Continental Tire IMSA Driver Spotlight: Trent Hindman

Driver Spotlight: Trent Hindman
Driver, No. 46 Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3
Follow: @trenthindman

Coming from an open-wheel background, how long did it take to get adjusted and then get comfortable driving in sports cars? What did you feel you needed to change, if anything?

“It didn’t take too long to get adjusted and comfortable to driving sports cars because I had a great group of people around me at Fall-Line to aid me in that transition. What really was difficult in the move from open wheel to sports car racing was just the style of racing itself. In general, sports car racing is very close and tends to get very aggressive, and the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge is no exception to that. There were a lot of things that I needed to adapt to, and there are still things that I am working on in this transition to continue my education as a driver.”

More often than not, you’d qualify and start while watching John finish the races this year. Would you like to finish more often, given as you said post-race in Atlanta it was highly stressful watching?

“Watching the end of the race in Atlanta was stressful to say the least! But I’d absolutely want to move into the finishing driver role for next year. I feel like the initial plan that Michael Harvey, Mark Boden, John Edwards, and myself came up with regarding who starts and who finishes was absolutely ideal for this season. I was able to finish four out of the 12 races, and the reasoning behind that was to just get an idea of what it’s like being the finishing driver, and to prepare me for being the full time finishing driver later on in my career.”

Would you like to be in a position where you can run double duty on race weekends, doing both TUDOR and Conti races? Or do you prefer having a single focus?

“I genuinely love running in the GS class, but I also want to take the next step and hopefully move into the TUDOR Championship in the future. I know a lot of drivers that run in Continental also have commitments in the TUDOR series as well. Eventually I’d love to run both TUDOR and Continental full time, but for now I would like to keep my focus on one or the other until I would experienced enough to be able to do both.”

What does it mean to win the Continental SportsCar Championship so early in your career?

“Winning the Continental championship is absolutely an incredible feeling, but from a career perspective it’s really something that I hope can help open some doors going into next year. To be honest, this season has been so intense and my focus has been solely concentrated on winning the championship, and I really haven’t even thought about 2015 yet, until now.”

What are your plans for the off-season?

“Well for now I’m working on that plan for 2015, but aside from that it’s just going to be all about enjoying the time off and celebrating the championship win!”