Category: Featured

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OP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 4 of 5 – Speed

Doug Patterson

Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Getting Up To Speed One thing that drew people not only to the track on race day, but on pole day and every qualifying day thereafter was the thrill of seeing those incredible speeds! People came to see blazingly fast cars, the brave superhuman drivers that piloted them, and to hear track announcers like Tom Carnegie announce, “And it’s a NEEEEWWWW TRAAAACK RECOOORD!” Some of you know what I’m talking about! For those that don’t, please check out this video from IndyCar’s YouTube page:…

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OP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 3 of 5 – Creative Engineering

Doug Patterson

Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race The Engines Now what can you allow and not allow beyond the standardized tub and safety features? For one, I think you can open up the engine design. Put a cap on the output power of the engine, but allow teams to achieve that power however they wish. Want to run a four-cylinder twin-turbo engine? Great. Twelve-cylinder normally aspirated? Fantastic. Heck, throw one of those super cool Wankel engines in there! Just make all teams bring their engine to a league-operated dyno to check…

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OP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 2 of 5 – Safety First

Doug Patterson

Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Opening Up The Rules One aspect of the 500 that drew in crowds of fans, competitors, and manufacturers was that the rules were open enough for teams to build their own car and develop their own innovations. If the current culture of IndyCar racing had existed in mid-20th century, we would never have had seen diesel power, turbo chargers, that amazing gas turbine engine, and most amazing of all no wings. We would still be running front-engine, naturally-aspirated, carbureted roadsters all made by the…

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OP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 1 of 5 – Intro

Doug Patterson

Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race An Introduction A few weeks back, I posted the article, The Role of a Series, arguing that most successful series throughout the history of motorsports, including American open-wheel racing, were successful because they had one marquee race that everyone in the racing world wanted to win. Sportscar racing has the 24-Hours of Le Mans, stockcar racing has the Daytona 500, Formula 1 has Monaco, off-road racing has the Baja 1000, and rally has the Dakar (Da Argentina now?). American open-wheel racing has always had…

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IndyCar – Mutoh to Stay, NHL to Field Three Cars

Doug Patterson

In one brief sentence, Curt Cavin just made my off-season! Ok, to be honest, the confirmation of the title sponsorship deal between IZOD and the IndyCar Series really made my off-season. This recent tidbit is just yummy gravy for me. It had been rumored, and still is, that Ryan Hunter-Reay, who has a personal services agreement with the new title sponsor IZOD, is close to a deal to drive for Andretti Green Racing. Its obvious that TK, Danica, and Marco aren’t going anywhere, which leaves my man Hideki Mutoh on…

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Episode 14 – Open Paddock Podcast

Shaun

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Mike and myself as we try and wrap our head around Toyota and Bridgestone pull outs. We talk about Renault and other ramifications of today’s huge news. We also talk RHR to AGR? as well as IndyCar title sponsor stuff. Gronholm may be back the WRC and Pirelli may not be. All huge news today and no signs of a slow down anytime soon.

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IndyCar – Danica Goes Tintoppin’

Doug Patterson

An ESPN article posted today stated that Danica was close to a two-year deal with JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhart Jr’s Nationwide team. While I don’t think this is a good move for Danica, especially not committing to a two-year deal, at least she’s with a quality team. …as quality as you can get in a car that still uses a carburetor. The only thing that I own that still uses a carburetor is my lawnmower! hmmm…. Danica to Lawn Mower Racing? That could be highly entertaining. I digress, though. She…

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Rally – No Gurantees on Pirelli

Shaun

While reading Autosport’s web page this morning for all of the latest F1 news, I noticed that the dominoes may start to fall in the WRC before long. The site had an article posted which states that Pirelli is not guranteeing anything to the FiA in regards to its WRC contract as sole tire supplier. “We will study the interest in the sport and gauge the effect of our current supply contract to the WRC. I can then present to the board of Pirelli, but it’s not a given that…

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F1 – Spygate 2???

Shaun

Offseason? We don’t need no stinking off season! So it would appear with all the news that has hit the wires the last couple days. Now we learn of a potential spygate 2 involving Force India and the new Lotus team that i snot even prepared a car yet. However, this is where the problem begins. Swiss press Motorsport Aktuell is reporting that Dr. VJ Malyah is very concerned that the wind tunnel version of the new Lotus strongly resembles the VJM-02. We must be cautioned however that F1 cars…

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F1 – Toyota Close Shop

Shaun

During the last few races of the Formula 1 season, the eyes of the F1 world were shielded to the ugly side of the business. We had no court cases directly related to results, we had no he said she said, (except for Jarno Trulli running around like an idiot) and we had the bright flashy new Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi that I for one was very impressed with. Then the season ended and as the curtain came down, another came up that and behind it is a train…

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