- I always accepted the fact that I would come home beat-up or in a box.

I never imagined I would come home blind.

I've raced my whole life.

This is just who I am.

♪ [announcements to racers] - We take it for granted that we're always guaranteed a tomorrow, and we're never gonna have obstacles, but my life changed in four seconds.

[revving of cars] It can change in four seconds.

[country music interlude] - [TV announcer] Pro Nitrous coming up!

It's the semifinal action, Dan Parker from Salem, Alabama burns out gets the height nice and hot for traction!

- [TV announcer] Dan Parker driving for Bill George, always tough when he comes out and races.

Beat Shannon Jenkins here two years ago in the final, looking to go to the finals again.

Does it!

399, he goes the first ever 3.

- That's our second career-best pass.

So we're tickled to death, we're tickled to death.

- Just like you said, you came out and tested him, went 401 and 399, and you just went 401 and 399.

- Yeah, we struggled a little bit and we got after it and I got the best car in the world.

Bill George, I wanna thank him.

He gives me an opportunity to drive this thing, and I don't get to help as much as I should at home, but he brings me a killer piece.

When I come to the track, I know it's ready.

I was born into a racing family.

My father has raced since he was 16 years old.

My mom was eight months pregnant with me and going to the drag strip and still racing some.

When I was eight years old, there was an all-motorcycle race, and dad entered me in the mini-bike class, and I come in second place.

Every now and then, dad might bring a car over and he'd let me make a pass in it.

So I started driving faster and faster things.

I started working on race cars.

Then I got my first Mustang, and it was downhill from there.

The accident was March 31, 2012.

If I would've been further back in the qualifying line, probably wouldn't had a wreck that day 'cause rain would've come in.

- It was getting cloudy.

It seemed like we were gonna have some bad weather.

- When he took off from the starting line, the car shook a little bit and bobbed a little bit and he had always been able to pull out of that in the past.

As he was going through the 8th mile, the car turned hard right.

- I saw the car hard turn, go straight for the wall and then it was just airborne, 100, I mean 175, 180 miles an hour, and then when we get there, it's the worst, the worst imaginable thing you can deal with.

- I saw the car, and then I saw pieces of it laying everywhere.

The motor had just come completely out of it.

They were gonna life-flight him out, but the storm was coming through and they couldn't.

So, they ended up having to send him to UAB by ambulance.

When the doctor came out, she did tell us in the very beginning.

She said, we won't know the extent of his injuries until he wakes up.

He was opening his eyes.

His pupils and his irises were black, and his eyes were bloodshot.

The glasses he wore at the racetrack were gone.

Nobody could find them, not even the frames.

They were gone.

So, he had another pair that he wore when he would work out in the shop.

So I grabbed those and he asked to put them on, and when he put them on, he just, he fell apart.

He couldn't see anything.

They didn't help.

So he just fell apart.

- I got it.

- You won't feel it right away.

- Yeah.

- A lot of people have asked me that.

They can't believe that I'm still around and it was never, leaving was never an option.

He needed me, but at the same time I don't know.

There's just no other way to say it except, I loved him and I just, there was just no leaving.

- I told her, I said, you know, I ruined my life.

Don't ruin yours trying to do the right thing and take care of me.

Just, 'cause I remember that exactly.

That's the one thing I do remember at the hospital.

Most of it was a blur.

[laughs] I kept threatening her, if she didn't get me out of there, I was going to call a cab [laughs] and get home.

[laughs] Like I could even call a cab or pay for it or even knew where I was to tell them [laughs] to come get me.

[laughs] - So we just kept talking about stuff, and he just told me that I needed to leave because nothing good was gonna come out of this and that.

- I understood.

- And that he understood if I left and never came back.

- It ain't easy, and that's the thing about with Jennifer, and people see me and all this and all that.

Well, they don't see me on my bad days.

Jennifer has been here for me for every one of my bad days.

- She sat busted for a decade, far too broken-hearted to pick up another wrench.

[commentator on TV] [guitar country music] - My worries today are different.

How am I gonna survive?

How am I gonna be 65, 70 years old with a disability and trying to take care of myself?

It's a totally different world today.

[guitar country music] I have to make my own future, basically.

I got to figure out something.

Working with these two hands is all I really, that's all I've ever had, and that's more than likely, all I'm ever gonna be.

So I got to figure out something there to do it.

[guitar country music] Part of it is enjoyment.

I love learning something new, but a big factor of it is I got to figure out a way to start trying to make a dollar, trying to get some income.

So having a niche product is a good opportunity for me and it keeps me thinking, keeps me creative, what I've done my whole life, building race cars and always trying to think ahead and improve on something.

So this sort of helps.

This is sort of pushing me a little bit, both to try to make some money but also to push my mind and keep creating.

Every Saturday morning, downtown Columbus is a venue for people to be able to sell arts and crafts and fruits and vegetables.

So today, I'm buying my license, hoping that I'll have a booth set up with the right traffic and to be able to showcase my lamps and other woodworking stuff I plan on doing in the future.

- I think I read your application yesterday.

It's Dan's Blind Ambition?

- Um hmm.

- I thought that was a great business name 'cause I thought it was like, I didn't know you were actually blind, but I thought blind ambition meant you started doing these projects and you were just hoping it went well.

[laughs] - Yeah, I'm completely blind.

- So I see your check.

Do you want me?

- If you can, if you can fill it out?

- Yeah, um hmm.

- And then I'll sign it after you fill it out.

- Sure.

Alright, I'm gonna put my finger where you need to sign.

So here's the pen, and then my finger is the start of yep.

- Going this direction?

- You're going, no, put your pen down.

Going that direction.

- Okay.

- That's perfect.

- Okay.

- Okay, let me give you your receipt.

There you go.

- Okay, thank you so much.

- And you're all set.

- Good deal, I'm looking forward to it.

- Yeah, we're excited to have you.

- Uh, Tyler, is a friend of a friend, who asked me to help him.

Tyler is a young man.

I think he's 19, 20 years old, got a good head on his shoulders, and is a hard worker, and he worked with my great friend, Terry in a body shop.

He wants to build a drift trike.

He wants to learn.

He's an eager young guy that loves working with his hands and welds.

Anybody like that, I wanna help them.

He's a good kid, he really is.

So that's what we're gonna try to work on today, see if we can't get his drift trike possibly rolling for him, and then go from there.

Are you up first thing this morning?

- No, not quite.

[laughs] I was a little late getting up there.

- Ah, you're killing me.

- I got the throttle tube though.

- Okay, alright, I'll get you to roll my motorcycle out.

Then we'll get the table set up.

Oh, me.

- It's been a while since I used [mumbles] or welded [mumbles].

- Tyler, I thought you just did this trailer?

[laughs] - Yeah, true.

I like to practice a little bit.

- Tyler, ain't no practicing in baseball.

You step up to bat.

[laughs] Alright, so you need to grind the bottom of this.

Is that what it is?

- Yeah, the bottom of that.

- You got any gloves?

- Tyler, some gloves?

Are you that soft?

[laughs] Do you want me to weld this up?

[laughs] You're talking about practicing, talking about gloves, let me call Terry.

[laughs] Girls don't want no guys with no cutey hands.

Oh my gosh!

- I think I knocked down the piece of wood over there.

I'll get it.

- Call Terry, tell him you said you want to practice.

[laughs] - You're never gonna let me live that down, huh?

- You probably can well that up, can't you?

- Yeah, that one's pretty damn good already.

- But good enough for the girls you go out with?

[laughs] - Yeah.

- Alright, hit that top corner, then hit that bottom corner.

- Awesome, that looks mean.

- Does it?

I was hiding my stuff in here.

So I put my leathers on, it'll be tight.

- Here we go.

- Do you want me to help you?

- Yeah, let me just.

- Okay, what do you need me to do?

- If you hold the back, that'll be fine.

I'll grab the front, bring the front down.

There we go.

Alright, sit it down.

- Put your end down.

- Oh, I'm sorry.

- Go ahead.

So what we'll do is when I get on there, I'll just sort of ride it around.

I know I'm going to have to have some help zipping these leathers up 'cause evidently, they shrink while sitting in the closet.

It can't be I gained 20 pounds.

[laughs] That can't happen, that can't be that.

- No, there ain't no way.

- That can have anything to do with it.

[laughs] - No way that's possible.

- So I think this side starts.

So let me zip.

Whoo, we might tuck and roll on this one.

Can you help me?

- Yeah, I got you.

- 'Cause I can't tell.

Tell me what I need to do.

- Up with this hand, in.

- Just move my hands how you want me to.

- And that's before the graphics were sewn on.

- How's it looking now?

- It's a little bit off.

- I tell you, it's the air conditioning in the house.

They shrink.

[laughs] This one's, I'm not as skinny as I once was.

[laughs] - You ain't joking.

- Like a fat kid in the candy store.

[laughs] Yeah, push them up.

They're decent, they need just a little bit more, and then the straps on them.

- Alright, alright.

- Okay, the trike needs to be turned around, doesn't it?

- Yeah, I can turn it around for you.

Front tire is facing the road.

- Okay, alright, well let's crank this thing up.

- Alright man, you ready?

- Yeah.

[mumbles] [laughs] That's cool.

[laughs] - That's awesome.

How was it man?

- Good, that was fun.

[laughs] Man, that was fun as hell right there.

[laughs] - That's what I'm talking about.

- That's good times right there.

- There we go.

- Cool.

- Cool, man.

[laughs] - That was great man, that was great.

[laughs] - I've done a few doughnuts in my day.

[laughs] - Never on a drift trike.

- Never on a drift trike.

- A whole lot more horsepower.

- And sometimes running from the police.

[laughs] You can take me to the truck.

- Alright man, I got you.

- Alright, hang on.

I'm trying not to drop all these phones and stuff.

Let me just take the back of your arm.

- Oh, okay, alright.

- There you go, alright.

- Alright, cool.

[piano music] - We always had motorcycles, dirt bikes, minibikes, everything, and we would go out riding in the country, and I would ride on the gas tank, and my brother Chris would ride on the back behind dad.

Typical brothers, we would fight and argue, but if somebody tried to come pick on the other one, we had each other's back.

He loved vintage motorcycle road racing and the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Chris was an amazingly talented person, but he fought depression most of his adult life.

He just committed a slow suicide.

He drank himself to death.

[piano music] Six months or so after the wreck, I was laying in bed sleep, and I was thinking about Chris, and it hit me that I could race the Salt Flats.

It's wide, it's long, it's straight.

That was probably about 2 o'clock in the morning.

I just sat there all night thinking about it.

I think Jennifer woke up about 8 o'clock that morning.

As soon as she woke up, I rolled over to her.

I said, "I know what I'm gonna do.

"I figured it out."

She said, "What?"

I said, "I'm gonna race the Bonneville Salt Flats."

So, I started building a motorcycle, and it just evolved.

That gave me a purpose.

That gave me something to think about during the day, to wake up and to reach outside and research and talk to people and set a goal.

People were donating parts and money and labor and I had it 75% finished before I even had permission that I was going to race it.

Three weeks before the race, we went to North Alabama to an airstrip, tested the first [mumbles] system, and it was just way too much information, way too slow.

Talked to Patrick, decided how to simplify it.

He went home, rewrote all the software.

The next week, we met again at the airport and the first time I cranked the motorcycle, I went from one end of the airport to the other by myself.

I wasn't going fast, but I kept it out of the ditches.

The best thing that was for me was that motorcycle.

It truly saved me because it gave me a purpose to keep on living and to push myself.

When it was time to name the motorcycle, we named it the Christopher Scott Special, after my brother.

[symphony music] When I first thought about it, I said it would be a two or three-year project.

Here it is a year later from the time I started, and I'm at the Salt Flats.

- They didn't want to let Dan go.

Oh my gosh, there's gonna be a blind guy at Bonneville.

He's gonna wreck and die, and we're gonna get sued.

I don't remember who it was that came over and basically said, you're done.

You're not gonna be able to race anymore.

Without having a license, you're not fulfilling our contract to get you here, and of course, Dan being Dan, he says, "I got a license," whips it out, shows it to him.

- He says, "It's not expired."

He said, "Have you gotten a letter stating it's revoked?"

I said, "Not that I've seen," [laughs] and he started laughing and I had a pair of sunglasses and he says, "It says corrective eye lenses required," and I slid my sunglasses down again laughing.

He said, "Who in the hell am I to say "they're not corrective?"

[laughs] - You could tell the people from above were just like the angels are singing.

Like, oh my gosh, we can still race.

- They knew this was a government bureaucracy, and they wanted to see me succeed.

- What blind man has a driver's license, [laughs] and I honestly think he still renews it to this day.

[symphony music] - Once, Jennifer gave me the signal through the two-way communication, the track was clear and the course was mine, it all went away.

Went through the first mile and then entered the measured mile, and then when the motorcycle shut off, my [mumbles] had stopped.

I was bawling like a baby.

[laughs] Just everything emotion-wise just hit me.

That's a feeling people spend millions trying to get, that feeling and experience that is something so few get to do.

[laughs] Every day is an Easter egg hunt.

[laughs] I hope somebody comes up and makes us a bulk offer on all 10 lamps.

[laughs] Got it?

- Yeah.

- How much do you charge for them?

- They're $250 each with electrical.

- Uh huh, yeah.

- I do everything myself.

- Uh huh.

- Nobody else been doing it.

Most people that bought the lamps were halfway buying it just to help me out.

I try to do things to prove to the world that I can do them, a blind man can do them.

It goes back to the principle.

60% to 70% of the blind people aren't employed, and if somebody would work with them just a little bit, they might have to bend the way they do things just a little bit, but they would have an employee that would be a hell of a lot more dedicated than employees nowadays.

This is something that most people would just, they have no idea.

This is the part that I miss the most.

I get tired of people saying I have to go do this.

I'm tired of traffic.

Columbus, Georgia traffic is this and all this and all that.

I get so tired of hearing that.

I'd give anything in the world to get to drive this car across town.

Me, take Jennifer, and me and her go to the Sonic and me drive and pull up to get a chocolate shake.

I'll never get to do that again.

[race announcer] You can't live in a world of cotton balls.

So if you live your life worried about everything, you're not gonna live.

You're just taking up space.

You're just breathing air.

I always accepted the fact that I would come home beat-up or in a box.

I never imagined I would come home blind.

That's just what racers do.

[country music] To me, this is racing.

I've raced my whole life, and I did metal fabrication my whole life.

So this is just who I am.

I know to other people, it seems totally crazy and totally stupid, but this is just a continuance of who I am.

I just had to figure out another way to do it and I know it seems crazy to some people, but, to me, jumping out of a good-running airplane is crazy.

[laughs] So, I'm not gonna do that, I promise, but it's all on perspective, how you look at things.

[guitar music] ♪ ♪ ♪ [ambient music]