Getting back in the driver’s seat
James Hinchcliffe talks about his career and how it evolved
James Hinchcliffe of Oakville nearly didn’t make it to this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto.
No, this is not about his near-death experience at Indianapolis a year ago May, when he just about bled to death after hitting a wall at 200 mph, an accident that caused him to miss all the rest of the races in 2015, including Toronto’s.
It is about his career as an Indy car driver, though, which he was this close to missing out on.
Hinchcliffe, 29, popped into the Toronto Star a week ago Wednesday for a chat before flying off to Iowa for a Verizon IndyCar Series race there on Sunday, in which he finished ninth.
We got talking about the evolution of his career, which went from go-karts to Formula Fords to series such as Formula Atlantic, A1-GP, Indy Lights and — finally — the big (as in powerful) Indianapolis-type cars, which, to repeat, almost didn’t happen.
But first, of course, we talked about the big racing weekend coming up.
The 30th anniversary Honda Indy Toronto, to be run through the grounds of Exhibition Place and out onto Lake Shore Blvd., will go to the post Sunday at a little after 3 p.m.
Starring the hometown hero Hinchcliffe, other drivers expected to take the green flag include Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi, defending race champion Josef Newgarden, former Formula One and NASCAR ace Juan Pablo Montoya and Dancing With the Stars champion Helio Castroneves, among others.
Weekend festivities will kick off Friday with the Honda Dealers of Ontario-sponsored Fan Friday, where anybody and everybody will be admitted to the Exhibition grounds free in return for a donation to Make-A-Wish Canada. Attendees will be able to watch the Verizon IndyCar Series pilots practise, along with the stars of the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, who will qualify for their Saturday race late in the day Friday.
Other series on hand to race but only practise on Friday include the Cooper Tires USF2000 championship, Pro Mazda, Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada, Stadium Super Trucks and Indy Lights.
All of those series have Canadians entered, such as Alberta’s Parker Thompson in F2000, Daniel Morad and Scott Hargrove in Porsche GT3, Russell Boyle and — yes, the man himself — Paul Tracy in the trucks (that not only fly around the circuit but jump up and over ramps as well) and Garett Grist, Zachary Claman DeMelo and Dalton Kellett in Indy Lights.
Saturday, the Pinty’s stock car series will be the headline race — and you can expect a spirited and exciting battle featuring Canada’s finest veteran stock car racers, who will be fighting to fend off the advances of young chargers like 16-year-old Cayden Lapcevich, Gary Klutt and rising Quebec star Alex Labbe.
The IndyCar Series will also hold final qualifying Saturday for Sunday’s big race, which will be preceded by the Indy Lights feature.
Hinchcliffe is looking to have a good weekend in Toronto — something that hasn’t happened often during his career (he’s never finished higher than 8th).
“I feel like we’ve been in a bit of a slump lately, although we’re not,” he said. “(Season-opener) St. Pete was going great until we got hit in the first corner and there’s nothing you can do about that. Phoenix was a disaster from the first practice. After that, we rolled a good car off the truck at every race — Barber, Long Beach, obviously the GP (of Indianapolis, where he finished third), the 500 (where he won the pole).
“Even at Detroit (a doubleheader), the pace was decent and we were flirting with being the top Hondapowered car and being top five, but we just had the worst luck at that event and our season became a little unglued there — two essential DNFs; two opportunities to have a dreadful weekend. We went to Texas (postponed after an accident and rain), and we’re still leading, so that’s a positive. (That race will be restarted in late August; it will not be a new race, so Hinchcliffe will be in front when they wave the green).
“The car has been quick pretty much everywhere, and the team’s been doing a great job. I’ve been driving well and I was better prepared for this season than any I’ve ever had and so I’m just anxious to get a good result back on the board. Toronto would be a good place to start, unless I get going first at Iowa.”
Excluding himself, Hinchcliffe sees three or four drivers who would wind up on the top step of the podium at the Honda Indy.
“Simon Pagenaud has been driving really well,” he said. “He’s up against three of the best in the business (Will Power, Castroneves and Montoya) who are on his own team. Carlos (Munoz) has been quite quick (they were teammates when they ran Formula Atlantic). The results could have been better, but he’s been driving very, very well. Conor Daly has led more laps for Honda than just about anybody.
“(Daly’s team) don’t have the pace in qualifying but put him in a race, up front, against the big teams, and he’s not being blown away by anybody. He’s doing outside passes on TK (Tony Kanaan) and Helio and not even blinking an eye. He’s been driving phenomenally well for a rookie.”
And then there’s Scott Dixon, a driver who’s won both ends of a doubleheader held here in Toronto several years ago and who won his fourth IndyCar season championship last year.
“Dixon obviously knows how to get around this place very well. I hate for it to seem like I’m going with past winners, but (Sebastien) Bourdais won in Detroit and he won a race here years ago in a Dragon car, which was like winning the championship. And you can never discount Power at a street track. He might have Pagenaud’s number here. Power’s pretty untouchable these days.”
Hinchcliffe wasn’t able to race in the Honda Indy a year ago because of his accident at Indianapolis. In fact, the trip to Toronto was the first time his doctors allowed him to go anywhere outside of Indianapolis after the crash, which happened in late May. He’s been talking about the wreck ever since (his car hit the wall; a connecting rod sliced through the chassis and through his leg, opening up a wound that members of the IndyCar safety team couldn’t close. A rush trip to the nearby Methodist Hospital saved his life. He was mere moments away from — as they say these days — bleeding out).
Does he get tired of people asking about it?
“Yes, and no,” he said. “I understand that everybody I’ve seen for the first time since I got back is going to have questions about it. That’s human na- ture; I’ve done it to other people who’ve had a situation. I definitely feel that I’ve told the story a lot of times. I understand the interest in the story and that it’s news.”
But then he became philosophical about the reaction.
“Seeing the outpouring of support showed me how many people were paying attention, who cared, who were thinking about it. For me, receiving all those messages and talking to all those people at the time helped me a lot. It was a very uplifting part of the whole journey, for them to take the time to reach out and just wish me the best from afar.”
Of course, Hinchcliffe wouldn’t have been in that car, to have that crash, if things hadn’t worked out for him at the last minute years ago when he became convinced that it wasn’t in the cards for him to become a big-time auto racer.
“When we got to 2011, and I’d done all the minor-league stuff, and we’d tested with Newman-Haas and I had a contract with Newman-Haas but I had no car and no sponsor, I stood there on the timing stand at St. Pete and watched Oriol Servia drive and I can remember thinking: ‘All right, I tried. I got to Indy Lights, won a bunch of races, second in the championship, almost won the title, got a test in an Indy car, tested it, I was quicker than my teammate who was a 10-year veteran in the car. I did everything I could possibly do and it didn’t work out.’
“So, I’m not going to lose sleep over it. I’ll enjoy my summer travelling around to the races and come September or October, I’d go back to work, back to school — whatever it was that I’d do to start moving on in life. Luckily, 24 hours later, Eric Sprott came to the rescue.”
Sprott, a Canadian billionaire, heads up a group of investment companies based in Toronto.
“We pitched him,” Hinchcliffe said. “We got in touch with him through a mutual friend and we pitched him. It wasn’t a slam dunk right off the bat, but there was definitely interest. He has a soft spot for Canadian athletes. He’s been a huge supporter of the Canadian Olympic team. He likes to see Canadian athletes succeed and to see Canadian athletes have the opportunity to succeed.
“Had that not been an underlying trait of his, it would have been a tougher sell. He came back with a couple of questions about how it all really worked but, ultimately, we got the deal done.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.