On a night in 1978, Ted Henter was driving a rental car down a dark road in the English countryside. A 27-year-old motorcycle racer from Florida, Henter had just won eighth place in the Venezuelan Grand Prix, the first race of the 1978 World Championships. He was daydreaming about his next race in Spain when he saw the other car driving straight towards him. <\/p>\n

Henter had been driving on the right side of the road, just as he did back home. Instinctively, he swerved right. But the other driver, faithful to his own British instincts, swerved left. It was a head-on collision. Henter\u2019s face broke the windshield and glass shards left him with detached retinas and eighty stitches on his face \u2014 including thirteen on each eyeball. Lying in the hospital, he thought to himself, Maybe I\u2019ll have to miss the race. <\/em><\/p>\n

The first operation to reattach his retina was successful, and Henter regained his sight in one eye \u2014 he could see light and some colors \u2014 but as scar tissue formed, the retina detached again. When he woke up after the second operation, Henter knew things were different this time. After the first operation, everything had been bright. But the second time, everything was dark. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had about ten minutes of despair in the hospital when I felt a very calming spirit in the room. Maybe it was an angel,\u201d Henter recalls. \u201cIt more or less said to me, \u2018Don\u2019t sweat it. Everything is going to be okay.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Eh, blind people have been around for millennia,<\/em> Henter remembers thinking to himself. If they made it, I can make it. <\/em><\/p>\n