Racer - August 2013

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE Born Dec. 5, 1986/Oakville, Ontario

• After finishing top rookie in FBMW, took third in Star Mazda in 2005.

• Spent three years in Atlantics, twice finishing fourth in the title race.

• Two years in Indy Lights culminated in championship runner-up in ’ 10.

• IndyCar debut with Newman/Haas in 2011 and won Rookie of the Year. QUICK NOTES

Scott R Le Page/LAT
LAT archive

Between 2006 and ’08, Hinchcliffe made 20 starts for Team Canada in the A1 Grand Prix series, with a best result of second place at Brno.

Michael Levitt/LAT

As a proud Canadian, Hinch is a huge fan of the late Greg Moore, and carried a pair of Moore’s red gloves with him when he qualified second for the 2012 Indy 500.

assessment of a setup – and we said, “Thank God we have three teammates to get data from otherwise we’d be screwed.” Doing that by yourself, and having such restricted track time…I think Josef and his team are doing great.

And what’s your philosophy on how spec the cars should be? Isn’t developing a car part of what makes a great driver?

JH People talk about Indy car racing’s heyday, but guys could win races by two laps back then! If you appreciate what’s happening, you’d enjoy the race. But the modern sports fan is less inclined to tune into something like that. In 1992, when Scott Goodyear finished right behind Al Unser Jr in the Indy 500, Michael [Andretti] had been leading by a lap when his engine blew with 12 to go. It was actually one of the worst races in Indy history – freezing cold, so a ton of crashes and full-course cautions – yet it’s remembered as one of the greats because the guy who should have won blew up, and the guys in second and third were running so close that it became a race for the lead by default.

My point is, fans love close racing,
so we have to be careful in a technology-
reliant sport that we don’t go to, say,
Milwaukee and end up with just three
cars on the lead lap at the end.
JN I agree with all of that and I think
we’ve put on great racing this year. But
the other side is that IndyCar has to stay
relevant from engineering and technical
standpoints. Trying to get kids interested
in engineering through STEM is not going
to happen if there’s not enough of that
engineering ingenuity element. So there’s
got to be a balance. You still want fans to
go to a race knowing 15 or 20 cars could
win, but you must allow a technical side,
too, so it’s relevant to manufacturers,
where what they do makes a difference.

Paul Webb/LAT

Hinch helped make Team Moore into a strong Indy Lights team, and three wins meant he took the 2010 title battle down to the final round.

But are the fans drawn in most by a surprise result or a great race? I’ve got a feeling that if Josef dominated a race, people would rejoice, and if there was a great duel between Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, but they totally dominated, they’d yell, “Boring!” JH Well, you won’t see that because it’s so open. Fans just like good racing. Five years ago, there were only five cars racing for a win. Now there are 15.