Category: Featured

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Toyota Reveals 2017 WRC Entry at Paris Motor Show with Surprising Sponsor

Mike Shaw

Today at the Paris Motor Show Toyota Gazoo Racing along with team boss and 4 times World Rally Champion Tommi Makinen, showed off their new 2017 Yaris WRC car with a massive Microsoft logo on the side.  In addition to Microsoft, Toyota Gazoo Racing also added DMG Mori (a machining company similar to Haas), and electronics manufacturer Panasonic.   In the press release, Toyota President Akio Toyoda stated “I believe that, like Toyota, Microsoft aims to enrich society in meaningful ways. Based on the on-going partnership, we aim to further develop…

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Red Bull GRC Returns to Seattle

Mike Shaw

The Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship Series returns to the Pacific Northwest this weekend, and once again large crowds of spectators are expected.  Two years ago Red Bull GRC was hosted at the DirtFish Rally School in Snoqualmie, Washington just 30 minutes east of Seattle.  The combined promotional efforts of Red Bull GRC, Subaru, and DirtFish brought in a record sold out crowd that was multiple times what other venues had seen.  It proved that there is a thirst for motor racing, especially anything with rally in the name, in the…

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RallyCast Episode 09 – An Interview with the American Rally Association

Mike Shaw

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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadIn this episode we have something special!  With all the questions and controversy surrounding the new American Rally Association we decided to call them up and find out the details!  We devoted the entire show to an interview with Chris Cyr, Vice President and Tim O’Neil the Chairman of the ARA. We wanted to know what makes the ARA different and how they plan on succeeding where other attempts at creating new sanctioning bodies had failed.  If you have any of your own questions, please…

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Kris Meeke Flies to Fastest Ever Victory at WRC Finland

Mike Shaw

WRC Finland.  Known as the Spiritual Home of Rally or the Grand Prix of the WRC due to its high speeds and massive fan base.  Regardless of what they call it, Finland is a special place for ralliests.  It is like going to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Le Mans, or Monaco.  Steeped in history as the then Rally of 1000 Lakes, Finland has been on the World Championship calendar ever since the WRC was created.  The gravel roads here are as wide as a major thoroughfare, but are littered with crests, jumps,…

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New American Rally Association Coup Apparently Not Yet Complete

Mike Shaw

Yesterday one of the biggest bombshells in American rally racing was dropped with the announcement of the new American Rally Association as a new sanctioning body.  Admittedly we’ve seen this before when just a year ago the formation of the US Rally Association threatened to replace the often criticized Rally America Championship Series, but it never came to fruition.  So what’s different this time, and will ARA be successful?   As stated in the press release below from the American Rally Association and Team O’Neil, the ARA already has 4 of the…

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Episode 297 UMMM-Cast – OpenPaddock.net

John Olsakovsky

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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadAfter a month of life interfering, Doug, John & Tom are back to recap the astounding finish at Le Mans that had us all gobsmacked, not to mention the Formula One soap opera from Toronto to Baku. The Verzon IndyCar Series gets more than a nod with four races that resulted in two solid hits, one strikeout and an out-of-the-park home run! (Sorry for the American baseball references, Tom!)

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Le Mans – Triumph, Agony and Controversy

John Olsakovsky

Through various racing-related (or racing-adjacent) connections, I’ve been fortunate to gain a number of friends and acquaintances, all of whom I enjoy discussions about racing. One of my fellow “chatnecks” (an inside joke among one subgroup) wrote up his account of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Thanks speeddemon787!   You can’t make this stuff up for this year’s 24 Hours of LeMans with Porsche winning the overall race for the second year in a row.   How can you feel about Toyota’s devastating lost after dominating most of the…

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STPR 2016 – Review & Photo Gallery

Mike Shaw

By Andrew Pascarella   We were hoping the 2016 Waste Management Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally would provide a continuation of the close battles at the front we saw from the previous rounds that included Subaru Rally Team USA Teammates David Higgins and Travis Pastrana.  Coming into the event, Travis had won 100 Acre Wood while David won the Oregon Trail Rally.  They had one victory each with the two trading stage wins and gaps so close that each event was only decided on the final stages.  Unfortunately before STPR began the gap between Travis and David…

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IndyCar – How To Be Successful at Indianapolis as A Rookie

John Olsakovsky

I’ve started, erased and rewritten this piece three times now. Three weeks after the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, countless articles have been written about Alexander Rossi’s incredible win and the history he has made. That is a phenomenal story, no doubt.  However, there’s a deeper tale that has parallels with my own rookie experience at The Brickyard. Much like the 2016 Indianapolis 500 Champion, I had an ace in the hole going into the month of May to insure not only a fun race weekend, but…

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Episode 296 UMMM-Cast (part 2) – OpenPaddock.net

John Olsakovsky

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadA while ago, we all connected to talk about what is arguably the greatest weekend of racing, which includes the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. As you know, Mike, Dug and John were at Indianapolis for the historic event. We went on so long that I felt it prudent to break the podcast into two parts. Sorry it’s taken so long to get this out there, for our tens of fans. Life gets in the way, sometimes. Here’s the second…

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