A HUNCH ABOUT HINCH
With three IndyCar wins in 2013, James Hinchcliffe served notice he is ready to contend for the title,
BEST RACES/FINISHES/PASSES What was the best race of the year? Was it the one with the best finish or was it one where the racing throughout was spectacular but the verdict was decided a few laps before the end?
Who made the best pass of the year, and how might that have been a deciding factor in the overall quality of that race? Since opinions likely vary from reader to reader, best passes, finishes, and races are combined into one category. 4 Wide In a ranked system, the finish of the Indy Lights Freedom 100 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway might top the list in all three categories; best pass, best finish and best race. It may, in fact, go down as one of the best finishes of all time in any series.
Heading into the final lap, the top four cars of Carlos Munoz, Sage Karam, Gabby Chaves and Peter Dempsey had been duelling it out in a racelong battle. As they crossed the yard of bricks taking the white flag, Munoz led Karam and Chaves, with Dempsey right behind in fourth.
Heading down the backstretch, Karam pulled alongside Munoz, and then Chaves made it three-wide through corners three and four. Yes, they were side-by-side-by-side through corners three and four.
That gave Dempsey a huge tow onto the front straight and he made it 4wide heading to the line, which he got to first by a matter of inches. Hinch hustle The downtown street course in Sao Paulo, sight of the annual IndyCar event in Brazil, has usually made for great racing, and 2013 was no different as it provided for a great race, a great finish and a great last lap pass.
Non-stop action throughout the race had Takumo Sato looking to capture his second-straight Indy car race win as he led late and fended off, some would say dangerously, passing attempts by Josef Newgarden and Canada’s James Hinchcliffe.
In the end, the mayor of Hinchtown faked both ways down the final long straight and watched as Sato approached the final corner on a shallower line and left his braking a little too late. That allowed Hinchcliffe to pull off a last lap, last corner, outside to inside pass to capture the win. Trucking near Toronto NASCAR returned to Canada in 2013 as the Camping World Truck series made its debut at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and did they ever put on a show.
The expression “Rubbin’s Racin’ ” usually applies to NASCAR racing on ovals, but when the trucks came to CTMP’s road course, there was plenty of banging and bumping right through to the last corner and beyond.
In the end, it was 23-year-old Austin Dillon and 17-year-old Chase Elliot, son of Bill Elliot, who came into the final lap racing for the win. Side by side up the Mario Andretti straight, Dillon held the advantage into corners eight and nine, but Elliot made a late move under Dillon into corner 10, and they came together. Dillon ended up in the tires, while Elliot kept it off the wall and made it to the finish line for his first truck series win. BEST DRIVERS Sebastian Vettel, F1 Although there is no ranking system, if there was, this category would be the easiest to pick.
Simply put, Sebastian Vettel was head and shoulders above the field in Formula 1, and he easily had the most dominating season of any driver in any racing series in 2013. Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR Although not as dominant as in past years, Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick crew, led by crew chief Chad Knaus, were once again the class of the field in NASCAR’s top series.
Although Matt Kenseth gave them a good run, in the end it was Johnson’s bumper that all were chasing. Scott Dixon, IndyCar At the start of the season, it seemed that the Ganassi team was not going to be a title contender.
Dario Franchitti was making uncharacteristic mistakes and Scott Dixon had only one podium through the first 10 races. However, Dixon came on in the second half of the season and put in a championship charge, winning three in a row, and four of the final nine races, to take his third title. John Force, NHRA Funny Car John Force is an NHRA icon and, at the tender age of 64, he captured his 16th Funny Car title edging out Matt Hagan for the championship.
FEEL-GOOD STORIES IndyCar
James Hinchcliffe, for winning his first, second and third races in the series. After winning the season opener in St. Pete, Hinch backed that up with a great win in Brazil. Then he proved he could also win on ovals with a dominant performance at Iowa.
Tony Kanaan for finally winning the Indy 500.
Charlie Kimball for winning his first race at Mid-Ohio.
Formula 1
Kimi Raikkonen getting back onto the top step of the podium by winning the season-opening race in Australia.
Nico Rosberg winning the Monaco GP. In a crash-filled race that had two red flags, Nico drove flawlessly to capture his second career victory.
Winning Monaco was special for him as he not only lives there but it was also the 33rd anniversary of his father Keke’s Monaco win.
MotoGP
The 2013 MotoGP season can be summed up in two words: amazing rookie! Twenty-year-old Spanish rider Marc Marquez joined the factory Repsol Honda team and won the second race of the season in Austin, his first of six victories on the season.
He went on to capture the championship by four points over Jorge Lorenzo, becoming the first rookie in 35 years to capture the title.
AND THEY WALKED AWAY
From a fan’s perspective, the two scariest crashes of the year happened in Daytona and Houston.
Daytona In the season-opening NASCAR Nationwide race at Daytona, a last-lap crash coming to the checkered flag saw the car of Kyle Larson get airborne and rip out a large chunk of fencing. Pieces of the fencing and debris from the car, including a tire and the engine, ended up injuring 28 spectators, two critically. NASCAR was lucky there were no fatalities. The fencing was repaired in time for the next day’s Daytona 500.
Houston In Indycar’s second race of the weekend in Houston, Dario Franchitti and Takumo Sato touched wheels late in the race and Franchitti’s car was launched into the catch fencing near a grandstand. Debris from the incident, and part of the fence itself, ended up injuring 13 spectators, fortunately none seriously. Franchitti fractured two vertebrae, broke his right ankle and suffered a concussion in the incident. On the advice of doctors, Franchitti announced his retirement from the sport a few weeks after the crash.