Oakville, Ontario – June 16, 2005. – AIM Autosport pilot and Canadian James Hinchcliffe (Emexis Integrated Solutions, Noco Racing, Mobil 1, Pit Fit Training, AIM Autosport #98), had a tough event this past weekend at the Star Mazda series presented by Goodyear at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec.
With schedule limitations, series officials eliminated the qualifying session to add an extra practice round and forced drivers to start the event according to current championship points. This allowed Hinchcliffe to start inside row three at the first Canadian stop in the series.
At the start of the race Hinchcliffe pushed hard and by lap three was running 2nd right with the leader. Biding his time, the Oakville, Ontario resident sat in P2 waiting for the perfect opportunity to make his move. An engine glitch in Hinchcliffe’s Pro Mazda, didn’t allow the Canadian to have the pull out of the second gear corners that he needed and was passed on two separate occasions.
“It wasn’t a big problem,” explained Hinchcliffe. “The major issue we had was the brake fade. After about 8 laps the brakes were so hot the lost a lot of their potential. Knowing that I couldn’t hold my fellow competitors at bay, I let them have the position when they got beside me as I tried to gain as many championship points as possible.”
Problems would not end there for the talented pilot as lapped traffic would wreck havoc on the rest of his day. Trying to pass a slower competitor, Hinchcliffe was forced into the outside retaining wall, allowing two more cars to pass. An incident in the hairpin caused contact damaging his front wing and suspension. Falling back to 6th, Hinchcliffe marched on in hopes of completing the entire race distance.
On the final circuit a few corners from the end, another car had attempted a pass that could not be reasonably achieved. The #98 Mazda could not avoid the car and launched off his wheel and spun through the air. Hinchcliffe was again in the wall doing considerable damage to his ride but kept the car running and limped it across the finish line for an 8th place result.
“I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” stated the Rookie-of-the-Year candidate. “If something was going to happen out there, it was going to happen right in front of me. I would like to thank everyone from the AIM Autosport squad for another great car, I think that we could have came home victorious from this race but without bad luck, we would have no luck at all. I’d also like to thank Pit Fit Training, NOCO Racing and especially Emexis Integrated Solutions. It was great to have all my family and sponsors there and just disappointing we couldn’t be on the podium where we all deserved to be this weekend.
The Canadian pilot sits 3rd in the Rookie-of-the-Year standings and only 14 points out of the lead.
Hinchcliffe’s next on track activity will be testing at the famed Road America circuit as he will look towards victory at the event.
For sponsorship opportunities and more information on James Hinchcliffe and the Star Mazda series, please contact James at 416-522-7470 or via email at james@jameshinchcliffe.com. For up-to-date news releases, race schedules, results and photos, please visit www.jameshinchliffe.com
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