IndyCar: Canadian Hinchcliffe gearing up to finally win hometown race
Canada’s James Hinchcliffe feels quite comfortable racing at speeds a regular driver can’t even begin to contemplate. It’s when he’s negotiating traffic off the IndyCar circuit that the nerves really come out.
“To be honest, the road actually terrifies me,” he said with a laugh while driving in Toronto’s downtown core. “I feel much more comfortable doing 300 kilometres an hour on a racetrack than I do doing 100 on the 401 (highway).”
Hinchcliffe was in town Monday as part of a media blitz ahead of the Honda Indy Toronto, which runs July 14 to 16. It’s an event that is close to his heart. He was just a toddler when he took in the race for the first time and he’s been to every edition since as either a spectator or a participant. It was on the Exhibition Place grounds where he met his sporting hero, the late Canadian driver Greg Moore, back in 1999.
Hinchcliffe said he waited by Moore’s trailer for more than three hours that day as he clutched an old steering wheel that he hoped Moore would sign. Eventually a mechanic noticed the young Hinchcliffe and had Moore come out to sign the wheel and chat.
“That was an unforgettable moment for me as a kid meeting my hero like that,” Hinchcliffe recalled. “And obviously it was the last chance I got to meet him because he was killed later that year.”
The 30-year-old Canadian won at Long Beach this season and he’s hoping for big things next month when he returns to the 2.89-kilometre temporary street circuit in his hometown.
Hinchcliffe took a spin along part of the course on a sunny Monday morning as construction crews worked away on barrier placements nearby. He called the 11-turn course one of the most challenging on the circuit because of the asphalt/concrete changes on the road and mix of high- and low-speed corners. It’s also one of the oldest venues on the series. The event made its debut here in 1986.
“It makes it a place that means a little bit more,” he said. “You’re a little more motivated to want to win here.”
Hinchcliffe feels he’s hitting that “sweet spot” in his career.
“It takes a certain number of years in this sport to reach that level of experience, maturity, speed, that sort of perfect combination of everything,” he said. “It seems to be that 30-35 range is when you’re at your peak.”
“I generally feel like I’ve been driving better than I ever have.”