Author: 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/

Indy Lights – Jensen Motorsport Car Will Be Featured at Montreal’s Crescent Street Festival

Doug Patterson

Ever want a chance at being a member of the pit crew? If you’re going to the Formula 1 Montreal Grand Prix, you can get that opportunity with the chance to win VIP passes to the Grand Prix Trois-Rivières race on August 7, 2011 courtesy of Jensen Motorsport. The team is bringing the car of their Canadian driver, David Ostella, to be on stage during the Montreal Grand Prix Crescent Street Festival and fans will compete in a tyre-change competition sponsored by Ford Motor Company of Canada with the fastest…

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Mazda Road to Indy – Weekly Wrapup: 1/1-1/15

Doug Patterson

First an apology. This has been a busy and rough holiday season, and although I very much enjoy following and writing about motorsports, especially the Mazda Road to Indy, family does and will always come first. So now I’m back and getting caught up with the happenings at Winterfest, the State of the Series, and all the other news and events that have been going on since the beginning of the year. This year, our newest member of the OpenPaddock crew, Kristi (aka IAIndyFan on Twitter) will be taking over…

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Star Mazda – Junco Racing Announces Its Four-Driver Lineup for 2011.

Doug Patterson

Who said anything about an off-season? There’s been no off-season this year, there’s just been no cars on track. The business of motorsport, and especially everything open-wheel, has been running at full-steam lately. Its been hard to keep up with all of the positive news and announcements. Carrying on with that theme, Juncos Racing announced the drivers for its four-car effort in the Star Mazda Championship today. Some names are familiar to those who followed Star Mazda last year, others are new, but here they all are: Tatiana Calderon, Martin…

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OpEd – The Knob

Doug Patterson

Throughout the past several years in IndyCar racing, the fuel knob has been a contentious point for fans, teams, drivers, and league officials. The cars had been run without the luxury of a fuel mixture knob until 2008, when it was reinstated. That lasted two years until in 2010 the league removed the knob in favour of a system where the cars could run full-rich, or leaned down for yellow-flag conditions. This ultimately put the job of fuel conservation into the hands (and feet) of the drivers. Those of us…

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StarMazda – April Date Announced: Barber!

Doug Patterson

The Mazda Road to Indy program continues to gain strength! On Sunday of this week, the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear revealed that the April TBD slot on their previously released 2011 schedule will be an event on the 10th at the Barber Motorsports Park along with the IZOD IndyCar Series, and the Firestone Indy Lights. Any time that a feeder series can compete on the same weekends and at the same venues as the teams higher up on the ladder, its a good thing. Drivers, engineers, sponsors, and…

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Road to Indy – Weekly Wrapup: 12/13 – 12/17

Doug Patterson

Once again, it’s been a good week for the newly titled Mazda Road to Indy program, although perhaps not AS packed as last week. We can’t always expect banner weeks like we’ve had recently, but still there are some big positives from this week’s news. We have the signing of a driver in Firestone Indy Lights, a couple of Firestone Indy Lights drivers graduating to the IZOD IndyCar Series, and some testing opportunities. Let’s start with the official driver announcements. Driver Announcements Charlie Kimball This Thursday, in a move we…

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IndyCar – JR Hildebrand Officially Announced for Panther

Doug Patterson

The 2009 Firestone Indy Lights champion, JR Hildebrand, was announced today as the driver for the #4 National Guard car for Panther Racing. This comes after a testing session at the Phoenix International Raceway where JR impressed the team, and Al Unser Jr. Some of you may remember my overly exuberant reaction to Little Al’s tweet from Phoenix. Well, although I might have been a bit premature, it looks like my faith in Al’s nature to tell it like it is wasn’t misplaced. “I couldn’t be more excited to be…

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