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Hinchcliffe rewards hometown fans with podium finish in Toronto By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff 31 | Thursday, July 21, 2016 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com If it felt like a lifetime for James Hinchcliffe to stand on the podium at the Honda Indy Toronto, it's because, well, it pretty much has been. Attending the race for the first time when he was 18 months old, Hinchcliffe has watched his share of drivers spray champagne on the Toronto crowd. His hometown race inspired him to pursue the dream of being one of those drivers. Even when he finally achieved that goal six years ago, the Toronto race wasn't always kind to him. From his debut in 2011, when he was running sixth only to have his tire go flat following a runin with fellow Canadian Paul Tracy, the racing gods never smiled on him. In the following years there was a stuck throttle, engine problems, you name it. Until Sunday. "For once in my career here in Toronto, we caught a lucky break," said Hinchcliffe, who had never finished higher than eighth in his six previous Toronto starts. "It's not that I've just had great luck here, it's that I've had insanely bad luck here. And so today we were finally on the other side of that." A timely pit stop vaulted Hinchcliffe from 10th to third, after many of the leaders were forced to pit under caution, sending them to the back of the field. Despite having to nurse his car around the Exhibition grounds track for the final 39 laps (fuel lasts about 31 laps under normal racing conditions), Hinchcliffe was able to hold off Tony Kaanan to take third place and earn his second podium finish of the season and the 10th of his career. "There's no doubt this is going to be a highlight day in the career. Hopefully we can better it in the future. It would be so great to win here, but I always just wanted to give the Toronto fans a good result to cheer for because they've been so supportive from Day 1 in my IndyCar career, whether the results were good, bad or indifferent." Hinchcliffe finished behind Will Power, who earned his third victory in Toronto, and Helio Castroneves, who got by the local favourite with 10 laps remaining. But moments after Castroneves made his pass on the Lakeshore Boulevard straightaway, race leader Kaanan pitted for fuel. Hinchcliffe passed Kaanan as he exited the pits, keeping him in third. But he still had to hold him off. And while a late caution seemed to be just what Hinchcliffe needed to make it to the end, he said by that time, he knew he could finish. That made for a nervewracking restart on the final lap. "I knew it was going to be a one-lap Oakville's James Hinchcliffe sprays the Honda Indy Toronto fans with champagne after a third-place finish in Sunday's race. After years of bad luck at his hometown race, Hinchcliffe finally caught a break on his way to his first podium finish in Toronto. | photo by Joe Skibinski -- IndyCar dash and restarts here, you just never know," he said. "But when I came around Turn 11 and saw the whole grandstand stand up and cheer, I thought, `I can't screw this up." His podium finish allowed him to jump five spots in the driver standings to eighth, one point behind Alex Rossi in seventh. Hinchcliffe began the day with his best-ever qualifying position in Toronto, sixth. After a good run early, the car didn't perform as well after the first pit stop and Hinchcliffe fell as far back as 16th in the 22-car field. "We were really struggling for pace," he said. "I was just trying to hold on to the thing, to be honest. We weren't entirely sure how it was going to play out." For once, it played out as he hoped. "As the track cooled down, the cloud cover came, the car started coming to us," he said. "I wasn't sure we were going to be able to keep T.K. (Kaanan) behind us, but he ran a million laps on the tires. What we had to give up on the straights, he was losing on the corners. We were able to make it stick on the last restart and get a good result." So we've brought back the Best of the Best! OAKVILLE SOCCER CLUB Week Nine Photo Contest Winner: Photographer: Lindsay Zangari Age Division: GU6 Oakville Chrysler Team Durango Starting 12:01 am Promo code: 6BDAY Oakville Beaver A Proud Sponsor of Oakville Soccer Club Sponsored by: Join us for our huge once-a-year 20% sitewide promo! Visit WagJag.com Valid July 21st, 2016 12:01 AM EDT to 11:59 PM EDT. Valid on all offers transacted on WagJag.com. Other conditions apply see WagJag.com/GroupBuyTerms. Excludes travel & grocery.