Last season, Graham Rahal came to St. Petersburg after a very disappointing outing at the season opener at Homestead. A wreck during practice convinced his team that discretion was the better part of valor, so they decided to hold him out of the event since he had very little time to practice on ovals before the event. The former CCWS team had just received their chassis thanks to the hectic nature of the last minute merger. Despite the setbacks of the first round, Graham Rahal went on to win at…
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Loeb Takes Rally Lead
Day 2 is in the books for Rally Portugal and like yesterday, there have been a number of incidents that have really shaped the rally. Marcus Gronholm has taken himself out of the competition after an accident which is really a shame for the former champion’s one off event. Sebastian Loeb and Danni Sordo really put the Citroens in a very strong position for victory heading into the final day. Loeb has taken the lead from Hirvonen and is leading the rally by 26.8 seconds. The final day promises to…
Read MoreF1 – Malaysia Qualifying Results
The Malaysian Grand Prix weekend brings what many consider the real start to the F1 season, as Melbourne is a bit of an outlier because of the safety cars that it generates. However, with new street circuits at Valencia and Singapore, there seem to be less of these pure tracks left on the calendar. And now with the steward interactions of Australia behind us (maybe for Hamilton & McLaren) we can get on to the business of seeing the true pace of these 2009 specification cars. As with Melbourne, the…
Read MoreIndyCar – St. Petersburg Practice
The IndyCar series returns to the streets of St. Petersburg this weekend, but this year it serves as the season opener. Even though the looming threat of the economy has cast a pall over the offseason activities of the series, the first race will still provide us 22 competitors (down from 26 last season). And while the series is down on cars from last season, the strength of the series is showing through. IndyCar practice took place today and there were some pretty surprising results: Pos Driver No Difference Best…
Read MoreHirvonen Leads After Day 1
The first full day of competition is in the books in Portugal and the story lines one could drawl from is massive. Mikko Hirvonen in the BP Ford Focus has found his way to the front after a mistake from Citroen number two Danni Sordo, and the biggest story thus far is the drama unfolding in the BP Ford service area. In stage 4 Jari-Mati Latvala had went off in a major way and caused a large amount of damage to the number two Focus and is again out of…
Read MoreWRC Rally Portugal Preview and SSS1
This weekend is the beginning of round 4 for the WRC calendar and it sees the championship in Portugal. The first of seven rallies straight on a consistent gravel surface and the season has now officially began. Sebastian Loeb has been dominant early in his Citroen C4 and looks to go 4 for 4 this weekend. If any weekend would see Loeb on his toes though, surly this would be it. The Ford Focus has gotten a number of engine upgrades and feels more than at home on the gravel…
Read MoreIRC Safari Rally Preview
The IRC will now kick off its third round this weekend in the historic Safari Rally that will take place in Kenya on the African continent. The rally is entering its 57th installment and will start with a spectator stage in Nairobi on Friday 3 April. The rally will then open up into grueling gravel stages and conclude Sunday. The one weird bit about this is the manufacturer points will be distributed as normal, however the drivers points will only go to those with an African competition license. This is…
Read MoreF1 – Vettel to Talk with Stewards Again
Sebastian Vettel has been summoned before the stewards at Malaysia. Christian Horner stated the following to Autosport: “Steward advisor Alan Donnelly has asked to have a chat with Sebastian to go through the rationale behind their penalty. I thought the penalty was harsh; we thought it was very much a racing incident – Sebastian was defending his line and the eventual decision depended on what was specifically discussed during the stewards’ hearing. I think Alan wanted to speak to Sebastian about that, to discuss the long and short of it.”…
Read MoreF1 – Hamilton Excluded from Melbourne
Lewis Hamilton was summoned before the race stewards at Malaysia where they have ruled that he and McLaren “acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards”. This after radio transmissions between the team and the driver were reviewed. Therefore, the stewards have excluded McLaren from the race results. Hamilton has been stripped of his retroactively applied 3rd place finish and Jarno Trulli will retroactively re-assume his 3rd step on the podium. Open Paddock would like to express our extreme…
Read MoreGigawave Withdrawl DBR9
Autosport has recently broke a story that will slightly alter the Le Mans 24 Hour race this year. The Gigawave Racing DBR9 will not be competing against the Chevrolet Corvettes as originally planned. Instead, the article indicates that Gigawave will instead begin work on the new Nissan GTR for the FIA GT Championship in 2010. The team did indicate a return to the world famous endurance race but did not issue a time frame. “The 24 Hour race and the Le Mans Series have always been the ultimate challenge for…
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