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25 · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, July 15, 2009 READY TO ROAR: Oakville's James Hinchcliffe talks things over with a crew member (above) before hitting the track at the Honda Toronto Indy. Hinchcliffe finished third in the Indy Lights race, his best finish in three starts at the local race, and his fourth podium finish of the season. The 22year-old driver currently sits sixth in the overall point standings. PHOTOS BY GRAHAM PAINE OAKVILLE BEAVER Hinchcliffe lands on podium in Indy Lights homecoming By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Standing on the podium at the Honda Toronto Indy, James Hinchcliffe's career came full circle. Hinchcliffe, driving a car adorned with the city's skyline, delivered his first podium finish in Toronto, placing third in Saturday's Firestone Indy Lights race at the track where he came each year as a kid to watch the greats like Unser and Andretti. "I'm definitely happy. It does mean a little extra on my home track," said Hinchcliffe, who grew up just 34 kilometres west of the exhibition grounds where the race was held. "At the same time it's my fourth third of the year and I'd like to take that step up." So maybe,not full circle...but close. Maybe more like the an oval, fitting since Hinchcliffe has had to adjust to the left-turn speedways in his first season on the new racing series after two years in Champ Car Atlantic. The 22 year old has adjusted well though and with six races left, he remains in contention for the points title. Having earned 35 best qualifying time points in Toronto, and started on the he's in sixth place in front row. There was the standings but just still one more chal14 out of the top lenge to come, three and still within though. After heavy striking distance of rain in the morning, series leader J.R. the track began to Hildebrand. dry and drivers were Though he had forced to pit, changexperience on the ing from the rain temporary Toronto tires to the slicks. street course from "Nobody really the Atlantic series, it Indy Lights standings through 9 of 15 races prepared for that. It turned out that his 1 J.R. Hildebrand 319 was thrown at us at prior knowledge was 2 Sebastian Saavedra 268 3 Mario Romancini 249 the last minute," initially a bit of a 4 Wade Cunningham 242 Hinchcliffe said. "It's detriment. 5 James Davison 236 6 James Hinchcliffe 235 not something the "The Indy Lights 7 Daniel Herrington 218 guys get a lot of car is heavier, has less 8 Ana Beatriz 203 9 Gustavo Yacaman 199 practice at. We lost a grip and more 10 Charlie Kimball 184 bit of time. It was power," Hinchcliffe not a bad stop but said. "Coming to a track it should be an advantage knowing the the AGR guys (first and second place finishlines but in a different car, my first few laps ers Sebastian Saavedra and Hildebrand) were were probably less productive than the guys pretty quick." Hinchcliffe, though, is always up for a coming in with an open mind." Still, Hinchcliffe turned in the second challenge. And the biggest one this season EYES ON THE TITLE has been the oval track events that make up seven of the 15 races on the Indy Lights circuit after racing exclusively on road courses in the Atlantic series. After finishing 12th and 16th in his first two oval races, Hinchcliffe has been seventh and third in the last two. He credits his Sam Schmidt Motorsports team, which has a series best 26 career wins in Indy Lights, for helping him make the adjustment so quickly. "The car has a very different feel on a road course," he said. "Racing on ovals, the Sam Schmidt guys have been able to get me up to speed pretty quickly. They've been winning races on ovals for years and they've been able to help me overcome a lot of things. They're a good group of guys and they've helped make it a lot more manageable." After qualifying in the top three at the last two races, Hinchcliffe is hoping to carry his momentum into the July 25 race in Edmonton. Having won two races on the Atlantic series, he'd like nothing better than to notch his first Indy Lights win in the final Canadian race of the year. Under-11A boys edged in Barrie tourney The Oakville boys' under-11A defeated Aurora in penalty kicks in the semifinals of the Barrie Spirit tournament but the hosts rallied late and edged Oakville in penalties in the championship game. Barrie had not allowed a single goal in the tournament but Oakville scored twice and took a 2-1 lead into the last minute of the final. A penalty call in the Oakville goal area allowed Barrie to tie the game and it would take the title with a win in penalty kicks. Oakville opened the tournament with a pair of 5-0 victories before falling 3-0 to Barrie. Oakville's 2-1 record earned it a spot in the semifinals, where it edged Aurora to set up a rematch with Barrie. Members of the Oakville team are: Ryan Collins, Michael Pupulin, Nicholas Casola, Tim Gibson, Connor Martin, Aidan Wood, Peter Mazur, Seihun Kim, Henry Luel, Ben Perrais, Josh Widman, Quinn McCleary, Marko Vidovich, Bailey Newton and Alex Zis. OAKVILLE SOCCER CLUB Week Eight Photo Contest Winner: Greg Glista Sponsored by: www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver and A Proud Sponsor of Oakville Soccer Club