Canadian motorsport star James Hinchcliffe was back in his hometown briefly this month on the eve of the IMSA weekend July 12-14 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Hinchcliffe (known as Hinch to his fans) is driving this year in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship in local team Pfaff Motorsports’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, which competes in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class. He dropped in for an event with sponsor Canadian Tire to show off the race car’s famous Pfaff red and black plaid – aka Canadian dinner jacket – livery, but due to adverse weather, we had to catch up with him by phone the following week.
For this season he is rounding out the Pfaff roster of four drivers (Oliver Jarvis and Marvin Kirchhoefer, with Alexander Rossi at Daytona) at the endurance events in the 10-race IMSA series. He raced the Daytona Rolex 24 in January, in March at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and will be in the car again for the 10-hour Motul Petit Le Mans at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Hinch’s return to racing follows on the heels of being named to the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame. He has six IndyCar Series victories to his name, along with 16 podiums throughout his career, was the series’ 2011 Rookie of the Year title and was voted Favorite Driver of the Year twice. Hinchcliffe has also competed on Dancing with the Stars and has been heard in the NBC broadcast booth since 2022 for IMSA, IndyCar and Formula One events.
The seed for the 2024 season was planted in 2021, as he retired from IndyCar. “It was always my goal to get involved in IMSA in some capacity. And selfishly, I really wanted to do it with Pfaff just to be able to play the Canadian angle and drive for a Canadian team,” Hinch said.
He started talking then with Pfaff principal Chris Pfaff and general manager Steve Bortolotti about joining the team. But until the team swapped over to McLaren, Pfaff was not able to bring him onboard, Hinch recounted. “So, it’s been something that all of us have been working towards for a few years and we were thrilled to finally be able to make it all happen.”
Being in the car for Daytona was the culmination of a lot of work and waiting, and it turned out to be an excellent learning experience. “It was my first 24-hour race in a car like that in about 12 years and it was nice to get back into it,” Hinch said. “The team did a great job preparing. Obviously, switching manufacturers, that’s a big commitment and it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.”
Unfortunately, “mechanical gremlins” slowed the car down at the start of the race, but the pace was otherwise excellent, he said. “I did most of my learning in the race. You get a couple laps in practice here and there, but in the race, you’re sometimes going for two, three straight hours. And as a driver that’s just great track time to really try to explore the car a little bit and learn all its little quirks.”
Being at the wheel for hours at a time in an endurance race is gruelling work. As for fitness, Hinchliffe says he has been diligent in staying in shape, even through several years being off competition.
“I’ve got a SIM at the house and I try to get on as often as I can,” he said. “Certainly, in the buildup to an event, I’ll spend quite a few hours just kind of blowing the dust off. I stay fit. I train – maybe not quite as rigorously as when I was in IndyCar, but IndyCar is very specific in the demands on the body – but I still maintain a pretty comprehensive training program.
“And then also try to get into a go-kart as often as you can when I’m back in Indianapolis. I know it sounds kind of silly, but they’re a great training tool and really help you keep up your racing reflexes.”
He doesn’t really consider this season a “comeback”. “I like to think in a lot of ways I’ve never left, but I guess, yeah, because I was out of the car for a few seasons, in some ways it’s a comeback and who knows, it could lead to more and more in the future.”
“Keeping this relationship going is important and we’ve built some really great relationships with our partners, especially with Canadian Tire and keeping some Canadian businesses on the car is something we’re really proud of and that’s something we want to keep growing as well. So that’s the focus right now is to just keep this program growing and expand, hopefully, the schedule on track.”