INDYCAR – On Sponsorships, Cherry Picking and Penske

There has been a litany of sponsorship announcements in the last few days coming from the Penske camp. First we heard of the Shell/Penzoil deal for Helio, then comes word that Meijer had jumped ship from Andretti, and today the announcement that IZOD has joined up with the Captain. Danny Sullivan once said that “When the music stops, Roger always has a chair.” Apparently its Michael Andretti’s. One would have to wonder what the mood is like in the Andretti Autosport shop the last few weeks. Shell/Penzoil’s return to open…

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Gaming – Grand Turismo 5: First Impressions

As listeners of our podcast know, I am a big fan of the Grand Turismo series, and that I’ve also been very frustrated with the multiple delays of the release of GT5. Well, it is finally out! The game hit the shelves on November 24th, and yes, I ran out and got it that same day! So was it worth all the wait and extra development time? I’m not sure, but that’s not to say that GT5 isn’t a great game. Its just that I’m not sure the extra wait…

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Rally – Sunday Sevice Park 12/6/2010

Welcome to the second edition of the Sunday Service Park. This week has been a little lighter than one would hope, but there are still drivers on the market and seats needing filled! In other news, felt my first rally withdrawal of the season the other day. Can it please be 2011 yet?!? SordoDani So I already touched on this story earlier in the week but it now looks as though MINI will be the choice for the Spaniard. While hoping for Ford to throw him a bone, it now…

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Gymkhana – Ken Block Invitational

This weekend was the first ever Ken Block Invitational Gymkhana Grid event. This event was headlined by some of the best rally and drifting talent around. Names like Vaughn Gittin Jr., (2010 drifting champ) Tanner Foust, (X-Games, drifting, and rally), Andrew Comrie-Piccard (North American rally), and Daijiro Yoshihara (drift) made up the grid with a host of other big named drivers. Drifting and setting the fastest time around the pre-designed course are the name of the game for success. Tanner Foust would set fastest qualification time for the AWD category…

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Road to Indy – Weekly Wrap-up 11/29-12/3

Given the blossoming of weekly features we’ve seen here at OpenPaddock.net with Spike’s Indy Hump Day Report, and Shaun’s Sunday Service Park, I’ve decided to join in the fun. Every Friday (or Saturday morning) I will try to have a wrap-up of the weeks headlines from the Road to Indy. There’s been a lot of things happening so far this off-season, which is rather surprising given that a lot of driver/team combinations typically aren’t agreed upon in most ladder series until a month or so before the beginning of the…

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Rally – Sordo Looking at Ford or MINI

While we have known for sometime that Dani Sordo probably would not return to Citroen, the real question we had to ask ourselves is where IS he going? The Spanish driver appears to be on the verge of a deal with either Ford or Prodrive MINI. Autosport ran a story this morning that had Prodrive technical director David Lapworth talking about a potential future for Sordo at the team. It does look at this moment anyways that Marcus Gronholm will not be making a return to competition full time this year.…

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Spell it ‘IZOD INDYCAR’ and just stop complaining!

Just a quick commentary on the new spelling of “INDYCAR”. So the last few years the series went from “IRL” to “IndyCar” Series. Well in 2010 the series got a title sponsor in IZOD. And notice it is spelled in all capital letters. Look it up, they are not “Izod” They always use all capitals in their logo and press releases. Just go to www.IZOD.com and notice in the “About IZOD” section. The corporation’s PR staff always spell it “IZOD” So when they made up the series logo (which is…

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Garage 36 – Episode 2: Pippa Mann

Podcast: Play in new window | Download Welcome to our second episode of Garage 36, a segment devoted to covering Indy Downforce, the official fan club of the IZOD IndyCar Series, Firestone Indy Lights, and the Road to Indy. In this episode, we talk with the driver voted “Most Popular Driver” from the Firestone Indy Lights Seres, Pippa Mann. Pippa has been very active with the fan club throughout this year, even on weekends when she wasn’t able to be in the car, she was at the Indy Fan Zone…

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INDY Hump Day Report, On the bubble: HIV/AIDS

Normally the Indy Hump Day Report is very humorous. Filled with insight and sarcasm. Today however is World AIDS day 2010. Having grown up in the shadows of Pocono Raceway, I became a massive racing fan watching the late Tim Richmond. Richmond while better known for his amazing talent behind the primitive wheel of a NASCAR stock car in the 1980’s got his big break in Open Wheel racing. Richmond was born into wealth, and in the mid 1970’s was given a chance to hop in a friends Sprint car.…

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Episode 66 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin the Paddock boys and their newest addition Spike Rogan for a look at this weeks motorsport news. We have Edmonton follow up and a special interview piece that you must here! Also we break down Sarah Fisher’s recent announcement and get in to a Vegas double header. We also take jabs at F1 and talk rally and Ken Block’s upcoming Gymkhana Grid adevert. Sit back and enjoy the show and as always, thanks for listening! *Editor’s Note: Prior to the Podcast, we locked…

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