Although the testing at Barber Motorsports Park and the early practice sessions on the Streets of St. Petersburg belonged to JDC MotorSports’ Tristan Vautier, today belonged to Team Pelfrey’s Connor Di Phillipi. Connor won the 2010 season finale at Road Atlanta, but as a member of a brand new team to the Star Mazda Championship it wasn’t surprising to see him and his team struggle for pace during testing. Apparently, it didn’t take them long as although Juncos Racing’s Martin Scuncio took the pole positions for today’s race, Connor won…
Read MoreAuthor: Doug Patterson
Motorsports enthusiast since ...well... always. Grew up watching Mario and AJ, took my first lap around IMS in the tour bus in 1977, fell in love with anything that went fast.
Currently, I work as a professor of astronomy and physics at a college in the suburbs of Kansas City, http://staff.jccc.edu/dpatter/, and own a photography business, Patterson Prints, with my wife. http://www.pattersonprints.com/
MRTI – School’s In Session at St. Pete
As an educator, I completely approve of this fantastic move by the Mazda Road to Indy program to help young aspiring racers to learn more about the profession, business, and craft of motorsports. So many of us fans forget that there’s far more to being a successful professional racing driver these days that simply being fearless and fast. There’s so much more that today’s drivers need to understand about the business of motorsports, and business in general. Drivers have to be not only fast on the track, but also public…
Read MoreUSF2000 – St. Pete Practice and Qualifying
Today was the first on-track activity at St. Petersburg for all of the series racing there this weekend: US F2000, Star Mazda, Indy Lights, IndyCar, and the SCCA World Challenge. I’ll talk about the World Challenge and other action later, but let me talk here about the US F2000 National Championship. You know that preview that I wrote yesterday? …yeah, chuck it out the window! The grid is ALL jumbled up, and that’s a great thing! The US F2000 grid increased by in size by a driver this weekend as…
Read MoreMRTI – Mazda Road to Indy St. Pete Preview
This is a rare race weekend. All three elements of the Mazda Road to Indy are going to be racing on the Streets of St. Petersburg on the same weekend. This will be rounds three and four for the US F2000 National Championship, and the opening rounds for the Star Mazda Championship and Firestone Indy Lights. Driver assignments are pretty much settled now, so lets take a look at the grids and preview this weekend’s Mazda Road to Indy races! You can download this weekend’s schedule for all of the…
Read MoreALMS – The 12 Hours of Sebring in Pictures
OpenPaddock.net was fortunate enough to have both Brie Rentz, one half of the ALMSChicks, and Ken Poe down at the Sebring International Raceway providing photography for us of the 12 Hours of Sebring. Ken’s photos and some of Brie’s are on our site here under the Photo Galleries, and a TON of Brie’s pics are on our Flickr site. Here are slideshows of each of these sets. Enjoy! Photos stored locally by Ken and Brie 2011 Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring – Friday Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. 2011 Mobil…
Read MoreOP-Ed – The 90 Minutes of Sebring
This past weekend, we here at OpenPaddock were blessed to have the ALMSChicks, Heidi and Brie covering the season opener for the American Le Mans Series and the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup 12 Hours of Sebring, and to have Ken Poe providing additional photos. Had it not been for them, we would have been in the dark when it comes to this most historic American sports car endurance race. This season, the series switched broadcast partners from the conglomeration of SpeedTV, NBC, and others to ABC/ESPN. Unfortunately, the deal doesn’t…
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy – Weekly Wrap-up: 3/11-3/18
This week was a busy week for the Mazda Road to Indy program! The Firestone Indy Lights series and the Star Mazda Championship series both had their pre-season “Spring Training” open tests at Barber Motorsports Park, and the US F2000 National Championship had both their final testing session, and their first two races at Sebring International Raceway. Along with the testing, we also had some late driver announcements, although I suspect we’re not finished hearing about those. Testing US F2000 The Cooper Tires Presents the US F2000 National Championship held…
Read MoreUSF2000 – Sebring Practice Summary
The off-season is over for the Cooper Tires Presents the US F2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda. They tested earlier in the week at Sebring International Raceway, but today was their first practice session before their race at Sebring later in the week. In testing earlier in the week, Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing driver Petri Suvanto was a mild surprise, posting a session best time of 2:05.146 and besting the presumed front-runners Andretti Autosports drivers Sage Karam and Spencer Pigot who posted times of 2:05.174 and 2:05.951, respectively.…
Read MoreStar Mazda – Barber Testing: Final Session
Today, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear wraps up its three days of pre-season testing at the Barber Motorsports Park. In their final session early this morning, JDC MotorSports’ Tristan Vautier picked up where he left off yesterday, posting blazingly fast times. Today, however, he didn’t start out with the breathing room he had during the previous sessions. Over the previous two day’s Vautier was the only racer to break into the 1:20 range. This morning, all three of the Juncos Racing drivers present for the test, Joao Horta,…
Read MoreIndy Lights – Éirinn go Brách
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, O2 Racing Technology announces that they have signed the winningest driver in Star Mazda Championship history, Dubliner Peter Dempsey. Dempsey competed in the Star Mazda Championship for Andersen Racing in 2008 and scored wins at Road America, Trois-Rivières, Mosport, and the New Jersey Motorsports Park against the likes of John Edwards, Alex Ardoin, and Joel Miller. He would finish 3rd in the championship that year. In 2009, Peter raced for AIM Autosport and improved on his results scoring five race wins at Iowa…
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