For the past couple of years now, there has been much hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth by the team owners about the cost of racing, how bad the economy is, and how they might not be able to make it if the league decides to [insert change to status-quo here]. The new chassis was due to be released originally in 2011, but foot-dragging and cost complaints pushed that process back to process back a year. We looked forward to having chassis competition again, but fear that the costs would escalate…
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The latest news from the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, and USF2000!
Star Mazda – Veach Clinches Formula Car Challenge Winter Series Title
Today was the Zach Veach show at the Auto Club Speedway on the final day of the Formula Car Challenge Presented by Goodyear Winter Series. For the first race of the day, the National Race, he had secured pole position following yesterday’s rain-soaked qualifying session, but he would have to start at the back of the grid for the final Regional Race as result of his DNF. You can read about Saturday’s events here. The National Race went as anticipated given Zach’s pace yesterday, and his performance at Infineon. He…
Read MoreStar Mazda – Formula Car Challenge Winning Streak Shorts Out for Veach
Andretti Autosport’s Star Mazda driver, Zach Veach, came to the Auto Club Speedway for the final three rounds of the Formula Car Challenge Presented by Goodyear Winter Series with an 11-point lead having won the first two rounds held at Infineon Raceway from pole position. Veach picked up where he left off in Sonoma by taking pole again for both the regional and national races, this time on the rain-soaked road course at Fontana. Rain has never bothered the young racer, quite the contrary, he enjoys it. “I have always…
Read MoreStar Mazda – Team Pelfry Expands to Three Cars with Petri Suvanto
Team Pelfrey had an outstanding inaugural season in the 2011 Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear with Connor De Phillippi and Nick Andries who finished 2nd and 3rd in the season championship, respectively. Now, they’re expanding their operations to a three-car effort for 2012 and have come loaded for bear in seeking the series championship. Earlier this off-season, the team signed Jack Hawksworth and Gustavo Menezes. Gustavo joined us for Episode 120 of the OpenPaddock Podcast to discuss his signing and expectations for 2012. Today, the team announced the signing…
Read MoreStar Mazda – Veach to Keep Pressing in Formula Car Challenge Winter Series
Andretti Autosport’s Zach Veach took left Infineon Raceway 11-point lead after the first two rounds of the Formula Car Challenge Winter Series presented by Goodyear, winning from the pole position in both races in the the Formula Pro Mazda class which uses the Star Mazda series equipment. Now, the young hot shoe will be heading to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA for the final three rounds of the winter series to try and secure the championship. While this hasn’t been Zach’s only experience in a Star Mazda machine,…
Read MoreUSF2000 – Season Finale Announced for Virginia International Raceway
As we speculated in our article announcing the Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda 2012 schedule, and as we discussed on this week’s podcast, the season finale will be held at the Virginia International Raceway on September 14 and 15 in support of the American Le Mans Series. The 4.1-mile, 21-turn Grand West Course will be a perfect fit for the USF2000 cars, and with the new upgrades bringing the venue up to FIA Grade Two spec, VIR is poised to move into a position of…
Read MoreUSF2000 – 2012 Race Schedule
The Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda 2012 event schedule was finally released today, the last of the three Mazda Road to Indy series to do so. There will be two more races this season bringing the total up from 12 to 14, but there will be same number of event weekends, seven, but the USF2000 teams, like me being a teacher in real life, will get the summer off. Currently, no races are schedule for either June or July. “We can’t wait to showcase the…
Read MoreIndyCar – 2012 Schedule Released
This morning INDYCAR released the 2012 race schedule for the IZOD IndyCar Series. It looks as though the differences with Eddie Gossage have finally been settled and Texas is back in its customary slot. Fifteen races still falls short of the sixteen demanded by the IZOD contract, although work is still continuing on a sixteenth and seventeenth race. “INDYCAR is excited about the confirmed races announced today. With the new car and engine manufacturer competition, we believe they will be tremendous events that will help INDYCAR grow. We are exploring…
Read MoreStar Mazda – 2012 Schedule Annouced
The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear announced their 2012 Race Schedule this morning. Well, most of it anyway. The a June event and the final event in October are still TBA, but we have the rest of the ten-event schedule. One big difference from last season is that many of the weekends will involve double-header races. So although there are only ten race weekends, there will be between 16-18 actual races. This has the potential of making for a far more challenging and interesting championship. As with previous seasons,…
Read MoreUSF2000 – Scouting Combine Notes: Wednesday
Wednesday morning arrives with a cool chill in the air for Florida, and the drivers entered the race shop walking lightly on their feet. The knowledge that all their competition efforts were behind them seemed lost on the young faces, while the gravity of the results yet to be announced distorted both time and space as the 10 hopeful karters mingled about. The herd of cars and vans departed by 9:30AM and headed to a Star Mazda team race shop across town. The fact that race car drivers were unleashed…
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