There’s been a lot of negative press for the league since the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, most of it centering around Andretti Autosport and their sponsors. We already know that 7-Eleven will step down as a primary sponsor of the #11 in favour of being an associate sponsor on the #7 car. We also already knew (even if it wasn’t officially announced) that the IZOD sponsorship for the #37 car was going to end. Around the twittersphere and various forums, there’s been much hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth, and…
Read MoreCategory: INDYCAR
The latest news from the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, and USF2000!
Road2Indy – Congratulations to our 2010 Champions
OpenPaddock.net wishes to extend our congratulations to the 2010 champions of the USF2000 National Championship presented by Cooper Tires powered by Mazda and the Star Mazda Championship powered by Mazda. Both series are official parts of the new Road to Indy program designed to produce a clear path for young drivers to advance through the ranks and eventually race at the top level of American open-wheel racing, the IZOD IndyCar Series. US F2000 Sage Karam dominated the reborn US F2000 National Championship from start to finish, including dominating wins at…
Read MoreIndyCar – Serious Silliness Afoot
I wish there was a better way to put it, but TK getting screwed over and losing 7-11 sponsorship has thrown a serious wrench into the wheel in regards to the silly season. Mainly because Michael Andretti has told TK he can now shop around for another ride if he likes. News had broken that 7-11 was leaving the primary role on the 11 car and continuing to be associate sponsor on the #7 machine piloted by every body’s favorite swimsuit model/racer. So lets take a look at some POSSIBLE…
Read MoreIndyLights – Vernay Wins the Firestone Firehawk Cup
As we mentioned in the podcast, all JK Vernay had to do to win the Firestone Indy Lights Championship and the Firestone Firehawk Cup was to turn a wheel in competition at Homestead. He did so, and took the title in his rookie year in the Firestone Indy Lights. The question now is what is next for this young hot shoe? Will he run another year in Firestone Indy Lights, or will he find a ride with an IZOD IndyCar Series team, or move on to some other series entirely?…
Read MoreIndyCar – Game, Set, Match to Franchitti
After dominating nearly every road circuit this year, Power’s lack of oval experience and skill caught up to him in the end. Dario Franchitti’s consistency all season long, as his strong performances on the oval circuits , allowed him to chase down Will Power and take the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series Championship for the second year in a row. Even more impressive is to consider that Dario spent the 2008 season experimenting with NASCAR, but the year prior, 2007, Dario again won the championship. That means Dario has won the…
Read MoreIndyCar – Breaking: Dario Takes Pole in Miami! *UPDATE*
IZOD IndyCar Series qualifying has just concluded down at Homestead-Miami and Dario Franchitti has struck the first blow this weekend as the championship comes down to the wire. The championship contenders were late on to the track, but Will Power would take pole position from teammate Ryan Briscoe giving him that crucial one point for pole. Not to be out done, Dario would come out and lay down a blistering pace of over 213 mph! This would give Dario the point and reduce Will Power’s championship lead to 11. The…
Read MoreTV – Weekend Racing Schedule for Oct 2nd and 3rd
The event list for this weekend is pretty light, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t have hours of motorsport goodness! Saturday starts with the Mustang Challenge in the “Why We Race” series on Discovery HD Theater. Its not bad way to start a Saturday morning, and its certainly better anything else that’s on now that we have no quality Saturday morning programming like Kung Fu Theater or any number of Godzilla movies. Next up is THE sportscar event of the year in North America, the Petit LeMans at Road…
Read MoreIndyCar – Behold, The New Champions Trophy (Gasp!)
The IZOD IndyCar Series unveiled their new champion’s trophy yesterday at a poolside party with Dario Franchitti, Will Power and a host of IZOD ladies. Dario and Will were in attendance due to winning the Oval and Road Course championship trophies respectively. The IICS had to change their champion’s trophy from the old chrome cup emblazoned with “Indy Racing League” to a more suitable object that didn’t use the now defunct moniker. But I think they may have been better off using an angle grinder on the old trophy to…
Read MoreOpEd – Will the real Lotus please stand up?
Group Lotus, Team Lotus, Lotus Racing, Lotus Motorsports, Lotus Cars, Lotus Engineering… we have a whole field of Lotus and its downright confusing to us fans! To add to the confusion Group Lotus is suing Lotus Racing over the rights to use the name Team Lotus. …er? what? Yeah, that’s how I felt at first to. It would be simpler if one group was the production car wing of the larger parent company and the other group the motorsports wing. However, that’s not exactly how it is. Group Lotus has…
Read MoreIndyCar – One Freaky Friday!
So as we were sitting here just waiting for the season to end, we figured that most of the news bombshells would likely be waiting for after the Year-End Banquet. Well, we were wrong! There was a ton of stuff that went down yesterday, some of it not so good unfortunately. Here’s a quick rundown of yesterday’s events. Saavedra is Back After he jilted Bryan Herta Autosport on race day morning of the Firestone Indy Lights race at Chicagoland Speedway, it was assumed by most of us in the fandom…
Read More