IndyCar – Welcome to Barber Motorsports Park

Hello from beautiful Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama, near Birmingham. I’ve been spectating here at sports car, IndyCar, and motorcycle races since 2007, and I’ll chime-in with my agreement that this is a “gorgeous facility.” Unlike Sebring International Raceway and other race tracks you can easily call to mind, this is repeatedly referred to, year after year, as a ‘beautiful, park-like setting.’ I rolled in mid-day Thursday,... [Read More...]

IndyCar – Friday Comedic Relief

Happy Friday and welcome to the weekend! To make sure we get the best weekday started off right, we have this for you. Along with Kevin, we also have Brian McKay back at it behind the lens at Barber Motorsports Park. As we know, Alabama is true NASCAR country. The folks are some of the nicest people I have ever met but man do they love their NASCAR! Brian stopped off at a local retail store when he had this conversation with one of the clerks…enjoy!... [Read More...]

The Spike has returned…to Indianapolis!!! Can you smell what The Spike…is cooking???

Well I am back—not that I really left Open Paddock. Yes, I will return for another season of Op-Ed columns for Open Paddock. Where did I go? Well, toward the end of last season I was being paid by another website to write for them. (My name not attached to the articles, but when you get paid that’s fine).   I won’t name the site for the moment, it is up in the air if the site will be back. It was funded and created by a company that was... [Read More...]

GrandAm – Anders Krohn Lands Rolex24 Ride with Yellow Dragon Motorsports

After spending several seasons in the Mazda open-wheel development system culminating with his 2011 Firestone Indy Lights season with Belardi Auto Racing, Anders Krohn transitions to world of sports car racing. He was picked to drive Yellow Dragon Motorsports’ #36 Mazda RX-8 GT-class entry along with John and Jarett Andretti and fellow Mazda driver Taylor Hacquard. While we are a bit biased and would love to have seen Anders in an open-wheel... [Read More...]

Where Do We Go Now, O’Sweet Child of Mine

Could Axel & Flash Fire Up The ALMS The original working title of Part II of this series on the ALMS was “Out Manuvered and Out in the Cold.”    Following a couple of press releases, one on the 2013 Oklahoma City race (exactly what we need, another processional street race, but that’s another story)  and  the return of “a” P1 team at Lime Rock, I kept wondering where are they going. What better theme for the ALMS today than Axel... [Read More...]

Part 1 Season of Discontent

“The best we get is fuzzy internet and (a) highlight show at the same time as an Indy broadcast. Come on man, that’s (expletive) shit” says one ALMS Team Manager on condition of anominity. A business/media manager for a front-running GT team tells me “you can’t sale it, none of us can now, they (expletive) tied are hands”. The “can’t sell” is there’s no high-dollar sponsor value for the current ESPN3.com and ESPN2-ABC offers.... [Read More...]