IndyCar 2017 driver review: JR Hildebrand - MotorSportsTalk

MotorSportsTalk continues its annual review of the Verizon IndyCar Series drivers that raced in 2017. American JR Hildebrand made a welcome return to full-time action, but struggled more often than not in an ultimate one-and-done season with Ed Carpenter Racing.

JR Hildebrand, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

2016: 23rd place (2 starts), Best Finish 6th, Best Start 15th, 0 Top-5, 1 Top-10, 4 Laps Led, 15.5 Avg. Start, 14.0 Avg. Finish
2017: 15th place, Best Finish 2nd, Best Start 2nd, 2 Podiums, 2 Top-5, 2 Top-10, 42 Laps Led, 15.2 Avg. Start, 13.6 Avg. Finish

There was a lot of optimism around JR Hildebrand at the start of the year upon his welcome and deserved return to a full-time ride in IndyCar for the first time in five years. Sadly by the end of the year, with revisionist history, it appears the optimism was misguided after Hildebrand endured a challenging season thanks to a variety of factors, and now sees him sidelined after just one season.

Hildebrand, who’s an adjunct professor at Stanford and deferred his MIT enrollment and new engineer Justin Taylor, an Audi LMP1 sports car veteran, presented a pairing that on paper was high on fresh ideas and IQ points. The meeting of the minds though resulted in IndyCar setups that were largely outside the box, and rarely paid dividends in terms of actual finishes.

With the baseline ECR setup on ovals from 2016, Hildebrand shone brightest. A brilliant third place occurred at Phoenix, and came only a week after missing Barber with a broken bone in his left hand. Similarly at Iowa, he was unlucky to lose the pole because Will Power beat his time going out last, and then lost the race win in traffic before finishing second to Helio Castroneves. Other oval races saw missed opportunities, with a penalty at Indianapolis and crashes at Pocono and Gateway – although neither was Hildebrand’s fault.

Somewhat surprisingly those two podium finishes were Hildebrand’s only top-10 finishes all year, and the gambles on road and street courses didn’t come good. Spencer Pigot out-qualified him in seven of the 10 races they were teammates. Granted there were a couple times Hildebrand got unlucky, running deeper into a fuel stint and then getting caught out by a yellow flag, but those were few and far between.

It was disappointing that the Hildebrand/Taylor tandem didn’t pay off in the way ECR might have hoped. And more disconcertingly for Hildebrand, now 29, having been afforded a second full-time chance, he may not get another one from here.

Follow @TonyDiZinno

In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

Read more about SuperMotocross