. SCCA Pro Racing’s Pirelli World Challenge returns to the streets of downtown Saint Petersburg, Florida for two races, on Saturday and Sunday. Friday practices were followed by a late-afternoon race-qualifying session. . Alex Figge, driving one of K-PAX Racing’s Volvo S60s, set a qualifying-time record of 1 minute, 13.9 seconds, averaging 87.6 mph on downtown Saint Pete’s 14-turn, 1.8-mile course. Figge edged his teammate Randy Pobst, who will start race one alongside him on the front row. . Figge remarked, “On a street course, it’s nice to have the…
Read MoreMonth: March 2013
Episode 180 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadMike Whitesell takes the reins as Kevin is swept off to Oz by the tornados and gives us a review of F1’s season opener in Melbourne and a preview of IndyCar’s opener at St. Pete. Doug reviews the USF2000 season opener at Sebring, and Mr. Shaw points and laughs at us for starting our seasons so darn late as he recaps the week’s news from the world of rally.
Read MoreMRTI – St. Pete Preview and Schedule
This coming weekend represents the IZOD IndyCar Series’ and Firestone Indy Lights’ season opening event, although it will represent the second race weekend for both the Pro Mazda Series Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda. This will also be one of four weekends over the season in which all four INDYCAR-sanctioned series race at the same venue on the same weekend. Maybe call it four and a half with Indianapolis even though the USF2000 and Pro Mazda drivers will be at Lucas…
Read MoreIndyCar-2013 Social Media Guide
Here we are at the start of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Season, so it’s time to make sure all your social media bookmarks and follows are up to date. I’ve put together this handy 2013 Season Social Media Guide to help you all Twitter your Facebook and Instagram your Pinterest. As always, you’ll want to start your Social Media bookmarking with us! Open Paddock on Facebook Open Paddock on Twitter And hows about giving me a follow on Twitter as well! Kevin Neely on Twitter Indycar Website Facebook Twitter YouTube Flickr…
Read MoreUSF2000 – Season Opener at Sebring Recap
The regular season for the Cooper Tires USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda has begun! The first rung of the Mazda Road to Indy held it’s first two races of the championship season last Thursday and Friday at Sebring International Raceway. The grid size was huge for the opener with 31 cars entered for competition. The odd thing that stood out to me is that only three of those entries were in the SCCA Enterprises National Class, the rest were in the Championship Class. I’m not sure whether this is…
Read MoreIndyCar-Round 1: Honda Grand Prix of St. Pete Preview
What: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Where: Albert Whitted Airport Circuit, St. Petersburg, Florida When: 12:30pm EDT on Sunday, March 24 (TV: NBC Sports Network) Who: Helio Castroneves, defending race champion, looks to defend his race title on the Streets of St. Pete against 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series Champion Ryan-Hunter Reay, four-time series champ Dario Franchitti, perrenial road and street course ace Will Power and the rest of the IZOD IndyCar Series field. Storylines Ryan Hunter-Reay begins his title defense on a very hit-or-miss track. Even though he finished…
Read MoreFormula 1 – Post Australia Team Power Rankings
Not a lot changed amongst the top three teams after the Australian Grand Prix. While Lotus struck first blood, Ferrari had a strong team showing with Alonso and a resurgent Felipe Massa. Red Bull also performed well during the course of the weekend with tire struggles hampering their ability to take advantage of their 1-2 start. Williams had a primarily disappointing weekend. While Valtteri Bottas finished his first ever Formula 1 race, Pastor Maldonado looked like a rookie and complained all weekend about how the car was junk. Marussia surprised…
Read MoreFormula 1 – Successful Debut for Rookies
It was a weekend filled with chaos for the newest class of rookies to join the Formula 1 championship. This weekend had pretty much everything! Dry running during Friday practice, torrential rain and an interrupted qualifying session on Saturday, finish qualifying and then start your first round of the championship on Sunday in tricky conditions. At the end of the day however, all five rookies kept the car on the island and finished their first ever grand prix. Both Valtteri Bottas and Jules Bianchi showed a lot of promise as…
Read MoreFormula 1 – Grading NBC Sports Network
The first race of the 2013 Formula 1 campaign has come to a conclusion. Here in the States, it was the first race of the new NBC Sports Network era. After over a decade of the Fox run Speed TV, NBC won the bidding war last season to host the races. For those not familiar with NBC Sports coverage of the IZOD IndyCar Series, it was a pretty big change in presentation. NBC worked hard to keep the core of the broadcast very similar to what we had on Speed.…
Read MoreInside the Helmet – Sage Karam
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadIn this episode of “Inside The Helmet” we talk with Sage Karam, driver of the #8 Comfort Revolution Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara in the Firestone Indy Lights series, about his move from Andretti Autosport to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. We also discuss the upcoming 2013 Firestone Indy Lights season, his relationship with his former Star Mazda rivals and now teammates, and how to overcome the deficit of tracktime experience he and his teammates will face as compared to competitors such as Andretti Autosport’s Carlos Munoz…
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