Hildebrand, who captured the US F200 title in 2006 and the Indy Lights championship in 2009, will replace England’s Dan Wheldon in IndyCar Panther Racing team without the need to bring a sponsorship for his racing position increasing the number of American full time drivers in the series. In fact, Hildebrand's technical feedback was one of the many things that reportedly impressed the Panther Racing team during his test at Phoenix.The 22-year-old native of Sausalito, CA, who grew up in the shadows of Infineon Raceway commented:
“You cannot believe how exciting this is for me. To get one of the premier rides in IndyCar is something I always dreamed about. To come up through the ladder system and get to this point is huge. And, to not have to bring any sponsorship, well I don’t take that for granted because I’ve grown up in an era where drivers were forced to find sponsorship. Things started to heat up in August and September but, honestly, it wasn’t until last week that I really felt like it was going to be my ride. The test at Phoenix wasn’t the easiest and my heart rate was a lot higher than I’d hoped it would be.
But it gave them a chance to see how I would react, gauge my feedback and see how I interacted with the team. I came away feeling good about it.
Panther Racing CEO and Managing Partner John Barnes had Hildebrand on his short list of candidates throughout the off-season as a successor of Dan Wheldon, who competed in the No. 4 entry the past two seasons. It's a transition similar to 2001, when Scott Goodyear retired and 21-year-old Sam Hornish Jr. came on board. Hornish, of course, delivered 11 victories and two IZOD IndyCar Series championships for the team.
“J.R. is an extremely impressive young man and he’s going to be a great fit for the National Guard and Panther Racing. We took a very calculated and methodical approach to making this decision because anybody who represents the 350,000 soldiers in the National Guard has a tremendous responsibility both inside and outside the race car. We feel like J.R. is going to be a tremendous asset to the IZOD IndyCar Series, and what really set him apart is his ambition and his intelligence – this is a kid who was a National Merit Scholar, and accepted to M.I.T. We tested him at Phoenix last week and brought along my friend Al Unser Jr. to help us with the evaluation, and all of us knew by lunchtime of the first day that we’d found the next driver of the No. 4 car. We know we all have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but our expectations are very high for the 2011 season.”
National Guard will be for the 4rth consequtive season the primary sponsor of the No.4 car and according to Hildebrand, representing the National Guard and its 350,000 soldiers domestically and abroad is "an honor".
"I’ve already got a small taste of all the programs I’ll be a part of through this sponsorship and I just couldn’t be more excited to get more involved in everything that goes along with this partnership. I’m certainly excited about this opportunity and I’m definitely looking forward to every piece of this program moving forward.”
Because of the fact that J.R. couldn't find any sponsorship in the previous season ans was obliged to spent the season pounding the pavement, except for his first two IndyCar starts at Mid-Ohio and Infineon with Dreyer & Reinbold and he had another approach for racing by Sarah Fisher.
“It makes you really think that if you sit on the sidelines for another season, maybe you have to start thinking about going back to school. I love her organization but I had this carrot dangled out in front of me and I’d gone this far. I’d out-lasted Justin Wilson, so I just decided to hang in there with Panther.”
The fact that a limited number of American drivers race in the series has emerged rumours that there is an unspoken prejudice against them but, Hildebrand responded:
“It’s hard to say there’s a stigma. It just seems to be a much broader group of foreign drivers. But, hopefully, with a couple of us getting rides in good seats maybe that perception will change.”
