This weekend is the beginning of round 4 for the WRC calendar and it sees the championship in Portugal. The first of seven rallies straight on a consistent gravel surface and the season has now officially began. Sebastian Loeb has been dominant early in his Citroen C4 and looks to go 4 for 4 this weekend. If any weekend would see Loeb on his toes though, surly this would be it. The Ford Focus has gotten a number of engine upgrades and feels more than at home on the gravel…
Read MoreIRC Safari Rally Preview
The IRC will now kick off its third round this weekend in the historic Safari Rally that will take place in Kenya on the African continent. The rally is entering its 57th installment and will start with a spectator stage in Nairobi on Friday 3 April. The rally will then open up into grueling gravel stages and conclude Sunday. The one weird bit about this is the manufacturer points will be distributed as normal, however the drivers points will only go to those with an African competition license. This is…
Read MoreF1 – Vettel to Talk with Stewards Again
Sebastian Vettel has been summoned before the stewards at Malaysia. Christian Horner stated the following to Autosport: “Steward advisor Alan Donnelly has asked to have a chat with Sebastian to go through the rationale behind their penalty. I thought the penalty was harsh; we thought it was very much a racing incident – Sebastian was defending his line and the eventual decision depended on what was specifically discussed during the stewards’ hearing. I think Alan wanted to speak to Sebastian about that, to discuss the long and short of it.”…
Read MoreF1 – Hamilton Excluded from Melbourne
Lewis Hamilton was summoned before the race stewards at Malaysia where they have ruled that he and McLaren “acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards”. This after radio transmissions between the team and the driver were reviewed. Therefore, the stewards have excluded McLaren from the race results. Hamilton has been stripped of his retroactively applied 3rd place finish and Jarno Trulli will retroactively re-assume his 3rd step on the podium. Open Paddock would like to express our extreme…
Read MoreGigawave Withdrawl DBR9
Autosport has recently broke a story that will slightly alter the Le Mans 24 Hour race this year. The Gigawave Racing DBR9 will not be competing against the Chevrolet Corvettes as originally planned. Instead, the article indicates that Gigawave will instead begin work on the new Nissan GTR for the FIA GT Championship in 2010. The team did indicate a return to the world famous endurance race but did not issue a time frame. “The 24 Hour race and the Le Mans Series have always been the ultimate challenge for…
Read MoreCitroen Preparing for Gravel
Rally Portugal is upon us and the Citroen juniors are about to attack their first gravel rally as a team. The drivers contending for the points this weekend are Evgeny Novikov and Conrad Rautenbach. Sebastien Ogier will also be competing in the rally but will not be eligible for points. Sebastien must be getting a demotion after the terrible performance during Cyprus where he was doing good to keep the car on the beaten path. Both teams will be looking to establish good pace notes as the rally has changed…
Read More28 Cars for Indy Lights
The Indy Lights series is starting off this weekend at St. Petersburg with a huge field of 28 cars for their two races. The field includes 18 rookies, the brother of CCWS driver Nelson Phillepe, Justin Wilson’s brother, past champions Jay Howard and Wade Cunningham, and several standout drivers such as JR Hildebrand, Logan Gomez, Pippa Mann (who beat up on all the boys in preseason testing), Ana Beatriz and Jonathan Summerton. This monster entry list in for the feeder category is a huge vote of confidence for the value…
Read MoreBest WRC Promo Ever!
Hamilton Summoned by Stewards
As the week goes on, we are given one reminder after another that the FIA prefers to rule F1 as a bloated parliamentary bureaucracy instead of as race directors. Flashback to the Australian GP during the last safety car period. Hamilton passed Jarno Trulli when his car went off course, despite a very respectable effort of starting from pitlane and bringing his car up to 3rd position. Hamilton passed him since he was off circuit, and then later slowed down so much that Jarno thought he was having problems, so…
Read MorePlato to Run Lacetti in Opener
Jason Plato has decided just days prior to the BTCC opener on 5 April, that he will run a spec 2008 Chevrolet Lacetti at Brands Hatch. Plato has gone jobless since Seat left the series at the end of last year. The deal at this point is not covering the whole year, however if results can be put together and funding made available Plato says he will remain. The 2008 Lacetti will be run under the RML squad. The team had been running the Seat works program since 2004. Plato…
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