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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IndyLights: Long Beach 100 Recap

Last week after the Firestone Indy Lights race at Barber Motorsports Park, I went on a bit of a rant regarding the need for these young aspiring drivers to learn a modicum of control. Apparently, many of their team managers went on similar rants as this week’s race on the Streets of Long Beach was far less chaotic. To be sure there were incidents and accidents, but just your normal racing incident type of things, not the mass carnage and mayhem we saw at Barber. For a circuit that has…

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Rally – Stobart Goes Big for Mexico

The M-Sport Stobart team had a weekend to remember in Sweden with Mads Ostberg giving the team their best ever result of 2nd. The team also led a rally for the first time ever. So what is the next logical step? Go even bigger in Mexico! The team is set to run with four M-Sport Stobart powered Ford Fiestas. Mads Ostberg and Henning Solberg are the nominated points drivers for the first gravel test of the year. Joining them in a non points capacity will be Matthew Wilson and Evgeny…

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Rally – Ford Fiesta RS WRC claims podium clean sweep on rally debut

FROM ABU DHABI FORD WORLD RALLY: Ford’s all-new Fiesta RS World Rally Car made a dream debut by powering to a 1-2-3 finish in Rally Sweden today. Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team’s Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen won a thrilling opening round of the FIA World Rally Championship by just 6.5sec from Mads Østberg and Jonas Andersson. Hirvonen’s team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila were third. It was Ford’s first podium clean sweep since Rally Sweden in 2008, when Latvala claimed his maiden WRC win and was followed home…

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Rally – Sweden Day 1

Finally the 2011 season proper has kicked off and what a first leg! Snow had fallen all night and was still roaring in the morning as the cars lined up for the start. Sebastien Loeb would be first on the road due to last year’s title standings. The French ace would suffer massive time loss as his DS3 struggled for grip on the loose powder. Jari-Matti Latvala would set a time over 40secs faster! Biggest loser in the first stage would be P-G Andersson who had been tipped to do…

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Rally – Leg 1 in Spain

Sebastien Loeb has taken it easy this weekend and is still leading Rally Spain by 3.8secs over future teammate and Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier. Loeb’s lead does come as a surprise as the first leg has a mixture of both tarmac and gravel. The Frenchman was first on the roads and sacrificed little time because of it. Jari-Matti Latvala is currently in third which is slightly below what the team were hoping. The idea was to have JML utilize his fast gravel pace to put a lead over the…

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