The Christmas break silence from the IndyCar paddock was ended yesterday with the announcement that Ryan Hunter-Reay would be driving for Andretti Autosport this season. While we knew that this was coming, we were starting to get a little concerned at the lack of announcement. But all is not rosy, as it appears that so far IZOD has signed on to be the primary sponsor for Indianapolis and a handful of other races. As of yet, the extent of the program (number and location of races) has not been made…
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The latest news from the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, and USF2000!
Firestone Indy Lights – 2009 Season Review – Battle for the Championship
Battle for the Championship Kentucky Speedway: The Kentucky 100 at the Kentucky Speedway was the 100th race for the Indy Racing League sanctioned Firestone Indy Lights series, although it looked like weather might put a damper on the celebration. The track was dry for the race, but qualifications were rained out resulting in the grid being determined by points. That gave the AFS/AGR team the front row. Wade Cunningham started from P4, right behind his nemesis from Iowa and championship contender Sebastian Saavedra in P2. JR Hildebrand, although being awarded…
Read MoreIndyCar – Back to the Short Schedule
Curt Cavin reported this morning in the Indianapolis Star that the Month of May would be shortened to the Two Weeks of May. The track will open on May 15th for practice and rookie tests, but qualifying will be condensed to a single weekend. Pole Day will be on Saturday, May 22, and Bump Day will be on Sunday, May 23. The reasoning behind the change is to reduce the operating costs for all parties associated with the event. The teams will spend less money on room and board, the…
Read MoreFirestone Indy Lights – 2009 Season Review – Mid-Season Grind
The Mid-Season Grind The two oval races at Kansas and Indianapolis really took a toll on equipment. The devastation seen at Kansas put several teams out of contention for the remainder of the season including Guthrie Racing being banned for their harsh response Sean Guthrie’s endangerment of the Delphi Safety Crew. The first few races of the season saw strong grids with cars numbering in the mid-20s. After Indianapolis, the fields were significantly reduced averaging around 17 cars. This was a disappointing, but considering how many shards of carbon fiber…
Read MoreIndyCar – Radical New Car for 2012?
What do we know about this supposed “Radical” new car design for 2012? Here is a summary of all the information that has come out to date. This is in response to a couple articles that have come out in the last few days from Speed TV and the Indianapolis Business Journal. According to Robin Miller’s article, the non-disclosure agreement that he was under has just expired, but his article still did not provide a picture of this new IndyCar concept, but it did add quite a bit to our…
Read MoreFirestone Indy Lights – 2009 Season Review – Spring Races
Introduction A dedicated feeder series to the primary American Open-Wheel Racing series has been in existance in one form or another since 1986. The American Racing Series began in 1986 to serve as a development platform for CART, since the Formula Atlantics series which had been around since 1965 had failed to race in 1984, and existed as two separate series, a Pacific and an Atlantic series, from 1985 to 1990. In 1991, the same year that the split Formula Atlantics championship merged back into a single national series, the…
Read MoreIndyCar – The Road To Indy
There have been many things fans, teams, drivers, and sponsors have all been requesting/begging/demanding from the Indy Racing League. We asked for better racing than we were getting at the beginning of 2009, and we got it. We asked for multiple manufacturers for both the engines and the chassis, and it looks like we might get those. We asked for a title sponsor, and we got that, too. One big thing that people have been asking for that will do more to improve the influx of new talent and hopefully…
Read MoreIndyLights – Kimball Joins Plowman at Andretti Autosport
This morning, it was announced that Charlie Kimball will join Martin Plowman on the AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport Firestone Indy Lights team for the 2010 season. This marks a significant step up for Charlie who raced last year for Palm Beach International Racing, as well as for Plowman (aka Plowey) who raced for the now defunct Panther Racing FIL team. AFS/AA has won the past two series championships with Raphael “Rafa” Matos in 2008 and JR Hildebrand in 2009. There’s no doubt that the AFS/AA rides are currently the best in…
Read MoreGran Turismo 5 Indy500 Contest
For those of you with a Playstation 3, get ready to download the Gran Turismo 5 trial when it hits the Playstation Network Store on December 17th. This trial will include only two cars, the Nissan 370-Z in stock configuration, and the Nissan 370-Z in tuned configuration, and only one playable track. Ordinarily, my first reaction to this would be to rant about how lame and how this is not even worth being called a tease. However, Polyphony Digital has significantly sweetened the pot with an offer that will have…
Read MoreIndyCar – Double Duty for Patrick
Just when I thought things had calmed down on the NASCAR front, I was made to eat my words. Danica Patrick announced today that she is going NASCAR while still focusing on IndyCar. The news should be no surprise considering ESPN has reported the living crap out of this story. In fact, ESPN rumored this so much that it actually became ridiculous and annoying. Yet here we sit weeks later and the news has finally been released. If all goes according to plan, Patrick will debut for the ARCA series…
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