There’s not been much in the way of announcements this past week from the Mazda Road to Indy teams and series, but there has been a lot of testing! Winning top prize for “Most Grueling Testing Program” is Juncos Racing which took their four-driver team on a three-week boot camp tour, testing at three very different tracks in three consecutive weeks. Not only does the non-stop testing give the engineers a lot of data and the drivers a lot of seat time, but it also, and more importantly, gives the…
Read MoreTag: 2011
Episode 74 – Openpaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadHere we are a couple days later and a few painful hours of editing for the 74th Episode of the podcast. Show is a little long this week at a cool and crisp two hours, but we cover Sno* Drift, WRC, IndyCar and the toss in a little sports car and technical F1 talk! Thanks for the download as always and sit back this weekend and listen to some good discussion as we all wait for the season to get here!
Read MoreRally – All-new Ford Fiesta RS WRC geared up for Rally Sweden debut
FROM: ABU DHABI FORD After completing more than 12000km of testing, the all-new Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Car will make its debut at Rally Sweden (10 – 13 February) next week. The opening round of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship will introduce a fresh era to the sport, and the renamed Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team has prepared meticulously in the development of its new-generation WRC challenger. Testing broke through the 12000km barrier last week – the equivalent of more than two seasons of WRC competition –…
Read MoreF1 – Red Bull’s RB7 Plays The Exhaust Game Too
Apparently, trick exhausts are going to be the hip thing in this season’s FIA Formula 1 World Championship. After Renault’s bold reconfiguration to route the exhaust forward of the floor, McLaren and Mercedes have already stated that they’re working on similar exhaust systems. Red Bull Racing, on the other hand, is utilizing what they believe is a loophole that will allow them to run the exhaust directly into the diffuser through the floor inspite of the FIA’s attempt for prohibit this. Frankly, I’m not sure about the loophole, so I…
Read MoreRally – DC SHOES KEN BLOCK’S 2010 HIGHLIGHT CLIP: WIN OR FAIL?
Indy Lights – Ostella Completes Test with Jensen MotorSport
Toronto native, David Ostella, signed on wtih Jensen MotorSport last November to run in the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights Series after competing for two years in the Star Mazda Championship with the AIM Autosport team. Ostella got his first opportunity to test a Firestone Indy Lights car down at Sebring International Raceway around the short course and laid down a best time of 58.4 s. “It was a really productive test for David and for our team. This was David’s first time driving the Indy Lights car on a road…
Read MoreF1 – Renault’s Trick Exhaust: Legal?
There’s been a flurry of unveilings for the 2011 Formula 1 chariots lately including the new machine from Renault Lotus R31 (The Group Lotus, not the Team Lotus). While because of the ever increasing strictness of the FIA regulations the cars are outwardly appearing more and more similar each year, there was something distinctly different about the R31: No exhaust outlets in the rear of the car! Racecar Engineering took a close look at the car during the reveal, and posted their findings in the article, Renault’s radical R31 exhaust…
Read MoreRally – Recap Video of the Sno*Drift Rally
StarMazda – Alums Score Big at the 24 Hours of Daytona
Many of you probably watched the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona this past weekend, or as much of it as SpeedTV was able to broadcast. What you may not know is how well the Star Mazda alums did in the endurance race. As we mentioned earlier in the week, there were twenty four alumni of the Star Mazda Championship competing in both DP and the GT classes at the epic 24 hour race. As it turns out, two of the four drivers in the race-winning #01 Telmex Chip Ganassi With…
Read MoreStar Mazda – Juncos Racing’s Grueling Pre-Season Testing
The Juncos Racing quartet of Tatiana Calderon, Joao Horto, Gustavo Menezes, and Martin Scuncio completed a program of pre-season testing sessions in their 2011 Star Mazda machines at three very diverse tracks: Sebring International Raceway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Roebling Road. The testing session was done “boot camp” style where the team went from one track to the next in rapid succession without respite for the four young drivers. This forced the four drivers not only to become more focused on their own race craft, but also gave them the opportunity…
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