Photo Credit: Forrest Mellott/IndyCar
For the first time since his scary incident last season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, James Hinchcliffe will return to the oval as part of a series test.
Hinchcliffe, driver of the No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda, was involved in a single car accident last year on May 18 during practice for the Indianapolis 500 when his suspension broke causing him to hit the wall making contact with the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier.
The Holmatro Safety team arrived on the scene and when they tried to lift him out of the car, they noticed that something was holding him in. That was when they realized that a piece of his suspension came through the car’s cockpit and had pierced him in his upper thigh area, impaling him into the car. Once they got him out of the car and into the ambulance they started to transfuse him because he had lost a lot of blood. They rushed him to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. After the surgery he was in the Adult Intensive Care Unit for a few days and then moved to a Medical/Surgical unit for a few more days before he was released.
Hinchcliffe was out of the car and competition for the rest of the 2015 season while he recovered, with his recovery consisting of intensive workouts and physical therapy. There were some days when things were rough and he thought he would never return to the car. However he worked hard and was determined to be back in the car for the beginning of the 2016 season, never giving up. The Canadian was cleared to get back into the car towards the end of the year and was able to test at Road America and Phoenix International Raceway prior to the season.
On March 13, 2016, Hinchcliffe made his return to IndyCar competition at the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg. The race weekend started off great with a good qualification run, qualifying eighth. The race didn’t go so well for him as he was involved in incident that caused him to go a lap down. He never got back on the lead lap and finished the race in 19th place.
Moving on to Phoenix, Hinchcliffe was hoping to put St. Petersburg in the past and bounce back with a solid run and finish at PIR. However that wouldn’t be the case as he wrecked into the wall going into Turn 2 in the first practice of the weekend. The crew worked hard to repair the car for race day so they were not ready for Qualifications later that day, resulting in Hinchcliffe starting the race in 22nd position. The crew worked all night and his car ready for him, however he would only get 15 minutes of practice time before the race. So once the race started he wasn’t keeping up his speed and therefore he fell two laps down and never gained them back; he finished the race in 18th position.
Now moving forward, Hinchcliffe’s focus shifts to the test at Indianapolis. The one-day test at IMS will test the configuration of both the Chevrolet and Honda superspeedway aero kit packages and allow the teams the chance to turn important test laps in advance of practice for the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Penn Grade Motor Oil next month. This will be Hinchcliffe’s first time back on the track since his accident ten months ago.
“I think until you come back to Indy and get those first laps under your belt and get through Turn 3 incident-free, then I think it will be fully closed,” Hinchcliffe said. ” I’m 99.9 percent of the way there. I just need a couple of hot laps through (Turn) 3 and I’ll be good to go.”
Joining him on track are the following drivers listed by teams Andretti Autosport (No. 26 Carlos Munoz, No. 27 Marco Andretti, No. 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay), Chip Ganassi Racing Teams (No. 9 Scott Dixon, No. 10 Tony Kanaan, No. 83 Charlie Kimball), Ed Carpenter Racing (No. 20 Ed Carpenter, No. 21 Josef Newgarden), KVSH Racing (No. 11 Sebastian Bourdais), Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (No. 15 Graham Rahal), Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (No. 7 Mikhail Aleshin) and Team Penske (No. 2 Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 3 Helio Castroneves, No. 12 Will Power, No. 22 Simon Pagenaud).
