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DAILY MIRROR : NEWS
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Hinch Wraps Atlantic Season with Podium
10/04/2008
Toronto, Ontario (October 04, 2008) James Hinchcliffe returned to the podium with a third place effort at Road Atlanta as the 2008 Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda concluded with Round 11 at the Georgia track on Friday 3rd October.

Absent from the top-three since Round 5 in Edmonton back in July, the 21-year-old Toronto racer wrapped his Atlantic season piloting the Forsythe Pettit Racing #3 INDECK/TireRack.com entry with his fourth podium of the year and his sixth top-five finish in eleven starts. Hinchcliffe, who won Round 2 and had twice led the Driver Standings earlier in the season, finished the year fourth overall in the points, equaling his final placing from last years championship.

After a rare qualifying slot outside the top-ten at the previous round at Miller Motorsports Park, James returned to the sharp-end of the grid at the 2.54-mile Road Atlanta track, situated in Braselton, Georgia. Sixth fastest in the first qualifying session, the second outing proved to be the quicker of the two with Hinch securing a fourth row start slot with the seventh quickest time, his lap a 1m14.778s (122.282mph) to pole-sitter Jonathan Summertons 1m14.137s (123.339mph) a new Atlantic lap record.

A good start saw James gain a couple spots to target the podium in what was the championship deciding race. A hectic re-start following a late caution period allowed James to fight for his podium finish, the Canadian emerging victorious from a five car tussle. At the checkered James claimed third behind countryman Kevin Lacroix in second and race winner and 2008 Atlantic Championship Champion Markus Niemela from Finland.

I have to say it was great to get back onto the podium to finish the year, said Hinchcliffe. It was a nice finishing touch and felt great after recent results even if it was a bit fortunate. Our pace was there though; I messed up qualifying a bit on Thursday but knew the car was quick. I have to say congratulations to both Markus Niemela and Brooks Associates Racing for their championship success. Its been a rollercoaster season but weve ended it on a high note!

Top-Five Atlantic Drivers R11/11: 1st Niemela (FIN) 245pts Champion, 2nd Bomarito (USA) 228pts, 3rd Summerton (USA) 204pts, 4th HINCHCLIFFE (CAN) 196pts, 5th Strous (NED) 196pts www.atlantic-championship.com

The 2008 Atlantic Championship will be broadcast on SPEED throughout November and December. For a full broadcast schedule please log on to www.speedtv.com

ENDS www.hinchtown.com
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Hinch Wraps Atlantic Season with Podium
Hinchcliffe to Road Atlanta for Season Finale
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DAILY MIRROR : RACE RESULTS
HINCHtown.com

Road America Race Results
08/12/2007
1. Franck Perera (Condor Motorsports)
2. Raphael Matos (Sierra Sierra Motorsports)
3. Carl Skerlong (US Race Tronics)
4. Jonathan Bomarito (PR1 Motorsports)
5. Giacomo Ricci (Conquest Racing)

14. James Hinchcliffe (Sierra Sierra Entreprises)
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THE MAYOR'S BLOG

Brands Bull
05/09/2008
 
I have recently returned from my trip across the pond for the final round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Brands Hatch. It was an interesting weekend and I must say it was an interesting weekend and it was nice to be back in the A1 paddock, and of course the A1 car, after a seven-month absence.

I will be the first to admit that things were stacked against me a little bit and that it took me a little while to get back up to speed with the car. It really is the anti-Atlantic car. The Atlantic car has lots of down force and overall grip, but lacks a little bit of horsepower. The A1 car has buckets of power and barely any downforce. On top of that, Brands is one of the toughest circuits I have ever been to, and having never driven it before it took me a while to figure out some of the tricks of this quirky road course.

Having said all that, the race itself was a disaster for Team Canada. The team had given me a really good car and if it hadnt been for a bit of trouble in qualy, we would have been starting in a decent place. In the feature, we got 3 penalties; 2 drive throughs and 1 stop and go. And I have a serious issue with one of them. During the first stop, I was exiting pit lane with another car was released into pit lane beside me. I was in the outside, or fast, lane. The rules in A1 say that if you are on the inside lane with a car beside you, you must slow down and merge into the fast lane. Team Switzerland was actually penalized for that very infraction in Mexico City. The driver beside me chose to ignore this rule and we exited pitlane side-by-side. As a result I was forced outside of the white blend line while returning to the track. I had no choice, as there was another car beside me that should not have been there to begin with.

Instead of penalizing the driver who broke a rule in pitlane and caused an unsafe situation, I was penalized for going outside with white line when re-entering the racetrack. This was simply the wrong call. It was a blatant case of inconsistent officiating and frankly shows some of the weaknesses in this championship. The whole team was incredibly disappointed. Frankly, if I could have driven the car straight into the race control tower after the race, I would have.

As a team we had some redemption in taking the second fastest race lap, proving we had the pace and had things played out a little different, we could have kept up the good form we have had all season. We did, despite all this, have an excellent night on Monday at the awards Gala, and celebrated a great season. Congrats to Team Ireland and to Robbie Wickens for taking home two awards each.

It was a great season three for Team Canada and I want to thank Simon, Maxwell, Greasley, Martin, Chitty, Paul, Mark, Dan, Simon, Pete, Daniel and Robbie for a great year. Here is to Team Canada in season 4.

Hinch
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