READY TO ROLL
The cars, the drivers, the history. Complete guide to next weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto.
When the field pulls away to start this year’s Honda Indy Toronto, it will mark the first time Oakville’s James Hinchcliffe has missed his home race since he joined the Verizon IndyCar Series as a rookie in 2011.
But that’s a small detail in the grand scheme of things, given that he’s lucky to be alive.
That statement may seem overly dramatic, but it isn’t. Hinchcliffe was injured in a single-car crash during practice on the Monday before this year’s Indianapolis 500.
A part on his right front suspension broke, sending him into the turn 3 wall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway at an estimated speed of more than 350 km/h. The impact registered at 125 G, a level of force he was fortunate to survive in itself.
But it wasn’t the force that was Hinchcliffe’s issue. When the car hit the wall, a suspension part pushed through the carbon fibre safety cell, entered the cockpit and pierced his left thigh before stopping in his pelvic region. He was trapped in the car and bleeding profusely.
IndyCar’s Holmatro-sponsored Safety Team had to remove the suspension piece before Hinchcliffe could be extricated. Recognizing the severity of the situation, they circumvented protocol and sent him directly to IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for emergency surgery to stop the bleeding, a move that very likely saved his life.
Though Hinchcliffe was in critical condition when he arrived at Methodist, he’s bounced back from the incident phenomenally. Due in equal parts to the quick thinking of the medical staff, his injuries being limited to soft tissue damage, and his impeccably high level of fitness, Hinchcliffe was out of the ICU two days after his surgery and was released from hospital just over a week after the crash.
He’s carrying out the remainder of his recovery at his home in Zionsville, Ind., just outside Indianapolis, and some estimates put his potential return to IndyCar competition as early as August, something that Hinchcliffe is reportedly — and perhaps surprisingly, to those unfamiliar with a professional race car driver’s special form of insanity — champing at the bit for.
That the upshot of all this means Hinchcliffe will miss the Honda Indy Toronto this year is yet another item on a long list of bad luck associated with his home race, one that he’s said more than once he has a love-hate relationship with: “I love it, it hates me.”
His rookie outing in 2011with legendary IndyCar team Newman/Haas saw him get tangled in two separate incidents — one involving fellow Canadian Paul Tracy — and end his day in 14th.
2012 started a three-year run with Andretti Autosport and ended in a heart-wrenching visit to pit lane and eventual retirement due to a mechanical issue.
The following year was the first of the doubleheader weekends Exhibition Place has hosted over the past two outings. His Saturday race result of eighth in 2013 set the mark for the best Hinchcliffe has ever posted here. Sunday marked the return of misfortune, though, when repairs for a stuck throttle put him four laps behind from the start, a deficit from which he was never able to recover.
Last year his luck was similar: he finished eighth again in the first race of the weekend, which ran on Sunday morning after Saturday’s race was postponed due to rain, and ended 18th in Sunday afternoon’s race after getting caught up behind an incident between Juan Pablo Montoya and Mikhail Aleshin.
Though he’s struggled for results here he’s found success elsewhere: four career wins since his breakthrough victory at St. Petersburg in 2013, to be precise. And as time has passed, race fans in Toronto and else- where have gotten to know him and his careful balance between the jokester known as the Mayor of Hinchtown and the fierce competitor who emerges when the visor on his helmet comes down. He’s gone from relative unknown to ubiquitous Canadian celebrity about as quickly as his IndyCar travels down Lake Shore Blvd.
The Honda Indy Toronto returns to being a single-race event this year. And for local fans, none of the disappointment that’s come before compares to what they’ll face this coming Sunday when it’s already known their new-found hometown hero won’t be in the hunt at all.
That said, those close to Hinchcliffe say that he’s remained in good spirits throughout his recovery. They also say he’s as anxious to return to the cockpit as his fans are to have him there.
“We’re looking forward to getting him back,” said the president of Honda Performance Development Art St. Cyr while addressing the media on Indianapolis 500 weekend. “That’s all he can talk about is how he can’t wait to get back in the car. Sometimes you wonder what these race car drivers are thinking.”
And his presence trackside is definitely being missed. American racer Conor Daly subbed for Hinchcliffe at the doubleheader weekend in Detroit in late May, and though Daly doesn’t race full-time with the series at present he spends a great deal of time in the IndyCar paddock. He’s missed not only his close friend’s trademark humour but also his professional insight, turning to him throughout the Detroit race weekend for debrief analysis.
“It’s a shame to not have one of your good friends and competitors at the racetrack, but he’s only a phone call away,” Daly says. “He’s always willing to offer his advice to help with the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team effort. We all can’t wait until he’s back.”
And that last point is perhaps the most positive take-away of all: that Hinch will be back.
“He’s always willing to offer his advice. . . We all can’t wait until he’s back.” CONOR DALY AMERICAN RACER