Charlie Kimball married Kathleen Thompson in September

Kimball and his new wife, Kathleen Thompson

Charlie Kimball had a crush on Kathleen Thompson when they met 14 years ago as sophomores at Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard, Calif., but they were traveling at different speeds and clearly heading in opposite directions.

"We were two different people," said Ms. Thompson, 28, a founder and an owner of Porch Light Public Relations in Indianapolis.

"I wasn't the most grounded child," she said, "and Charlie, though he was sweet, was a very conservative and nerdy kind of guy who was into go-karts and wore a Stanford sweatshirt to school every day because that's where he wanted to go to college."

Though Mr. Kimball and Ms. Thompson shared many classes, played on the tennis team together and had mutual friends, the idea of the two of them ever dating was as much a dream to him as racing in the Indianapolis 500.

"She was just too cool and had too much going on to ever have the time to be interested in me," said Mr. Kimball, 29, now an Indianapolis-based driver in the IndyCar Series.

"Back then, I was focused on go-karting and getting good grades, so my social calendar never quite seemed as full as hers. For me and my friends, a fun night was going to the movies and coming back to my house to play board games, so girls weren't as big a priority for me as some other guys my age."

After graduating in 2003, Ms. Thompson moved on to Ventura City College while Mr. Kimball stunned her and the rest of their friends by deferring entry into the engineering program at Stanford and heading to London to race in a European open-wheeled auto racing series.

"We were all pretty shocked at the news that Charlie was going to race in Europe," she said. "I thought he was bold and brave for making that decision, but we all knew that he had the talent, drive and motivation to make it work."

For Mr. Kimball, the son of Gordon Kimball, a mechanical engineer and designer of Formula One and Indy cars who got his son interested in the sport, the decision to hang up his Stanford sweatshirt and pursue his dream was as uncertain as it was painful.

"When September rolled around that year, and Kathleen and the rest of my friends were going off to college, that was tough to deal with," he said. "When everyone suddenly disappeared, I wasn't sure I had made the right decision."

Through occasional emails and during trips home for the holidays, Mr. Kimball kept in touch with some of his former classmates, including Ms. Thompson, who was usually busy on school breaks helping out at the retail jewelry store her father owns in nearby Camarillo, Calif., where Mr. Kimball grew up.

After racing throughout England and New Zealand for three months, Mr. Kimball moved to the London area full time in February 2004, and began making a name for himself by winning two races in the British Formula Ford series, a kind of minor league for racers.

In 2005, the year Ms. Thompson transferred to the University of Southern California, Mr. Kimball won five races in the British Formula Three Championship. The next year, he became the first American to win a Formula Three Euro Series race, in the Netherlands.

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In October 2007, Mr. Kimball, then 22, was racing throughout Europe in another driver-development series, the World Series by Renault, when he was given a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes.

"I was in complete shock," he said. "I had no family history of diabetes, so it totally knocked me for a loop."

He continued racing abroad until September 2008, when he returned to Camarillo to live, race and focus on his health.

"I believe without the diabetes, I would have continued racing in Europe," he said. "But it ended up being a blessing in disguise. It brought me back to the United States, where I have been able to talk to kids in the diabetes community and go to Capitol Hill to lobby for diabetes legislation, things I never would have had the opportunity to do as just a guy with a helmet who drives cars."

"And coming home," he added, "brought me back to Kathleen."

A month after returning from Europe, he did indeed reconnect with Ms. Thompson, at a get-together with their old gang at a restaurant in Oxnard. He was already seated when she walked through the door, and suddenly, those schoolboy feelings he once had for her were reignited.

"As I'm sitting there, watching her move as comfortable as she always moved in social circles, I started thinking to myself that all the reasons we were friends and I had a crush on her in high school were still very much applicable," he said. "She was very smart, a lot of fun to be around and very attractive. I began thinking that I would really enjoy spending more time with her."

Unbeknown to him, she was feeling much the same way.

"I was very impressed with the man that Charlie had become," she said. "For the first time since I had known him, I began seeing him in a different light. I hadn't seen him for a while before that night, and there he was, so fit and strong and confident and mature. I was really taken aback."

Mr. Kimball, who wasn't quite sure if Ms. Thompson was dating someone, began plotting what once seemed like an impossible romantic course. He kept in touch on Facebook before inviting her to his birthday party in February 2009. When she told him she couldn't make it, he was more than a bit deflated.

"She took a rain check and asked me if I would be interested in joining her for drinks, along with her cousin, in Ventura the following week," Mr. Kimball said. "I accepted, but I thought that there was no way she was available and that she was just inviting me out to set me up with her cousin."

But that night, Ms. Thompson told Mr. Kimball that she was indeed single, and they were soon on the dance floor together.

"I think the same thing began clicking in both of our minds, that we were at the point where we were interested in each other romantically," he said. "I have two left feet, but I liked her so much, I got up and danced with her. Believe me, it wasn't my dance moves that reeled her in."

They began dating the next day, when she accepted his invitation to go out for ice cream.

"I not only appreciated the way the new Charlie carried himself, but I loved the fact that despite everything he had accomplished to that point, he was still the same old humble, fun-loving Charlie I used to know," she said.

News of their budding romance shocked their mutual friends.

"When we heard that Charlie and Kathleen were together, we were all like, ‘Really?' " said Dana Walk, who identified herself as one of Mr. Kimball's "nerdy pals" back in high school.

"These were two people from two different worlds, so none of us could have ever seen this relationship coming," Ms. Walk said. "But years later, when you take those high school blinders off, you realize that Charlie and Kathleen, two highly motivated people who share an entrepreneurial spirit and are determined to be successful, well, they're perfect for each other."

As Ms. Thompson grew closer to Mr. Kimball, she began fearing for his safety on high-speed racetracks. In April 2009, she said she held her breath for the first time after witnessing a minor crash at the Long Beach Grand Prix in California that involved Mr. Kimball.

"At first it was fun thinking I'm going to see Charlie in all of these cool races, but I soon realized I didn't quite understand it fully," she said. "At that race in Long Beach, I realized how dangerous the sport can be, and I sat down with Charlie to have an open and honest discussion about the risks involved every time he's on the track."

As a result of that discussion, he came to realize that he needed to do a better job of sharing the perilous aspects of his career with her.

"We talked about my safety, and when she understood how much I love racing and that I am aware of the risks involved and don't take those lightly, she began to understand why I take those risks," he said. "She knows that without racing, I wouldn't really feel alive. I'm miserable when I'm not driving. I'm not me, I'm not the man she fell in love with."

The couple relocated to Indianapolis in 2010, the year Mr. Kimball moved up from the Indy Lights series, a driver-development league, to the IndyCar series (he drives for one of the top teams, Chip Ganassi Racing, and is sponsored by Novo Nordisk, which makes diabetes medication).

The next year, Ms. Thompson began studying for an M.B.A. at Indiana University while Mr. Kimball raced in his first Indianapolis 500, finishing 13th."It was a dream come true for sure, but by then I had already achieved my greatest dream, which was falling in love with Kathleen," said Mr. Kimball, who was engaged to her on Dec. 1, 2013.

They were married on Sept. 27 atop the Historic Old Washington Street Pedestrian Bridge in White River State Park in Indianapolis. Their 200 guests enjoyed views of the Indianapolis skyline while a three-piece guitar ensemble played soft acoustic numbers, including the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun."

James Hinchcliffe, a fellow Verizon IndyCar driver and a friend of the couple who became a minister with American Marriage Ministries for the event, officiated.

"Groovy," Mr. Hinchcliffe said. "Let's do this."

The couple proceeded to exchange vows beneath a wedding canopy. Mr. Kimball then stomped on a wineglass wrapped in cloth, a nod to Ms. Thompson's Jewish heritage.

After countless miles spread across 14 years, they were finally traveling at the same speed, in the same direction. NY Times