IndyCar – Highcroft Looking to IICS

So what do you do when you have won two American Le Mans series titles? Take your program IndyCar racing of course. The back to back champions Highcroft Racing are preparing for a select program for the 2011 season. While nothing is wrote in stone, the team has the ambition and will look at a couple of rounds for next year. Who said that all of the news after the finale had to be bad? Duncan Dayton had this to say in a SPEED article posted yesterday: “We are aware…

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Episode 54 – Openpaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Mike and myself as we review Chicago and a great race at Spa! We also have PT at DRR and Sarah Fisher taking Graham Rahal for Kentuckey, as well as a number of manufacturers wanting to go rally. So as always, sit back with a beverage of your choice and enjoy our humble ramblings on all things motorsport…and some things not!

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Episode 53 – Openpaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin the whole crew this week as we get into Sonoma, Germany, and Road America. I will go on record as saying there is a lot of comical bits in the show as Mike gets jealous of Dario and accuses me of subliminal messaging. We also discuss Sordo maybe to Ford, a whole list of laughable F1 issues and also prepare for Spa…finally a real race track! Grab a beverage and sit back and enjoy the show!

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ALMS – Drayson Racing Grabs P1

Drayson Racing has secured pole position for tomorrow’s race at Mid-Ohio. The Lola hit a top time of 1:10.034 with Jonny Cocker at the wheel. The team would take top honors by 0.932 seconds over the Dyson Mazda. Current championship leaders Highcroft Racing was able to secure the third position after being one of the quickest cars on track all weekend. Simon Pagenaud was the driver of the car that will look to just put up solid points as their main contender Cytosport will be out due to heavy damage…

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Episode 49 – Openpaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Doug and I as we talk all things blocking and team orders. Was the block right or wrong? Find out with this latest installment. We toss around ideas on Ferrari could have done better and not been so obvious as well as what the points look like in both Indy and F1. We make mention to something we have been following with MINI announcing their joint effort with Prodrive in the WRC as well as this weeks XGames. So as always, sit back…

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Le Mans – Highcroft Amongst Le Mans Entries

An early entry list has been released for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race to be held later this year and on the list is the ALMS defending champions Highcroft in the LMP2 class. Highcroft will be entering the event for the first time ever and have stated the mission objective is victory in the LMP2 category. The team won the LMP1 championship in the ALMS season last year, however the team will be running an LMP2 Acura this year as the technical regulations change here in the states.…

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ALMS – Marino Franchitti Joins Highcroft, Bummer for Mazda.

Autoweek Magazine announced today that Marino Franchitti has signed with Highcroft Racing and joins David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud as their third LMP driver for 2010. Marino had been with the Dyson team driving the Mazda powered Lola coupe for the past two seasons, but with Dyson’s 2010 plans still not completed with regards to running a second car and the 12 Hours of Sebring not too far away, Franchitti opted for a part-time ride with Highcroft as a third driver in the longer endurance races on the ALMS calender,…

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Le Mans – Strakka is Acura Powered

While the Acura LMP2 program may be dead here in America, it has found new life in Europe as Strakka Racing has become the first team to acquire the car outside of the US. The car seen great sucess under the Fernadez Racing team as it took the LMP2 championship against the Dysin Mazdas. The car was shown to have some weak spots in development towards the middle of the season but put on a great show for the season finale at Laguna Seca. The car made a testing debut…

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Le Mans – de Ferran ALMS Program Dead?

de Ferran Motorsport may have moved yet another step closer to killing their sportscar program this week when Honda Performance Development stated they will be ending their partnership with the team. The crew here at openpaddock.net have really began to speculate on whether or not a de Ferran entry would be present on the 2010 grid, and this news seems to all but confirm the end for the program. HPD claimed the partnership had to end due to economical problems. HPD had also just recently signed with Patron Highcroft, which…

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