Callum Hedge journeyed to the INDY NXT by Firestone championship in 2024 after being crowned the champion in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia and Formula Regional Americas championships in 2023.
New Zealand native Hedge largely flew under the radar last season, racking up eight top-10 finishes with five top-five results, and in June he scored his first series podium with a third-place finish at Detroit.
The results led to a fourth-place points finish.
Strong rookie season. But Hedge questions whether he could have placed even higher if not for an early-season bout with adversity when he had an emergency medical procedure before a preseason test last winter at Sebring International Raceway.
The procedure was a minor occurrence but left him physically behind for the start of the season.
“I didn't get the testing, had my surgery, didn't get a chance to really get myself race ready,” he said. “I think that really sort of halted the start of my season and really stopped me from getting the progress that I wanted just because I wasn't fit enough to drive the car and get the most out of it and really provide that good feedback.”
Hedge, 21, transitions to a new team in 2025, moving from HMD Motorsports to ABEL Motorsports, with eyes set for improvement. The anticipation when the season begins Sunday, March 2 on the streets of St. Petersburg airing (10 a.m. ET, FS1, INDYCAR Radio Network) is that this could be a championship-contending second season.
“Just a complete clean slate,” Hedge said. “I just want to go in and move and start a new opportunity, start a new a new period of learning but also taking everything that I've learned. It's all written down in my books, it's written down on my phone, it's written on my laptop. So, I'm able to look at my performance last year, fill in the gaps, and then look at what ABEL does and what they do differently and how to work that into there.”
Last year’s early setback contributed to Hedge putting a larger emphasis on getting physically stronger this offseason. Doing so boosted his confidence behind the wheel during offseason testing, which led to better communication about car setup with his new team.
Hedge also spent time studying what he can improve to be a better driver. One part is he’s not a true rookie on ovals anymore. He was nervous competing on the four circle tracks a season ago due to lack of experience.
“I sort of went into it with an open eye and sort of learned from the ground up what you do with your driving and how to place the car and sort of learned the good habits early, rather than sort of going out without looking at anything and getting some bad habits into your driving,” he said. “Obviously very different to racing on a normal street or road course, so adapting to that and learning how to flow the car and then working in and out of traffic weaving your way through the field has been really fun.”
Hedge called qualifying another weakness. He was never comfortable driving the car to its limit because he was unfamiliar with how the Firestone Firehawk tires would react.
INDY NXT by Firestone is similar to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in that margins between drivers are counted in hundredths of a second. Starting lineups are dictated by drivers who can balance the limit of the car and not exceed it. Hedge was conservative with his qualifying approach, which hampered his ability to win due to not starting up front.
That is where the relationship with ABEL Motorsports is thriving. Conversations with team personnel led to diagnosing how to overcome the qualifying challenges and how Hedge can be comfortable extracting the car to its limit.
“I wasn't able to really truly understand until I actually went and sat down with some of the team at ABEL Motorsports and had a good look at it and wanted to just really understand the tire and how it works in a qualifying format,” he said.