Theo Pourchaire has revealed that he was in the United States just three days before he was called up to drive for Arrow McLaren in Toronto – but was in his native France just after midnight on Saturday morning when he received the signal.
Pourchaire, who was dropped suddenly from Arrow McLaren’s No. 6 Chevrolet-powered entry before the Laguna Seca round last month, was recalled to drive its No. 7 car after Alexander Rossi broke his right thumb in a crash in Friday’s practice session.
After dashing across the Atlantic to Canada, he will start from 26th on the grid after getting nine laps of qualifying on a track he’d never seen before.
“I would say the last 15 or 18 hours [has been] crazy,” said Pourchaire. “It was about midnight in France when Tony Kanaan (Arrow McLaren’s sporting director) called me.
“Of course, I saw practice one. I'm watching IndyCar every session. I saw the crash of Alex; I didn't know he was injured. I was like, ‘yeah, he’s getting out of the car’. I was at the restaurant. I told my girlfriend, maybe McLaren is going to call me if he's injured?
“Half an hour later, Tony is calling me. This is strange! ‘Theo, can you come as quick as possible? We need you right now in Toronto.’
“[I replied] ‘It's midnight in France, Tony. I'm not sure I can find a flight and come quick.’ But, yeah, I'm here. Nine laps in quali. I wish Alex a speedy recovery. I know he broke a thumb. It's not easy to come here straight in quali, but it's fine. I'm happy.
“I arrived one hour before quali, but everybody was really happy to see me and I was really happy to see them again. It's good people here.”
Timeline of Pourchaire’s wild trip (all times Eastern)
6:00pm: Arrow McLaren announces Rossi will not race due to injury
6:10pm: Kanaan calls Pourchaire (12:10am in France)
6:37pm: Pourchaire’s flight is booked
6:45pm: Arrow McLaren shop manager Doug Tapscott picks up Pourchaire’s firesuit and seat, drives overnight to Toronto from Indianapolis
10:00pm: Engineers send on-board footage and race prep to Pourchaire
12:00am: Pourchaire departs from Nice, France, for Frankfurt, Germany
1:30am: Pourchaire lands in Frankfurt, and goes through race prep with Kanaan during layover
4:00am: Pourchaire departs for Toronto, Kanaan goes to bed
12:30pm: Pourchaire lands in Toronto, takes the UP Express train to Union Station
1:22pm: Pourchaire arrives at Union Station in downtown Toronto, meets with crew members to drive to the track
1:43pm: Pourchaire heads to garage for seat fitting
2:45pm: Qualifying begins
Clocking up the air miles
The major irony was that Pourchaire had been in Indianapolis, just a few hours away from Toronto, until the middle of this week.
“It's crazy because I was still in Indianapolis three days ago,” he smiled. “I decided to come back to France because it's summer and I was not racing in Indy anymore. When Tony called me, I told him, ‘I'm fine, I want to race, of course’.
“I just didn't sleep in France. I went in the early morning to the airport, and was watching all night the onboard video and data. On the plane, I decided to sleep a little bit. That was not easy. Still, I could sleep maybe like four hours, five hours.
“It's unfortunate what happened to Alex. I think his broken thumb is painful, but it's not a big, big injury. Maybe he will be back soon.
“In case Alex is not ready, I will be still here waiting. If the team calls me, of course. I'm not going to refuse racing. I love IndyCar. It's a great championship. I was home waiting for more than probably four, five weeks.
“So, right now, I'm just super happy to drive. It feels like a dream.”
