1. photo editor
producer
art direction
story telling
photo editor
producer
art direction
story telling
photo editor
producer
art direction
story telling
photo editor
producer
art direction
story telling
photo editor
producer
c r e d i t s
philip haynes “seeing the future”
sportsnet, 2014
2. c r e d i t s
nikki ormerod
“beauty of strength”
sportsnet, 2014
photo editor
producer
art direction
story telling
photo editor
producer
art direction
story telling
photo editor
producer
art direction
story telling
photo editor
producer
art direction
story telling
photo editor
producer
4. PHOTOCREDITTK
PRESENTEDBY
BEAUTY
STRENGTH
THE
OF
PHOTOGRAPHYBYNIKKIORMEROD
“HEAD-TO-TOE there isn’t a muscle I am not using because I’m throwing javelins and
also jumping hurdles and doing high jump, so the most important thing is to keep every-
thing loose. We train every day, a minimum of two events per practice, and we lift weights
Monday, Wednesday, Friday. During base season, we don’t do anything technical.
For almost the first two months we run, and that’s all we do. When we get into the
season, it’s all technical—hurdles, javelin, high jump and shot put. We focus on speed
and power, working those fast-twitch muscles and building the proper muscles that
you can’t just build on the track.
Javelin is a really unnatural position to get into, so you just come to your coach as clay
ready to be moulded. As a heptathlete, I know my body well enough that I can feel if even
the slightest thing is off, and I will go and get it adjusted. I want to keep as loose and flexible
as I can and then my coach can get me into the right positions. You maintain the
machine, you are well-oiled when you show up and coach just drives you through.”
The thruster is a full-body movement that marries
the front squat with the overhead press. Done with
a medicine ball, dumbbells or a barbell, it is highly
effective at both building strength and conditioning.
Be warned: Start light.
RACHAELMcINTOSH23 BRIDGEWATER, N.S. HEPTATHLON
AS TOLD TO ALANNA KELLY
@SPORTSNET 55 64 @SPORTSNET @SPORTSNET 65
THE
INTERVIEW
MIKE KEENANMETALLURG MAGNITOGORSK HOCKEY HEAD COACH, 64 PHOTOGRAPH BY KONSTANTIN SALOMATIN
Iron Mike. Mr. Keenan. Coach. What should I call you?
> Mike is fine, thank you.
Mike, I have to say, when we were setting up this interview,
I was surprised to see you use exclamation marks and “LOL”
in your emails. Aren’t you supposed to be mean?
> [Laughs.] Oh, well.
What’s the best part of the Kontinental Hockey League
experience so far?
> Dealing with the players. The hockey’s been great, better than
I expected. We’re very pleased with the way the season’s
going. We’ve got a strong, very young and receptive team.
Any aspects of the KHL that are better than the NHL model?
> In the KHL, there are more knee injuries than head injuries
because you have a little bit more time to see what’s coming
and prepare yourself for contact.
Where do you live?
> I’m kind of in the middle of nowhere. It’s a two-and-a-half-
hour plane ride southeast from Moscow, just above Kazakh-
stan—borderline Siberia. There’s a huge steel factory here.
It would be comparable to Hamilton, but a little more rugged.
It’s a very basic culture, very Russian. There’s not a lot of
English spoken. Me and my coaching staff, we live in a place
from the Soviet times called the Basa. It’s like a university
dorm except I’ve got a full ensuite, a kitchen and living room.
I’m like the dean of the dorm.
The dean of a Siberian dorm. I’ll bet you never pictured this.
> No, but I don’t have any issues with it. Living in Siberia... it’s
like telling an American you live in the Northwest Territories.
They’re going to say, “Where?” [Laughs.]
You’re a veteran coach, but were you nervous the first time
you met the players? In Siberia, they don’t understand you...
> No, I wasn’t. I’ll tell you why: Because I met them in a hockey
dressing room. I’m very comfortable there.
When you’re angry at practice or during a game, doesn’t it
lose its lustre through the translator?
> No, it actually doesn’t, because the players seem to know
enough—they either hear it, feel it or see it.
Can you swear in Russian?
> No, I can’t, and I don’t need to. [Laughs.]
Walking onto the plane for your first away game, did you
think about the devastating Lokomotiv crash?
> No, not at all. Aircraft accidents happen, and unfortunately it
happened in this league, but it doesn’t cross my mind. The
planes are comparable to any I’ve flown on in North America.
Have your players brought up that ’87 Canada Cup?
> No, but they’re very well aware of it. The older players for
sure. They don’t talk about it. When Canada and Russia play
now, they’ll come in and congratulate me if we beat them. Or
if the Russians beat Canada, I congratulate them.
You’ve been called a tyrant and a bully. Deservedly so?
> Ah, not at all. I’ve always been firm and demanded a lot. I know
the athletes who played for me, in particular the better athletes,
know that I helped them succeed. And that’s all that matters.
Which player did you have the biggest conflicts with? Dave
Manson, maybe? Jeremy Roenick says Manson wanted to
beat you up, and ran after you in his skates.
> I can’t remember, but that probably happened. I wouldn’t say
it didn’t. There have been so many incidents, I can’t keep ’em
all in the file.
That clash you had with Eddie Belfour is unforgettable.
> I pulled him out and he didn’t like it. When I reminded him of
our discussion about how much I was going to play him, he
was fine. It took about 10 seconds to explain and he was fine.
Have you softened at all?
> I think I have. I think everybody does. I started coaching and
teaching in high school in the early ’70s. That’s 40 some odd
years ago.
So, you’re nicer, but you’re still pulling goalies a lot—two
changes in three minutes, recently.
> Yes, and that’s something that’s new to them in the KHL. But
every time I’ve done it, it’s worked, because we’ve come back
to win. They’re getting used to it.
Are you drinking a lot of vodka these days?
> I am not, no. Very little, actually. I like to have a glass of wine,
but when I’m coaching, I don’t. Put it this way: If you want to
drink lots of vodka here, you can.
“I’m like the dean
of the dorm”
MIKE KEENAN’S RUSSIA
ALL ACCESS
DEBUTS JANUARY 29
7:00PM (EST)
6 @SPORTSNET @SPORTSNET 7
GALLERY GALLERY
BACKWHENIWASNINE, the Memorial Cup was Big Sport. The final that year
was played at Maple Leaf Gardens and, even though the Marlboros weren’t
in it, tickets were as hard to score as ducats for the Leafs. When you’re nine,
teenagers pass for men, so I sat wide-eyed in my seat in the blues watching
the Edmonton Oil Kings win the championship, knocking off the Ontario
Hockey Association champs, the Oshawa Generals. All the while, I thought,
“Those guys look like they’re 30, maybe 40 years old, practically as old as
my father, except for the Oshawa guy with the buzz cut.”
Flash forward to today. Through the same eyes, the MasterCard Memorial
Cup is Small Sport. No knock intended, just that over the years—check that,
over generations—I’ve hung around a lot of junior hockey rinks as part of
Before they could even remove the tags
from their championship-winner lids,
the Edmonton Oil Kings hoisted the
Memorial Cup. It’d been 48 years since
anyone in the franchise had last done so.
BIGDREAMSAtitscore,theMasterCardMemorialCupisgreat
becauseit’sthegrandestspectacleingrassrootshockey
BY GARE JOYCE INLONDON,ONT. | PHOTOGRAPHYBYJCPINHEIRO
PRESENTEDBY
PRESENTEDBY
56 @SPORTSNET
SHEAEMRY28 RICHMOND,B.C. FOOTBALL,CFL
AS TOLD TO ALANNA KELLY
“A BIG PART of my off-season protocol is doing a lot of different sports to try and stay in shape,
whether it’s yoga, mountain biking or hiking. I do my on-field football stuff and then after that it’s
mostly just me trying to have fun with my fitness. I’ll put a 25-lb. or 50-lb. dumbbell in my backpack,
strap it on and go for a run. I do a lot of cross-body movements, not necessarily using up and down
or linear movements, but more where I’m using my entire body.
I build a lot of strength, but at the same time I am trying to stay fast because our field is 64 yards
wide and I’m a middle linebacker—I need to be able to get from side to side quickly. What I do on
the field is connected to band and resistance movements, plus a lot of work with the footballs and
training with partners so I can get my reaction times right and get used to having the ball in my
hands, even though I don’t touch the ball that much in the season. I’m making sure my body is
changing and reacting every time—I think that’s what keeps me fresh.”
Mobility is a key to longevity in sports—you can’t
participate if you’re tight or broken. Yoga, massages and
SMR (self myofascial release, fascia in this case being
the tissue that covers muscle) are highly effective ways
to keep loose. Using a foam roller for SMR a couple
times a week can help release those tight areas.
Often called “The King of All Exercises,” the deadlift
builds pure strength in the place you need it most
as you age—your posterior. Watch that you don’t
round your back and be sure you’re lifting with your
hamstrings and glutes.
SARAHBLACK24 OTTAWA ROWING
AS TOLD TO KRISTINA RUTHERFORD
“YOU HAVE TO LEARN how to deal with pain.
In the last 250 metres of a race, I feel like the
skin is melting off my legs and my lungs are full
of fire. There is some truth to the fact that you
have runner’s high when it’s going well—you
embrace it and you push for more. You also feel
it in practice so frequently that’s it’s not a
strange feeling. Of course if you’re winning, it
never hurts as bad. You almost learn to love it.
On a typical training day, we’ll meet at the
lake at 7 a.m. and go for an 18–20 km row,
which takes about two hours. We’ll do interval
training, 20 seconds on and 40 seconds off,
maybe 10 times. Then we’ll have a core and
weights workout. At 4 p.m. we’ll meet for
another 14–15 km on the water.
We train all year round, broken down into
different phases that attack different parts of
the race. The 2 km is a bizarre distance. On one
hand, it’s somewhat of an endurance race, but
there’s also a lot of sprinting. The only way to
prepare is to train our bodies to accept the lactic
acid and build it up, but also know how to flush
it out during the part of the race when your
brain is shutting down—because that happens.”
@SPORTSNET 57@SPORTSNET 6564 @SPORTSNET
THE
INTERVIEW
TYLER ENNISPOINT GUARD, 19 PHOTOGRAPH BY MATT BARNES
Everybody talks about your on-court poise. Where does
that come from?
> Just experience, really.
You’re 19!
> [Laughs.] I feel like I’ve been through almost every situation
on the court. I have confidence in that and I have confidence in
myself. Growing up, you’ve gotta believe you’re the best player
or else you’re not gonna be able to keep up.
Spoken like a guy who was the youngest of three brothers.
Were they mean to you?
> Yeah, and that’s probably the main thing I’d credit for my
success. I was always competing with them—it was not easy.
You’re fighting for everything; fighting for attention, fighting
to play. They would go to the YMCA, and they’d only let me
play if they needed another player.
How many times did you show up at the Y and your broth-
ers told you to get lost?
> All the time. They had two courts, and it would be the older
guys playing on one. My brothers would be like, “We got 10.
Tyler, go play on the other side.” Me and my friends would go
play there. Then I realized one day, ‘Oh, they picked me first.’
When you hit that buzzer beater against Pittsburgh, your
reaction was a little hop. Others might have slid across the
court or even lost their mind.
> [Laughs.] I was really excited that day—a lot of people were
surprised I even showed any emotion. At the time we were
undefeated [23-0], we were so scared of losing the game, and
there was so much pressure. I think the whole season would
have been different if we didn’t hit that shot.
What are you like off the court?
> I see myself as a regular person.
Every athlete says that, and it’s not true.
> My life is kinda boring. I chill with friends, go to the mall, go
to the movies. You can’t really get caught up in everything.
Especially at Syracuse, you get so much support, and everybody
knows you around town. But I think everybody takes to you
when you’re just a regular person; nobody likes you when you
act like you’re somebody. I realized that as a little kid, watching
NBA players. One time, I’m not gonna say the NBA guy’s name,
he wouldn’t take a picture with us. I remember saying to myself,
“I’m never gonna be like that.”
Let’s talk about the draft. There’s a lot of uncertainty, which
must be weird for you. You knew from an early age you
wanted to go to Syracuse.
> Yeah, it’s really different. The only control you have is working
out and playing the season, but as far as which team, you really
don’t have control. That’s the fun part of it, but I just kinda
wanna know where I’m going.
Have you been dreaming about stepping on that stage and
putting on a jersey?
> As a kid, that’s all I did. The last couple months of the college
season, it’s so tough. You turn on the TV and see your name on
the draft board. I told my family I don’t want to hear all the media
stuff; they helped me stay away from it as much as possible.
Do you have your suit and tie and earrings picked out for
draft night?
> No, but I’m a little bit into fashion, so it’ll be interesting to see
the kinds of things I could wear. I’ve been warned to go with
something classic that I won’t be embarrassed about later on.
I just wanna look good.
Who are your fashion inspirations?
> I don’t think I’m as extreme as [Russell] Westbrook. I just like
dressin’ up, lookin’ good. I like to have a lot of sneakers and have
people question, like, “Oh, I’ve never seen you in those before.”
Has it sunk in that you’re going to be paid to play basketball?
> I don’t think any of it’s really sunk in yet. I talk to my brother
Dylan and he’s always like, “Wow, you’re about to be in the NBA!”
I’m just in the moment. But it’s a whole different world going from
being a college boy and going into the business of the NBA.
Your lack of emotion gets played up a lot. What should
people know about you that they don’t know already?
> I’m not as emotionless as I seem. A lot of people think I just
don’t smile, but off the court I smile a lot, I have fun. When I’m
on the court, I’m so focused—I’m in the game. I think that’s why.
Maybe after you drain your first NBA three, you should do
a huge fist-pump to show your personality.
> [Laughs.] I think that would piss everybody off.
“Nobody likes you when you
act like you’re somebody”
DIGITAL EXTRA! READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW
ON YOUR TABLET OR PHONE
SUBSLUG SLUGXXXXSLUGXXXXSUBSLUGBIG READLUKE CHUDLEIGH LUKE CHUDLEIGH BIG READ
THE SON OF AN
APPLE FARMER
FROM MILTON, ONT.,
IS CONVINCED HE
CAN CRACK THE
WORLD’S MOST
GLAMOROUS
RACE CAR SERIES
BY RYAN DIXON IN PAU
AND TOULOUSE, FRANCE
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY PHILIP HAYNES
SEEINGTHE
FUTURE
world
series
90 SPORTSNET
photographbymayavisnyei
champs
PHOTOCREDITTK
PHOTOCREDITTK
SUBSLUG SLUG
SPORTSNET 55
PHOTOCREDITTK
PHOTOCREDITTK
Tyler’s mom, Gwen, uses the word “fighter” to
describe her son. “From the very beginning,” she
says, “he’s had to be.” Born three months premature
at a little over three pounds, Tyler was hooked up to
respirators in an Edmonton hospital for the first two
months of his life. Until he was nine, hospital visits
were frequent, and he caught pneumonia more times
than Gwen can count. Tyler has never met his father,
though he’s told he looks like him. So Gwen did her
best to support him, working as a receptionist at
Parkland Fertilizer while taking days off to tend to
Tyler and study for her high school diploma. “We’ve
had to be determined just to make it
day to day,” Gwen says.
At 13, Tyler was six feet tall (he had
an early spurt, and has only grown an
inch since), ripping around town on his
bike, spray-painting buildings and, he
says, “doing stupid things with friends.”
But he caught the eye of his teacher and
basketball coach, Jordan Hamer. “No
ball would get past the half-court line
when I had Tyler on full-court press,”
says Hamer. “He was crazy athletic.”
Hamer says Smith “tested the waters,”
code for a student you wouldn’t want in
your class. But the first-year teacher was
patient, and eventually the two bonded
over shared circumstances—both grew
up fatherless. Smith started to see the
value in school. And Hamer, who played
football with the kids in gym class and
ran for what he thought were routine
S M I T H
TO THINK
CK IS MY
EFIELDo fight for everything
da’s fastest runners
PHOTOGRAPHY BY COLIN WAY
COMPOSITE
L
onal best,
Canadian
in 2011
e
”
60 @SPORTSNET @SPORTSNET 61
SLUGXXXXSUBSLUG
T
S
LUKE CHUDLEIGH BIG READ
Adjusting to that kind of ride is a challenge. So is paying for it.
The cost for Chudleigh to race a season on the 2.0 ALPS series is
in the neighborhood of $500,000. That allows a team like Tech1 to
provide a car, and the mechanics and engineers required to keep
it moving. It only goes up from there. If Chudleigh makes the jump
to a higher development series—like the Formula Renault 3.5
championship Tech1 also competes in, where the cars are bigger,
faster and more complex—you’re officially past the million-dollar
mark. At the F1 level, ultra-wealthy teams like Ferrari and McLaren
pay the best drivers astronomical salaries to guide their cars to
podium finishes. But at the back of the grid, teams often reserve
seats for whoever can bring the biggest cheque. That’s how a
situation like Sergey Sirotkin’s comes up. Last summer, there were
whispers that the Sauber team would make a then 17-year-old
Sirotkin—backed by a mountain of Russian sponsorship money—
the youngest driver ever to appear on an F1 grid, despite the fact
he wasn’t all that accomplished in feeder formulas. Ultimately, it
didn’t happen, but the incident still reinforced the notion of motor-
sport as moneysport.
“When it came time to move to cars, we said, OK, finding spon-
sorship is part of my life,” Chudleigh says. “Probably a bigger part
of my life than the actual racing.” When you’re in the racing gods’
good graces, sometimes the sponsors find you. Earlier this season,
Adidas—which isn’t normally associated with the sport—reached
out to Chudleigh’s camp because his floppy hair and easy smile
were in line with the look of the company’s ideal athlete. Now, the
brand with the three stripes supplies much of Chudleigh’s racing
kit, including the gloves. Of course, things rarely come together
that easily, and when he signed on to remain with Tech1 after his
rookie campaign, Chudleigh knew they had to scrounge up more
money if he was going to stay afloat in 2014. A couple of deals
came through that would likely have allowed him to get by, assum-
ing he didn’t have to come up with more funds for added insurance
costs if there were a few too many crashed cars. That was the
state of things before Vitamindrip came aboard in advance of the
race in Pau. The Canadian company’s CEO and president, Frank
Stillo, is a racing enthusiast who was willing to put money behind
a focused young man who carries himself with genuine confidence.
“You can’t possibly know where Luke’s going to go right now,”
says Scott. “But the people who we’re attracting, it’s because of
his ability to communicate, it’s because he’s a likeable kid and they
believe in him and they see he’s not horsing around. He’s out there
to make this happen.”
The funicular track that sits just a short distance from Pau’s train
station measures about 100 metres in length. The two cars that
go up and down the rails carry some 30 people at a time and, like
many French restaurant servers, they move at their own leisurely
pace. At the top is Pau’s elevated city centre and the Boulevard
des Pyrénées, named for the mountains that offer a stunning view
to the south. At the bottom, for one weekend each year, is the
he had a 10th-place finish, when he and his team would have been
satisfied with 20 spots lower. Then the crashes started. In Belgium,
Chudleigh touched tires entering a famously fast corner dubbed
“Eau Rouge” at the celebrated Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Five
metres before he hit the wall, Chudleigh was doing 260 km/h. He
had the presence of mind to bring his hands and arms into his body
so they weren’t on the steering wheel when the incredible G-force
involved started violently shaking it in every direction. There was a
moment of blackout on impact and it took a minute for Chudleigh to
realize he’d come through unscathed. Simon couldn’t attend that
race, but he made sure to quickly get on the phone and speak with
his young driver. From the rate at which he knocks back espresso
to the way he instantly decides to park on a sidewalk when there
are no spaces available close to a lunchtime destination, Simon
exudes the take-charge attitude of a former driver who’s seen it all
and doesn’t waste time getting lost in “what ifs?” That assertiveness
rang though in his message to Chudleigh: Don’t worry, everybody
who guides a single-seater absorbs a serious hit eventually. And no
matter what you do tomorrow, get back in the car and drive. “It
actually improved my confidence,” Chudleigh says of the experience.
Banging up a few cars isn’t the worst thing in the world because
it means a driver is searching for his own and the car’s limits. But
as the wrecks added up and he was bouncing between hotel rooms
in a foreign land without having seen his dad or Trevor in a month,
Chudleigh’s mind got away from him. He started to think he’d lost
whatever it was that allowed him to succeed in the first place.
“When I’m relaxed and things are going well, it’s easy to man-
age,” he says of his own spinning wheels. “When we run into
problems, when I’m not performing my best, it’s difficult to come
to grips with it because the actual solution is to relax and, like
Simon will tell you, take pleasure.”
That got easier late in the year, when Chudleigh’s showings
improved. At the final race of the season, he was poised to finish
fourth before his own small mistake dropped him back to seventh.
Regardless, he and Tech1 decided right after that competition to
again join forces in 2014. Simon and Sarah have seen potential in
Luke since he wowed them with a scorching testing session that
led to his initial agreement and they have come to believe in his
capacity to learn, implement and improve. “When he understands
one thing,” says Simon, “it’s for all the life.”
Scott Chudleigh is an outdoorsman with an adventurous spirit. He
left home at 18 on a journey that took him all over the world, often
working for Outward Bound to help fund his wanderlust. At 21,
he and a buddy sailed a 25-foot boat from Toronto to mainland
Portugal. He didn’t really have any designs on getting involved in
the family business, but when a fire in 1990 burned down the barn
that his dad, Tom, used as home base for Chudleigh’s Apple Farm,
things changed. Still a young man, a sense of obligation called
Scott home and it turned out to be a great decision. He and his
brother, Dean, are 50-50 partners in Chudleigh’s, and the business
has grown from a local orchard where people pick their own apples
to a global brand that’s delivering desserts all over the world. Had
Scott, now 49, known things were going to turn out this well when
he was young, he would have likely assumed the disposable income
his job generates would be put toward those outdoor activities—
sailing, skiing, climbing—he still treasures. Instead, he happily
doles out significant dollars to keep his son’s dream on track, while
a good portion of his business savvy is devoted to ways he and
Luke can drum up vital sponsorship money.
When Luke was doing high-level karting, including spending
some winter months racing in Florida, the annual tab fell in the
$25,000 range. But things are at an entirely different level now.
The decision to move to Europe before his 18th birthday was a
big, but necessary, leap for Chudleigh, because he couldn’t go
much longer without learning to drive a proper race car. The key
difference between karts and cars is the massive grip created by
the diffuser, an apparatus that funnels air underneath the machine
and pins it to the track. In karts, you can drive like a madman and
get away with it. In cars, it’s impossible to slosh all over the place
without losing the grip that enables you to hold the proper racing
line. “When you’re vacuuming on a flat surface, you can feel the
suction,” Trevor says. “But if you go over the edge of the carpet
or you pick up the one corner and you lose that suction, you can
feel it in the vacuum.”
It’s all the more important for Chudleigh because he got a late
jump off the line. Most kids who chase a life in professional racing
start karting when they’re about eight years old, as was the case
with Robert. By entering the field at 12, Luke had some ground to
make up. As Trevor notes, it was almost like starting school in
Grade 9. “There’s a lot of background work you have to learn before
you’re in calculus,” he says.
To compensate for lost time, Chudleigh and Trevor would spend
most summer days at the track. Because the two-hour round trip
to Cameron Motorsports was a bit burdensome, Luke spent a lot
of nights at Trevor’s house in Hamilton, peppering him with
questions through the evening. Beyond his knowledge of tires
and turns, Trevor helped cultivate Luke’s singular focus. When
Scott mused about getting an RV for weekend-long trips to tracks
around North America so the whole family had a place to hang
out, Trevor advised against it. Aspiring drivers shouldn’t be spend-
ing downtime watching TV, they should be hanging around the
mechanics, learning just one more thing about the kart. “We don’t
talk about anything except racing,” Luke says. “It made me amaz-
ing in a go-kart.”
It was as a teenager earning his karting chops against more
seasoned competition that Chudleigh began the process of learn-
ing to deal with the cruel nature of motorsport. Though kids are
rarely injured in karting, the track is usually mayhem, with 50
percent of the field often ending the race on the grass. “They’re
epic letdowns,” Scott says. “You put in tons and tons of time train-
ing and practising and you get taken out in the first corner. You
don’t even get to race.”
Because he and his wife, Mary, were happy to see their son
develop a deep passion for something, Scott went a few years with-
out asking Luke exactly what it was about racing that lured him in.
But as time went by and Luke’s devotion to the sport took even
greater hold, Scott decided to wade in. The answer had nothing to
do with speed or fame. “This doesn’t come easily,” Luke told his
dad. “I really have to try hard. And I think that’s what attracts me.”
Things were likely never more difficult than during a crash-filled
stretch last summer. By his own admission, Chudleigh’s rookie
season in ALPS began better than it should have. Right off the hop,
PHOTOCREDITTK
PHOTOCREDITTK
64 @SPORTSNET @SPORTSNET 65
THE
INTERVIEW
JAMES HINCHCLIFFEINDYCAR DRIVER, 27 PHOTOGRAPH BY NORMAN WONG
Todoyourlineofwork,doyouhavetobealittlebit,well,crazy?
> A lot. While you’re doing it, you don’t think about it. Then you
get out of the car, the adrenalin slows down, and the logical
side of the brain kicks in again. And you’re like—that’s absolutely
insane. Why would any reasonable, level-headed individual
strap themselves into one of these rockets and fly around a
concrete race track, with 25 other jackasses doing the same
thing? You absolutely have to have a screw loose.
You have to be physically fit to drive a race car. Wait, why
are you smiling?
> Before you read up for this, did you think drivers were athletes?
We work out six days a week. Those G forces that your body’s
facing, that takes an incredible amount of muscle. The cars don’t
have power steering. Let’s say my car weighs 1,500 lb. Through
a corner, 4 Gs weighs four times as much, so it’s closer to
6,000 lb. and all that force comes through the steering. The car’s
trying to turn itself into the wall. Hockey’s really intense for your
shift; then you sit. We’re flat out for anywhere from two to four
hours. Your heart rate gets up there, a buck 60, a buck 70, a buck
80. You need the cardio of a marathon runner.
What’s it like to rip around a corner at 380 km/h?
> You feel all your guts go to the right side of your rib cage. There’s
so much force on your insides that you have to hold your breath,
because if you relax your core and lungs, the forces push the air
out of your lungs and you’re not strong enough to inhale until
you’re out of the corner. But because a lap [at Iowa Speedway]
is only 16 seconds long, more than half of that lap you’re in the
corners. If it’s a two-hour race, you’re holding your breath for
more than an hour.
What’s going through your mind when you’re about to crash?
> It is the biggest sense of helplessness you can possibly
imagine. It would be like watching a family member get pushed
off a building, and once they’re in the air, you know you can’t
do anything.
Have you ever thought a crash would be your last?
> We’re really lucky. My mom used to get a lot of crap
from other moms when I started racing go-karts. They
would say, “How could you let your kid do that? That’s
so dangerous.” The worst injury I’ve ever had is when
I was go-karting, I separated cartilage between two ribs.
And every day one of my friends comes home with a broken leg,
twisted ankle, missing tooth. Football, soccer, volleyball,
lacrosse—pick a sport, every single one of them had an injury. I
had nothing. My mom was like, “Who’s the bad parent?”
Why do you think you’re a fan favourite?
> [Laughs] Aaaawkwaaaard! This is when somebody who’s
really good at the humble brag would be perfect, and I don’t
know how to do that.
I’m inviting you to be pompous. Let’s hear it.
> I’ve got one of the coolest jobs in the world. So many people
in the business look like they’re pissed off all the time, and I
don’t get it. What we’re doing is serious and competition is
stressful, but if you can’t detach from that a little bit, you’re
actually going to lose your mind. I take my job very seriously,
but I’m myself.
You have a new sponsor and newly painted blue-and-white
car. Are you going to miss that GoDaddy green?
> Oddly, yes. Most people would be like, “Oh, you don’t have to
wear bright neon green anymore, lucky you!” Well, yes and no.
It was so easy to spot the car. But I’m very excited about United
Fiber & Data. It’s a very atypical tech company; the guys in charge
are rock stars. They’re the founding members of the band Live.
I wondered why a bunch of tech nerds would sponsor you.
But maybe you’re a nerd?
> I went to space camp. That’s about as nerdy as it gets.
Will you wear spectacles to better represent your sponsor?
> No, but I have recently purchased a pocket protector.
What do you drive on the street?
> I’m not one of those guys that spends his money on ridiculous
sports cars. The way I see it, I’ve got an even better car to drive
on weekends on an actual race track.
Minivan?
> You joke, but I almost did. My girlfriend wouldn’t let
me. The Honda Odyssey is unbelievable—it’s got three
TVs, a vacuum cleaner built into it. We road trip to a
lot of the races—talk about comfort! But I drive an Acura
MDX. It’s black.
“It’s like watching
a family member get
pushed off a building”
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After a 22-year hiatus
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64 @SPORTSNET
INT
MILOSTOP-10 SINGLES PLAYER
Your serve has been called a bullet, deadly, atomic, a l
beam. Do you agree?
> As metaphors, yes. [Laughs.] Literally, no.
Sensible answer. Do you step up to the line and think,
gonna hammer this 150 mph”?
> It’s a habit. When I go up there and try to hit 150, I ten
actually hit slower than when I go up there relaxed.
Can your serve get better?
> Yes, quite a bit. I think the [big] part of the serve is the
sure I follow it up with, where it takes away the comfo
players feeling like they can hit it back. It makes them th
little bit more. Not only do they have to get a racquet on
ball, but they have to be able to do something with the re
or they’ll be in trouble.
It’s been a quick ascent for you to the top 10. Does it
that way?
> I feel like I’ve settled into my place and found my com
[zone]. When I think over the last two years, I’ve really
the chance to understand what I’m going through, what I
to do to get better, because that’s what 90 percent of my f
goes into. Where I am now is not where I wish to be. I w
to be much better.
What do you need to improve?
> I need to get fitter, I need to get stronger and quicker, I
to improve technically, and I need to improve mentally. I t
I also need to learn how to manage things off the court be
You’re one of the best in the world and you just li
everything. You’re a perfectionist.
> Yes, and that’s dangerous. Sometimes you miss a lot o
positive things, and you can get really down on yourself. I
a team around me that tells me, “Relax, you’re on your
Things will come, don’t rush it.” I demand a lot from mysel
from the people around me. I don’t put up with half-assed ef
I might call out my friend if I think he sleeps an hour too
in the morning. I’ll be like, “Why are you being lazy?” To
it’s about achieving your potential and not feeling like y
wasting time. You can ask a lot of the people around me—
very demanding. I expect them to be as intense about my
nis on a daily basis as I am.
Let’s hear an example of you being too demanding.
> Ooh, here’s a good one. I can be two minutes late but
get pissed off at people if they’re two minutes late.
“How
the p
12 @SPORTSNET
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