From melting down due to the 2001 crisis and emigrating to the United States, with only 400 dollars borrowed, to having a team in the IndyCarnow with 60 employees and the Argentine multi-champion Augustine Cananpino as one of its pilots. This is how the history of the engineer can be synthesized Ricardo Juncos, who upon arriving in Miami worked as a carpenter and then – at first, for free – in a karting team of the Fittipaldi family. Until in 2003 he managed to form his own team, with which he won 19 titles. To which he later added five crowns in the current Indy Pro 2000 and another two in the Indy Lights, the links prior to IndyCar.
Today, with an investment partner who was a majority shareholder in Williams in F1, his formation was renamed Hollinger Racing rushes, which has just started its second full season in the premier American single-seater series. With it, Juncos intends to fight rivals like Andretti, Foyt, Ganassi, McLaren, Penske and Rahal, based on his philosophy of “making the apparently impossible possible”, which he explains to NOTICIAS from his headquarters in Indiana.
Ricardo Juncos: It has to do with my life story and the power of possibility. Because when I was 15 years old and my dad had been out of work for two years, with hyperinflation, he and my mom had to sell their wedding rings so there would be some food at home. And from that reality to where I am now, something happened. It happened that we had people in karting who didn’t know what a nut was and today, 18 years later, they are our IndyCar mechanics; that a driver who crashed all the time would end up winning a championship; that in the 2019 500 Miles, after losing a sponsor, crashing the car, going from being very fast to being very slow, we got into the race, leaving McLaren and Fernando Alonso out. It was crazy, but we made it possible.
News: I associate that with something I read on his team’s website: “We are a team that dares to dream, to be different and to forge a new path.”
Juncos: Yes, because I believe that the world belongs to the daring. It is something more philosophical, parallel to my activity. Although I am in the world of car racing, something in which you have to put a lot of head into, I am the complete opposite on a personal level: very perceptions, passionate, to live everything intensely. To die, only one thing is needed: to be alive. So, if we are here, without really knowing why and what happens next, let’s do things, with goals and passion. I never negotiated that and I will never stop doing what I want for money, for example. Crazy things have happened to me lately, like people approaching me who tell me that my statements had motivated them, and I had no idea about that. It is difficult to give advice, because we are all different and the situations are different, but that is my philosophy.
News: Tell me about one of those “crazy” situations
rushes: Last year, while visiting a CT race, an older gentleman approached me and said: “Can I hug you?” And through tears, he told me that some words of mine had inspired him to reopen a hardware store that he had bankrupt with his son. He moved me, nothing like this had ever happened to me. A lot of people helped me and, sometimes, you can’t return the favor to everyone, but if one gives something to another, it’s worth the same, I think
News: He just said that he is very passionate. In her position, isn’t that a con? Do you have someone who complements you?
Juncos: Being very temperamental is one of the things I have to correct. They forgive me because they see other positive things. Above all, my brother Alejandro. In the logistics of the team, for example, I calculate everything, but in everything that is perception, I go by my feelings, I don’t think much.
News: Is Alejandro the one with whom you had a mechanical workshop that ended up melting down because of the “corralito”?
rushes: Yes. We are very different and we argue a lot, but it is essential for me. Ale came to the United States two years after me and nothing of what we are today would have been without him. He is a great mechanic and very charismatic, all my drivers want him in the contract. He now works with Agustín.
News: Is the choice of Canapino a product of your perception?
rushes: Yes. Although Agustín never raced in karting or formula cars, I felt that it must be him. Also, when he came to test the simulator, I saw things in it that I didn’t see in any other pilot. There I said: “he is going to ride better in a formula than a touring car”, and the truth is that he is doing everything right. You have to take the pressure off. In Argentina, if he didn’t win, everyone wondered: “What happened to him?” Here everything is new for him, because Indy is the most difficult category in the world -this, said by F1 pilots-, because the cars -which look like a war plane without wings- are difficult to drive, and because they also it runs in ovals.
News: Canapino joined his team with almost no financial support from Argentina. Was that possible because of his association with Brad Hollinger?
rushes: Yes, above all, after the 60,000 people who went to the exhibition we did last year at the Buenos Aires Autodromo. That was a sample of what Agustín can generate among the Latino fans of the IndyCar. Patricio O’Ward, for example, is a tremendous Mexican driver, but he had the resources to race outside his country since he was a boy, and he doesn’t have the bond with his people that Agustín does with the Argentines. Canapino is a very Latin reference, which can attract many new fans that the category will receive with open arms.
News: Why Hollinger?
rushes: First, because he could not have continued alone. All the teams have investment partners, who are the ones who can bank the structures until they work commercially. Because along with success, there is a great sacrifice, things that have gone wrong for me, that perhaps one does not want to remember and that people do not know. And second, because Brad agreed with my philosophy in everything.
News: When you emigrated, what dreams and fears did you have?
Juncos: I’m not afraid of anything. I am afraid of insecurity in Argentina. Days before I came to the United States, I went with my brother in a truck near the La Noria bridge, because we were missing a part for a motorcycle that we wanted to sell to pay debts, and they almost killed us. It was a rainy afternoon, everything was flooded; and suddenly, a criminal appeared with a gun, who jumped on the hood. Say the guy fell off and I went full throttle and the truck didn’t stay. After something like this, am I going to be afraid of coming to the United States without speaking English? There is also no need to fear mistakes. If things go well, ok; and if not, you learn. There are people who, for fear of making a mistake, end up without doing something and do not move forward.
News: In Argentina, you raced in Formula Renault and in Sport Prototype, and you went to the United States with the idea of racing again. Was that your dream?
rushes: Yes, but I don’t think there is only one dream, because if you don’t achieve it, you’ll get frustrated. Sometimes, things don’t happen and you have to learn to accept it.
News: But was it hard to give that up?
rushes: It was difficult for me and from time to time I blame myself, because I think I would have been a good driver. In fact, in my last race, where I abandoned due to a crash, I had taken pole position. In short, my dream has always been to try to do what I want, because there is always something later.
News: Is the passion of a team manager similar to that of a pilot?
rushes: It’s different, but also very intense. When you are a pilot, you are not afraid of anything. As a manager, on the other hand, there is so much pressure to get results, to get a sponsor, that you end up getting more nervous than when you race.
News: He usually says that Argentina expelled him, but what he experienced here definitely helped him.
Juncos: In Argentina everything is complicated, intense, you never know what will happen tomorrow, but if I had not lived there for 26 years, I would not be who I am. In the United States, on the other hand, everything works well and if you apply that experience here, you can get a plus. Although you can’t live improvising either. First, you have to adapt to the American system. Here they are very structured, and obviously that helps, but from time to time I need to return to Argentina to charge myself with energy, with passion.
News: When he went to ask the Fittipaldi for a job, his manager first told him: “Argentines, no.” Have you been told that many times?
rushes: Danielle also told me, my wife, who is also Brazilian; when we met; And when you see how many Argentines behave -not all of them, obviously- you understand it. The Argentine’s reputation is so bad that she said: “No, he’s Argentine, I’m going to waste my time.” But after four months of insisting, she accepted and today we have been married for 19 years.
News: Have you ever had that answer from an American?
rushes: No. For them, all Latinos are Mexican, they don’t know much about Argentina. Instead, the Brazilian knows us better. The American always helped me; the common American, I say. I have nothing more to thank.
News: What don’t you like about America?
rushes: They are very structured, the rest is spectacular. I understand structuring for business, but they are structured on everything. To the point of having the entire month’s calendar with everything detailed. They’re not passionate, and I think they’re that way because they don’t have problems here, because they didn’t experience the satisfaction of achievement. My first bike was used, because there was no money for a new one, and I only had it when I was 15 years old. I bought my first branded shoes at 17. They were small achievements, but with enormous satisfaction, because I had learned to value them.
News: Do they treat you like a peer in your environment or make you feel like you are a foreigner?
rushes: In IndyCar, with the top guys like Roger Penske, who is my friend, I feel as an equal, because they are great and they make me feel that way. On a smaller level, he was the one who came from outside to steal their championship, the one who must have been cheating to beat them, which they could never prove because it was not like that. There we had certain racism problems, if you will. With the arrival of Donald Trump to the government, above all, many people changed or were encouraged to express what they did not express with other presidents. But it only happened to us at those levels, because we got there and quickly started making noise.
by Sergio Nunez
