Scotland News
Three years ago, Ally Chalmers was standing on the podium after coming second in a national skiing competition. Just a fortnight later, he was lying in hospital, paralysed from the waist down after a devastating crash on the slopes.
Now 17, the Glasgow teenager has made history by becoming Scotland’s first wheelchair-using racing car driver.
His Mini Cooper S has been specially adapted so he can use hand controls to accelerate and brake.
Ally recently raced in the Scottish Mini Cooper Cup at Knockhill in Fife, one of the UK’s most respected club-level motorsport events.
It was his first proper race and he was named runner-up Driver of the Day.
The teenager passed his Association of Racing Drivers (ARD) test earlier this year – the first wheelchair user in Scotland to do so – allowing him to compete in licensed events.
Ally was skiing with his mum Carole and his brothers in Glencoe in March 2022 when he crashed. The accident left him with multiple injuries, including a broken back, neck, collarbone and ribs.
He has been through three years of rehab and hospital visits.
Carole suggested motor racing as something Ally could take up to fill the gap left by skiing as he used to enjoy go-karting before his accident.
Over the past two years, she has helped him become an accomplished racing driver.
The pair bought a Mini Cooper S and began converting it for racing. Working with companies around the UK and a firm called Minimax in Scotland, they stripped the vehicle and rebuilt it into a race-spec Mini that Ally could control entirely with his hands.
To be allowed to race, Ally had to prove that he would be able to get out the car on his own in 10 seconds if there was a crash or fire.
He and his mum also had to campaign for rule changes to allow drivers using hand controls to compete.
And all the while, Ally was learning a completely new discipline from scratch.
Carole said seeing Ally on the grid was “incredible” while Ally said: “The adrenaline’s quite fun.”
Ally sees his competitions as a very level playing field.
One of the things that makes motorsport stand out is that it gives disabled drivers the rare chance to compete directly against able-bodied teams on equal terms.
“With other sports there are specialist groups for a reason but with racing there’s no need if you have a hand-controlled car,” he said.
“I’ve always loved competing,” he said. “Getting back into sport after my accident has been huge for me.”
Scott MacKenzie, team principal at Minimax, said: “Ally’s been really good, as soon as he got in the car nothing really phased him.
Scott said refitting the car was “a fair bit of work, but exciting”.
However, Ally declared that it was “definitely not an easy ride”.
Unlike most drivers, who use their feet for the clutch, accelerator and brake, he uses a set of controls built into the steering wheel area.
Acceleration is managed by a ring he pulls to speed up. Gear changes are handled with two buttons – one for upshifting and one for downshifting and there’s a lever near the steering column to brake.
When you’re doing 100 miles an hour round Knockhill, that’s a lot to manage.
Ally isn’t stopping here. He’s already planning more races and, if things go well, a career in professional motorsport.
“It’s taken a lot of hard work and I’ve had the support of so many people,” he said. “I’m younger than a lot of the other drivers, so I’m proud of how the race went.
“I’m really looking forward to racing again and hopefully one day I can go professional.”
Ally’s got his sights set on joining Team Brit, the world’s only competitive team made up entirely of disabled racing drivers.
Based in England, the team helps people with physical and mental challenges get into motorsport, using their own tech and years of know-how.
They hope to become the first all-disabled team to take on the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race and say they are building a proper pathway into racing for disabled drivers like Allie.
Carole said: “I knew, knowing Ally that, he would not be happy in life not having a sport that was as high adrenaline as ski racing was.
“It was important to me that he could continue to not just participate, but compete. There have been hurdles, but he’s stayed focused on his goal and seeing him out there [on the race track] was amazing.
“He might be the first disabled race car driver in Scotland, but hopefully there’ll be many more who follow him into the sport.”
