The View From Upside Down-Under (S)

The View From Upside Down-Under

Montréal, Canada (February 07, 2007) - When 
you're racing in the southern hemisphere, 
particularly 'down-under' in Australia, the last 
thing you expect is to be facing the right way up 
for the northern hemisphere but that's exactly 
what happened to A1 Team Canada's James 
Hinchcliffe last weekend in Round 7 of the 
2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.

The 20-year-old Toronto rookie survived a 
heart-stopping 160kph double barrel roll on the 
opening lap of the 70-minute Feature race at the 
Eastern Creek International Raceway on Sunday, 
the Canadian ending his race prematurely parked 
upside down in Turn 4's gravel trap.

Hinchcliffe's spectacular crash followed a solid 
start but as the pack headed to Turn 4, James' 
right-rear tire was tagged by the front-left tire 
of A1 Team Singapore's Christian Murchison as he 
dived up the inside attempting to secure the 
racing line.  The contact between the two was 
enough to send James barrel rolling across the 
track twice before the dust settled in the gravel 
trap revealing the Canadian A1GP car beached 
upside down on its roll hoop - the strength of 
which allowed James to walk away unharmed from 
the incident.

Recalling the moment James reflected, "It's funny 
as it felt like it was happening in slow motion. 
Looking back when I replay it in my head it all 
happens quite quickly but I remember when I was 
actually going through it there was a lot going 
through my mind and it felt like it played out 
over a longer period of time.

"Obviously my first thought was 'oh no I'm 
flipping' but it was closely followed by 'hold on 
this could hurt'!  I didn't know which angle I 
was going to hit at so I just grabbed the bottom 
of the steering wheel, ducked my head down and 
prayed for the best.  I knew when we rubbed tires 
we were traveling pretty quickly into the turn so 
when I hit the ground the first time I knew it 
probably wasn't going to be the last time and 
sure enough I went over again."

James then found himself dealing with a personal 
phobia.  He continued, "One of my biggest fears 
in life is landing upside down in a race car as I 
can get pretty claustrophobic.  Until Australia 
I'd never had to worry about it as I'd never 
flipped a race car but just my luck that I then 
had to deal with exactly that.  I took a few deep 
breaths, established that I wasn't hurt in any 
way then radioed the guys in the pits to say I 
was ok.  I stayed in the car as I knew it would 
be pretty awkward to try and get out on my own so 
I hung in upside down until the safety crew 
arrived.

"They eventually put the car on its side and I 
popped the seat belts and freed myself from the 
tub, a little easier than had I tried to get out 
on my own.  Its standard procedure to go back to 
the Medical Centre and get checked out following 
an accident like that so I headed over there 
where they kept me monitored for half an hour to 
let the adrenaline settle and to see if any major 
aches or pains develop, which thankfully they 
didn't."

With both Hinchcliffe and Murchison agreeing that 
what happened was simply an on-track racing 
incident there was no ill-feeling following their 
respective retirements from the Feature race.

"It was absolutely a racing incident," said 
James.  "It was nobody's fault and there was 
nothing intentional about it.  Christian kindly 
came up to me afterwards to see if I was alright 
as he obviously got the best view in the house to 
see me flipping over.  As a fellow driver he 
would have known it was a bit of a hairy shunt so 
it was cool of him to come over and check 
everything was fine, which it was."

The safety of the Lola-built A1GP car was praised 
again following James' accident with no-one more 
grateful for the safety measures in place in the 
design and build of the chassis and roll-hoops 
than the driver himself.

"I landed right on the roll hoop on the asphalt 
when I went over and we were doing something like 
160kph into the turn so it was a significant 
impact first time around," Hinchcliffe reflected. 
"I walked away unharmed with nothing more than a 
headache to deal with which really says a lot 
about what these cars can take in the way of 
impacts, they're built like tanks.  As far as 
safety goes the car did its job which will allow 
me to keep me doing mine!"

Lola Cars, based in Huntingdon, England, were 
equally pleased to see their product withstand 
the crash test meted out at Eastern Creek on 
Sunday.

"James' accident was certainly a significant one 
in Australia but all our engineers here at Lola 
are world class when it comes to ensuring the 
drivers safety," commented Lola's Communications 
Manager, Sam Smith.

"Safety is and always will be the main priority 
when it comes to designing racing cars there 
days.  The A1GP Car went through a full FIA spec 
crash test before the car even turned a wheel. 
The roll hoop test went through a static load of 
78.75 kilo Newtons.  That is some eight metric 
tones of force which is over ten times the weight 
of the entire running car.  This load is applied 
in a compound fashion meaning that some is 
applied laterally and some vertically."

Smith continued, "It looks like James experienced 
several impacts on both the tarmac and in the 
run-off area.  This is legislated for in the 
crash tests.  On top of the load tests that we 
subject the cars to we also laminate a steel 
plate in to the carbon fibre roll hoop which 
protects the structure should it be subjected to 
multiple impacts and in particular a prolonged 
grinding.  In terms of strength design, the roll 
hoop itself has more material (carbon fibre) than 
the cockpit and is also bonded and bolted on to 
the chassis itself."

James will have the chance to put the 
disappointment of Round 7 firmly behind him when 
he straps back into Canada's A1GP car in South 
Africa at the end of the month, the nation versus 
nation series returning to the streets of Durban 
for Round 8, 23rd-25th February.

Top-Ten A1GP Nations Standings after Round 7/11: 
1st Germany (82), 2nd New Zealand (57), 3rd 
France (52), 4th Great Britain (37), 5th 
Switzerland (36), 6th Malaysia (35), 7th 
Netherlands (35), 8th Mexico (34), 9th Italy 
(29), 10th CANADA (28)

ENDS - www.a1teamcan.com

Photo Credit - 'James Hinchcliffe crashing out in 
Australia' - Jakob Ebrey Photography

Copyright-free A1 Team Canada images are 
available for download at www.a1gp-photo.com/can

A1 Team Canada Relations: Stuart Morrison - PR & Media Manager
Cell: +1 514 945 3253 / Email: stuart@a1teamcan.com