The Indianapolis 500 made good gains this year in both attendance and viewership, but the rest of the season hasn’t been as rosey. This got me thinking, what makes for a successful series? What standards should we use? When I think of various series throughout motorsports that are perceived to be successful, Le Mans and ALMS come to mind, as does Formula 1, SCORE, IndyCar (in its various forms AAA/USAC/CART/IRL), and NASCAR. However, what makes those series memorable isn’t the whole sequence of races that make up the series, but…
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/
IndyCar – Danica Back for Three More Years
Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star reported this evening that Danica Patrick has signed a three-year contract extension with Andretti-Green Racing (soon to be simply Andretti Racing). Much speculation has been thrown about the interwebs regarding her departure from open-wheel racing to seek even more fortune in NASCAR. Even we at Openpaddock.net has dabbled in such speculation. Although she may yet run a race or two (or several) with Tony Stewart’s team, she’s now committed to three more full-time seasons in the IndyCar series. Love her or loathe her, this…
Read MoreALMS – Corvette Denied Direct Injection
In a rather surprising and disappointing fashion, the new GT2 Corvettes will not be running the same engine they used at Mid-Ohio, Road America, and Mosport. The Porsche and Ferrari teams have successfully argued to the ACO that the Corvette’s direct-injection engine gave them an unfair advantage and it should be prohibited. In spite of having a written statement from the ACO proclaiming the 6.0L DI power-plant to be permissible, the new GT2 ‘Vettes will have to run the Petit LeMans sans DI. This won’t likely affect their power output…
Read MoreOP-Ed – Photo Galleries on Facebook
As promised during Podcast Episode 07, we now have some photo galleries up on our Facebook Page. Search Facebook for “Open Paddock”, find our page, and become a fan. You can also get to our Facebook page from the badge on our sidebar on the right-hand side of this page. So far, we have pictures from the 100 Acre Wood Rally America event that was held in Salem, MO, the IndyCar and IndyLights race at the Kansas Speedway, IndyCar and IndyLights practice, qualification, and raceday pics from the Indianapolis 500,…
Read MoreIndyCar – Danica May Do Double Duty
According to an article on ESPN.com, Danica to try NASCAR in ’10, Ms. Patrick will attempt to follow in Tony Stewart’s shoes by running a full-time IndyCar schedule while also running a significant number of NASCAR Nationwide and ARCA Series races for Tony Stewart’s team. In fact, it looks like she’s be running more races in the taxis than in proper race cars. As I see it, this is very unfortunate. The additional workload will certainly not help her racecraft in an open-wheel car, rather I’d say it will hurt…
Read MoreOP-Ed – RE: Miller, Chicago, and Scariness
Robin Miller has long been known as an antagonist and rabble-rouser in American Open-Wheel Racing, but now he’s gone too far. In his article, Miller’s Post-Chicago Notebook at SpeedTV.com, he calls the current oval-racing product from the IndyCar Series “suicidal.” Personally, that inescapable pack racing scares the hell out of me because of the reality of what can happen. … Indy car racing should be challenging and dangerous, just not suicidal. — Robin Miller Are you serious, Robin? This isn’t some soapbox derby. This is IndyCar Racing! This top level…
Read MoreMotoGP – Race Day at Indianapolis
Race day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 2nd running of the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, the twelfth stop on the MotoGP schedule. There was no way the weather could have been worse than last year as the remnants of Hurricane Ike slammed into the Speedway shortening the 125cc and GP races, and canceling the 250cc race, but no one expected the weather to be as absolute gorgeous as it was. Sunrise on Sunday morning found many fans shivering and wrapped up in blankets and jackets as temperatures…
Read MoreMotoGP – Saturday Qualifying
The weather during morning warmup was unseasonably cool, again. However, this is likely a good thing since Race Day will be even cooler. It gave the teams perhaps a chance at guessing the grip level correctly for the race and qualification. Tyre degradation was an issue all morning long, and during qualifications. Neither the tyres or the cool weather seemed to phase Dani Pedrosa in the slightest, as he set a new track record of 1’40.271″ during FP2 in the morning. During qualifications, he set a new track record again…
Read MoreMotoGP – Friday Practice at IMS
The MotoGP circus returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend for the second time. Last year, rain engulfed Friday’s practice sessions, and this year started out no different. Although the day started out dry, near the end of the 125cc practice, the skies opened up and the rain continued for the rest of the day. It wasn’t a driving rain, just a steady light rain that soaked the track and many fans. Fortunately, the forecast for Saturday and Sunday look MUCH different than last year when the track was…
Read MoreIndyCar – Post-Sonoma Soap Opera
If you missed the Sonoma race this weekend, you missed a lot. For the first time in many seasons, I remained conscious for the entirety of the race at Infineon. Now before the haters start digging into me, let me say (and if you read my Mid-Ohio post you’ll know this to be true) I love road courses. In fact, the circuit at Sears Point, aka Sonoma, aka Infineon, is a heck of a lot of fun to drive. Sadly, its not a heck of a lot of fun, typically,…
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