Sausalito Archives - Page 2 of 8

J.R. Hildebrand Flys An F-16 With The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (October 12, 2011) – National Guard Panther Racing driver JR Hildebrand knew he was in for the ride of his life at Nellis Air Force Base on Tuesday, where the United States Air Force Thunderbirds gave the 23-year-old rookie the opportunity to fly in one of their F-16 fighter jets. What he didn’t realize, however, was that nearly as soon as they’d taken off that Captain Nick Holmes, fittingly the Thunderbirds pilot No. 4, was going to allow the reining Indy 500 Rookie of the Year to fly the plane himself.

“It seemed like soon as we got up on the air, the pilot says, ‘Hey man, you wanna fly the plane?” Hildebrand said. “I was thinking, ‘Are you kidding me?’”

While Hildebrand was allowed to maneuver the jet during the ride, the real flying was done by Capt. Holmes, who took JR on a ride that included barrel rolls, a full loop, aileron rolls, flying inverted (upside down), a mock bombing run and pulling a 9-G turn – a move that earned Hildebrand a 9-G pin, a commemorative pin for the few who have pulled 9 Gs in an aircraft. The flight average roughly 500 mph while they reached a speed just under Mach One flying over the picturesque Sierra Nevada mountains.

“I was freaking out when we pulled nine Gs; you feel like your eyes are popping out of your head,” Hildebrand explained. “This what just an unbelievable experience that far exceeded my expectations. And what was cool about this too was being able to fly in the No. 4 jet, we’re proud of that number and it’s pretty cool to see the other side of that here with Captain Holmes and all these guys with the Thunderbirds who work so hard on all this equipment.”

Capt. Holmes, who is referred to simply as “Number Four” around Nellis Air Force Base, is the Slot in the Thunderbirds lineup, meaning his flies in the position directly behind Pilot Number One, who is the lead – or point – of the Thunderbirds historic diamond formation.

The F16 of the Thunderbirds — The F-16 Fighter Jets of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds

“He did an awesome job,” Capt. Holmes said of Hildebrand afterward. “It was such a thrill to show the other Number Four how our team works. It’s always an honor to be able to showcase the pride, professionalism and teamwork embodied by America’s Airmen every day.”

It was the thrill of a lifetime for Hildebrand, the self-described “adrenaline junkie”, who told Panther officials at the time of his signing last December that two things he wanted to do this season was fly in an F-16 and jump out of a plane. He marked the first off the list on Tuesday and National Guard officials have already agreed to arrange for him to jump out of a plane after he recovers from ACL knee surgery which is scheduled shortly after the season concludes this Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Many of the Thunderbirds were quick to inform Hildebrand that when NASCAR driver Carl Edwards flew with them earlier this year, he won the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that weekend and gave them the trophy to put on display at Nellis.

“So no pressure, right?” Hildebrand joked with the pilots and crew. “I’d be happy to take Rookie of the Year this weekend, for sure. I’m just not sure I’ll get the same adrenaline rush standing up there with the trophy as I got from these guys.”

www.JRHildebrandRacing.com – www.pantherracing.com – www.NationalGuard.com

J.R. Hildebrand of Sausalito Finishes 7th on the Road Course in Japan

National Guard Panther Racing Driver Extends Rookie of the Year Lead, Moves Up to 13th in the Championship

JR Hildebrand at Infineon Raceway — J.R. Hildebrand at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA.

MOTEGI, Japan (September 18, 2011) – National Guard Panther Racing driver JR Hildebrand collected his best career road/street course finish Sunday at Japan’s Twin Ring Motegi, where the IZOD IndyCar Series rookie collected a seventh-place finish. Hildebrand finished one spot better than his previousnon-oval best of eighth place, which happened earlier this year on the Streets of Toronto. With the result, Hildebrand extends his lead in the IZOD IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year standings to 14 points over Newman/Haas driver James Hinchcliffe, and moves up to the 13th position in the overall points’ championship.

Hildebrand qualified in the 19th position and had moved to 11th-position on the track following a quick pair of cautions for the stalled car of Joao Paulo de Oliveira (Laps 22-24) and contact between Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti and Graham Rahal (Laps 26-26) – both of which occurred almost immediately after the team’s first pit stop on Lap 20. Hildebrand maintained that position until the team made its final stop on Lap 42, and returned to the field in the 11th position chasing local favorite Takuma Sato, and with three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves and defending series champion Dario Franchitti in hot pursuit behind him.

In the final 10 laps, Hildebrand moved past Mike Conway and then drove through an incident between Ryan Hunter-Reay and Sebastian Bourdais that caused the final caution flag of the race on Lap 58. A restart on Lap 61 saw teammates EJ Viso and Sato collide into Turn One and former Panther driver Vitor Meira spin off course in Turn Three, causing local cautions in both turns on the final lap. Castroneves passed Hildebrand going into Turn Three on the last lap for seventh position, but was penalized for passing under the local yellow and sent to the end of the lead lap, securing Hildebrand’s seventh-place result.

The IZOD IndyCar Series will have a weekend off as teams return to the United States before traveling to Kentucky Speedway on October 2nd for the Kentucky Indy 300, which will be broadcast live on VERSUS at 2 pm with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 94 and Sirius channel 212.

JR Hildebrand, No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda:

“We all worked together this weekend to get a car that wasn’t necessarily the fastest in the field, but one that was easy to sit back and rip off some laps. And for today’s race, that’s what you needed. The National Guard boys gave me a good car and we were able to be smart about where we were at on the track and pick points to be aggressive. Really happy with the way it worked out and that we were able to hold off Helio (Castroneves) and Dario (Franchitti) at the end, and all-in-all a good run for the boys here and a great way for us to end the road course action for this season. I’m happy to see Dixie (Scott Dixon) get a win here. I know how hard he works and on top of that he’s one of the nicest guys in the paddock. It’s cool to see that pay off for him; he’s had a lot of tough luck this year, so big ups to the No. 9 car boys.”

www.JRHildebrandRacing.com – www.PantherRacing.com – www.NationalGuard.com.

– Panther Racing, Press Release

J.R. Hildebrand Comes Home to Race at Infineon Raceway

J.R. Hildebrand - National Guard — J.R. Hildebrand drives the No. 4 National Guard car for Panther Racing.

J.R. Hildebrand, the 23 year-old from Sausalito, CA returns to his hometown as the leading rookie in the IndyCar Series. He is set to race in the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma this Sunday, at Infineon Raceway, a track where he attended the Jim Russell Racing School and won the Sprint Kart Series championship at age 14. He lists Infineon as one of his favorite tracks, as well as Road Atlanta and Indianapolis. Perhaps, the reason why, is that J.R. has won there at every level on his climb to the IZOD IndyCar Series.

In 2009, driving in the Firestone Indy Lights Series for Michael Andretti, he won the pole and the race in Sonoma on his way to 4 wins and the series championship. Last year at Infineon, JR raced for the first time in an IndyCar and was involved in a crash on lap 38 and finished in 24th place. This year, with a lot more experience and a great Panther Racing team behind him he hopes to get that first career IndyCar win.

JR at Infineon — J.R. Hildebrand on the track at Infineon Raceway.

J.R. drives the No. 4 National Guard car for Panther Racing and is currently in 13th place in the 2011 points standings. He has led the rookie points standings pretty much all year. His best finish of the year was the now famous, 2nd place run in the Indy 500. With only 5 races left in his rookie year, J.R. would really like to get into the win column here in Northern California.

Last week, some of the IZOD IndyCar series drivers including J.R. Hildebrand took part in a full day of testing at Infineon Raceway. Fans as well as Media were treated to a Press Conference in the tracks Panasonic Technologies Media Center. In attendance at the press conference was my friend, Lindi Bess, a columnist at SkirtsandSkuffs.com. Lindi was kind enough to provide us with this short excerpt as well as some nice photos.

JR Hildebrand was asked, “Its been an interesting rookie season, you’ve had an opportunity to improve yourself in alot of different venues, but where you’ve shown the brightest is the ovals, would you care to comment on that?”

“It’s obviously because I’m an awesome oval driver….(laughs) Our team has a long history of being an accomplished oval team and that played a big role in it. I think our focus because of that has flip flopped a little to try and improve our road course situation. We don’t always come into places with pole sitting data from the year before so that makes it a little tough to figure out just what we need to do but we’ve definitely been doing a lot of things over the last two, three road course weekends in particular to try to start remedying that situation and I certainly think we are on the upswing with it. Its really been nice to have those races that we’ve been competitive in. Its a shame last weekend (New Hampshire) that we weren’t able to complete the race because we ended up with the a really quick race car for the long runs but its just kinda the nature of how it goes and I’d be happy to admit that I’m still learning and figuring things out so all in all we’ve had a really strong season for being a one car team and its been my rookie year. Hopefully I can continue figuring things out and we continue to get better from here.”

J.R.'s Helmet — J.R. Hildebrand in his National Guard Helmet.

On Wednesday, J.R. was interviewed on the Grant Napear show on Sports 1140 in Sacramento. He talked about what it’s like to be back home in his native Northern California, as well as his mentality following his crash during the Indy 500. He also talked about his beloved San Francisco Giants, as well as the 49ers and possibly taking new Head Coach Jim Harbaugh (a part owner of Panther Racing) on a ride around Infineon. To listen to the very interesting interview, click here.

For a complete listing of J.R Hildebrand’s race statistics please visit his driver page at www.racing-reference.info.

The Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma can be seen Sunday at 1:00 pm PDT on the Versus network.