THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — It was a tough day for Canadian drivers at the Honda Indy Toronto on Sunday as all three were involved in incidents that left them well back of the pack for most of the race.
Toronto rookie James Hinchcliffe had the best result of the trio with a 14th-place finish in a race that had little flow due to the steady stream of caution flags. Hinchcliffe was involved in a five-car collision late in the race that knocked him out of contention.
It was Hinchcliffe’s first start at Exhibition Place with IndyCar after years on the lower-tier circuits and a lifetime as a local fan watching from the grandstands.
"It was a blast," Hinchcliffe said. "When we got ourselves back up into the top 10 there and we were running top rookie and top Canadian and doing a decent job, I was going to be pretty happy with our recovery.
"It’s just an unfortunate incident, I’m not quite sure what happened with Justin (Wilson) and Oriol (Servia) there. I nearly cleared them but just not quite."
Hinchcliffe had started from the No. 13 position. Toronto veteran Paul Tracy was 16th while Alex Tagliani of Lachenaie, Que., didn’t finish.
Hinchcliffe, who touched tires with Tracy midway through the race, said he’s trying to earn respect in his rookie season with Sprott/Newman/Haas Racing.
"It’s not just Paul, I’ve got to prove to all these guys that I’m here to race," Hinchcliffe said. "I’m not going to back down if I think it’s my corner. … I’ve got to make sure that people know I’m going to hold my ground too."
Hinchcliffe, 24, is enjoying a decent campaign. His best finish this season was fourth at the Toyota Grand Prix in Long Beach, Calif., and he also raced to a respectable ninth in Sao Paulo.
Hinchcliffe picked up victories last year in Long Beach, Edmonton and Chicagoland and finished second overall in the Indy Lights championship for Team Moore Racing. He said he enjoyed performing in front of his hometown fans and many family members who were in attendance.
"I’m super-happy with our performance," Hinchcliffe said. "We had a problem in qualifying that hit our speed a little bit. I think we should have started a little bit higher and that would have been good. In our pace in the race, we were good on primes (tires), we were good on alternates, we were passing people, we were keeping up with people. The team did good stops.
"So overall other than the finish, right up until about six laps to go, we were having a really good race."