TORONTO — Bad luck struck again for James Hinchcliffe at his hometown Honda Indy Toronto event.
Hinchcliffe, from Oakville, Ont., was looking for a strong result in Race 2 of Sunday’s doubleheader and improve upon the eighth-place finish in Race 1.
As clear sunny skies shined on the morning race, gloomy grey clouds hovered above in the afternoon, foreshadowing the future trouble on the horizon.
Hinchcliffe started 13th based on entrant points and moved up into eighth — with his sights set on hunting down Race 1 winner Sebastien Bourdais for seventh — when the rain started to sprinkle on lap 12 of the 65-lap race.
The Andretti Autosport driver prepared to navigate his No. 27 car back to the pits and change to wet tires but he never made it in time. Juan Pablo Montoya had slid into the tires near the treacherous turn eight and Hinchcliffe tried to avoid Montoya but hit the slick infamous concrete patch, spun into Montoya and wrecked his rear wing and suspension.
“It’s such a shame because the guys did such a good job on this car,” a gutted Hinchcliffe said after the race. “We made a pretty significant change in between the two races and the thing was on rails. We picked up a couple positions, we were all over Sebastien, I think it was only a matter of time before we got him and then as the rain started to fall there, we saw a car in turn eight, slowed up a ton to avoid anything but that concrete when it’s got just a little bit of water on it, it’s like ice. The thing was backwards before I could even correct.”
While Hinchcliffe tried to get going again, Mikhail Aleshin drove under Montoya, with Montoya’s No. 2 car literally resting on Aleshin’s helmet. With more pressing matters, Hinchcliffe had to wait before help would come for him.
“Obviously I’m glad Mikhail is okay but because of the severity of that incident, which I should have maybe been one lap down, we ended up being four because I just kind of sat there as they rightly attended to Mikhail,” Hinchcliffe said. “It was so tough not racing with those guys at the end. I didn’t want to mix it up with the lead lap cars, Montoya was on our lap but that was it.”
Hinchcliffe didn’t give up and finished in 18th place, four laps behind race winner Mike Conway. He believes he would have been among the leaders if it had not been for the incident as several other accidents in the race saw an unpredictable finish. Tony Kanaan rebounded from an opening-lap mishap to leap near the front. A traffic jam with four minutes to go brought the race to a halt with a red flag before the shootout to the finish that saw Conway hold on for the win as the race was capped at an 80-minute time limit and ran 56 laps.
“Man, it’s just such a bummer because I think we had a really strong car,” Hinchcliffe said. “I think we could have been up there especially when you see how the carnage played out, if we kept our nose clean we would have been up there.”
Bad luck has been the name of the game for Hinchcliffe, both over this season that has him in 12th place in the championship standings and at the Toronto track. However, Hinchcliffe still puts on a smile and thinks of the positives.
“At least we have two races because before it was the one race that was a nightmare,” Hinchcliffe said. “I guess we’ve got to look at the silver lining there. It’s super unfortunate because like a lot of the time we’ve hit bad luck here, 2012 with the engine problem, last year with the throttle pedal (stalling on the grid). … I think here we were in for a strong result, maybe a top five, who knows. It wasn’t meant to be.”
INDY LIGHTS RECAP: Alex Baron and Gabby Chaves made it a 1-2 finish for Belardi Auto Racing in the Indy Lights Grand Prix of Toronto race.
Baron crossed the finish line ahead of Chaves by just over a second as the 19-year-old rookie from Narbonne, France won from pole position and led all 36 laps to earn his first career Indy Lights victory.
Matthew Di Leo, from Barrie, Ont., was sixth while Toronto’s Zach Meyer sustained suspension damage after making contact with Luiz Razia on the opening lap but managed to finish the race in 10th place.
PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE RECAP: It was a double Canadian finish in the second race of the Pirelli World Challenge. Montreal’s Kuno Wittmer charged away in the No. 92 Dodge Viper SRT GT3R to win the GT class while Toronto’s Mark Wilkins took the GTS class.
“It’s definitely an extremely special feeling winning on home grounds. It doesn’t come close to anything else, really,” Wittmer said. “Hats off to the entire SRT Motorsports team, really awesome job preparing this Dodge Viper SRT GT3R.”
Wittmer finished second to Nick Tandy in Saturday’s race one and the two battled again during race two as the two brushed side-by-side.
“For the race itself it was pretty exciting even from my seat,” Wittmer said. “The fight we had with Nick out there was just really, really good. In my opinion and I think in his opinion as well, it was a clean battle. It would be kind of boring if there wasn’t a little bit of paint exchanged.”
Wilkins, driving the No. 38 Kia Optima, led from flag to flag but it wasn’t easy as he held off Alec Udell by just 0.039 seconds down the final stretch.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” Wilkins said. “Alec Udell drove a fantastic race. He was clean, we had a great battle, he made me drive on the inside of the track more than on the line, which made it a lot of fun and stressful at the same time.”
Both Wittmer and Wilkins wanted to make the most of their opportunity racing on home soil.
“In these North American championships there aren’t a lot of Canadian events,” Wittmer said. “When you do have the chance to race in front of your home crowd, it’s really special racing in Canada. I know I did for 15 years so it was extremely special for me. You look up to be at this level when you’re a young guy and here you are winning in front of the fans that followed you for a long time.”
Wilkins added: “You’ve got to make the most of the opportunities when you get them. That was the goal this weekend and it feels great.”
ANOTHER PODIUM FOR HARGROVE: Spencer Pigot cruised to victory in Race 2 of the Ultra 94 Porsche Cup GT3 Challenge Canada by Michelin but it was second-place finisher Canadian Scott Hargrove who grabbed the attention.
Hargrove was issued a drive-through penalty but powered his way back through the field in order to earn a spot on the podium. The 19-year-old from Surrey, B.C., collected another piece of hardware to go along with the first-place trophy he earned in Saturday’s race one.
