Ken Block Wins His Fifth Consecutive 100 Acre Wood Rally Written by: Rally America, Sunday, February 28, 2010 Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino of the Monster World Rally Team have claimed their fifth consecutive 100 Acre Wood Rally win. Block drove the Open Class Ford Fiesta to victory despite having a tough first day and starting the second leg over a minute behind rally leader, Travis Pastrana. The Ford driver was able to gain some ground after Antoine L’Estage dropped to third place due to a water crossing visibility issue…
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IndyCar – Simona De Silvestro To Run Big Cars With HVM
In a bit of a surprise to us here at Openpaddock.net, Simona De Silvestro secured a full-season ride in the IZOD IndyCar Series with HVM Racing. In a collaborative effort with HVM Racing, Team Stargate Worlds will enter the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series with driver Simona De Silvestro. Known as Team Stargate Worlds/HVM Racing, the team will carry primary sponsorship from Stargate Resistance and associate sponsorship from Bernard Richards Manufacture (BRM), FireSky, Cheyenne Mountain Games, and Cardinal Technologies. De Silvestro and the # 78 entry will also lead the Do…
Read MoreRally – 100 Acre Wood Technical Inspection
The second round of the Rally America National Championship started today with the technical inspection of the vehicles. All the cars and drivers arrived at the Dent County Fire Station so the inspections could be completed. The fans came out in numbers to get a glimpse of the #43 Ford Fiesta of Ken Block. The car arrived at exactly 6:00pm central time and had the door handle broken in about five minutes. Tomorrow marks the start of the rally. First stage begins at about 4:00pm central and ends at about…
Read MoreEpisode 27 – Open Paddock Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThis week Mike and myself discuss the 100 Acre Wood Rally as we will be in attendance. Look forward to meeting up with john Cassidy from Last Ditch Racing as well as Travis Pastrana and Ken Block. We cover the IndyCar silly season and why many teams are looking to Sebring instead of Barber. We also get into Formula 1 and have a nice debate on Ferrari’s verbage as well as USF1 and the new look Campos Meta.
Read MoreOP-Ed – Ferrari the Crusader
There are times when Ferrari releases some crazy PR statements, and then there are times where the completely fall off the wagon with what can only be called ridiculous. Yesterday the team released one of those ridiculous statements. The troubles faced by the new teams on the grid have been well documented by openpaddock and many motorsport publications. Campos Meta’s near collapse teamed with the bloody and ugly falling of USF1 have driven traffic on internet sites through the roof as people search for any bit of news they can…
Read MoreIndyCar – Saavedra Joins Bryan Herta Autosport for 2010
Sebastian Saavedra who drove in the #27 AGR/AFS Firestone Indy Lights entry in 2009 has recently been announced as Bryan Herta Autosport’s second driver. Saavedra finished third in the 2009 championship after battling his teammate and eventual champion JR Hildebrand all season long. He had never raced on an oval, let alone a superspeedway, before coming to the Firestone Indy Lights series, yet he won his first oval race at Kansas in the most racing treacherous conditions I’ve ever seen. He backed up his strong oval performance with great run…
Read MoreIndyCar – Lotus Returns to the Greatest Spectacle In Racing
The folks at Racecar Engineering are reporting that Lotus is looking to return to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, as Team Lotus USA. Motorsport Director Claudio Berro told highly regarded British publication Motorsport News “the Indycar dream is very real for us. We are talking to an existing team about forging an alliance. The American marketplace is very important for Lotus and there is a pedigree and history at the Indy 500. When people think of Lotus they think of competition and racing, it is…
Read MoreIndyCar – More Drivers Confirmed for 2010
Today, we got confirmation that Viso and Mutoh were confirmed full-time drivers in the IZOD IndyCar Series for the 2010 season. E.J. Viso was announced today as the second full-time driver at KV Racing Technologies joining their other full-time driver, Takuma Sato, and part-time driver, Paul Tracy. Hideki Mutoh was announced as Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing sole full-time entry for 2010. We had been expecting Mutoh’s confirmation for some time, but Viso’s confirmation is good news for a series that has really struggled for good news lately. KVRT Announces EJ Viso As…
Read MoreIndyCar – Simona on the Sidelines as Stargate Worlds Goes Bankrupt
In an article by IGN.com, we find out that the game development company, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, filed for bankruptcy in Arizona’s Maricopa County Court. While the company is still up and running for now, they’re certainly not in a position to fork out the $3M+ that it would take to sponsor Simona di Silvestro in an IZOD IndyCar Series ride, or even the lesser level of sponsorship that it would take to place her in the Firestone Indy Lights series. Tough break for HVM since Simona had a fantastic test…
Read MoreOP-Ed – USF1 Denies; Stefan Delivers
The soap opera that is the new teams and the potential 14th grid slot has seen two updates the last 24 hours that doesn’t make the situation any easier. As of the middle of this week we all thought the USF1 project was in a serious state of collapse. This very well may be true but it has not stopped the boys based in Charlotte from refuting the rumors. According to USF1’s twitter account, the team is “not gone” and we are to “have news soon”. Are you serious? Less…
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