Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
IndyCar
HILDEBRAND: No Rest For The Weary
I’ve been running around all over the place since the last time I wrote, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to stop any time soon.
J.R. Hildebrand  |  Posted October 23, 2009   Sausalito, CA
Hildebrand worked incredibly hard to earn the 2009 FILS crown - five poles and four wins cemented his championship. Where he's headed for 2010 is still unknown. (LAT)
Hey everyone! Now that the season’s over I wanted to check back in. I’ve been running around all over the place since the last time I wrote, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to stop any time soon - so hopefully I’ll have some cool and interesting stuff to report on during the off-season!

This can often be sort of a strange time of year as a driver, because the stress and tension that builds up during a season is suddenly relieved, but a whole new sense of stress and tension starts to set in about what’s going to happen for the next year. It’s funny to think about, but, especially when you’re on your way up the ladder, it’s basically like losing your job at the end of every year no matter how well you performed!

There’s always a lot of ideas and speculation about who’s doing what and what’s coming together, but it rarely seems like anything really happens until much further down the line no matter how hard you try. Being proactive is probably the most important part of it all, but there are so many things that go into “getting next year sorted” that it can become nearly impossible to prioritize all the things that need to come together without going crazy and just making it even worse!

This time last year I was sitting pretty. Our season had ended much earlier which certainly helped, and I had just tested for Andretti Green/AFS Racing out at Putnam Park in Indiana. Coming off a strong but up-and-down rookie season with RLR/Andersen Racing, I knew going into that test that I needed to impress, but was confident that I could aptly take advantage of the squad’s equipment.

At Andersen, there were a few things on the road courses that we really didn’t figure out until the very end of the year, and by that point just didn’t really have time to totally get a handle on them, so I was actually really excited to see what the ole’ AFS car had to offer. I immediately got along with the team and we got straight to work. I remember the whole thing pretty well. Our “carrot” time was around a 59.0 - that was the fastest anyone had gone in a lights car at Putnam up until that point, and I had until noon to top it.

I wasn’t too concerned about it, not that many guys had been around the place so I figured that would be a pretty easy target. It was cold that morning, so I went out and sort of got acclimated; it took a little while for the tires to get warm enough that I wasn’t in danger of firing the think off every corner. Right away I was down to a 59.1 or something, so we started playing with the setup and tried to keep up with the ever-worsening understeer that inevitably plagues a car at Putman Park. Lunch time was nearing, so we eventually put on a set of stickers and let ‘er rip!

It was a little bit crazy how much better the car was, it’s really just one of those tracks that tires make a huge difference, but nevertheless I think we were all questioning the data for a second… 59.1, 58.0, 57.5, 57.3… I was driving around in awe of how well the car worked and how fast we were going! I came in and I think we were all sort of smiling and confused a little at the same time. At that point, I knew that I needed to be driving for that team, and it wasn’t long afterward that the deal was done.

This year, I predict, will be a bit different and probably for a variety of reasons. An interesting and also inevitable part of racing in comparison to many other sports is that results, while certainly very important, do not necessarily yield the opportunities that might be available to other athletes in different fields. I used to think of it in relation to playing baseball – I played from when I was five up through my sophomore year in high school when I decided to more wholeheartedly switch to racing. I figured myself for a good all around ball-player - I had been MVP of the JV team that year and would have started on varsity as a junior – but I certainly never considered it a career option. Let’s just use that as an example for fun anyway though.

So, let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I had been Mr. Cranks-The-Ball-Over-The-Fence-Every-Other-Pitch, helped my team get to the state playoffs or something, and was clearly a high school standout – best guy in the region. I’d probably have gotten a scholarship to a Division One school to play in college; that would have been pretty realistic for someone in that position.

Then in college, if I could have backed up my high school achievements by proving to be a guy that could still grip-it-and-rip-it against faster fastballs and nastier curves, run the bases and play the field, it’s certainly reasonable to believe that I would get drafted to play in the minor leagues. Once there, I’d again have to prove my worth against even tougher competition, but, if I could manage to pull that off, I might be looking at playing major league baseball.
Hildebrand and the AFS/AGR team share in the championship spoils. (LAT)

At a glance, that probably sounds a lot like going from maybe Formula BMW or FF2000 (high school), to something like Star Mazda (college), to Atlantic and/or Indy Lights (minors), right? True, but there is one very key element involved in making the way up the auto-racing ladder, especially to the proverbial major leagues, that isn’t much of a factor in my little baseball analysis. It rhymes with “funny” and “honey,” can be represented in a single character by pressing Shift-4 on your keyboard, and is the name of Track Six on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album. Yes that’s right, Money.

It adds a whole new aspect to the dilemma of making plans down the road because, especially at this step on the ladder – trying to make that jump from Triple-A to “The Bigs” – it’s more important and a bigger factor than ever before! It’s a part of racing that is impossible to do without, and in some ways, the cost of racing is partially responsible for why it’s such an interesting and exciting sport.

I’d argue that the cars we drive likely wouldn’t go nearly as fast or be anywhere near as safe as they are without a lot of time and money being spent to reach the level of technology that they are currently at, but that doesn’t make it a heck of a lot easier for much of anyone to fund a car, driver, or team from scratch! A bit of a double edged-sword in a lot of ways I’d say.

At any rate, I may not have a deal signed already, but I’m still optimistic. There are a lot of possibilities out there, some more realistic than others undoubtedly, but until the door is totally shut there’s still a way in. I won’t bore you guys with the details of all the entirely-uninteresting stuff that I’m up to try to help my own cause for down the road, but will definitely keep everyone up-to-date!

~J.R.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

Sausalito, California’s J.R. Hildebrand has been marked as one of America’s brightest young open-wheel talents. Driving for AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing in the Firestone Indy Light Series, Hildebrand earned the 2009 championship in style, claiming five poles and four wins from fifteen races.

Having worked his way up the ladder from Karting to Indy Lights, the 21-year-old has his sights set on a future in the IndyCar Series. With an equal commitment to his education, Hildebrand graduated high school with a 4.12 GPA and has been accepted on a two-year deferral to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Outside of the car, J.R. plays a wide variety of sports and concentrates heavily on fitness training.

Learn more about J.R. at JRHildebrandRacing.com, about his team at AFSRacing.com, and the Firestone Indy Lights Series at Indycar.com.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
jrhildebrand's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J.R. Hildebrand

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.