Photo Credit: Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar
On Thursday afternoon as part of media day, hometown driver James Hinchcliffe took part in a media press conference to share his thoughts going into the Honda Indy Toronto, his season to date and the support from the hometown fans. Below is a selection of the quotes.
What are your thoughts entering the weekend? I always love coming home. 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.
How much confidence does the success in Detroit and Houston give you going into this weekend? Being good at both Detroit and Houston gives us a lot of confidence coming into this weekend, and this is not a track that we’re the strongest at so when you look at the double header performance so far in both qualifying and race trim, there’s a lot of confidence versus the past. I think we have made progress over the winter to get better and that makes me excited to get out there.
There’s a lot of obligations as the hometown driver. How do you handle that? It has been a time consuming week being back home as there’s a lot of requests and demands and things like that, but I got a good support system. 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. 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.
Superstitious about Toronto based on past luck? I’m not. 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. 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? My engineer is probably going to kill me for saying that now. I’m not suspicious, but I do have high expectations. However, there’s no reason not to because the cars are running well on track so I am probably more excited than any other year in getting out there as there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be competitive based on what we’ve seen so far this year.
Thoughts on the season so far and having been quick but not yet scored a podium. There’s no doubt that it’s been frustration 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. 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.
Thoughts going into the double header weekend. This year, we were obviously a lot more prepared for them based on the experience last year. From a personal standpoint, I changed my preparation based on what I learned in getting ready for the weekend. 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.
What are your thoughts on standing starts? I love standing starts. I think they’re great. I love that as it puts it in the hand of the drivers more as we’re in charge to just mat the gas, pick the lane that won’t crash going into that. Having said that, it can be tricky to do them as there’s a lot of risk and it certainly hasn’t been a part of American open-wheel racing events. 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.
Thoughts with regards to hometown support. 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. 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.
Outlook for the rest of the season. I figure that I’ll win both of these races, and then the next two and then Fontana and we’re pretty much set. We’re pretty far out of it so there’s nothing less that we’re going for. We’re just bummed that we haven’t had the results that we deserve for the effort that we’ve putting forth and I want to get a couple strong results for the guys and myself because I genuinely think these guys deserve it.
