Luck (finally) was a Lady at Saturday’s Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis as James Hinchcliffe climbed onto the podium for the first time in 2016, with a hard-earned third-place finish in Verizon IndyCar series action.
The result was a far cry from his previous outing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2015 when a horrific crash in practice for the Indy 500 almost took his life and forced him off the track for half a year.
His podium finish was a team effort, the Mayor said.
“It was great to be able to push and not have to save fuel. That yellow in the middle there kind of really helped everybody because the windows here were pretty small up to that point. We had a great car. Huge credit to everybody at Schmidt Peterson. The Arrow Electronics car was great all weekend. Missed the whole first practice. Managed to put it on the second row. Got caught up on some of the restarts there but the guys were awesome in the pits.”
In large part, his finish was due to his start on Saturday. “I thank my team for helping me qualify in the second row. It is a lot easier to get a result when there aren’t too many cars in front of you, especially at the beginning of a race.”
Meanwhile, France’s Simon Pagenaud ran away with his third straight victory Saturday afternoon, following wins at Long Beach and Alabama and remains the prohibitive favorite for the upcoming Indy 500. Helio Castroneves finished second. Graham Rahal, Charlie Kimball and Conor Daly completed the top six.
The Mayor slugged it out with several of the top six, with most of his immediate competition coming in the person of Charlie Kimball, who started No. 2 on the grid, behind pole sitter and eventual winner Pagenaud.
“I had a great battle with Charlie, back and forth, and at any one time, it was hard to say who was going to prevail.”
Late in the race, Helio Castroneves was the competition. “We were way quicker than Helio but just didn’t have enough to get by him. Great result.”
Hinch’s native country will be the beneficiary of his best result of the current Verizon IndyCar season as he has announced that he is donating part of his winnings from Saturday’s race to the Canadian Red Cross to support the more than 14,000 families and dozen communities caught in
the Alberta wildfires earlier this month. “Canadians from coast to coast have opened their hearts and wallets to help our fellow citizens. I feel it is important to help.” Team boss Sam Schmidt and Mike Long of Arrow are joining the Mayor in this endeavour and will match his donation.
The 82-lap race (200 miles), the fifth event on the 2016 schedule, was run on a 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course (clockwise). Full race results are available on IndyCar.com.
The next race on the Verizon IndyCar schedule is the Indianapolis 500 which will take place on Sunday, May 29, with practice beginning on Monday May 16 and qualifications set for May 21 and 22.
For more information on James Hinchcliffe, please visit www.hinchtown.com, like him on Facebook and follow @Hinchtown on Twitter and Instagram.
Off-track action — Once more this weekend, there was another winner of the Hinchtown HandMeDown scavenger hunt. Held in collaboration with IndyCar, this social media scavenger hunt sees an exclusive “Coin” for each race (photo attached) hidden around the track on race day. Photo clues of the location are presented on James Hinchcliffe’s Instagram, Facebook and Twitter account. The finder of the Coin Drop can then take their coin to the Indycar Merchandise Tent where they are presented with a prize pack!
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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