Yoda would be shaking his head in disappointment if he saw the carnage at Barber, and I don’t mean to only point at the Firestone Indy Lights drivers. There was plenty of carbon fiber shrapnel in the IZOD IndyCar Series race as well. During the Firestone Indy Lights race, a number of cars capable of victory or at least a podium were taken out by silly, over-aggressive moves. Even the qualifying for the Indy Lights drivers was a bit chaotic. Josef Newgarden, who had been so strong in testing and…
Read MoreTag: 2011
ALMS – Long Beach Preview
Rally – MINI WRC Team is officially launched in Oxford
FROM: MINI WRC: Oxford/Munich, 11th April 2011. The return of MINI to one of the biggest stages in motorsport is approaching ever closer. On Monday, the MINI WRC Team was officially presented to the public at the Team Launch, which took place at the MINI Plant in Oxford (GB). This season, the team will contest six rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) with the MINI John Cooper Works WRC. The car will be tested against its rivals for the first time at the Rally d’Italia Sardegna from 5th…
Read MoreStar Mazda – Familiar Teams, New Faces on the Podium
The second round of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear was contested this past Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL. The race on Sunday morning turned out to be an indicator of things to come as all three races this weekend, Star Mazda, Indy Lights, and IndyCar, would all follow the same pattern. Tristan Vautier started from pole and never looked back, leading all 33 laps of the race and taking the checkers a whopping 39.586 seconds ahead of 2nd place finisher, Nick Andries. “We knew that…
Read MoreStar Mazda – Barber Qualifying Results and Analysis
The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear is going to have a hard time of it for their race on Sunday. The drivers qualified on Thursday afternoon and will have to wait until Sunday before their race. On Race Day morning, they will get a 15-min warm-up which is just long enough to check for fluid leaks and not much else. The conditions between when they practiced and qualified on Thursday certainly won’t be any where near the same as they will be on Sunday when temperatures are to be…
Read MoreFeatured – My Impressions of Barber
So day one is in the books for the trip out to Barber Motorsports Park, so I figured i would offer some impressions as it is my first time here. I usually spend the first day of any track experience just scoping out the area and getting a feel for the facility. The only word that comes to mind when talking Barber is WOW. Words cannot truly describe the beauty of this facility. Who would have thought that buried deep in the heart of NASCAR country, there would be a…
Read MoreEpisode 83 – Openpaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadReal easy show this week as we struggle for things to talk about. Run time is 63 minutes. Taking it easy on everybody after the two and a half hour Goliath shows we posted back to back! Sit back and enjoy as Shaun and Mike run down the week in motorsport news!
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy – Barber Preview
Sorry for the lack of a MRTI Weekly Update this past weekend, but there really hasn’t been much happening. I’m sure that I could have found something to blather on about, I usually can. Just ask my students! #rimshot But seriously, its been pretty quiet since the three races on the Streets of St. Petersburg. There was no on-track action this past weekend, and there were no new driver announcements, so the news and PR feeds have been pretty quiet. This coming weekend, however, is the second round for both…
Read MoreOP-Ed – Standing vs. Flying Starts
If you listened to this last week’s episode of the Openpaddock.net Podcast, you will know there was intense debate between the crew on standing and flying starts. I was all for implementing a standing start for the IZOD IndyCar Series, while my partners in crime were against it. I was also having the same debate with Mr. Dalbey from More Front Wing. The only other person that I have read who agrees with my stand is Robin Miller. That is a small victory though because he said he could go…
Read MoreInside the Helmet – Peter Dempsey
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe were fortunate enough to have a wonderful conversation with the winningest driver in the history of the Star Mazda Championship, scoring a total of 9 wins over the 2008 and 2009 season, Peter Dempsey. Dempsey now drives the #36 Pulse/Microbiology car for O2 Racing Technology in the Firestone Indy Lights series. Last weekend in his first race, he led the first 11 laps of the race, and finished on the podium in P3. In our interview, Peter talks with us about his early…
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