After months of “rumor” and speculation as to the future of Ken Block, we finally have our answer and it is more than we could have hoped for. Ford will now team up with Ken for a global sports push in 2010. What does this mean you ask? Ken will drive in the 2010 World Rally Championship in a Ford Focus WRC and run Rally America events in the all new and amazing Ford Fiesta. Specific event breakdown has not been outlined at the moment. This is huge news after…
Read MoreIndyCar – Driver of the Decade Poll
Planet IRL is running a poll right now to determine the blogosphere’s temperature on the completely subjective question; ‘Who do you think the driver of the decade is?’ So, what do you think. Be sure to defend your answer in the comments.
Read MoreF1 – Flavio Wins! Appeal to Follow…
One of the biggest news stories of 2009 revolved around the “crash gate” episode. We are all familiar with the story of Nelson Piquet Jr. intentionally crashing so that teammate Fernando Alonso could take victory. Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds were both blamed for the incident and received a lifetime ban and 5 year ban from FiA competition. The verdict on the appeal filed by Flavio and Pat was released today and the fiery Italian boss may be back a lot sooner than Max Mosley had hoped at the time…
Read MoreF1 – USF1 and the Driver Carousel
The most recent reports out of Corsa in Argentina continue to link Jose Maria Lopez with a race seat at USF1. Lopez has raced in several different formula feeder series since 2001 including Formula Renault Eurocup, Italian Formula Renault, Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, Formula 3000 and GP2. But his last formula race experience was in 2005 and 2006 in GP2 where he finished 9th and 10th in the points respectively. Since then he has raced in ALMS GT2, Argentina’s touring car championship TC2000 (where he won the driver’s title in…
Read MoreDakar – Day 3 Highlights
IndyCar – Ryan Hunter-Reay Signs Partial Deal with Andretti
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…
Read MoreDakar – Day 2 Highlights
Le Mans – Pugs Snub ACO
French Manufacturer Peugeot has announced that at this time, the new International Cup is “not in the plans” for 2010. While the announcement is not official, it certainly continues the bad news for the LMP series across the globe. The announcement was made after arch rivals Audi stated their intention to enter two cars in the championship. Problems with the French manufacturer are to blame for the snub as the board has approved the budget for this year’s Le Mans 24 Hour and work for the 2011 challenger. This is…
Read MoreDakar – Day 1
Episode 20 – Open Paddock Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Mike and I this week as we usher in a new year and discuss the return of Schumacher. We also bring up some other interesting F1 points and how they have a lot in common with the drug bums. We also preview the first race of the 2010 season as our offseason is over it is time to talk Dakar 2010!
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