Author: Mike Shaw

X Games Rallycross – More Cars and a Better Track

Mike Shaw

The Red Bull Global Rallycross returns to X-Games this weekend, but this year not as part of the championship.  X-Games with its invitational entrants and often risky medal hungry on track behavior has been converted to an exhibition round for the Red Bull GRC.  Even though the points don’t matter for the championship, winning an X-Games medal is always high on the list for every driver.   For those of you that watched round 1 of the Red Bull GRC last weekend, you’ll be happy to know that the track…

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Red Bull GRC – Season Kicks Off This Weekend in Ft. Lauderdale

Mike Shaw

The Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship kicks off this weekend on the streets of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  We’ve been excited about the new 2015 season for a couple of reasons.  For one, the finale last year was simply epic with the young Finn Joni Wiman (pronounced “yon-ee”  “Vee-man”) of Olsbergs MSE coming out as the champion narrowly beating out chief Hoonigan Ken Block.  The other reason is that the series showed remarkable improvement as the season went on with ever improving track designs and better racing between drivers.  If this season is…

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Episode 271 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Mike Shaw

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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadPodcast #271 for Wednesday May 27th, 2015.  In this week’s episode we review WRC Portugal and spend some time focusing on the incident with privateer Lorenzo Bertelli.  We then preview this weekend’s season opener of the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship that kicks off in Ft. Lauderdale. In F1 we chat about the Grand Parade of Monaco and it’s unusual finish. We then devote our greatest attention to the greatest spectacle in racing, the Indy 500.  We hope you like listening as much as we like talking!  Oh, and of course our…

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Episode 270 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Mike Shaw

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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadFor Tuesday May 19th, 2015.  This is a “better late than never” episode as I’ve been so busy this week that it is just now getting posted.  That’s okay, because by the time you listen to this, you can laugh at how bad we were with our Indy 500 predictions!  We welcome back Dr. J. Douglas Patterson to help John and Mike as he spent last weekend at Indy.  To start off with, Mike recaps the Olympus Rally and does a short preview of WRC Portugal.…

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2015 Olympus Rally Preview

Mike Shaw

The Olympus Rally which takes place this weekend is thankfully back on the Rally America National Championship.  National competitors were last here in the fall of 2012, when unfortunately the long dry summer meant that the risk of fire in the Green Diamond managed forests was a big concern.  They ran the stages then only in the morning and late in the evening, bypassing the hottest part of the day.  The event moved back to a spring schedule to remove those risks which caused some schedule conflicts at first, but now…

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Episode 269 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Mike Shaw

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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadFor Tuesday May 12th, 2015.  We kick the show off with a preview of the Olympus Rally with special guest Clerk of the Course Ron Barker.  Ron has been part of the Olympus Rally since it’s inception, including the days when the event was part of the WRC Group B era. We also have volunteer and enthusiastic rally fan Derek Johnson on the show to help with the preview.  Derek is probably best known for being featured in the hit rally documentary “Easier Said Than…

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SCCA — Trans Am is Back, and Bigger Than Ever

Mike Shaw

On May 9th, 2015, Trans Am had a staggering 74 cars entered in the two races at beautiful Road Atlanta. To say that the grid was packed would be an understatement. This, of course, is great news for racing fans, because a full grid means lots of cars are fighting over the same real estate. If you’re looking for racing that’ll hold you on the edge of your seat, look no further. One of the season’s hottest series has kicked off the summer with a healthy list of entries and fierce competition in…

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Episode 268 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Mike Shaw

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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadFor Tuesday April 28th, 2015 (sorry for the late posting)… in our rally coverage, Mike Shaw got up close and personal at the Oregon Trail Rally and we review all the rally goodness from out in the woods.  The WRC was in the mountains of Argentina and we discuss what happened to the normally dominant Volkswagen team.  And finally our good friend Mike Whitesell was at Barber Motorsports Park watching the full enchilada of IndyCar, MRTI, and the Pirelli World Challenge we’ll cover all the…

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2015 Oregon Trail Rally – Part One

Mike Shaw

One week since the Oregon Trail Rally and the rally hangover is starting to set in.  So exactly what happened last weekend?  Well, there was plenty of national competitor results that you probably already know, but what were the stories of Oregon Trail 2015?  This is part one.   I was working the PA system for one of the spectator grandstands near the hairpin on SS2/SS4, so I don’t have a lot of my own pictures to share.   Thankfully local rally photog Greggar Helgeland was around snapping awesome pics from the service…

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Rally – Jeff Seehorn… in His Own Words

Mike Shaw

Without a doubt Jeff Seehorn was the star driver of Oregon Trail Rally 2015.  Seemingly coming out of nowhere in his 6th ever stage rally he startled everyone by finishing what would have been 3rd overall behind David Higgins and Adam Yeoman if he was registered nationally.  I know I said before that we should keep an eye on this guy, but I certainly wasn’t expecting stage times like we saw last weekend.  Congrats on such an awesome Oregon Trail Rally Jeff, and we look forward to seeing you at Olympus!  …

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