This weekend marks a homecoming for one of Verizon IndyCar’s stars as James Hinchcliffe returns to the track that kicked started his career and love of racing, only located approximately a half hour from his hometown of Oakville, Ontario.
“I always love coming home,” he commented on Thursday. “This race is so special to me. It’s a large part of why I got involved in racing, why I love the sport and why I wanted to be a driver. To come here and have all the support in town means a lot to me.”
Everywhere you look during race weekend, there are fans adorning the light blue and white colors of Hinchcliffe, or holding signs that say ‘red gloves’ rule as Hinchcliffe continues the tradition of wearing red gloves that was started by fellow Canadian Greg Moore.
“I am honored by the incredible amount of support and even with the season that we’ve had, it’s been no different than when we came here last year with three wins on the season,” Hinchcliffe commented. “That’s what I love about Toronto fans and my fans in general as they’re not bandwagon fans. Even if you’re having a bad year, they’re going to be there to support you. So coming home now and knowing that, the Canadians always want to give the hometown crowd a victory so now with only me, it’s my job to do that. That pressure is really there internally as if you look on the outside, even if you have a bad weekend, they’re going to support you and that’s what I love about the city and the country and the fans of IndyCar that we have here.”
Being the hometown hero brings forth a lot of media responsibilities in helping to promote the event, in which Hinchcliffe says can be time consuming – but he doesn’t let it take away from his effort behind the wheel.
“I think that this year we took a good approach in managing the time that I have on the weekend so that way I don’t have too much and am able to do my job,” he explained. “I think once the weekend starts, it’s much more down to business and not short of the commitment that you see at other double headers. I thank the team for that one in keeping me in check.”
Though the past trips to the Honda Indy Toronto haven’t panned out as Hinchcliffe probably hoped for, with only one top-10 (eighth) in his four IndyCar starts on the streets of Toronto down at Exhibition Place.
“We had an engine failure while in contention for a podium in 2012 and then Indy Lights – running for a podium and something broke resulting in getting into the wall, so I’ve had it all here,” he expressed. “So maybe now, there’s nothing left to happen. I mean, how do you mess up the start of the race? How does it get any worse than that?”
However, the confidence is high as the driver of the No. 27 United Fiber and Data Honda-powered Dallara comes into the weekend with confidence following strong runs on the streets of Detroit and Houston. With three top-six in four of those races, Hinchcliffe feels that the team has made progress to get better on street course double header weekends, giving him the boost of confidence. Perhaps part of that is knowing what to expect in a double header as this is the second year that IndyCar has gone about doing the double headers as a way to add more dates to the schedule to give fans more bang for their buck, and more chances for drivers to win with less travel taxed on to the teams.
“From a personal standpoint, I changed my preparation based on what I learned in getting ready for the weekend,” Hinchcliffe commented. “Also, the nature of the tracks that we do double headers on are the tracks that we worked on for the bulk of our winter. It’s been coming a little more easier, but they’re still more challenging for the driver and crews. But as we get a better hold on them, they become easier to deal with.”
If Hinchcliffe is able to reach victory lane this weekend, it’ll be huge for the Andretti Autosport team as this year hasn’t gone the way the mayor of Hinchtown would prefer with no podium finishes to date, as he currently sits 11th in points.
“There’s no doubt that it’s been frustrating as I think the team and myself are doing a good job as the hardest thing in IndyCar is simply to be fast and we have been fast,” Hinchcliffe commented. “Though there’s just been things happening. You ask – why did that happen? How did that happen? It’s just been one of those years so it is frustrating because our results aren’t matching the job that we’re doing. In the end, though, I think we’re doing really well as it’s been a lot of being in the wrong place at the wrong time this year.”
When asked whether the performance has been an issue at all, Hinchcliffe noted that hasn’t been the case as they haven’t been getting passed a lot in the final stint of the races, but rather falling victim to bad luck whether it be a yellow flag, being taken out, making a mistake, or getting hit in the head with a piece of debris as he did at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. However, notably, Hinchcliffe says that it would help if they qualified a little better to make the weekend easier.
“Depending on your set-up and tire strategy, your qualifying spot can be detrimental in deciding what you’re doing,” he explained. “In the races I think the car and the team have been competitive to up there every single race.”
Beyond simply qualifying well, there is the added challenge for one of the two races in the form of a standing start versus the traditional rolling start. Despite his subpar experience with standing starts, Hinchcliffe loves them, though also says that perhaps they’re not the best thing for IndyCar.
“As much as I personally like them, from a series point of view, I’m not sure that they belong in IndyCar but the more we do them, the more we get used to the routine of them and the safer they become,” he expressed.
