The Verizon IndyCar driver is eager to get back into his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda race car after his serious May 2015 crash at the Indy 500. During practice laps at the famous Indianapolis Brickyard his vehicle experienced a mechanical failure and he slammed into the concrete walls at high speed, putting him in the hospital for several surgeries and off the track during the balance of the 2015 season. He acknowledges that 10 months off the track is a long time for a competitive driver, but racing is what it is all about and he worked hard to get back into the car.
The recovery is progressing well and his pre-race training ends with next week's IndyCar season opener at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 13, 2016. Not only is he back with his old team and major sponsors like Arrow Electronics, SPYDER and Honda in the Number 5 car, he returns with new sponsorship from Petro Canada Lubricants. He said that he is very pleased to have some Canadian sponsors and to wear another Maple leaf on his race suit. This is the home stretch and his engine will be fired up next week for the real deal.
James Hinchcliffe (left) and Daniel Torchia (right)
Welcoming him back to the race season was Daniel Torchia who led a James Hinchcliffe meet the media event at Toronto Downtown Honda on Monday, March 7, 2016. We spent some time discussing the accident and the long process to get back up to speed. James doesn't remember the crash itself, he blacked out during the impact and is impaled by part of the suspension. Emergency personnel get him out of the damaged car and transported him to a nearby hospital where the first surgeries began within an hour.
When he wakes up and meets the doctors he can only communicate by pen and paper, so one of his first questions was when can he get back into a race car? His doctor asked what was wrong with him and he simply said he was a race car driver. Getting better meant strength training on the core and upper body, later followed by leg exercises. One of his major concerns was about the injury to his neck. Driving at high speeds, especially on street courses like the bumpy track in Toronto, puts quite a strain on the neck. Getting back into the car relieved him of his concerns and he said that once he got it out onto the track his normal life resumed.
While PlayStation kept him a little occupied in the off times, he really kept busy with training and being on race track sidelines monitoring the cars and their drivers. He really felt that the support he received was overwhelming and he appreciated the time that people took to reach out to him with cards, cards and messages. These are some photos of James at the 2015 Honda Indy Toronto.
The Mayor of Hinchtown will return to Canadian tracks during the
Honda Indy Toronto 2016 weekend race from Friday to Sunday, July 15-17 in Exhibition Place.
It is a perfect time to visit as Easter Weekend is coming up and he can help deliver chocolate eggs to all the good little girls and boys, after he checks his list once and twice. The bunny sculpture is quite large and illuminated in white light and has been a winner of several art competitions. "They represent the fairytale animals from our childhood – a furry innocence, frolicking through idyllic fields. Intrude deliberately evokes this cutesy image, and a strong visual humour, to lure you into the artwork only to reveal the more serious environmental messages in the work. They are huge, the size referencing “the elephant in the room”, the problem, like our environmental impact, big but easily ignored."
Australian native Amanda Parer now lives in Tasmania but she notes that rabbits have become a massive pest that causes extreme damage to the natural environment, resisting attempts at controlling the population - you know how those bunnies are?
