Following a great championship season in 2012, Ryan Hunter-Reay came into 2013 as one of the guys to beat. However, a mix of mechanical issues and incidents on track took the American out of the championship picture, resulting in a seventh place finish in points with a win at Barber Motorsports Park.
Fresh off celebrating his birthday, Hunter-Reay will be one of the drivers in attendance at the test at Sebring Raceway on December 18th. Hunter-Reay is looking for a stronger 2014 season as the team switches from Chevrolet power to Honda power.
“It’s great to continue with the same group of guys and working again with my engineer Ray (Gosselin) and my teammates James (Hinchcliffe) and Marco (Andretti). We just need to keep pushing forward and keep evolving,” he said. “We barely let the Indy 500 get away from us and I think we had a pretty good season. We had three poles, two wins and we should have had another win or two in there. I think we can hopefully go out and do that again. We’re starting anew with Honda and we’ve got a chance to really take our game to a new level.”
Though like any other driver, Hunter-Reay has taken advantage of the off-season to spend time with family and take part in other events. The 2012 Series Champion took part in the Dolphins Cycling Challenge to raise money for cancer research.
“There are more than 2,000 riders and it raised almost $2 million (primarily for the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center),” he said. “Racing for Cancer is a small beneficiary of the Dolphins Cycling Challenge and my personal sponsor AutoNation is heavily involved. I rode with Team AutoNation.
We started in Boca Raton and rode to the Dolphins Stadium in Miami, which is about 45 miles. It was a lot of fun. It’s great to be out with everybody doing that. You really feel the energy behind it. Hopefully, that will be a regular on the off-season schedule.”
Hunter-Reay will spending Christmas with his family, including his wife Beccy and son Ryden. Ryden will be turning one on December 28th so Hunter-Reay says the holiday should be a lot of fun.
“He’s laughing a lot right now. The highlight of my day is waking up and seeing his face. It’s a lot of fun,” he added. “For his first birthday, he loves Mickey Mouse. That’s one thing that captures his attention. It’s amazing how that works. An (85-year old) cartoon mouse, that’s his hero. I think I come a close second when I’m in my race suit, but Mickey Mouse takes the cake. We’ll probably have some sort of Mickey Mouse-themed party for him.”
