National Post (National Edition)
HINCHCLIFFE KEPT BUSY IN RUN-UP TO HOMETOWN INDY
James Hinchcliffe might be faster on his phone than he is in his race car. “It might even be on my calendar still. Let me see,” the IndyCar star said when asked for a Coles Notes rundown of his biggest promotional week of the year, his hometown Honda Indy Toronto.
“Yep, sure is,” Hinchcliffe said upon locating his agenda from last July on his phone in fewer than 10 seconds during a recent interview at a downtown steak house. “No, no wait. Oh, yeah, no, yep, yep, all right, so …”
To say Indy week is a busy one for the Canadian Hinchcliffe, an eight-year Verizon IndyCar Series veteran, is a bit like suggesting the sun is warm. It’s an understatement of epic proportions.
The 31-year-old Oakville native’s preparations for Toronto begin around April and the work doesn’t really stop until the Monday following Canada’s lone Indy race weekend, when Hinchcliffe and his family make it a point to escape to Muskoka for a few much-needed days of R&R at the cottage.
Just how busy can things get for Canada’s most wellknown race-car driver this week? Consider that Hinchcliffe operates in what he calls “15-minute blocks” throughout his personal seven-day circus that is the Toronto Indy. The schedule is intense.
Last year’s template saw Hinchcliffe jet out of Iowa — home of the wonderfully named Iowa Corn 300, the same oval-track race he won last weekend — first thing on the Monday morning the week of the Toronto event, landing in his home city in time to do a couple of radio interviews later in the day, along with some promotional phone interviews for a nowdefunct September race at Watkins Glen, N.Y. (this year he was in Hamilton on Monday night along with teammate Robert Wickens for a go-kart fundraiser to benefit Make-A-Wish Canada).
On Tuesday, it’s more phone interviews in the morning before Hinchcliffe, who drives the No. 5 Honda for all-Canadian team Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, heads up to the Honda Canada campus in Markham for an employee and associate appreciation day.
“That’s one of those kind of staple things: Tuesday, every year,” Hinchcliffe said, adding that his day concluded with a visit to Sportsnet HQ for some TV and radio spots.
On Wednesday last year, it was over to Petro-Canada’s offices in his hometown of Oakville, followed by another sponsor event for a few more hours, then a personal appearance for New Era at the Lids store in the Eaton Centre.
An interview with The Canadian Press opened Thursday’s proceedings, followed by an Arrow sponsor appearance at the University of Toronto in Mississauga, then a meet-and-greet on pit lane, before an engineering meeting and a track walkthrough.
An on-site appearance for Honda as part of an NHL promotion followed, and Hinchcliffe’s night was spent at an annual cancer fundraiser in the Distillery District he cohosted alongside fellow racer Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Finally, on Friday in Toronto with his team organized in the paddock and practice sessions underway, Hinchcliffe began to settle into more of a typical race weekend. There is some added hometown emphasis on sponsor meet-and-greets, however, essentially squeezing in any promotional appearances he can when he’s not rounding the street course at top seed.
“If I’m not in the race car or in engineering, I’m somewhere, doing something,” Hinchcliffe said.
Practice sessions and qualifying take up most of Saturday, and the sensation that greets the Canuck driver when he’s finally in his single-seater and the green flag drops on Sunday afternoon is not a surprising one all things considered.
“Relief,” Hinchcliffe said. “Honestly, a lot of time we’re so excited to get in the car, because that’s kind of our peace and quiet.” Carnoustie is known as much for the calamity it causes as the British Open champions it crowns.
Any mention of Carnoustie immediately brings back that image of Jean Van de Velde, equal parts tragedy and comedy, standing in Barry Burn on the 18th hole with water up to his shins and rising. He made triple bogey to lose a three-shot lead, and then completed as great a collapse as can be found in a major championship by losing in a three-man playoff in 1999.
Just don’t get the idea Van de Velde owns all the rights to bad endings at Carnoustie.
Jose Jurado was the first victim.
He had a three-shot lead going into the final round in 1931 and was still two shots clear late in the round until coming undone in the brutal closing stretch, topping one shot on the 17 th hole into the burn. He lost out to Tommy Armour.
More recently was Padraig Harrington, only it worked out well for him in 2007. Playing the 18th with a one-shot lead, the Irishman hit his tee shot into the Barry Burn. He took a penalty drop and then hit his next shot into the winding stream. Harrington managed the best double bogey of his life. It got him into a playoff when Sergio Garcia made bogey from the bunker, and Harrington went on to win his first major.
Of the six previous Opens on these menacing links, Ben Hogan is the only winner to hold a 54-hole lead.
For most everyone else, Carnoustie always seem to dish out its share of carnage. Rod Pampling once opened with a 71 and had the lead. He followed with an 86 and missed the cut. Phil Mickelson still hasn’t seen a weekend at Carnoustie. Garcia