January is a pretty amazing month for this racing fan. The first Saturday in January is always the Monster Supercross Series season opener in Anaheim. It’s also the weekend of the Roar Before the 24; Grand-Am’s testing weekend for the Rolex 24. The Dakar Rally is in full swing. Next weekend is NASCAR’s Preseason Thunder in Daytona. All across the world, kids are in their family garages prepping karts for summer racing, guys are hunched over old Toyota Corollas for their local Pony Stock series, and somewhere in the midwest,…
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The latest news from the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, and USF2000!
IndyLights – Juan Pablo Garcia Find a Home at Team Moore Racing
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 MoreEpisode 170 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download Mr. Whitesell has the plague, so the show this week was left in the hands of Kevin Neely, Doug Patterson, and Mike Shaw. Without adult supervision, we run amuck and start talking about all kinds of motorsport including Grand Am, ALMS, SCCA, Formula 1, IndyCar, Rally, and the AMA Supercross opener! Hell, we even talk a little NASCAR!! Kevin leads us through the results of the Roar Before the 24, and the new classification for the American Grand Le Mans American Series League…
Read MoreIndycar-Top Stories of 2012 Part 2
In the first installment in this series, I broke down what I considered storied 6-10 of the 2012 IZOD Indycar Series. We talked about Rubinho, Mike Conway, the Detroit Pothole, Hinch’s fast start and Ed Carpenter winning the final race yet again. Now it’s time to wrap up the top 5 stories of the 2012 season. Story #5-The finish of the Indy 500 As the laps counted down during the 2012 Indianapolis 500, Tony Kanaan found himself in the lead late in the race. Unable to hold off Franchitti, Dixon…
Read MoreIndycar-Top 10 Stories of 2012 Part 1
This past season may have been one of the best seasons Indycar has experienced in many years. An unexpected champion, engine competition, a bold new chassis and famous fresh faces all made 2012 a season for the record books. But, like most things Indycar, stupidity in the background overshadows good on the track. I’ve been giving some thought on the 2012 season and how it played out. In this two part series, I’ll break down what I felt were the top ten stories of the 2012 IZOD Indycar Series season.…
Read MoreVideo – INDYCAR’s #TheOffseason, Ep 2
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Read MoreEpisode 169 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThis week on the OpenPaddock.net Podcast Kevin, Mike, & Mike dissect new CEO of Hulman & Co. Mark Miles’ comments on the future direction IndyCar should take, recap the testing action at Sebring, and reexamine the prospect of Hoosier or Continental replacing Firestone. They also spend some time looking at developments in the Pro Mazda Championship as Andersen Promotions is already beginning to evolve the series, and they weigh in on Doug’s comments on the potential future direction of the series. Lastly, the trio…
Read MorePro Mazda – Brabham Signs With Andretti Autosport for 2013
The 2012 Copper Tires Presents the USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda Championship Class champion (that’s a lot of championing!), Matthew “Matty Brabs” Brabham, has signed with Andretti Autosport to drive the #27 machine in the 2013 Cooper Tires Presents the Pro Mazda Championship. In 2012, Brabham raced Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing’s #83 Van Diemen in the USF2000 Championship Class, narrowly beating out his teammate, Spencer Pigot, by only seven points. 2012 was Brabham’s first season of racing in the United States after starting his career back in 2001…
Read MoreOp-Ed – A Pro Mazda Carol: Part 3, The Future of Pro Mazda
Finally, we come to last in our trio of articles on the new Pro Mazda Series which will succeed the Star Mazda Series as the second stage of the Mazda Road to Indy. We’ve seen the story behind the rise and fall of Star Mazda, and the phoenixal story of USF2000, now let’s put all the pieces together and see where Andersen Promotion may steer Pro Mazda in the coming seasons. Let me start with the caveat that the following speculations are solely my own based on the observations delineated…
Read MoreOp-Ed – A Pro Mazda Carol: Part 2, The Present USF2000
Part Two of my three-part series looking at the future of the new Pro Mazda Series focuses on the success the new owners of Pro Mazda, Andersen Promotions, has had with the revived Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda. I feel safe in assuming that the leadership philosophy that has lead to a strong first step on the Mazda Road to Indy, the USF2000 series, will also be applied to the Pro Mazda Series in the coming seasons. The Evolution of USF2000 My thoughts on where the…
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