July 29, 2024 • 11 mins
Callum Hedge is making his mark in Indy NXT off the back of his success in the 2023 Porsche Carrera Cup.
He’s fourth in the standings after appendicitis left him at an early-season disadvantage.
Hedge is back in New Zealand for a couple of weeks before the final few races of the season and told Mike Hosking that it’s a dream come true to be racing there.
He told him that very, very underprepared for NXT coming from a Porsche background and being unable to do the pre-season testing, but he’s been learning consistently over the course of the year, and the results have been getting better and better.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Looking forward to catching up with Keller Hedge. When he
was last year, he was coming off the back of
winning the Porsche Career A Cup and being the Formula
Regional Americas champion, so he headed off to Indy Next
the developmental series of course for Indy Car. Halfway through
the season. He's currently fourth and he's back for a
mid season break, so he is with us. Very good
morning and.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good to see you, money make thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Are you loving it?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Absolutely as a dream come true to the racing there
a part of the big IndyCar circus and going around
to all these races and having a blast.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Did you know what you were getting into versus what
you're experiencing now or not?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
No. I was very very underprepared, coming from obviously the
Porsche background, not being able to do the preseason testing
at the start of the year, so I went into
the first weekend just kind of like, Okay, I don't
really know what's to expect here, so you go out
learn been learning consistently over the course of the year,
and the results have been getting better and better and
(00:56):
better as the year's gone on.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Fantastic. So the difference between for people who don't necessarily
follow motor racing, and a description from yourself the difference
between a production car, even though it's a race car
as a Porsche, versus this which is custom built. What
is it? How big? Is how big a leap?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, it's actually surprisingly of like a very very fast
car if you put into perspective, there's only four race
cars on the Earth which are actually faster than an
Indie lights car, which would be probably a Daytona prototype,
a Formula one car, an Indy car, and a super
Formula car. Other than that, we're right there. So to
(01:33):
get acclimated with a car like that, especially coming from
a background with not a lot of single seater experience,
has been quite a challenge. And then we go and
race on ovals as well. So I've been learning that
new game as well.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I was going to ask. We had Scottie Mack on
the program a couple of weeks ago ahead of Indy,
and I watched a lot of I haven't watched a
lot of Indie racing, but on that oval, the speed
that you do and the line between that and disaster
must be so fine.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, well, at that speed, I haven't had any moments
or anything really on the overlope, been taking it quite cautious,
quite steady, just trying to learn and grow my experience
before I really start to push the limits of the
car and start to get it a bit loose and
really free. But I do feel that as soon as
it gets away from me slightly and that speed, there
(02:25):
is no coming back from her. You just go in
the wall. You don't really have any other option.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Exactly what are the expectations of you? Do they say? Look,
you know, we know you'll hit the speed, or you'll
do this, or we think you'll come fifth, or you're
still do What do they tell you for the oval?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I don't really think there was any expectation or any
pressure on me to perform. I think at the start
of the year for the road courses was very similar.
Just trying to go out learn and do all my
learning on a race weekend was really really challenging. So
to get the good results we had and then go
into an oval. I actually found it easier than I
did learning the road course because I didn't have any
(03:03):
bad habits from driving other cars that I had before.
So I went out. I did my first test day,
which I kind of sucked but I needed this. I
needed this piece of trim on my helmet to stop
my head from lifting up, so I was actually looking
at the sky before I was turning in. So I
went to the next one with this, with this piece
of trim on my helmet, and I watched the guy
(03:25):
from last year, and I said, Okay, if this guy
can do it, I'll just go and do exactly that.
And that's how it was.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
And there it was. What I like about is you
do you do track oval and of course road? Do
you favor one over the other? Does it matter or not?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
No? I didn't think so. I actually probably had some
of the most fun I've ever had in a race car.
Doing the Iowa race about three weeks ago was really
really awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
How sophisticated are the cars themselves in terms of tech
and speed and all that.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Quite quite sophisticated in some ways, but also in other
ways odd as much like the aerodynamics package is there's
really really big wings, lots of power. The floor isn't
very powerful, but there's a lot of power. That's probably
the biggest thing to get used to. It's got five
hundred horsepower and weighs about six hundred kilos. It's a
(04:18):
really really grunty car and you've got big tires. There's
a lot to learn with it.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
How limited by budget are you in terms of tie
usage and spear parts and new engines and all that.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, budget's been tight for us all year. We've been
really scraping the barrel trying to make our way through
the season. But we've been going really well. I've been
really fortunate to have the support of Honda, the Tony
Quinn Foundation, Giltrap Group, and a whole bunch of other
people that have come on board to help me out,
especially Steve Horn as well. I know he's listening right now,
(04:53):
So thank you to everyone that's got me here. Yeah,
it's been an absolute.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Blast, fantastic. So the team itself explain who they are,
how good they are, and where they project themselves to be.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So HMD Motorsports is the team I'm driving for. They're
relatively new and into the whole motor racing scene that
come on come about about five or six years ago
with their with their now IndyCar driver David Malucas so
his father Henry owns it owns the team gave them
a little bit of money to start up and ever
(05:26):
since then, the guys at the top, Mike Marini, Henry
aj and Luke Valley, they've all put together a really
good package, got a big new shop and ended up
with ten cars in Indie next.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Wow, So where do you are you with the team?
Do you stay with the team or you don't know?
Where do they go next year? They don't know? Is
there a plan?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah? So I guess their their goal is to get
an IndyCar team. For me, like they they really want
an IndyCar team. They've got the people to do it.
They've got the expertise, they've got the brains to do it,
and they've got the facility to do it as well.
And I do think that should they get an opportunity
to go IndyCar racing, they'd be able to do really
(06:09):
great things.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
You've got four races to go, You've done a bunch
of races. You've done. I don't want to dwell on this,
but you've come fourth a lot. Yeah, I know, tell
me about it is I mean, obviously fourth is better
than fifth, but it's not as good as third, is it?
Like the podium?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
No, I had a little taste of the podium at
Detroit and it wasn't enough. I want more than that.
I'm really not content with coming third and fourth. For me,
the goal is to go out there and be fighting
for wins.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
How much of it is on the day luck. So
I look at some of your results, So you're fourth overall,
I mean you've got to be pleased with that for
a start.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, I think that it's kind of exactly where I
expected myself to be. I didn't expect to be fighting
for the championship. I was in experience commared to the
guys ahead of me, had a lot to learn and
had a lot to develop both on and off the track.
But fourth, I'm relatively pleased with.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
How many people that you race have raced there before.
Therefore are veterans, if you like, business, guys like you
were in their first season.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
So there's there's quite a lot of rookies in the
in the championship this year, but a lot of them
have a lot more experience than a single seater, so
they have the full what was called the Road to
Indie program which is now USF Pro Championships, which young
Liam Skeets and a couple other KIPI guys have come
through so that program can last four or five or
(07:35):
six years. Even so, some of the guys might be
coming into their first Indie next season, but have raced
in this paddock and on these tracks four or five
years already. So to come in and try and catch
up my learning has been really difficult.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Okay, four races remain in the season for you. Can
you do much with your fourth place with good results
in those four races?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I think so, I think with if the overs continue
to go the way they do, I'd really like to
put some pressure on Collette and third he's he's quite
a few points ahead of me. But if I can
put some pressure on him towards the end of the year,
maybe I'll be able to close that gap down and
get the Rookie of the Year. But the gap to
(08:18):
the other cars behind me is fairly comfortable. So the
goal is to definitely consolidate fourth and try and put
some pressure on those guys in front.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
What about the other guys Scotty Mack and Dixon and
Armstrong and I mean it's the paddock is festooned with
kiwis these days, isn't it. Do you run into them
a lot or not?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You see Keyi's everywhere in this paddock, so it's quite
cool to go around and rub shoulders with guys that
are from where I'm from and have been there for
ten twenty years.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Something I saw on a documentary not so long ago.
I can't remember where, but it was on Indy and
the number of New Zealanders behind the scenes that we
wouldn't realize our news is extraordinary. How many news.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
At not just drivers, pitt crew, engineers, people that are
living in Indy who did some indie car stuff and
started up a life there and never came back in
the end.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Fantastic. So do you write they? Are they helpful as
what I'm asking you know, Dixon, Scottie, Mac and stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I haven't really asked too much advice from any of them.
I tell a funny story like I was telling you
just before I met my racing one of my racing
heroes Scott Dixon and ma Andi's while I was in
the ice bath at Pittford Training, which is where a
lot of the Indy cars and Indie next guys train.
So it's cool to be in there doing similar all
(09:33):
the same workouts as they are and been able to
benchmark myself against.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
That fantastic that you never get used to an ice bath,
do you?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
No, never gets better, That's so true.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So you're not sure you finish off the season, you're
not sure what next season holds for you yet or
you do.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well. For me, the goal is to try and come
back to Indy next and race with HMD Motorsports again.
For me, that that's a big thing is to be
able to come back in year two. Not a lot
of guys have managed to come through in year one
and actually put together a championship run. And for me
it was it was no different. I had a lot
to learn, a lot to develop or the testing that
(10:11):
I missed at the start of the year. I'll be
able to build on my season, hopefully get a slightly
better preseason and come out swinging next year.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Because that was it was append of scientist. Was it
was appendix Was it?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, it's appendix y and that that caused your problems.
Did you see the F one yesterday? George Russell tell
me he got he got the position taken away. He
won the race, right, Yeah, he got the position taken
away because the car came in underweight. Put yourself in
that position for a moment. You've just won the race.
It's the greatest race of your life. You've just won it.
(10:42):
They weighed the car and it's underweight. What do you do?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Not a lot you can do. I'd pack a sad
I would I would be pretty pretty grumpy. But there's
nothing really you can do.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
It is what it is, and that's just how it is.
Good luck with the final four races. You love America,
by the way you and doing America.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
America has been a blast. You get to see so
much stuff that you wouldn't be able to see back
home in New Zealand. It's so different. I don't I
think the first time I saw a beach in the
last three months was in New Zealand here, so it's
been it's been a quite an adjustment. But loving it
over there, Love in the place, love in the racing.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Good well, lovely to catch up with you. Good luck
for the rest of the season. We'll get you in
again soon.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Just make good to see you kill them. Here. For
more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news
talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
Looking forward to catching up with Keller Hedge. When he
was last year, he was coming off the back of
winning the Porsche Career A Cup and being the Formula
Regional Americas champion, so he headed off to Indy Next
the developmental series of course for Indy Car. Halfway through
the season. He's currently fourth and he's back for a
mid season break, so he is with us. Very good
morning and.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good to see you, money make thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Are you loving it?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Absolutely as a dream come true to the racing there
a part of the big IndyCar circus and going around
to all these races and having a blast.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Did you know what you were getting into versus what
you're experiencing now or not?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
No. I was very very underprepared, coming from obviously the
Porsche background, not being able to do the preseason testing
at the start of the year, so I went into
the first weekend just kind of like, Okay, I don't
really know what's to expect here, so you go out
learn been learning consistently over the course of the year,
and the results have been getting better and better and
(00:56):
better as the year's gone on.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Fantastic. So the difference between for people who don't necessarily
follow motor racing, and a description from yourself the difference
between a production car, even though it's a race car
as a Porsche, versus this which is custom built. What
is it? How big? Is how big a leap?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, it's actually surprisingly of like a very very fast
car if you put into perspective, there's only four race
cars on the Earth which are actually faster than an
Indie lights car, which would be probably a Daytona prototype,
a Formula one car, an Indy car, and a super
Formula car. Other than that, we're right there. So to
(01:33):
get acclimated with a car like that, especially coming from
a background with not a lot of single seater experience,
has been quite a challenge. And then we go and
race on ovals as well. So I've been learning that
new game as well.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I was going to ask. We had Scottie Mack on
the program a couple of weeks ago ahead of Indy,
and I watched a lot of I haven't watched a
lot of Indie racing, but on that oval, the speed
that you do and the line between that and disaster
must be so fine.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, well, at that speed, I haven't had any moments
or anything really on the overlope, been taking it quite cautious,
quite steady, just trying to learn and grow my experience
before I really start to push the limits of the
car and start to get it a bit loose and
really free. But I do feel that as soon as
it gets away from me slightly and that speed, there
(02:25):
is no coming back from her. You just go in
the wall. You don't really have any other option.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Exactly what are the expectations of you? Do they say? Look,
you know, we know you'll hit the speed, or you'll
do this, or we think you'll come fifth, or you're
still do What do they tell you for the oval?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I don't really think there was any expectation or any
pressure on me to perform. I think at the start
of the year for the road courses was very similar.
Just trying to go out learn and do all my
learning on a race weekend was really really challenging. So
to get the good results we had and then go
into an oval. I actually found it easier than I
did learning the road course because I didn't have any
(03:03):
bad habits from driving other cars that I had before.
So I went out. I did my first test day,
which I kind of sucked but I needed this. I
needed this piece of trim on my helmet to stop
my head from lifting up, so I was actually looking
at the sky before I was turning in. So I
went to the next one with this, with this piece
of trim on my helmet, and I watched the guy
(03:25):
from last year, and I said, Okay, if this guy
can do it, I'll just go and do exactly that.
And that's how it was.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
And there it was. What I like about is you
do you do track oval and of course road? Do
you favor one over the other? Does it matter or not?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
No? I didn't think so. I actually probably had some
of the most fun I've ever had in a race car.
Doing the Iowa race about three weeks ago was really
really awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
How sophisticated are the cars themselves in terms of tech
and speed and all that.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Quite quite sophisticated in some ways, but also in other
ways odd as much like the aerodynamics package is there's
really really big wings, lots of power. The floor isn't
very powerful, but there's a lot of power. That's probably
the biggest thing to get used to. It's got five
hundred horsepower and weighs about six hundred kilos. It's a
(04:18):
really really grunty car and you've got big tires. There's
a lot to learn with it.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
How limited by budget are you in terms of tie
usage and spear parts and new engines and all that.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, budget's been tight for us all year. We've been
really scraping the barrel trying to make our way through
the season. But we've been going really well. I've been
really fortunate to have the support of Honda, the Tony
Quinn Foundation, Giltrap Group, and a whole bunch of other
people that have come on board to help me out,
especially Steve Horn as well. I know he's listening right now,
(04:53):
So thank you to everyone that's got me here. Yeah,
it's been an absolute.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Blast, fantastic. So the team itself explain who they are,
how good they are, and where they project themselves to be.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So HMD Motorsports is the team I'm driving for. They're
relatively new and into the whole motor racing scene that
come on come about about five or six years ago
with their with their now IndyCar driver David Malucas so
his father Henry owns it owns the team gave them
a little bit of money to start up and ever
(05:26):
since then, the guys at the top, Mike Marini, Henry
aj and Luke Valley, they've all put together a really
good package, got a big new shop and ended up
with ten cars in Indie next.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Wow, So where do you are you with the team?
Do you stay with the team or you don't know?
Where do they go next year? They don't know? Is
there a plan?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah? So I guess their their goal is to get
an IndyCar team. For me, like they they really want
an IndyCar team. They've got the people to do it.
They've got the expertise, they've got the brains to do it,
and they've got the facility to do it as well.
And I do think that should they get an opportunity
to go IndyCar racing, they'd be able to do really
(06:09):
great things.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
You've got four races to go, You've done a bunch
of races. You've done. I don't want to dwell on this,
but you've come fourth a lot. Yeah, I know, tell
me about it is I mean, obviously fourth is better
than fifth, but it's not as good as third, is it?
Like the podium?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
No, I had a little taste of the podium at
Detroit and it wasn't enough. I want more than that.
I'm really not content with coming third and fourth. For me,
the goal is to go out there and be fighting
for wins.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
How much of it is on the day luck. So
I look at some of your results, So you're fourth overall,
I mean you've got to be pleased with that for
a start.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, I think that it's kind of exactly where I
expected myself to be. I didn't expect to be fighting
for the championship. I was in experience commared to the
guys ahead of me, had a lot to learn and
had a lot to develop both on and off the track.
But fourth, I'm relatively pleased with.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
How many people that you race have raced there before.
Therefore are veterans, if you like, business, guys like you
were in their first season.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
So there's there's quite a lot of rookies in the
in the championship this year, but a lot of them
have a lot more experience than a single seater, so
they have the full what was called the Road to
Indie program which is now USF Pro Championships, which young
Liam Skeets and a couple other KIPI guys have come
through so that program can last four or five or
(07:35):
six years. Even so, some of the guys might be
coming into their first Indie next season, but have raced
in this paddock and on these tracks four or five
years already. So to come in and try and catch
up my learning has been really difficult.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Okay, four races remain in the season for you. Can
you do much with your fourth place with good results
in those four races?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I think so, I think with if the overs continue
to go the way they do, I'd really like to
put some pressure on Collette and third he's he's quite
a few points ahead of me. But if I can
put some pressure on him towards the end of the year,
maybe I'll be able to close that gap down and
get the Rookie of the Year. But the gap to
(08:18):
the other cars behind me is fairly comfortable. So the
goal is to definitely consolidate fourth and try and put
some pressure on those guys in front.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
What about the other guys Scotty Mack and Dixon and
Armstrong and I mean it's the paddock is festooned with
kiwis these days, isn't it. Do you run into them
a lot or not?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You see Keyi's everywhere in this paddock, so it's quite
cool to go around and rub shoulders with guys that
are from where I'm from and have been there for
ten twenty years.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Something I saw on a documentary not so long ago.
I can't remember where, but it was on Indy and
the number of New Zealanders behind the scenes that we
wouldn't realize our news is extraordinary. How many news.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
At not just drivers, pitt crew, engineers, people that are
living in Indy who did some indie car stuff and
started up a life there and never came back in
the end.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Fantastic. So do you write they? Are they helpful as
what I'm asking you know, Dixon, Scottie, Mac and stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I haven't really asked too much advice from any of them.
I tell a funny story like I was telling you
just before I met my racing one of my racing
heroes Scott Dixon and ma Andi's while I was in
the ice bath at Pittford Training, which is where a
lot of the Indy cars and Indie next guys train.
So it's cool to be in there doing similar all
(09:33):
the same workouts as they are and been able to
benchmark myself against.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
That fantastic that you never get used to an ice bath,
do you?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
No, never gets better, That's so true.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So you're not sure you finish off the season, you're
not sure what next season holds for you yet or
you do.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well. For me, the goal is to try and come
back to Indy next and race with HMD Motorsports again.
For me, that that's a big thing is to be
able to come back in year two. Not a lot
of guys have managed to come through in year one
and actually put together a championship run. And for me
it was it was no different. I had a lot
to learn, a lot to develop or the testing that
(10:11):
I missed at the start of the year. I'll be
able to build on my season, hopefully get a slightly
better preseason and come out swinging next year.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Because that was it was append of scientist. Was it
was appendix Was it?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, it's appendix y and that that caused your problems.
Did you see the F one yesterday? George Russell tell
me he got he got the position taken away. He
won the race, right, Yeah, he got the position taken
away because the car came in underweight. Put yourself in
that position for a moment. You've just won the race.
It's the greatest race of your life. You've just won it.
(10:42):
They weighed the car and it's underweight. What do you do?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Not a lot you can do. I'd pack a sad
I would I would be pretty pretty grumpy. But there's
nothing really you can do.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
It is what it is, and that's just how it is.
Good luck with the final four races. You love America,
by the way you and doing America.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
America has been a blast. You get to see so
much stuff that you wouldn't be able to see back
home in New Zealand. It's so different. I don't I
think the first time I saw a beach in the
last three months was in New Zealand here, so it's
been it's been a quite an adjustment. But loving it
over there, Love in the place, love in the racing.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Good well, lovely to catch up with you. Good luck
for the rest of the season. We'll get you in
again soon.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Just make good to see you kill them. Here. For
more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news
talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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