Category: INDYCAR

The latest news from the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, and USF2000!

IndyCar – The MidOhio IndyCar and MRTI Weekend in Photos

Doug Patterson

Wow. That took a while! I bought some larger cards and felt like I needed to fill them all. Ugh. I finally sorted through and edited all the open-wheel photos and have them posted below. I also have a ton of sports car photos that I’ve sorted, but haven’t finished editing. I’ll have those later along with recaps of the Mazda Road to Indy races and championships and of the Pirelli World Challenge races. You’ve heard Mr. Whitesell and I mention this on the podcast, and I’ll say it here…

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USF2000 – Three Races for Your Money!

Doug Patterson

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda will once again hold a triple-header on the lovely Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend in Lexington, OH. Mr. Whitesell and I will be on hand to enjoy all the action, and perhaps we should have brought a Belgian-style Tripel with us. …hindsight. RC Enerson dominated the early rounds of the championship, but the wheels began falling off when the series went to Indianapolis. The Cape Motorsports duo of Florian Latorre and Jake Eidson quickly closed the gap and overtook Enerson in…

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IndyLights – MidOhio Two-Fer Preview

Doug Patterson

It’s Mid-Ohio Weekend!!! Next to Indianapolis, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is my favourite track to visit. The IndyCar weekend is filled with activity and the circuit is never quite. Between the IndyCar Series, the Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, USF2000, and the SCCA Pro Pirelli World Challenge, there’s always someone circulating and there’s a variety of racing machines to enjoy. One of the biggest battles during the weekend will be the fight for the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires 2014 Championship. Belardi Auto Racing’s Gabby Chaves and Andretti Autosport’s…

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IndyCar – Double the Races, Double the Fun?

John Olsakovsky

Thanks to a combination of real life and inherent slacker tendencies interfering with writing about racing, I’ve neglected my personal musings about the sport I love.  For my three fans, I apologize and will strive to feed you more of my BS more often. For my anti-fans, I apologize, as you’ll likely be seeing more of my BS. So let’s talk about the past two IndyCar races at Pocono and Iowa and look at the upcoming Toronto race! With the compact schedule for the Verizon IndyCar Series, the races come…

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IndyLights – Pocono: The Cost of One Mistake

Doug Patterson

Andretti Autosport’s Zach Veach and Belardi Auto Racing’s Gabby Chaves were tied for the lead of the IndyLights Presented by Cooper Tires 2014 Championship as the series headed to Pocono Raceway for their second oval race of the year. With six races left after Pocono, the outcome of last Saturday’s race wasn’t necessarily going to make or break Veach’s or Chaves’ chances at the title, but it would yield an advantage to the race winner, and a potentially large advantage if either driver had an incident. Schmidt Peterson Motorsport’s duo…

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Op Ed – The Old IndyCar Bait and Switch

John Olsakovsky

As Saturday’s qualifying for the first race at the Shell/Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston was abut to start, I did as always and pulled up the IndyCar timing and scoring page. And much to my delight, I see this banner. It appears that IndyCar will have live streaming on NBC Extra. I’m excited because I’m eligible for NBC Extra, and used it to watch parts of the Canadian Grand Prix on my smartphone when I was traveling. It’s great! Since my daughter is watching Frozen and keyed up for a…

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MRTI – Andersen Promotions and MAXSpeed Group Form Alliance

Doug Patterson

Today at between practice sessions for the Pro Mazda Championship, Andersen Promotions, who owns and/or operates all three rungs of the Mazda Road to Indy ladder program, announced a recruitment program with MAXSpeed Group who supplies of the engines used in the Rotax MAS Challenge karting series. The goal is to recruit three drivers from the Rotax MAX Challenge karting series into the Mazda Road to Indy’s USF2000 National Championship beginning with the 2015 season by offering four one-day testing scholarships. I’ll say that while this partnership is extremely valuable,…

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IndyCar – Shell Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston Preview

John Olsakovsky

I was “lucky” enough to latch onto tickets to Friday practice at this week’s Verizon IndyCar race at NRG Park (formerly Reliant Park) in Houston. You’d think I’d be excited as blue blazes to go to an IndyCar race in the same city where I live. Yeah, it’s not quite that simple.  As much as they try, the promoters of this event can’t shake one obvious fact: This is a race in a large parking lot. I snuck out of work for a few hours Friday afternoon and head to…

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Pro Mazda – Can Pigot Get His Groove Back at Houston?

Doug Patterson

The first four races of the 2014 Pro Mazda Championship, two at St. Pete and two at Barber, saw Juncos Racing’s Spencer Pigot dominate the rest of the field. In those first four races, Spencer won two poles, and in all four races set the fastest race lap, lead the most laps, and was first to take the checkers. That all changed when the Pro Mazda Championship came to Indianapolis for the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis. It all went wrong for Spencer on the exit of Turn 1 on…

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