Hinchcliffe ready for second Rolex
Oakvile Indycar racer gets set for season, loves variety of races
James Hinchcliffe is going to focus on the necessities of life at the 51st running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, scheduled for next weekend at Daytona International Speedway.
“To shut my mind off and get some sleep — and force yourself to eat,” the Oakville native replied when asked for the keys to this year’s race.
Hinchcliffe will join Jonathan Bomarito, Marino Franchitti, Tom Long and Canadian Sylvain Tremblay on the Mazda Motorsports team and will team with Franchitti to drive the all new Mazda6 equipped with an all new SKYACTIV-D clean diesel engine.
The two-car team will run in the premiere of the Grand-Am GX class in the 24-hour event, famous for being the kickoff event of the major-league racing season.
The opening race of the weekend, the Continental Challenge GrandAm 200, will be held next Friday.
Hinchcliffe raced the Mazda RX-8 at Daytona a year ago and a switch from a gas engine to a diesel will require some adjustments.
“The RX-8 had the rotary engine, which is known to be the loudest engine known to man, and the diesel is really low and quiet compared to it,” he said.
“You rely on engine sound for shift points, so in the 6 I’m going to be relying more on shift lights in the dash. You’re not going to hear as much as the gasoline car.”
The IndyCar Series regular — he races for the Andretti Motorsports team — also said he’s preparing for an engine that will have more torque as well as for a chassis that is going to be much heavier than the RX-8.
But after all that, he’s still just a driver looking to get into his car.
“In general, a race car is a race car,” he said jokingly. “It’s got tires and a wheel, and you have to make it go fast.”
Although a one-off in the V8 Supercar series in Australia last year didn’t go as planned, Hinchcliffe believes experience counts. “I really believe you learn something every time you’re on the track,” he said. “The one or two things you can pull out of something like that might help in IndyCar. If I have a good battle with one guy and learn some race craft, that’s only going to help me. For me, I love doing events in different kinds of cars, and getting to drive on tracks you don’t normally drive.”
His concern at Daytona this year is to take better care of himself. According to Hinchcliffe, where he fell off last year was in his ability to maintain the necessities of life during the marathon 24 hours.
“I was so well prepared by the team, I knew exactly what to expect. The only thing I struggled with was when I was told to go and get some sleep. The trick for me this year will be to properly unplug.”
The adrenalin of a 24-hour event takes over your body, Hinchcliffe said. The natural competitor in him wants to stay involved even when he’s not racing.
“The team has a rule that when you’re not racing, you get away. Get your debriefing and get away.”
This year, he said, he’s going to take advantage of the downtime.
Hinchcliffe’s partner in the race will be Marino Franchitti, brother of champion IndyCar driver (and Hinchcliffe’s rival in that series) Dario Franchitti. Marino Franchitti was Hinch’s partner in last year’s race, too.
“Last year was the first time I met Marino, and within eight minutes you would have thought we were separated at birth,” he said.
“We were fast friends. I’m really excited to be asked back. I’m amped to get back in the car together and race together. We can go into it confident we’ll be fighting for a watch.” wheels@thestar.ca