Le mans – Highcroft to Stay Regardless

With the ALMS series in a state of cardiac arrest due to the economic downturn, some good news can be found amongst the rubble that is a devastated 2009 season. Highcroft racing announced that regardless of what happens in the series, they will be racing in the ALMS in 2010. There has been growing concern over the state of the LMP1 series since the exit of Audi and Peugeot and a number of other teams that competed last season. There is also potential news that Acura may pull the plug…

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ALMS – Mid-Ohio Recap and RA Preview

Round 6 of the American Le Mans Series was contested last weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, OH, and I was there representing Openpaddock.net and taking in all the action. Sadly, there’s not much competition in the ALMS this year with the absence of Audi LMP1 cars and the Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 cars. Now, the Acura LMP1 and LMP2 factory efforts are running away from what privateers remain. Gil De Ferran and Simon Pagenaud easily took the overall victory, …again, and trail the Patrón Highcroft Racing…

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F1 – Schumacher Cancels Return

Michael Schumacher has decided to cancel his return to Formula 1 after neck injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident earlier this year still existed. Schumacher had posted a quote on his website indicating he did everything medically possible, but will not be ready in time for the stresses a Formula 1 car puts on the body. This is a huge blow to the team and will nearly guarantee that they will not win a race this year. Instead Luca Badoer will fill in for Massa. Luca has not been in…

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IndyCar – Why Switch Teams Robert?

The official start of silly season happened this week as Doornbos has taken his father’s checkbook to HVM. If you recall, it was pretty widely reported at the beginning of the season that Robert had secured a 12 race deal with NHL. Lets be honest though, NHL is one of the most likely candidates to end up as one of the top teams in coming seasons, and certainly the move to HVM is slightly south of lateral. It appears that there was some pretty bad blood at the team as…

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IndyCar – Kentucky Changes

The IndyCar race at Kentucky easily qualifies as the best oval race they have put on this year, and in my book, also outshined the fantastic street race at Toronto. Hands down, best race of the season! It was just a bonus that I was in attendance. Congratulations to Ryan Briscoe, who took the photo finish win over Ed Carpenter. Their side by side battle has to go down as the best season highlight on ovals so far. The teams were given very little practice time with these new features…

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IndyCar – 2010 Schedule Thoughts

The IndyCar series schedule for 2010 was release last Friday. By now you have probably already laid eyes on it, but I wanted to give my thoughts next years lineup of events. Date Venue Track Sunday, March 14 Brazil (city TBA) TBD Sunday, March 28 St. Petersburg, Fla. 1.8-mile street course Sunday, April 11 Barber Motorsports Park 2.48-mile road course Sunday, April 18 Long Beach, Calif. 1.968-mile street course Saturday, May 1 Kansas Speedway 1.5-mile oval Sunday, May 30 Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2.5-mile oval Saturday, June 12* Texas Motor Speedway…

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IndyLights – No. 100 at Kentucky

The original Indy Lights series, sanctioned by CART, ran from 1986 to 2001. In 2002, the Indy Racing League revived the series as the Menards Infinity Pro Series until the title co-sponsors withdrew and the series was renamed the Indy Pro Series. In 2008, with the merger between the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series, Firestone came on board as a title sponsor and the old name “Indy Lights” was resurrected. The series now known as the Firestone Indy Lights Series celebrated its 100th race sanctioned by…

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IndyCar – Doornbos Leaves NHL

IndyCar is known as a place where there is bright young talent with the passion to compete in open wheel racing at a high level. Also, the series has gained a reputation for housing F1 drivers that either are on the tail end of their career or not good enough to drive at the pinnacle. Both of these are the case for Robert Doornbos who has decided that after 12 races he needed a change. Doornbos has executed the option on his NHL contract and will leave the team effective…

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