Hinchcliffe Heads to Infineon

Toronto, Ontario (August 19, 2010) – California's Infineon Raceway plays host to Round 10 of the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights Series this weekend, Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd August, with Canadian James Hinchcliffe looking to claim the glory on the schedule's final road-course outing.

Success at the undulating circuit, located in the Sonoma Valley outside of San Francisco, would deliver Hinchcliffe's third victory of the season, having previously triumphed at Long Beach and Edmonton. More importantly for the driver of the #2 Team Moore Racing entry, it would help eradicate the memory of a frustrating outing at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course from earlier in the month when a guaranteed second place finish was wiped out with an off in the closing stages.

While James held onto his second place in the Driver Standings behind France's J.K. Vernay, Mid-Ohio winner, Martin Plowman, equaled his points haul – 'Hinch' holding the advantage with one more win than his UK rival.

Infineon Raceway holds no surprises for the 23-year-old from Toronto having raced there in Indy Lights last season and earlier in his burgeoning open-wheel career. Last year's trip netted a sixth place finish for James having initially qualified in fifth. Qualifying has been the key to success in virtually all of this season's races with James one of the stand-outs in the Saturday session bagging a total of six front-row starts including four pole positions.

"I'm looking forward to a good one this weekend," stated James having been in San Francisco since earlier this week. "I've won here in the past in other series and I know we have a fast car to take on this kind of circuit. We were fast at the beginning of the month at Mid-Ohio, I can't see that changing for Infineon.

"We've got three races in the next three weeks so it's important we get some good momentum going now to carry into the oval races. Hopefully we can make a bit of a dent into J.K. Vernay's lead. It would be good to take the final road course win of the season just to put a stamp on that side of the series. The momentum would be an advantage to the whole team heading to Chicago and a return to ovals to close the year. We definitely want to end the season on a high and the homestretch is in sight!"

2010 Top-5 Driver Standings (R9/13): 1st Vernay (FRA) – 359pts, 2nd HINCHCLIFFE (CAN) – 306pts, 3rd Plowman (GBR) – 306pts, 4th Kimball (USA) – 287pts, 5th Saavedra (COL) – 269pts

Round 10 of the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights Series, the 'Carneros 100' gets underway at Noon PST on Sunday 22nd August - www.indycar.com

Press release issued on behalf of James Hinchcliffe by SM-PR:

Tel: +1 514 684 2621 / Cell: +1 514 945 3253 / Email: stuart@sm-pr.com