Hinchcliffe is a man of many talents
Driver heads home for Honda Indy
Bad cook. Businessman. Megastar.
These are just a few ways to describe Canada’s most well-known current racing sensation James Hinchcliffe, according to his former roommate Conor Daly, who also calls his good friend an inspiration, a funny dude, a “really smart guy” and a “really good person.”
We wonder if Daly, a fellow IndyCar driver, also works part time at the compliment factory. Or maybe he still owes Hinchcliffe rent money.
The fact remains few people in or out of the racing world know Hinchcliffe like Daly, who lived under Hinchcliffe’s roof — a house on the northwest side of Indianapolis — from August 2015 to the beginning of this year. Hungry? “He could cook pizzas,” Daly said. “Pull the pizza out of the freezer and put it in the oven. We were not that fancy.” Clearly. In need of entertainment? “Any time he watches a movie, he will fall asleep within 10 minutes,” Daly said. “No matter what it is, he doesn’t ever stay awake through movies.”
Handling a business matter? The self-proclaimed Mayor of Hinchtown is at your service.
“James is a businessman,” Daly said. “His office is very organized. He had everything there. Printers, scanners. It was like an actual business sanctuary.”
For Hinchcliffe, the business is all about winning this weekend.
The 30-year-old Oakville, Ont., native will try to become the second Canadian to win on home soil — Paul Tracy accomplished the feat in 1993 and 2003 — when the green flag drops Sunday to cue the 31st running of the Honda Indy Toronto.
It’s the most important weekend on the hometown driver’s schedule, beyond the legendary and highly coveted Indianapolis 500, and winning in Toronto is on his bucket list (the Indy 500 heads up that list, while he checked off winning Long Beach earlier this season).
He came in third last July for his first podium finish in the downtown street race.
“You try and just treat it like any other race and you try to be very unemotional about it,” Hinchcliffe told Postmedia last month. “But there’s no doubt that, obviously, if a win came here it would be special and it would be a big deal and a big party.”
Hinchcliffe, who has five career IndyCar wins to his name, has become a bigger deal over the past few years thanks in part to the attention he received during his comeback from a near-fatal crash in a practice session for the 2015 Indy 500, his on-track prowess and his off-track rug cutting. He has consistently picked up top-10 finishes over the past two seasons and his appearance on Dancing with the Stars last year propelled him into a new stratosphere of stardom.
“To be fair, he’s a megastar now,” said Daly, who filled in driving Hinchcliffe’s No. 5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda for three races in 2015 following the crash. “After Dancing with the Stars and winning IndyCar races, qualifying on the pole (at Indy 500 one year after his crash), the guy’s an incredible driver with a huge, incredible race team behind him, great sponsors, big people. And yeah, he’s got this stardom about him.
“And yet he’s still just James.”