Juan Pablo Garcia has been around the Firestone Indy Lights series for four years now, although his only full-time season was the 2012 season with Jeffery Mark Motorsport. Garcia started racing karts over a decade ago, and moved up to cars in 2004 in the Formula Renault 2000 de America. He won his first race in the series in 2006, although he was unable to contest the full championship season. In the A1GP 2006-2007 season, he drove for Team Mexico in the final two events after which he continued racing…
Read MoreCategory: Indy Lights
news and commentary on the direct feeder series to the IndyCar Series.
Episode 168 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadKevin, Mike, Mike and Doug are happy to have Conor Daly as their guest tonight. Conor talks with the OP boyz about the different racing culture in Europe, having spent the past two years competing full-time in GP3. He also talks with us about his goals for 2013, his upcoming IZOD IndyCar Series test with AJ Foyt Racing, as well as a bit of rally. We need to start a campaign to get Conor into the X-Games RallyX event! Also, anyone have a car…
Read MoreOpenPaddock Podcast – Episode 165
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThis week on the OpenPaddock Podcast, we have a packed show and a full house! Mike, Doug, and Kevin are joined by our new Rally reporter Mike Shaw and friend of the show John Olsakovsky. We begin with analysis from Mike Shaw on Petter Solberg’s future in rally and the sad sorry state of M-Sport. Whitesell and Patterson get excited about the addition of GT3 cars in the SCCA Pirelli World Challenge, for our money, some of the absolute best sports car racing to…
Read MoreEpisode 163 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadShaun makes his last appearence on OpenPaddock Live before being shipped out to Qatar to pound sand and watch MotoGP racing. Joining Shaun are Mike (as always), Doug, and the new Shaun, Kevin Neely. On the docket this week: Rally WRC – the future of M-Sport. Will Nasser Al-Attiyah’s Qatar money be the team’s saving grace? WRC – Sistemas Integrales de Telecomunicacion (SIT) slated to take over timing duties for 2013. Kubica will drive the WRC Citroen C4 in two rallies this month. Back…
Read MoreEpisode 161 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThis week on the OpenPaddock.net Podcast, Shaun and Doug welcome special guest Sage Karam, driver of the #88 Comfort Revolution Star Mazda car for Andretti Autosport this past season. He speaks to us about how he became connected with the Andretti’s, how his 2012 season went, and his recent testing of a Firestone Indy Lights car. Sage also talks about how important it is for him to lead a normal teenage life in a public school in spite of his full-time racing career. Doug…
Read MoreIndyLights – Firestone Indy Lights 2013 Schedule
INDYCAR released the race schedule for the 2013 Firestone Indy Lights season. We already knew the IZOD IndyCar Series schedule, so the details of the Indy Lights schedule really comes as no surprise. One thing I am rather surprised at is the absence of the Circuit Trois-Rivières from the schedule. Instead of racing in Canada, the Firestone Indy Lights series rejoins the IZOD IndyCar Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course the first weekend in August. This is going to make track time during the already jam-packed weekend at Mid-Ohio…
Read MoreEpisode 160 — OpenPaddock.net Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadIf you missed it last night on ETV Live!, we had the honor of speaking with the newly signed pilot of the #9 Firestone Indy Lights racing machine for Belardi Auto Racing, Mr. Peter Dempsey. Peter shared with us his experiences struggling to find a stable ride through the end of 2011 with Andretti Autosport, racing and coaching in 2012 at Indianapolis and Detroit this past season with Younessi Racing, and ending the 2012 season with Belardi. We also asked him to do some…
Read MoreIndy Lights – Dempsey Signs With Belardi for 2013
The engines and tyres have barely had time to cool down from the The Chris Griffis Memorial Mazda Road to Indy Test that took place yesterday and today on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield road course and we’re already seeing driver signings for 2013. Peter Dempsey has had a tough few years in the Mazda Road to Indy program, his last full-season ride being with AIM Motorsports for the 2009 Star Mazda season. In 2010, he returned to his native Ireland and ran Formula Ford events for his father’s team,…
Read MoreIndyCar is back home to Pocono in 2013
More than just a chilly autumn wind blew into Pocono Raceway today–the IZOD IndyCar Series arrived with October at Long Pond today. For many this is an announcement of a lifetime 23 years in the making. To put it in perspective: Ed Carpenter was 8, Marco Andretti 2, Graham Rahal was just 9 months old, while Josef Newgarden was not born for 16 months when IndyCar last raced there. The excitement at Pocono Raceway today can not be put into words. Local newspaper reporters who have been covering…
Read MoreIndy Lights – Team Viso’s Palli Will Compete at Fontana
Movin’ on up! The Team Viso Project is already paying dividends for Bruno Pally, driver of the #15 Juncos Racing car in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear. With five top-ten finishes so far this year, Bruno will now move up to compete in the Firestone Indy Lights season finale in Fontana alongside J.V. Horto with Juncos Racing. This is exactly the type of graduation that the Mazda Road to Indy program was designed to foster, and it’s good to actually see it begin to happen more frequently. There’s…
Read More