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/
IndyCar – Cross-Pollination Is a Good Thing!
Highcroft Racing, the team that has won back-to-back titles in the ALMS LMP2 class and still seeks an LMP2 class win at Le Mans, will be coming to the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2011! This first year, they will be competing at select events only in preparation for launching a full-season effort in 2012 when the new chassis and engine come to the series. This is fantastic news, if you ask me. Its exciting enough that we’re getting another quality team coming to IndyCar Racing, but seeing that team come…
Read MoreIndyCar – Good News for Ryan Hunter-Reay
There’s been a lot of negative press for the league since the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, most of it centering around Andretti Autosport and their sponsors. We already know that 7-Eleven will step down as a primary sponsor of the #11 in favour of being an associate sponsor on the #7 car. We also already knew (even if it wasn’t officially announced) that the IZOD sponsorship for the #37 car was going to end. Around the twittersphere and various forums, there’s been much hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth, and…
Read MoreFAIL – Charlotte Gets That Sinking Feeling
Apparently the Charlotte Motor Speedway was built in part on top of a landfill! A LANDFILL!! Now, I’m no civil engineer but it seems to me that fill would not make for a suitable base for a permanent structure, and even less suitable for a roadbed that will have a varied and intensive dynamic load placed upon it. …well, it isn’t suitable. You can see more pictures from WSOC TV’s article, Sinkhole Forms at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Wow. How does this happen? Now, even if the speedway does fix this…
Read MoreRoad2Indy – Congratulations to our 2010 Champions
OpenPaddock.net wishes to extend our congratulations to the 2010 champions of the USF2000 National Championship presented by Cooper Tires powered by Mazda and the Star Mazda Championship powered by Mazda. Both series are official parts of the new Road to Indy program designed to produce a clear path for young drivers to advance through the ranks and eventually race at the top level of American open-wheel racing, the IZOD IndyCar Series. US F2000 Sage Karam dominated the reborn US F2000 National Championship from start to finish, including dominating wins at…
Read MoreF1 – Team Lotus Gets Serious About Improving
We already know that Lotus Racing …er… Team Lotus (whatever they’re going by now days) will drop the Cosworthless lump in favour of Renault. Today, Team Lotus has gone further toward improving their technological position by confirming that they will use Red Bull Technologies’ gearbox and hydraulics for the 2011 season rather than the Xtrac equipment. “The announcement that we have reached a multi-year agreement with Red Bull Technology for the supply of our gearboxes and hydraulics from 2011 is obviously a massive step forward for us, both in engineering…
Read MoreIndyLights – Vernay Wins the Firestone Firehawk Cup
As we mentioned in the podcast, all JK Vernay had to do to win the Firestone Indy Lights Championship and the Firestone Firehawk Cup was to turn a wheel in competition at Homestead. He did so, and took the title in his rookie year in the Firestone Indy Lights. The question now is what is next for this young hot shoe? Will he run another year in Firestone Indy Lights, or will he find a ride with an IZOD IndyCar Series team, or move on to some other series entirely?…
Read MoreIndyCar – Game, Set, Match to Franchitti
After dominating nearly every road circuit this year, Power’s lack of oval experience and skill caught up to him in the end. Dario Franchitti’s consistency all season long, as his strong performances on the oval circuits , allowed him to chase down Will Power and take the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series Championship for the second year in a row. Even more impressive is to consider that Dario spent the 2008 season experimenting with NASCAR, but the year prior, 2007, Dario again won the championship. That means Dario has won the…
Read MoreTV – Weekend Racing Schedule for Oct 2nd and 3rd
The event list for this weekend is pretty light, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t have hours of motorsport goodness! Saturday starts with the Mustang Challenge in the “Why We Race” series on Discovery HD Theater. Its not bad way to start a Saturday morning, and its certainly better anything else that’s on now that we have no quality Saturday morning programming like Kung Fu Theater or any number of Godzilla movies. Next up is THE sportscar event of the year in North America, the Petit LeMans at Road…
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