SCCA – A Week Filled with Cheese (Usually Fried): Peter Portante’s Journey to the National Runoffs

Through many complicated Italian conspiracies and many other auspicious things, I found myself somehow eligible to race in the 2013 Runoffs at Road America. Saturday I had arrived late last night to the Packed flight full of Green Bay fans headed to the game, alright I’m sorry, that joke was a bit cheesy. As I have just read the poor quality joke, I should probably apologize to all the readers for this, as I am writing this is a quite delirious state (One, I cannot believe I actually won. Two,…

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Episode 160 — OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadIf you missed it last night on ETV Live!, we had the honor of speaking with the newly signed pilot of the #9 Firestone Indy Lights racing machine for Belardi Auto Racing, Mr. Peter Dempsey. Peter shared with us his experiences struggling to find a stable ride through the end of 2011 with Andretti Autosport, racing and coaching in 2012 at Indianapolis and Detroit this past season with Younessi Racing, and ending the 2012 season with Belardi. We also asked him to do some…

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Mazda Road to Indy – Fall IMS Test Recap: USF2000

This past weekend, all three series that are part of the Mazda Road to Indy program tested for two days on the infield road circuit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While there were certainly many familiar faces present, including Star Mazda champ Tristan Vautier and USF2000 champ Petri Suvanto, there were also many new-comers testing at all three levels. We’ll break down the test not by day, but by series and look at how things went for the teams and what we can expect looking forward through the off-season and…

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Indy Lights – Reigning Indy 500 Champ Drives Lights Car of Belardi Auto Racing

INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 7) — Dan Wheldon hopped into the Firestone Indy Lights car of Belardi Auto Racing’s Anders Krohn at Indianapolis Motor Speedway yesterday. No, you are not mistaken, it is not May. Wheldon was invited to test drive the three cars of the Mazda Road to Indy ladder system during a media day at the famed speedway. The two-time Indy 500 winner was like a kid in a candy store; eyes gleaming at the chance to take the cars for a joyride around the former Formula 1 road course.…

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IndyLights – Andretti Autosport Strikes Back

So far the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights Championship has been dominated by Sam Schmidt Motorsports. In past years, Andretti Autosport, when they were in partnership with AFS Racing, had fielded back-to-back championship winners with Raphael Matos (2008) and J.R. Hildebrand (2009). Up until the Toronto race, SSM drivers had won five of the six races, only losing the Barber race to Team Moore’s Victor Garcia (who may have been running with an illegal suspension). While there’s no doubt that the SSM staff is extremely talented, and they have been working…

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Indy Lights – Milwaukee Wrap-Up

Discord and dissension plagued this weekend’s Firestone Indy Lights event. The minimal car count on Saturday for qualification got smaller still on Sunday as Peter Dempsey pulled off the track refusing to take the green flag in protest to what he and his team, O2 Racing Technology, feel is favouritism shown to some teams by INDYCAR by ignoring technical violations found in post-race and post-qualifying inspections over the past years. In a release issued by the team later Sunday evening, it was revealed that not only were team officials and…

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USF2000 – Milwaukee Wrap-Up

What a crazy busy weekend as open-wheel racing returned to the Milwaukee Mile. The weekend certainly didn’t go as smoothly, nor as successfully as many had hoped, but there were some fans that showed up and we got to see some racing in spite of the downpour on Sunday morning. It seemed like this weekend was filled with all kinds of off-track drama from the way the race was promoted and managed, to some extremely serious controversy in the Firestone Indy Lights series. Looking on the bright side, though, the…

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USF2000 – Belardi Signs Two Former Formula Car Champions

Belardi Auto Racing wrapped up their Firestone Indy Lights roster late last month, and now they’ve secured two former formula car champions to be their drivers in the Cooper Tires presents the US F2000 National Championship powered by Mazda, Wayne Boyd and Cole Morgan. Wayne Boyd, a Belfast native, started racing in the Super 1 National JICA Championship where he had mixed results. After moving to cars, his results improved dramatically, winning the 2007 Northern Ireland Formula Ford 1600 Championship. He continued his winning ways the following year winning the…

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Indy Lights – Belardi Auto Racing Finalizes Driver Roster

Today, Belardi Auto Racing announced that Jorge Goncalvez would join Anders “The Viking” Krohn to round out their 2011 Firestone Indy Lights driver roster. Jorge has made it to the Firestone Indy Lights series through a somewhat unique route. While he has has some experience in karting, beginning in 2006, he also started racing cars that same year. He ran one race in the Formula Renault 1.6 Panam GP Series and made the podium! Not bad for your first time out. He then moved to Formula Renault Campus France in…

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