On May 21, 2023, Dreamzilla’s founder, Kyle Loh hosted a sensory-safe tour of the LA Honda World Racing team paddock during the 3rd round of the GT World Challenge America powered by Skip Barber Championship at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. SRO America and Circuit of the Americas collaborated with Imagine A Way, Kinetic Kids and Dell Children’s Hospice to expose a group of special children to the exhilarating world of racing in a more inclusive environment that supports the needs of those with sensory differences.
The event began in a quiet isolated room to make for a more comfortable experience away from the crowds and noise of a typical race event. Kyle provided a short introduction of his personal journey with autism and racing while answering questions from the engaged audience.
After the in-room session, participants were shuttled to the LA Honda World Racing Team’s paddock to see the cars up close and get a behind-the-scenes peek into professional race operations. One of the highlights of the tour was a peek into the custom-designed driver’s lounge in the LA Honda World Racing hauler. This space was specially designed to provide the drivers with a quiet, lighting-controlled space to mentally prepare for races as well as relax afterward and review post-race data with their engineers and coaches. The parallels between this and sensory rooms often used by neurodivergent individuals was received with excitement by the children. A video clip of this can be seen in our Instagram Story Highlights from the event.
Kyle did double duty this weekend as both host and driver of the #73 LA Honda World Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR, competing in the TCX class in the TC America powered by Skip Barber Championship. As a person with autism, Kyle recognizes firsthand the challenges neurodivergent individuals face in both their personal and professional lives. He also understands the tremendous impact an intense interest can have in determining one’s career.
By leveraging some of his autistic qualities (strive for precision and perfection, pattern recognition and repetition, extraordinarily good memory), Kyle was able to hone his racing talent despite being a relative late-comer to the sport. This helped him recognize that while most people see autism as a deficit, there were many ways neurodivergent individuals could lean into some of their strengths to find success. This inspired him to create and utilize Dreamzilla as a way to give back to his community.
All of the children received special glow-in-the-dark Dreamzilla wristbands and got a chance to grab some stickers and autographs from Kyle and his teammate, Spencer Bucknum, driver of the LA Honda World Racing Honda Civic Si in the TCA Class. The wristbands were created for fundraising purposes, so anyone who wishes to support neurodiversity through Dreamzilla can donate at least $5 (or more if they like) by purchasing wristbands on the Dreamzilla online store.
The first ever Sensory Safe Pit Walk with GTWC was a huge success! I got to meet so many kids & parents and witness their reactions to being up-close and personal with the teams, cars, drivers, & crew members. What makes this event special is that we tailored it for neurodiverse people like myself of all ages to have a proper chance at experiencing the motorsport atmosphere without the overwhelming crowds and noises. To help raise autism awareness through motorsport has been a unique goal of mine ever since my first go-kart race. Thank you so much to SRO, Circuit of the Americas, Dell Children’s Hospice, Kinetic Kids, Imagine A Way, L.A. Honda World, and Dreamzilla for helping us achieve this mega milestone!
See our Instagram Story Highlights from the event.
About Dreamzilla:
Dreamzilla is a California-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to promote neurodiversity and offer support and encouragement for neurodivergent people to follow their passions, cultivate their unique talents and become their “biggest, baddest selves.” Neurodiversity is the idea that neurological differences like autism and ADHD are the result of normal, natural variations in the human brain. People experience and interact with the world in many different ways due to these differences and there is no one “right” way of thinking, learning, and behaving. Dreamzilla was founded by Kyle Loh, an autistic race car driver, to help others in the neurodivergent community realize their dreams and unleash their gargantuan talents into the world. dreamzilla.org
About L.A. Honda World:
L.A. Honda World Racing is an in-house professional racing team based in Southern California and participates in the SRO / TC America and IMSA racing series exclusively racing touring cars built by Honda Performance Development. They are also a factory authorized Honda dealer for American Honda Motor Co. lahondaworldracing.com
For more information:
bookings@dreamzilla.org
About the Author:
Ken Loh