‘Dream scenario’ brings Wickens, Hinchcliffe together as IndyCar’s ‘Eh Team’
TORONTO — When Formula One’s Juan Pablo Montoya and NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon famously swapped cars in a 2003 speed demonstration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Robert Wickens and James Hinchcliffe were paying close attention.
So much so that the Ontario-born pair, who became fast friends while on the same go-karting team a year or two earlier, decided they would try to pull off the same stunt one day. And they did last year, with Wickens taking the wheel of a Schmidt Peterson Motorsports IndyCar at the Sebring International Raceway and Hinchcliffe driving a Mercedes DTM coupe Autodromo Vallelunga in Italy.
But that was only the start.
Wickens, from Guelph, left the German DTM series after six seasons — during which he put together six wins and 15 podium finishes — and 12 in total in Europe, to join Oakville’s Hinchcliffe at SPM and form the “Eh Team” this year.