TORONTO — James Hinchcliffe knows he could just as easily be starting near the back of the field for Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto.
Instead, the Oakville, Ont., native qualified sixth at his hometown track for the second year in a row. Considering he was able to convert last season’s effort into a third-place finish to earn his first podium at home that seems fine with him.
“Obviously last year getting into the Fast Six was pretty good for us, the best start we’ve had here, and to match that this weekend is pretty good,” Hinchcliffe said following Saturday’s qualifying. “We’ve been struggling a little bit, to be honest. We’ve been kind of on the back foot and really needed to find something for qualifying.”
“Coming into qualifying with the Penske brigade doing what they’ve been doing in practice, we all kind of thought like we were fighting for fifth and sixth, so huge credit to Graham [Rahal] and Scott [Dixon], having three Hondas in the top six is great,” he added. “We turned this into a podium last year so fingers crossed we’ve got strong race cars in the race and stay out of a big mess and go from there.”
Hinchcliffe admitted his team made a tire tactical error during Saturday’s first round of qualifying that put them behind the pack and in danger of starting no better than 14th.
A quick switch from blacks to reds and Hinchcliffe improved slightly, but it was also a lucky break that helped push the Canadian driver into the second round when Esteban Gutierrez slammed into the wall at the final turn. Not only did that bring an abrupt finish to the session, Gutierrez was penalized and stripped of his two fastest times, which allowed Hinchcliffe to squeeze into the next round.
Another crash involving J.R. Hildebrand led to a one-lap shootout to wrap up round two and Hinchcliffe, who was on the bubble once more, laid down his fastest lap to advance to the Firestone Fast Six.
“When you only have one or two laps of good tire to get that lap time on the reds, having to make that much bigger of a jump had I started on stickers, that put us behind a little bit. We were on a lap that maybe would have got us in by the skin of our teeth when Esteban had his accident,” Hinchcliffe said. “I hadn’t realized he was ahead of us at the time, so I thought we were out and luckily we got in. Q2 we earned that one in a one-lap shootout. We just laid it all on the line there and put together our best lap of the weekend, so that one felt good for sure. Knew it was going to be a struggle to get much higher than sixth just based on what we’ve seen out of these guys in practice.”
Hinchcliffe will have to find an extra gear on race day to thwart the Team Penske squad, who have been running at high octane all weekend. Penske’s Simon Pagenaud will start on pole position after throwing down a record 58.9124-second lap time. Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing starts second and must feel like he’s in the middle of a Penske sandwich with two of the team’s other drivers, Will Power and Helio Castroneves, starting third and fourth, respectively.
Power has won at Toronto thrice before while Castroneves is coming off of a win last weekend at Iowa that snapped a three-year victory drought.
Points leader Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing starts fifth on the grid right next to Hinchcliffe and the New Zealand driver has been struggling to keep pace.
“It’s just really been a rough weekend for us as far as speed and just to drive the car has been a handful and really hard to keep control of,” said Dixon, a two-time Toronto winner. “I think this morning we were P17 so we made some good strides to make it to the Firestone Fast Six, ultimately fifth. … All in all, pretty good recovery. [We’ve] got a lot of work to get done and make the car a little bit better, I think, for tomorrow in the race. The competition is definitely very strong right now, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully we’ll get a little bit lucky. We led most of the way in the race last year until we got hosed on the yellow there and went to the back.”
Josef Newgarden was the lone member of the Penske quartet to miss out on the Firestone Fast Six, but just barely as he starts seventh. All four Penske drivers had been atop of the speed charts with a 1-2-3-4 sweep during Saturday morning’s practice session.
[relatedlinks]
It’s just a little bumpy
The Toronto track has always been known for it’s bumps, but not quite like what we’ve seen at turn one this year.
Check out Rahal bucking like a bronco bouncing along the bumps on the front stretch during the morning practice.
Thompson taking over Toronto
Parker Thompson had to keep his nerves in check prior to Race 1 of the USF2000 GP of Toronto.
The 19-year-old from Red Deer, Alta., had targeted this specific race as the one he wanted to win the most when he joined Exclusive Autosport pretty much at the last minute before the season started.
Thompson managed to hold down his nerves (and championship leader Oliver Askew) just fine as he dominated Saturday’s race starting on pole position and leading all 25 laps to victory.
“I almost threw up before the race and I’ve never done that before, so it was quite interesting how my body took it,” an ecstatic Thompson said after the race while draped in a Canadian flag. “I knew what kind of pressure I was under today getting this win for the Canadian fans, but to go out there and get the job done, words don’t describe it.
“I’m so happy not only for my team who gave me this opportunity to be here but also for the Canadian fans. We need more Canadians in motorsport and to be one of the only Canadians on the Mazda Road to Indy and to win in our home country is a celebration for the whole Toronto Grand Prix and hopefully for the whole country.”
WE DID IT!!! Nothing has ever felt better than holding that flag up for a win in the homeland! Thank you to everyone who believed in me! pic.twitter.com/nKzzWnN6tW
— Parker Thompson (@parkertracing) July 15, 2017
Askew was just 0.873 seconds behind Thompson to the finish line and Rinus VeeKay finished third on the podium. Thompson called it the most emotional win of his career thus far.
“The feeling is absolutely unbelievable and I think it’s even more amplified when you win with a Canadian team,” Thompson said. “Exclusive Autosport is fully Canadian, every member on it is pretty well Canadian, so to win not only with a Canadian home crowd but also a Canadian team, the words just don’t describe it.”
Even though Thompson finished second in the IndyCar feeder series last season, his future in auto racing was very much in doubt without another ride lined up immediately for 2017. Thompson is grateful Saskatoon-based Exclusive Autosport took the chance on him to return to the USF2000 Series as there was a lot more on the line in Toronto than just a trophy.
“It means that I might have a career in motorsports if I can keep it up and at the end of the day that’s all I can ask for,” Thompson said. “Just like in any athlete’s career, there have been some dark times, especially in the last 12 months. I didn’t have a ride until about February when I signed my deal with Exclusive Autosport whereas with most race car drivers their deals are done well before even the fall, possibly after the race season is done they already have deals done for next year. So there was a lot of waiting around and I pretty well took the year off.”
Only half the battle is complete though with the series hitting the track again Sunday to complete a doubleheader and Thompson is pumped to attempt a sweep.
“Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a mix-up — obviously with the weather, we don’t know what’s going to go on — but we’re starting fourth tomorrow so we need to go out and see what we can do,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day we got that win and I’m happy. There’s a little bit of weight off our shoulders now that we’ve got the first one out of the way with and we’ll see what we can go make happen in the second one.”
