James Hinchcliffe turns 30 today, which seems hard to believe for the perpetually candid, humorous, self-deprecating and fast “Mayor of Hinchtown.”
Hinchcliffe’s junior open-wheel career from karting to the Formula BMW and Star Mazda days, before three years in Atlantic (when I met him in 2007) and onto Indy Lights, eventually led to his finally making it to the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2011, a year when he won rookie-of-the-year.
He took over in what had been Danica Patrick’s GoDaddy car in 2012, won his first three races in 2013, then moved on from Andretti Autosport to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports at the end of 2014.
Of course, you know the story of his accident in practice for the 2015 Indianapolis 500, his recovery, his comeback in late 2015 and then into 2016, then his star turn this year with pole for the 2016 Indianapolis 500 and his phenomenal run on “Dancing with the Stars” this fall.
Hinchcliffe is a driver, showman, comedian, philanthropist, business owner, podcast host, burgeoning dancer, and actually pretty damn smart.
But one of his hallmarks throughout his career has been his videos. Here’s 30 of them, throughout the years, to chronicle how funny and insightful he’s been for such a long time.
PRE-INDYCAR (10: 2010 AND EARLIER)
A disclaimer first: there are more of these, which made condensing the list down to 10 a challenge.
Hinchcliffe’s Kimi Raikkonen imitation is legendary. See the roots of it from 2007, when Hinchcliffe was a sophomore in the Atlantic Championship, and Raikkonen was in his first season at Ferrari. Of course, little did we know then that Raikkonen would win that year’s World Championship, and Ferrari’s most recent.
Remember the old A1GP series? Where it was pitched as a country-versus-country winter series of open-wheel racing? Of course you don’t. And so this is why we show you Hinchcliffe, who raced for A1 Team Canada, going upside-down at a race at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney, Australia. He jokes he was “right-side up.” A then-unheralded German driver named Nico Hulkenberg won both races.
We all hate going to the dentist. By hate, I mean love, right? The simplicity of Hinchcliffe describing a trip to the dentist, in his office/studio/room is something we can all appreciate.
“I love fishes ‘cause they’re so delicious.” Say no more.
Cooper Tires sponsored Atlantic’s pole award at this time for $1,000. Hinchcliffe then explains the travails and exploits of attempting to cash or deposit said “novelty size check.”
IndyCar merged in 2008, as Champ Car and the Indy Racing League came together. Here was Hinchcliffe’s take on it at the time.
In 2008, IndyCar merged, and Road America was not part of the merged schedule - until it returned this year in 2016. But the Atlantic Championship did race at the picturesque road course. And Hinchcliffe, then in his third season in Atlantic, went around the paddock to introduce them to the famous Road America Johnsonville brats (hat tip to my friend and colleague, IMSA PR ace Nate Siebens, who was the videographer on this one). During 2008, Hinchcliffe did a number of experiential videos in Atlantic paddocks; honorable mention goes to this luge one from Mont-Tremblant.
Hinchcliffe’s second season in Indy Lights, 2010, featured a number of funny videos. One of the more underrated ones was when Hinchcliffe, Logan Gomez and Gustavo Yacaman among others set out to paint doors for Habitat for Humanity. Hilarity ensued.
Here’s another one. Hinchcliffe and “Beaver” - who may or may not be Martin Plowman (it is) - tag up international flags in the paddock (honorable mention to the pair of them sitting through a rain delay at Kansas).
Additionally, in 2010, this one featured Hinchcliffe, Conor Daly, Sebastian Saavedra and a couple others in a famous - or infamous - road trip to Iowa.
HOW HINCH GOT GODADDY (1: 2012)
Hinchcliffe’s IndyCar career nearly stalled out after one year through no fault of his own, because the Newman/Haas Racing team he drove for ran out of sponsorship. Andretti Autosport had signed Dan Wheldon to replace Danica Patrick in 2012; however, tragically, Wheldon was killed in the 2011 season finale in Las Vegas. Hinchcliffe got the nod in the No. 27 GoDaddy Chevrolet, and naturally, the story of how he got the nod was done in classic Hinchcliffe form.
A further campaign followed of “Hinch for Homepage” to see him supplant Patrick on GoDaddy.com’s website. Hinchcliffe played tribute to Patrick when in his debut in St. Petersburg in the new car, he wore a Patrick-esque wig for driver introductions.
MORE EARLY INDYCAR (3: 2012)
One of my all-time favorite IndyCar videos. Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball and JR Hildebrand were all part of IndyCar’s 2011 rookie class - arguably its strongest class in years. And, because they have similar sounding names and two of the three are from California, they attempt to explain who they are in this 2012 video.
In 2012, Hinchcliffe was a sophomore, and Josef Newgarden was a rookie. The immortal “we don’t speak of the gnomes” line from Newgarden, when Hinchcliffe toured Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing’s shop, was born here.
Hinchcliffe scored his first IndyCar podium at Long Beach 2012, benefiting from a late-race penalty assessed to Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, which came with a sidebar. After losing a bet to Wade Cunningham because he made the podium, Hinchcliffe’s trademark beard was shaved off.
INDYCAR WIN RECAPS (4: 2013-2015)
Hinchcliffe broke through as an IndyCar race winner in 2013, following a spirited defense against Helio Castroneves at the St. Petersburg season opener. Adding to the emotion of the moment was the fact Hinchcliffe won in the Wheldon’s adopted hometown, in what would have been Wheldon’s No. 27 GoDaddy car.
Also in 2013, Hinchcliffe delivered his most famous IndyCar win to date. His second win came at the Sao Paulo Indy 300, following a last-lap, last-turn pass of Takuma Sato to secure the victory.
Hinchcliffe’s most dominant win in his career to date came at Iowa in 2013, when he led 226 of 250 laps in a beatdown.
Rain and cautions peppered IndyCar’s lone trip to NOLA Motorsports Park in 2015. In an otherwise forgettable weekend, the strategy call from Robert Gue stood out to position Hinchcliffe for his fourth career win, first with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and most recent of his career.
THE RECOVERY FROM INDY CRASH (1: 2016)
A number of good videos were produced in the aftermath of Hinchcliffe’s accident in practice for the 2015 Indianapolis 500. Our NBCSN one from earlier this year is below; several other good ones are linked in this sentence (Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital; Arrow Electronics; INDYCAR with Spyder), among others.
THE INDY POLE RUN (1: 2016)
Hinchcliffe’s pole run for the 2016 Indianapolis 500 is featured in the highights from INDYCAR, linked above.
OFFSEASON VIDEOS, ALMOST ALWAYS STARRING HINCH (3: 2012-2016)
One of IndyCar’s hallmarks is utilizing Hinchcliffe in its offseason arsenal of videos. See a few of them, below:
Fall 2014: Hinchcliffe signs with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, and a beer ride down to the Indiana Pacers’ Bankers Life Fieldhouse happens (a certain MST writer makes a cameo here).
Early 2015: IndyCar vs. Mardi Gras
Fall 2016: IndyCar Test Drive (featuring multiple drivers)
DANCING MAN (6: 2016)
Here’s six of the best dances/moments between Hinchcliffe and professional partner Sharna Burgess on the 23rd season of “Dancing with the Stars,” where Hinchcliffe finished second to Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Laurie Hernandez.
Rumba: After this performance, judge Julianne Hough called Hinchcliffe the “best male dancer” in the show’s history.
Halloween Viennese Waltz (with interim professional partner Jenna Johnson). This one went viral.
Paso Doble Team Up where Hinchcliffe and Calvin Johnson were in the same group.
Tango: When Sharna came back after a knee injury, and was promptly blindfolded.
Trio Jive, where James, Sharna and Jenna danced together and where the No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda made an appearance.
Finals: Freestyle, that is the dancing/artistic representation of closing that “blank space” to his accident in Indy.
THE MONTAGE THAT SAYS IT ALL (1: 2011-2016)
If the above clips didn’t capture everything we were trying to set out for here, we hope this one created by this YouTube user does. The respective INDYCAR 36 (2012) and IndyCar Chronicles (2015) episodes of Hinchcliffe, done by IMS Productions, are linked here.
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As you can see, Hinchcliffe has been in a lot of videos over the last decade, and this post only scratches the surface of all he’s been in.
But it’s been a great 30 years - with the last 11 in particular since his debut in Atlantic in 2006 where he’s firmly been part of the open-wheel racing establishment, and the last six in IndyCar from 2011 to 2016 where he’s taken that next level.
Happy birthday, Hinch. May there be many more years to come with many more videos added along the way.