if it was possible - until he got behind the wheel using hand controls.
Cannon has worked with MSR Houston to start a non-profit called Hands On Driving Academy, which helps disabled veterans learn how to drive race cars with hand controls and earn their SCCA license.
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