Hinchcliffe to appear on Dancing with the Stars

Whether he lets his driving in the No. 5 Arrow Sam Schmidt Motorsports Honda racecar tell the series’ story or through various business and personal activities conducted without benefit of firesuit and helmet.

Now in his sixth year of Indy car competition, Canadian Hinchcliffe, 29, is known for his fast, smooth and smart racing and his exuberant personality outside the racecar. With his own virtual city, Hinchtown, his own Indianapolis-brewed craft beer from Flat 12 Bierworks - Hinchtown Hammerdown - and his off-the-cuff hysterically-funny podcast, “The Mayor on Air,” James Hinchcliffe has more than a few projects when he’s not at his day job in the No. 5’s Honda cockpit.

Now add one more extracurricular activity to Hinchcliffe’s schedule. He’s signed to appear on ABC-TV’s Season 23 “Dancing with the Stars” (DWTS), which begins the night of September 12, less than a week before INDYCAR’s season finale, the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma, a double points-paying race scheduled for September 18 at Sonoma Raceway.

The logistics should be incredible for the driver, who begins his dancing lessons this afternoon (Tuesday, August 30) in Los Angeles. A self-admitted non-dancer, Hinchcliffe considers himself, “dancing-challenged. This is definitely going to be a unique sort of experience for me,” he said. Professional dancing partner Sharna Burgess will “definitely have her work cut out for her. But I’ve got the competitive spirit and Indy car drivers have a pretty good record on this show, so hopefully that counts for something.”

Following in Helio's footsteps

Well, not quite “drivers”. Only Helio Castroneves has appeared on DWTS, and the Brazilian three-time Indianapolis 500 winner did win the mirror ball winner’s trophy with Julianne Hough, now a judge on the program. “I spoke with Helio at length before I committed to doing the show. There were a lot of questions that I had and, luckily, having a friend and colleague who had been through it was a huge benefit to me.

“He thoroughly enjoyed it, so much he went back for a second time. It was great to get to chat with him and he warned me about the amount of work” Hinchcliffe will have to do in order to go from one week to the next in this competition. “He said that it’s going to be an awful lot of fun; he kind of helped me warm up to the idea.”

Even on the first day of training for this very different type of competition, Hinchcliffe noticed that he was able to take the strength and cardio training he uses for racing to help with posture, exceptionally important in dance. “Having learned to concentrate for long periods of time is helping me to learn and remember the dance steps” in his first routine without becoming mentally exhausted too quickly.

If Hinchcliffe is able to garner sufficient votes to make it past the first show on September 12, following the Sonoma finale he’ll be able to give full concentration to this endeavor, as the Verizon IndyCar season will be done. “The first two episodes are going to be the biggest challenge, scheduling-wise, but once we clear Sonoma and clear episode 2 - if I’ve made it that far and stay on the show - then we’ll have a much freer schedule and be able to dedicate 100 percent to learning, improving and being competitive.”

His crash at Indianapolis in May of 2015 and the attendant recovery time changed Hinchcliffe’s view on life, sitting out the balance of the season and working through physical and emotional therapy that comes from such an ordeal. “The experiences of last year have just taught me a lot about life, and one of those lessons is to take opportunities, not shy away from things and don’t be afraid,” he admitted.

“This is one of those things that might not have ever come around again, and it is outside my comfort zone, so it was certainly not a decision I took lightly. I think, ultimately, we made the right choice to be a part of it, and I’m looking forward to getting started.” After practicing today and Wednesday, Hinchcliffe is off to Watkins Glen for the race this coming Sunday. Currently eighth in the points tally following a second-place result in the Firestone 600 last Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, he’s got the benefit of testing at The Glen behind him and that, coupled with the engineering talent at SSM should make all his extracurricular activities a bit easier to perform.

“We’ll practice through the start of next week before the test in Sonoma (prior to the race)  and then over the weekend into the first show in Los Angeles. The real challenge will be show No. 2 because I really only have Tuesday and Wednesday (after the first episode) before I’ve got to take off to Sonoma and race. The next show is Monday, so the second show will be more difficult than the first if we get through to there. We might have to do a little extra work in the days leading up to show No. 1 to already start preparing for week two,” Hinchcliffe noted.

Being accustomed to performing a variety of tasks in his professional and personal life, Hinchcliffe started preparing to multitask during his youthful racing activities. “I was counseled that this is the world, this is the motorsports world that we live in, and I’ve always just prepared myself for that. I’ve not shied away from extra commitments,” he said. “I’m a very driven person on-track and off, whether it’s my racing or promoting the sport or outside business ventures I’m involved in. I like staying busy.

“This kind of thing (DWTS) benefits me personally but it also benefits the sport, and I’ve always said, from day one, that anything I can do outside of a race car to help grow the sport of Indy car racing is something you can sign me up for, because I’ve got such a passion for this sport. I plan on being around it for a long time as a driver, for a long time after that, as well, and I just love the fact that we’ve got the opportunity to do this kind of stuff, just try and help spread the word and show people that IndyCar racing is an incredible form of motorsport.”