Ryan Hunter-Reay: Champion

Looking back on Ryan Hunter-Reay and his career path, he was one of the few Americans able to enter the dying CART series while everyone was prepared to jump to the IRL. In 2002, Hunter-Reay finished 6th in the Atlantic Championships behind Americans Jon Fogerty, Alex Gurney, Rocky Moran Jr, Canadian Michael Valiante and Mexican driver Luiz Daiz. While these five drivers have found great success in sports cars, they only have a combined four starts in American open-wheel racing. Hunter-Reay was the lucky one who got a shot. American Spirit Team Johansson signed him and fellow American Jimmy Vasser for that 2003 season. He slowly improved throughout that season, scoring a podium at Mid-Ohio, a fastest lap at Mexico City and scored a surprise win at Surfers Paradise in a rain-shortened event.

But after that 2003 season, American Spirit Team Johnansson closed it's doors and put Hunter-Reay in the now all too familiar process of looking for a ride. He did find one with Herdez Competition (now HVM Racing) and the highlight of his season was his grand chelem, leading all 250 laps from pole and scoring fastest lap at Milwaukee. But he would still end up looking for a ride in 2005. He found one with Rocketsports but his season ended when he was replaced by Michael McDowell for the final two races.

In 2006, he did not get a ride in ChampCar or the IRL. He did not get another opportunity until August 2007 when he replaced Jeff Simmons at Rahal-Letterman Racing at Mid-Ohio. Despite running only the final six races of the IRL season, he did enough to win rookie of the year and get a full-time ride with Rahal-Letterman for 2007. Hunter-Reay scored a surprise win at Watkins Glen, along with ten top tens and more importantly, sign an important personal sponsorship with IZOD. Despite his success and his sponsors, Rahal-Letterman had to leave IndyCar racing for 2008 and Hunter-Reay was unemployed once again.

Struggling to get a ride, he got a race-to-race deal with Vision Racing, literally a day or two before opening Friday practice for St. Pete. He would go on to score a podium that weekend but struggled at Indianapolis and could only get the deal through Texas. However, there was an opening at Foyt Enterprises after Vitor Meria hurt his back at Indianapolis. He would score two top tens with Foyt but had to look for another team for 2009 as Meria was to return.

With IZOD stepping up to be title sponsor, Hunter-Reay got a shot with Andretti Autosport, but only through Indianapolis. Just like the year before, he starred in the season-opener and nearly won before being passed by Will Power late. He would go on to win three races later at Long Beach and scored a fifth the following race at Kansas. He had done enough to extend his deal through the rest of 2010 where he would get nine more top ten finishes, including a podium at Toronto.

2011 could not have started any worse. While picking up DHL and SunDrop as sponsors, IZOD left to sponsor Ryan Briscoe at Penske, he did not score a top ten in the first four races and he failed to qualify for Indianapolis. He was caught in the middle of an unpopular decision to put him in the second Foyt car, which was qualified by Bruno Junqueira. The second half of his season was a complete 180. He scored podiums at Toronto and Mid-Ohio before taking a victory at New Hampshire. In final half of the 2011 season, Hunter-Reay scored a top ten in every race but Motegi.

Then comes the 2012 season. Hunter-Reay scored a podium in the season opener at St. Pete. He had a podium at Long Beach revoked after late contact with Takuma Sato but finished second at Sao Paulo, again behind Will Power. He qualified on the front row for Indianapolis but a suspension failure end his race. Another mechanical failure would end his Texas race but the following week at Milwaukee, Hunter-Reay turned his luck around, scoring his first victory of the year and the first of a great three race stretch. After those wins at Iowa and Toronto, Hunter-Reay was right in the championship hunt and a pole at Edmonton showed he was a serious threat. A ten grid spot penalty for that Edmonton race ended any shot at four in a row and he finished seventh. After losing an engine at Mid-Ohio, Hunter-Reay lost the points lead and was looking at falling completely out of the hunt. A great race at Sonoma ended when he was spun by Alex Tagliani and with two races to go, it looked like the Australian was destined to win his first championship.

Hunter-Reay did not give up. Despite the thirty-seven point margin, Hunter-Reay took a big win at Baltimore and narrowed Power's lead to seventeen points heading into Fontana. With Hunter-Reay in an almost must-win situation, his weekend could not have started any worse with his accident testing at Fontana. But Power spun in front of Hunter-Reay during the race, easing the pressure on the American and only needing to finish 6th. In what was a great effort, the Penske team did all they could and forced Hunter-Reay to score a top five if he wanted to become champion. In a race that saw uncertainty about a right rear shock and pressure from the likes of Kanaan and Castroneves, Hunter-Reay was able to score the top five needed to win the title after front runners Tagliani and Sato fell out of the race while ahead of him.

While making an amazing comeback, Hunter-Reay became the first driver known to man to turn down Roger Penske to stay with his current team. While his professional life saw ups and downs, his personal life was not any easier. His mother past away from cancer and Hunter-Reay has taken it upon himself to do all he can to find a cure for cancer and he reminds himself everytime he gets in the race car. He choose the number twenty-eight, for the twenty-eight million people battling cancer around the world. But not all has been bad for Hunter-Reay. He met and married his soul mate Beccy along the way. While things have been tough and uncertain for Hunter-Reay along his path to becoming champion, he now finds himself in a comfortable place and an ambassador for a greater cause. He is a champion in more ways than one.