EW IN OTHER NEWS
76
July 2018
by Liz Hillman EyeWorld Senior Staff Writer
Racing for a cure for blindness
Dr. Sohn sets sights on
taking first place and
making it to his next
national championship
W
hen Elliott Sohn,
MD, associate profes-
sor of ophthalmology
and visual sciences,
retina fellowship
director, Carver College of Medi-
cine, University of Iowa, Iowa City,
steps on the pedal of a vitrectomy
machine, his senses are acute, he's
varying the rate of vitreous removal
and the machine's power depending
on the pathology he's seeing within
the eye. When Elliott Sohn, amateur
race car driver, steps on the gas ped-
al of his Formula Enterprise, open-
wheel, single-cockpit race car, he's
doing essentially the same thing,
modulating the throttle based on
what he sees and feels on the track
ahead of him.
Dr. Sohn barely gave competi-
tive racing a second thought, until
about 4 years ago when he started
going to driver's education (DE)
events for fun at his friend's invita-
tion. At these events, Dr. Sohn said,
you bring your street car and learn
how to drive it safely and effective-
ly at high speeds. It's something
he said can actually improve your
normal driving on the road. He
never intended to take up amateur
racing as a hobby, but on what was
to be his third and final DE event at
the historic Road America track in
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, something
changed for the retina surgeon and
researcher at the University of Iowa
Institute for Vision Research.
"I fell in love with tracking the
car. It started to become something
where it was more than just the
thrill of the experience. It was more,
how do I get better at this, how do I
hone my skills?" Dr. Sohn said.
Dr. Sohn enrolled in a 3-day
racing school in Savannah, Georgia,
where he learned to drive open-
wheel, formula-style cars. Last year,
Dr. Sohn bought his FE class car,
found a team, and completed his
first year of races, which culminated
in the Sports Car Club of America
(SCCA) National Championship
Runoffs at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway.
In this type of racing, Dr. Sohn
said there are multiple turns, right
and left, simple turns to complex
ones and elevation changes. At the
SCCA Runoffs, Dr. Sohn's average
speed was 93 mph, and that's on a
course that had 14 turns, he pointed
out. The top speed he hit was 139
mph. To put that into perspective,
a Boeing 747 needs to go about 184
mph for takeoff.
1
"At this point … I'm not only
thinking about how fast I'm going,
I'm thinking about how I'm going
to do the next lap better, how I'm
going to do the upcoming turn bet-
ter than the last time I did it, or if I
did it just right, trying to replicate
it. The idea is to enter and exit the
corners at the maximum speed at
which you are controlled so you
can get onto the next straight and
pass the person in front of you—and
Index to advertisers
Alcon Laboratories Inc.
Page: Cover 2, 3, 78, and Cover 4
Phone: 800-862-5266
Fax: 800-241-0677
www.alconlabs.com
BRASCRS
Page: 71
www.Brascrs.com.br
Bausch + Lomb
Page: 41
Phone: 585-338-6536
Fax: 585-338-0898
www.bausch.com
Beaver Visitec Int.
Page: 35
Phone: 781-906-6926
Fax: 781-906-7992
www.beaver-visitec.com
ESCRS
Page: 66, 67, and 74
Phone: 941-751-0588
Fax: 941-752-4738
www.escrs.org
Haag-Streit
Page: 5
Phone: 877-628-1335
www.haag-streit-usa.com
Katena Products
Page: 21
Phone: 973-989-1600
Fax: 973-989-8175
www.katena.com
Marco Ophthalmic Inc.
Page: 7 and Prestitial
Phone: 904-642-9330
Fax: 904-642-9338
www.marcooph.com
OIS 2018 Meetings
Page: 45
www.oisasrs.org
Omeros
Page: 15
Phone: 206-676-5000
Fax: 206-676-5005
www.omeros.com
Stephens Instruments
Page: 25
Phone: 800-354-7848
Fax: 859-259-4926
www.usiol.com
Sun Ophthalmics
Page: 77 and Cover 3
Phone: 609-720-5388
Fax: 609-720-1155
www.sunophthalmics.com
ASCRS•ASOA/EyeWorld
Information
2019 ASCRS•ASOA
Annual Meeting
Page: 49
AnnualMeeting.ascrs.org
YES ACT
Page: 23 and 32
www.ascrs.org
2018 COS
Page: 17, 18, and 19
cos.ascrs.org
ASCRS Membership
Page: 53
www.ascrs.org
2019 ASCRS Film Festival
Page: 64
www.ascrs.org
EyeWorld at AAO 2018
Page: 55
www.eyeworld.org
2019 EyeWorld
Surgical Summit
Page: 28 and 29
Surgicalsummit.eyeworld.org
EyeWorld Hub
Page: 37
Hub.eyeworld.org
Digital EyeWorld
Page: 52
Digital.eyeworld.org
EyeWorld rePlay
Page: 59 and 61
Digital EyeWorld Daily
Page: 39
Digital.daily.org
continued on page 78
Dr. Sohn with his team at the SCCA Blackhawk Farms Majors in early May
Source: Elliott Sohn, MD
