Introduction The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will return to the O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis to again be part of the Night Before the 500 event. This time, the series will appear as an official part of the Road to Indy program along side the US F2000 National Championship presented by Cooper Tires and powered by Mazda. The USAC Midgets will also appear, but expect the fastest times to come from the Star Mazda cars. Already in testing last week, Conor Daly was a full two-tenths faster than…
Read MoreCategory: INDYCAR
The latest news from the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, and USF2000!
USF2000 – The Season So Far and Drivers On The Move
The 2010 US F2000 National Championship Season The US F2000 National Championship opened their season on March 27th and 28th along with Star Mazda and the Firestone Indy Lights on the Streets of St. Petersburg as support races to the IZOD IndyCar Series. It was a weekend of great open-wheel racing, torrential rainstorms aside. So good in fact, the officials decided, “What the heck! Let’s play two!” Ok, perhaps it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision, but the series did run two races that weekend. The class of the field that weekend…
Read MoreVideo – In The Pits Interview with Dan Andersen
Video – Randy Bernard Answers Fan Questions at Kansas
US F2000 – A Brief History and Introduction
The new US F2000 National Championship presented by Cooper Tires and powered by Mazda will make its debut at the O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis on Saturday May 29th, the night before the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. They will be part of a larger celebration of speed, The Night Before The 500, which will also feature the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, and USAC Midgets. It should be a great night of racing, and you can bet that the whole OpenPaddock staff will be there. History of F2000 and…
Read MoreIndyCar – Night Before the 500
This year’s Memorial Day weekend will be an even larger speedfest than usual for fans of open-wheel racing. For the past seven years, the Firestone Indy Lights series has had their Firestone Freedom 100 race on Carburetion Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In addition, there’s also plenty of midget and sprint car action throughout central Indiana the weekend of the 500. Most famously are the Night Before The 500 USAC midget race at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis and the Little 500 at Anderson Speedway in Anderson, IN. This…
Read MoreIndyCar – Kansas Retrospective
Let’s be honest. We may have seen the last open-wheel race at the Kansas Speedway. The track is very capable of producing great racing. If you read my preview posts discussing the history of the IZOD IndyCar Series in Kansas City, you already know that. The track is the home of some of the closest finishes and most exciting racing in the history of IndyCar racing under Indy Racing League sanction. However, the event in recent years has been poorly promoted, and as a result its been poorly attended. Estimates…
Read MoreIndyCar – Live From Kansas: Quals Review
The rains from the morning finally ceased and the Kansas Speedway crew broke out the parade of trucks and the jet blowers to try and dry out the saturated track. As a result, IZOD IndyCar Series officials decided to push back the start time for qualifications from 4:30pm to 5:15pm. The delay was designed to allow teams and drivers to get at least two hours of practice time earlier in the afternoon, which was very welcome for all the competitors. Well, all perhaps except for Mario Romancini who backed his…
Read MoreIndyCar – Live from Kansas: Friday Morning
Wind, thunder, lightning, and hail. Welcome to springtime in Kansas! A line of storms are moving through the area this morning dumping copious amounts of rain on the speedway flooding most of the infield. Quarter-sized hail also pounded the track this morning. Expect the morning practice session to be terminated, and it’s not likely that the afternoon session will be a go, either. The storms should move out in time for qualifications, but with no practice time, drivers new and inexperienced with oval racing will be seriously disadvantaged. In fact,…
Read MoreIndyCar – Kansas Preview: Revised aero could make for revived racing
The Story Thus Far The First Oval This weekends race at the Kansas Speedway will be the first oval event of the season, and will serve as the lead-in event to the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race at the end of May. Not only is this the first oval race of the this season, its also the first oval race for a number of rookie drivers to the series. [aside: it seems very strange to call Takuma Sato a “rookie”.] Takuma Sato, Simona De Silvestro, and Bertrand Baguette will compete for…
Read More