Episode 74 – Openpaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadHere we are a couple days later and a few painful hours of editing for the 74th Episode of the podcast. Show is a little long this week at a cool and crisp two hours, but we cover Sno* Drift, WRC, IndyCar and the toss in a little sports car and technical F1 talk! Thanks for the download as always and sit back this weekend and listen to some good discussion as we all wait for the season to get here!

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Rally – All-new Ford Fiesta RS WRC geared up for Rally Sweden debut

FROM: ABU DHABI FORD After completing more than 12000km of testing, the all-new Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Car will make its debut at Rally Sweden (10 – 13 February) next week. The opening round of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship will introduce a fresh era to the sport, and the renamed Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team has prepared meticulously in the development of its new-generation WRC challenger. Testing broke through the 12000km barrier last week – the equivalent of more than two seasons of WRC competition –…

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F1 – Red Bull’s RB7 Plays The Exhaust Game Too

Apparently, trick exhausts are going to be the hip thing in this season’s FIA Formula 1 World Championship. After Renault’s bold reconfiguration to route the exhaust forward of the floor, McLaren and Mercedes have already stated that they’re working on similar exhaust systems. Red Bull Racing, on the other hand, is utilizing what they believe is a loophole that will allow them to run the exhaust directly into the diffuser through the floor inspite of the FIA’s attempt for prohibit this. Frankly, I’m not sure about the loophole, so I…

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Indy Hump Day Report, on the bubble: Snow!

For those tired of snowmen, and snowballs, there is IZOD INDYCAR silly season. Well I would be a total liar if I said how great it was watching the 24 Hours of Daytona. Not because it was a particularly bad race, more because of two factors; first I was in the City of Philadelphia where Comcast is the lone cable provider and you can only get SPEED on the more expensive HD Sports package, and second I was helping a friend move.(Upside; Comcast dominates the Mid-Atlantic, Baltimore, D.C. , and…

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Indy Lights – Ostella Completes Test with Jensen MotorSport

Toronto native, David Ostella, signed on wtih Jensen MotorSport last November to run in the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights Series after competing for two years in the Star Mazda Championship with the AIM Autosport team. Ostella got his first opportunity to test a Firestone Indy Lights car down at Sebring International Raceway around the short course and laid down a best time of 58.4 s. “It was a really productive test for David and for our team. This was David’s first time driving the Indy Lights car on a road…

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F1 – Renault’s Trick Exhaust: Legal?

There’s been a flurry of unveilings for the 2011 Formula 1 chariots lately including the new machine from Renault Lotus R31 (The Group Lotus, not the Team Lotus). While because of the ever increasing strictness of the FIA regulations the cars are outwardly appearing more and more similar each year, there was something distinctly different about the R31: No exhaust outlets in the rear of the car! Racecar Engineering took a close look at the car during the reveal, and posted their findings in the article, Renault’s radical R31 exhaust…

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Inside The Helmet – Anders Krohn

Podcast: Play in new window | Download We had the great pleasure and honor to speak to Anders Krohn, driver for Belardi Auto Racing for the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights season. Anders had one of the earliest starts in motorsports I’d ever heard of, getting his own kart when he was only 3-1/2! He gives us some insight to his early career in karting and Formula Ford racing in his home country of Norway, how he came to race here in the United States, and the value of racing for…

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StarMazda – Alums Score Big at the 24 Hours of Daytona

Many of you probably watched the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona this past weekend, or as much of it as SpeedTV was able to broadcast. What you may not know is how well the Star Mazda alums did in the endurance race. As we mentioned earlier in the week, there were twenty four alumni of the Star Mazda Championship competing in both DP and the GT classes at the epic 24 hour race. As it turns out, two of the four drivers in the race-winning #01 Telmex Chip Ganassi With…

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Star Mazda – Juncos Racing’s Grueling Pre-Season Testing

The Juncos Racing quartet of Tatiana Calderon, Joao Horto, Gustavo Menezes, and Martin Scuncio completed a program of pre-season testing sessions in their 2011 Star Mazda machines at three very diverse tracks: Sebring International Raceway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Roebling Road. The testing session was done “boot camp” style where the team went from one track to the next in rapid succession without respite for the four young drivers. This forced the four drivers not only to become more focused on their own race craft, but also gave them the opportunity…

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Rally – Sunday Service Park 1/30/2011

Welcome to the end of another weekend and another addition of the Sunday Service Park. We have a few items to discuss, but we also had the first round of the RallyCar/Rally America championship as well. The Landscape was different for Sno* Drift 2011 entirely. We had no Ken Block (WRC), no Travis Pastrana (NASCAR), and no Andrew Comrie Pricard. 2010 Rally America champion Antoine L’Estage was back alongside Nathalie Richard and Subaru Rally Team USA would now have David Higgins along side Dave Mirra. In the end, all of…

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