“I started racing when I was 13 in go-karts. I told my parents I wanted something motorized and they wouldn’t let me have it till I was 13. I finally got started in karts. That’s what I loved. I stopped playing baseball, I stopped playing basketball and started racing. Somewhere along the line, I found myself in an IndyCar so it’s been a pretty incredible journey.”

Josef Newgarden continues his journey this weekend as he will look to tackle the streets of Toronto for the Honda Indy Toronto as he continues his sophomore IndyCar season.

“Toronto is incredible,” he says. “I just love the track. It’s a fun weekend to come race at, it’s a fun weekend to come visit a different city and Toronto is one of the best. They have incredibly passionate fans. Everything about it is good. I love the track. I love the style of racing here. I love the difficulty with the track that arises.”

While some tracks may have a tricky corner or spot, the trick that comes with Toronto is the fact that some parts are asphalt, and some parts are concrete.

“There’s lots of concrete and the concrete comes in and out in each other and really you need to find the apex over each corner of the track,” Newgarden explains. “It’s tough getting the car to work over every corner. It goes asphalt to concrete back to asphalt. The asphalt has tons of grip versus the concrete in the middle of the corner as you lose grip completely. That’s the tough thing about Toronto is figuring out that balance.”

To add to the challenge, the drivers are faced with two races this weekend – one Saturday and one Sunday – instead of the normal one race format that race fans have been used to. The additional race puts an emphasis on what a driver intakes.

“It’s just more emphasis put on hydration and food – what you’re doing with vitamins,” Newgarden says of the two races. “It puts more of a premium on that sort of stuff so that’s the drivers are focusing on. Can’t do much with your training as once your set at your fitness level, you try to maintain that throughout the season. It’s more the hydration that you have to look out for.”

Newgarden heads into Toronto this weekend looking for his first career IndyCar Podium after picking a pair fifth place finishes so far this year.

“It’s been fun, exciting, gone to many different tracks already, which isn’t unusual for IndyCar as we go to all different types,” Newgarden says. “We’re always keeping it fresh and creating a new challenge for the teams and the drivers. It’s been fun. We’ve had a really fun year. We’ve had a couple top fives. Definitely want more; we’re not here to finish fifth. We’re trying to get wins and podiums. This weekend, we have two great opportunities.”

One of the things that is Newgarden’s backpocket is that he is no rookie this year, having ran Toronto last year, and is gotten more used to working with his crew.

“You really have to have an incredible group that works well together and understands what they need from each other,” Newgarden says. “We’re sort of firing on all cylinders now at Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. We understand what we need from each other now and what we want from each other and that’s what I think is happening this year together. You start to get that continuity, that rhythm and this year it’s starting to gel and come together a lot better and that’s been the biggest difference for us.”

Imagine running a full racing schedule going for a championship. Not just any championship, but the American LeMans Series Championship.

Now imagine yourself doing that, while also running some IndyCar races for Panther Racing including the double header in Toronto this weekend.

This isn’t something that is hypothetical. This is what Ryan Briscoe, driver of the No. 4 National Guard IndyCar is doing this year.

“I’m multi-tasking still so it definitely makes it challenging,” Briscoe comments. “Just been hard, but the team has really looked after me and been able to acquire seats that I used last year so that was a big start with getting comfortable in the cockpit. Great groups of guys to work with, very professional.”

Briscoe joined up with Panther Racing mid-season this year, his first start with them coming at Detroit, and has been getting to know the guys a little more each week ever since. With the way his schedule has been, he finally got a chance to be able to see the guys at the shop during the week.

“I definitely am excited,” Briscoe says. “I feel like coming straight off racing Pocono, I was able to go to Indianapolis this week, go to the race shop and spend time with the guys, which is basically been our first time together since our first race at Detroit.

“I feel preparation coming into Toronto is good, just a lot more organized than it’s been for me the previous races we’ve done together, which I think is a confidence boost for me and the team.”

Briscoe has also experienced a change with Panther Racing versus his previous seasons at Penske Racing in that Panther Racing is a single-car operation. Briscoe comments that it makes it even harder because you don’t have a teammate to bounce information back and forth

While Briscoe is working through changes of his own, the IZOD IndyCar Series is throwing curveballs at the drivers with changes and tweaks for this year. Instead of a single-race on Sunday, the IZOD IndyCar Series is running back-to-back races this weekend in Toronto, with one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

“It makes for a really fast-paced weekend, one practice session only before going into qualifying,” Briscoe comments. “So preparation is so important. There’s not much time if you’re off your mark to begin with so you have to be on it. You need to have a good practice to know what you clearly need going into qualifying for race one. Then after that, you’re qualifying for race two and then racing. It all happens quickly.”

Briscoe welcomes the challenge that it brings, as double headers equal more racing for him.

With having the double headers, some would think that maybe drivers would be conservative in race one. However, Briscoe says he doesn’t think so.

“Speaking in general terms as a driver, I would say not,” he says. “But in Detroit, I would say for sure the first race was more conservative than the second race. The second race, pretty stupid actually; everyone was making a lot of boneheaded moves on the restarts, which we didn’t see in race one. So I don’t know why that is.

“In preparation for a race like this, you’d think it may be the same in both races. We may get a little more confident going into the second race and try to get a bit more out of it. I don’t know – we’ll see.”

Oh, and the double header isn’t the only challenge that the drivers are facing. INDYCAR has gone with “standing starts” for the first of the two races. Instead of the traditional rolling starts, the cars will be stopped on the front stretch and have the light countdown.

“That’s going to be interesting, I don’t know what to expect,” Briscoe says. “I hope it all goes well. I don’t see why it won’t, but certainly something new to adapt to.”

The Toronto circuit has thrown Briscoe a curveball in the past, as he has two top seven finishes, along with two finishes outside the top 15 in his four starts.

“I’d say the track is difficult because it’s quite bumpy and it’s got quite a few fast corners for a street course so that’s probably the hardest thing,” Briscoe says. “You’re switching tarmacs quite a bit around this circuit so you’re going from old concrete to new concrete to tarmac, and that’s make the set-up more challenging and adjusting your driving to it.

“It’s a good race track, it’s got lots of passing zones. The passing zones are always tempting; you see a lot of crashes here so something to be aware of during the race to watch out for accidents happening because this race always seems to breed accidents. So it’s something to keep on your mind especially with two races this weekend.”

With having a double-header this weekend and his jam-packed schedule, training is key for Briscoe in keeping him in shape for the season. Briscoe says for drivers, the core of their training comes during the off-season.

“The off-season is where I can take my fitness to another level, where I can improve where I feel I’ve been lacking and try to get my fitness to the next level,” he comments. “Once we get to the season and especially once the month of May begins, you flood out. All the way through May and June till July, and then you get a weekend here and there off. During that period, it’s more maintenance than keeping improving. You just need to try and maintain what you worked on during the off-season and certainly being in a racecar is huge. That keeps your maintenance up, but I just mostly try to keep cardio up during the season.”

As James Hinchcliffe sits in Coronation Park on Thursday morning, hearing him recall memories of Toronto past, you can see the fan that he is of IndyCar racing. As a kid, Hinchcliffe came to the Honda Indy Toronto, having only grown up a half hour away from Toronto in Oakville, Ontario.

“I remember being five, six years old and climbing under the grandstands, meeting Mario Andretti and getting his autograph,” Hinchcliffe recalls. “When the cars were at the fuel tank, a little more open and exposed, I’d go stand there. One of the mechanics let me hold a steering wheel – it was one of the coolest things ever.”

Flashforward to 2013, Hinhcliffe is looking to make his third Toronto start in the IZOD IndyCar Series, driving the No. 27 Go Daddy car for Andretti Autosport.

“It’s one of my favourite weekends of the year getting to come home,” Hinchcliffe says. “This is what started my passion and got me interested in the sport.”

Even though he is back home, it doesn’t give him a ton of time with family due to the commitments.

“It’s part of it,” he says. “I’m here to do a job this weekend. Next weekend we have off so I have taken all of the next week off to stay here in Canada, visit some friends, visit some family.”

Focusing on the weekend ahead, Hinchcliffe is looking for better luck than he has had in the past. In his previous two starts, he has finished 14th and 22nd. He did have some success in Toronto in the past though, finishing third in the Firestone Indy Lights division in 2009.

“The track hasn’t been real good to me,” he says. “We’ve been competitive and I’ve led laps in a different series. But whether it has been mechanical or just being out thought of by guys, I just haven’t had that luck here at all.”

With that in mind, Hinchcliffe is coming into the weekend “with the feeling that everything is going to go wrong”.

It sort of falls along Hinchcliffe’s season so far as he has been fast every week, picking up three race wins, but hasn’t had the consistency with wrecks and mechanical problems taking him out of contention some weeks.

“It’s been way less consistent than it needs to be said,” he says. “I can’t say it’s been a bad year with three wins. I mean, that’s such a huge accomplishment for the team. But we need to have top 10s in between those wins.”

Last year, it was Hinchcliffe’s teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay picking up the win in Toronto.

“He did a great job last year,” Hinchcliffe comments. “Ryan is such a tough competitor and really good on the street circuits. I actually learned a lot from him last year. It’s great to have a teammate like that where you can work together.”

Hinchcliffe says looking back at Hunter-Reay’s win, he remembers the restart before Hinch had the mechanical problems that took him out of the running.

“I was starting right beside him so I know I was in position to win,” Hinchcliffe comments. “So hopefully we’ll have all four cars up there and get one of them to victory lane.”

There’s also the joke that whenever Hunter-Reay comes to Canada, the California native calls himself “Canadian” because his mom was born in Hamilton, Ontario.

“It’s special for him to win here,” Hinchcliffe adds. “If I can’t win and its an Andretti-Autosport driver that is half-Canadian, that’s not a bad guy.”

If Hinchcliffe wants to have success this weekend, he’ll have the master the corner that he calls the toughest for him: turn one.

“Turn one is everything challenging,” Hinchcliffe says. “First you got bumps on the entry, which hurt braking. You have the concrete patch in hte middle of the corner which affects your balance in the middle of the corner, which then leads to a nice long straight. You have to have a good exit or we’re losing time all the way down to turn three. To set up for that, whether set-up of your car or how you plan your way to get through it, it can be a challenge.”

If all that is not enough, just imagine having to do it back-to-back days as for the first time in series history, the IZOD IndyCar Series is running back-to-back races in Toronto with one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The first time IndyCar did that format this year was in Detroit, where it seemed race one was calm while race two had a bunch of incidents throughout.

“We learned a lot in Detroit, but the way the weather unfolded Saturday and all the rest of it, we have a lot to learn,” Hinchcliffe says. “Engineers hate change and rely on 10 years of data and say, ‘We’ll have a caution at this lap’. This is how those guys operate. It’s going to be challenging with strategy and what tires. Those are the things we have to learn.”

Hinchcliffe adds that you will probably see different tire strategies throughout the weekend and there may be a big difference between those who hit the right combination and those who don’t.

Managing the two races, along with the sponsor and media commitments, it’s a challenge that the driver are being faced with.

“All the drivers have upped their physical,” Hinchcliffe says as per the preparation for this weekend. “You have to be conscious about nutrition, hydration over the weekend. Most drivers have physios with them so they can deal with what comes up.”

Hinchcliffe adds that the schedule adds another challenge by the practice time being minimized.

“So if you’re not unrolling with a good car, you’re essentially penalized and it makes it frustrating,” Hinchcliffe says.

If having double races is not enough of a challenge, IndyCar has gone with “standing starts” for the first of the two races. Instead of the traditional rolling starts, the cars will be stopped on the front stretch and have the light countdown.

“That’s going to be a big challenge for us,” Hinchcliffe comments. “We haven’t had a chance to practice that. A lot of guys haven’t done it in years so hopefully we get through it catastrophe free cause we got a race the next to run.”

If you’re not already pumped to come down to the Honda Indy Toronto this weekend with all the new things instore, Hinchcliffe says that you should give it a chance as TV can’t do it justice.

“You have to be here to see it, hear it and smell it,” Hinhcliffe says.