Nothing but lucky 13 for Canadian driver
Triskaidekaphobia isn’t in the vocabulary of Zachary Claman De Melo and family
Canadian Zachary Claman De Melo isn’t apprehensive about qualifying 13th for this weekend’s Indianapolis 500.
After all, 13 has been a meaningful number for the 20-year-old Montreal native, who’ll be making his Indy 500 debut Sunday.
His late grandmother was released from a Nazi concentration camp on a Friday the 13th and the camp tattoo numbers on her arm all added up to 13. He also claims on his website 13 is his lucky number.
“I pick and choose my moments (about being superstitious),” Claman De Melo said via telephone Thursday.
“For the qualifying draw I didn’t want to go first, so I wouldn’t let anyone draw for me because if I did I was definitely going to go first.
“And then I ended up picking myself first. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence I’m 13th but it does mean something to me and so hopefully it turns into something special.”
Claman De Melo will start Sunday’s race on the fifth row with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Charlie Kimball. Robert Wickens
— the other Canadian in the field — will open on the sixth row with Takuma Sato and Kyle Kaiser. James Hinchcliffe, the veteran Canadian IndyCar driver, did not qualify.
Claman De Melo will drive at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Dale Coyne Racing as Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi’s replacement. The grandson of former Formula 1 star Emerson Fittipaldi suffered serious injuries in a crash earlier this month.
Despite entering the race unconventionally, Claman De Melo
isn’t content with just being there.
“I’m a pretty competitive person and that’s not how I look at it ... I’m going for a win here ... I believe I can win this thing.”
Wickens, 28, of Guelph, is eighth in this year’s IndyCar driver’s standings with 133 points. He’ll also be making his Indy 500 debut with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports but earned the pole in March at the Firestone
Grand Prix of St. Petersburg before finishing 18th.
Wickens crashed during practice Monday but said his car will be ready to go Sunday.
“If it was a slightly longer practice session Monday, we actually probably would’ve gone back out before the day was done,” Wickens said. “We decided as a team it’s best to take our time and make sure everything is perfect to the millimetre.”
Wickens has two championship titles under his belt (2006 Formula BMW USA, 2011 Formula Renault 3.5). He most recently completed a six-year run in DTM, earning six wins, 15 podium finishes and five pole positions.
But driving in the Indy 500 has been a longtime dream.
“It’s been a childhood bucket list thing to do and just to have the opportunity is such a privilege. The fact I’m on the grid, 33 drivers in the world get to start the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500, it’s pretty cool.”