The premonition of Agustín Canapino’s team owner in the preview of the Indianapolis 500

Ricardo Juncos he left Argentina two decades ago but has never left. Conscious of Argentine motorsports, Juncos team owner Hollinger Racing chose Agostino Canapino when he was able to add a car to his IndyCar lineup. And he is convinced that the magnetism of the reef will make him an idol in the United States.

“In general, being such an expensive sport, motorsport is for millionaires. And the drivers who race are standing nose, believe they are gods and don’t give a damn about anyone; They have that half-cold attitude, because they’re all spoiled kids who’ve never done anything in their lives, never had to sacrifice themselves with anything,” he describes before casting a premonition of him.

“Agustín is a thoroughbred who comes from below. The difference between him and the rest of the people is abysmal -compare-. He has a very special charisma and magnetism with journalists and with people… Obviously the same thing happens to him as in Argentina. This is rare and gets a lot of attention here. And I think he will end up being an idol here as well“.

His praise for the fourth Argentine at the start of the Indianapolis 500 also covers his professional side. “He is very intelligent. We tested the IndyCar car here in October, before the event in Argentina, and the engineers basically couldn’t speak to him in English and today he gives you notes in perfect English. It’s amazing how smart she is and how fast she learns. And this also happens to him in a racing car: he gets in and learns faster”, he says in conversation with Clarín.

-How do you imagine the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grandstands, with several Argentines?

-I think it will be something very special, because a lot of people will come. Also, about 200 Argentines live in Indianapolis and I’m guessing they’ll all come. I think it will go very well and I imagine there will be a little more pressure. There is also the support of the AFA, which attracts a lot of attention from Americans. More than ever we have many fans from the United States, which we didn’t have before, because of the World Cup, because of what happened in Argentina, because we made the news after the World Cup when people took to the streets. So, they think we are all crazy and that gets their attention. And what’s more, they see the car like this and don’t understand anything.

-And how do you think the race will be?

-It’s difficult because we started 27th and the car was ready for something better, so the race It will be complex, it will not be easy to go back. But Agustín is good, we will trust his talent. There’s a three-hour ride, depending on which detective stories there are, and everyone will be watching. For motorsport it is like the final of a football World Cup, because it is the race that every driver wants to run and wants to win. Historically Formula 1 teams have only gone to 500 and many have won in history. And it’s almost 40 years older than Formula 1. So, it’s all pretty shocking. Apart from the result, because anything can happen and starting was the goal, starting with both cars is more than precious.

-What analysis do you make of the classification?

-The car was not working well on Saturday. We expected it to be the 9th or 10th Friday, so we were confident, even if it’s never easy, but neither is the 27th. With Agustín we didn’t succeed because it had to be much better than what we had classified. This is the anger we have left.

-Since then, how is the preparation going?

-Complete cars are rebuilt; You remove everything needed for qualifying and put on the racing ones, which were tested on Monday but the track was very difficult and when the track changes it’s like starting over, nothing you’ve tried works. It’s basically a matter of having the car as smooth as possible in traffic and that the tire degradation isn’t that great. And in the pits you work a lot with the mechanics. There are 6 people working the wall and it’s like a different one gets it wrong all the time, they can’t get everything right once so it’s a matter of continuing to practice. It’s all very complex.

-Why is it a unique event?

-It’s the most dangerous race. There was an accident on Monday and there is already one rider (Stefan Wilson) who is not racing, and it wasn’t even his fault. This is the hard part: they are reckless, pilots are soldiers going to war. Monday is Veteran’s Day, it’s a warlike country, Americans are extremely patriotic. There are really 400,000 people on the track and when they get a minute of silence it’s a minute, it’s not 20 seconds, and all you hear are birds. Is fantastic. So the atmosphere seems charged. There are 15 countries represented by the pilots. It is an event that must be experienced. It’s so impressive that every time you go it feels like the first time, you never get used to it. They are unique experiences and when you go you are shocked. Hopefully there will be many who come and that happens to them.

When humble Juncos Racing left Fernando Alonso and his mighty McLaren out of the 500 Miglia

Sunday 19 May 2019, “a crew armed with pineapples, with people working part time” -according to Juncos- eliminated Fernando Alonso and his powerful McLaren from the Indianapolis 500. The two-time Spanish Formula 1 champion looked forward to the last driver, Kyle Kayser, from 33rd and last in qualifying when the checkered flag gave him the worst news.

“It was crazy. Because everything happened to us,” recalled Juncos four years later. And he expands: “Ten days before practice we lost the sponsor we had, so the car was all white. And I had to say to the pilot’s father: ‘Either you put all the money into it or we won’t run away’ and the father, since he had so much money, told us that we would have run away just the same. Even though from Monday to Thursday we were very fast, between 1 and 9, and in the first session on Friday we crashed and destroyed the car. And then comes the story of the 46 uninterrupted hours where the whole team worked and the last one was very slow because that was a spare car.”

-How was that historic Sunday?

-That year out there were three, not one like this year, and there were six cars. We decided not to go out to train in the morning, in fact we were the only ones who didn’t go out, to keep trying. And then you had to get the pilot to give full throttle after the stick got stuck. I worked a lot with him on the mental side and the guy put the car down and never thought to lift the throttle and we went in for 19 thousandths. People exploded because it was we who lost sponsors, we were penniless, the smallest of all, and we left out the giant McLaren, who moreover arrived with the winning attitude to take the world by storm . Suddenly we entered the world news because leaving out Alonso gave another greatness. Indeed, that fact is in the Indianapolis Museum, in a room that has, I think, the ten historical events in the 107 year history and we are one of them, so imagine. These are the things that have happened to us in these 20 years here.

A private boss: “I’m waiting for soap in the bathroom”

-You look energetic and aware of everything, are you an IndyCar owner like you?

-I don’t know what Roger Penske would have been like in the past, because today he is 86 years old. But, for example, I ended up making Agustín’s armchair because the three made by specialists were wrong. At Indy Lights I even change the tires, get in and out of the car, get the tools. They are in all the details: legal, administrative, billing, commercial, technical. I have two categories, 60 people, meetings… I notice when my employees have problems. I am aware of everything, until the trash cans are empty and there is soap in the bathroom. I am like this and I don’t want or intend to change.

-Canapino is very similar in that obsession with work, do you see yourself reflected in him?

He’s very similar to me in that sense. he sees me very much like his father. It is to seek excellence permanently. I am obsessed with the profession. Last year, when we qualified second with Callum Ilott (Note: in the last round at Laguna Seca), I was furious because we were first until the last corner and the rest of the team were all happy. Agustín is not happy that he qualified 27th in the Indianapolis 500, he is happy to be there and that he qualified, because anything can happen, but knowing that we had more and not being able to do it is fantastic, and that’s what i also want to see. He is a thoroughbred who will always seek the limit in everything and I am the same. We have no limits. In my whole life I have a lot of adrenaline, I don’t sleep, I don’t stop. I have more and more passion. I’m sick of this and enjoying it a lot, it’s not a job. And I have several in the workshop that are the same. It is an extreme of passion. And with Agustín we are on the same tune, it’s very nice to work with such a meticulous and demanding driver because he requires a very high level.

-As a small team in IndyCar, are there any issues you are going through?

-We finished last year very well, almost taking pole position, with just one car and a rookie. This year we have improved a lot but our technical director had a health problem and only arrived this week. Nobody knows and he hurt us a lot. It is as if a football team does not have a technical director and plays between football players. We’ve had fast cars this year but no luck and it’s proving very difficult to get two cars ready with the number of mechanics we have. If we only had one car today, we would be much better than last year, fighting for races. But we have to develop the team. The problem is that there is a huge shortage of mechanics and engineers around the world. Because very large teams hire too many people they don’t need, and they do it because they have the money to do it, limiting small teams. There are no people because the top teams hire them to stop you from doing it. It’s a fierce war of power, as we are the smallest team, it doesn’t help us at all and we are very limited. Therefore, the people I have are good but lack experience. We will evolve a lot as the races go by.

-Have you thought about hiring Argentinians?

-Unfortunately, Argentines are incredibly talented but they don’t speak English. In this country you have to speak English. Chileans, Brazilians, Venezuelans, Colombians come… They all speak English, the Argentines none. We are complicated. That would be ideal. I’ve been here for 20 years and it’s not easy to get from Argentina to IndyCar. I arrived in a carpentry shop, to work as a mechanic in a go-kart and that’s how I started, very little by little and I learned the American culture over time.