Category: Featured

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2015 Lake Superior Performance Rally – Driver Previews Super Production

Matt Kalish

Welcome back to Open Paddock’s Lake Superior Performance Rally Driver Previews. We’re making sure that your knowledge of Rally America teams is up to date in this three part series, so if you’re new to rally or just want to get caught up before LSPR kicks off we’ve got you covered. In case you missed our previous 2WD class preview click here, and be sure to check in tomorrow morning when we’ll be talking about the big guns of Open class. Tonight we will be talking about the drivers and…

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2015 Lake Superior Performance Rally – Driver Previews 2WD and B-Spec

Matt Kalish

It’s October and that means one thing in sports. Football season heating up? Call me back in February. Rugby World Cup? America isn’t making it out of Group play, so who cares? MLB Playoffs? What’s a Chase Utley, some kind of dog with a glandular problem? No my friends, it is once again time for the best sport of them all, rally. Specifically, the Lake Superior Performance Rally, the final Rally America National event of the year. And what a rally it is shaping up to be. With the class…

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PR – Preview: Red Bull GRC Los Angeles presented by Subaru Tecnica International

Mike Shaw

Red Bull GRC Race Preview: Los Angeles presented by Subaru Tecnica International IN BRIEF: Red Bull GRC returns to Los Angeles with a brand new course layout and one of the largest fields of the season. This year’s doubleheader at the Port of Los Angeles will go a long way towards determining this year’s Supercar champion, as Ken Block looks to extend his points lead over Sebastian Eriksson. TUNE IN INFORMATION: Sunday, September 13, 4PM ET on NBC and liveextra.nbcsports.com NBC Sports will have a broadcast of this weekend’s Global…

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Riding in a 600 HP Red Bull GRC Beast

Mike Shaw

By Matt Kalish of Matt Kalish Photography   Red Bull Global Rallycross is in LA this weekend and that means two things for for the Long Beach waterfront – fast cars and fast driving. But just how fast is fast? I got to find out last month at Red Bull GRC’s Washington D.C. round.   I was just a lowly photographer planning on going to the D.C. GRC round to scavenge some work and wax poetically on the nature of burning dinosaurs for sport. Is that writing too heavy handed?…

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Red Bull GRC Returns to LA and the Track Looks Awesome

Mike Shaw

The Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship returns to the Port of Los Angeles for this weekend’s Subaru Tecnica International sponsored double header.  Traditionally LA has been the best of the worst as it is yet again another parking lot track.  However, in Red Bull GRC’s continuing effort to make better racing in these temporary locations they have steadily improved track design.  This year’s new tracks have been longer, all but eliminated turn 1 red flag incidents, have higher top speeds, and more passing opportunities.  Both drivers and fans alike have been…

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Justin Wilson – The Big Man of IndyCar

Mike Shaw

It is always with a heavy heart whenever we have to write about the tragic loss of a racing driver.  I think our friend and colleague Doug Patterson said it best “I love this sport for the greatness and awesomeness it can bring out in competitors and fans. I hate this sport for the unbearable price it on occasion demands.”  That pretty much sums it up.   Justin Wilson was truly one of the great ones, both in skill and stature.  At a commanding 6’4″ he was a tight fit in most…

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Red Bull GRC Returns to DC

Mike Shaw

This weekend is round 7 of the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship and again takes place at the AFK Stadium in Washington D.C.  Open Paddock’s Matt Kalish is at the event getting all the behind the scenes info and periodically sharing posts on our Facebook page.  Thanks Matt!     This year’s DC track thankfully is nearly twice the size as last year’s track.  I like the design, except the dirt (what there is of it) once again is located on a boring straight leading up to and extending after the jump and not…

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PR: Red Bull GRC – Detroit

Mike Shaw

After multiple attempts over the past few years, the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship finally makes it to the Motor City.  The host location is the famed (or maybe infamous if you’re an IndyCar fan) streets of Belle Isle.   The track hits my personal sweet spot being 0.757 miles long, and the joker lap is very unique with the standard lap and joker encompassing different paths around the signature fountain.  I do have concerns about the tight Turn 1 potentially causing red flags as the exit is extremely narrow…

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The 2015 New England Forest Rally

Mike Shaw

The 2015 New England Forest Rally was dubbed “The Battle of the Titans” with a list of entries not seen at a Rally America event in years.  OpenPaddock.net teamed up with Andrew Pascarella of racedinanger.com to get us all the details of how the event went down last weekend… Higgins and Drew topped a stacked field at the 2015 New England Forest Rally. Their biggest rivals Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino fought hard to beat the top Subaru, but dry and dusty conditions on Friday turned into slick and muddy…

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2015 New England Forest Rally – OpenPaddock’s Ones to Watch

Mike Shaw

Many have called this weekend’s 25th Anniversary New England Forest Rally the “Super Bowl” for rallying in America or even an All-Star event.  And the big stars are what is drawing the initial attention to this event, however there is a lot going down at NEFR that goes well beyond the big names we all know so well.   Okay, let’s start with those big names and get it out of the way.  Yes indeed we have the return of Ken Block in his HFHV (Hybrid Function Hoon Vehicle) Ford Fiesta…

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