Tag: 2012
WRC – MINI Fails to Register for 2012
The more things change, the more they stay the same for some people. During Subaru’s dying days in the WRC, Prodrive was the subject of much criticism in how they performed and worked with the Japanese marque. While the prospect of Prodrive leading the BMW backed MINI was almost too good to be true, a major mistake has occurred and MINI are not in the 2012 championship fight at the moment. 19 Dec 2011 was the final day for teams to register. This date was presented by the FiA after…
Read MoreRally – Dakar 2012 Official Teaser Vid
WRC – Ford Extends World Rally Championship Participation
COLOGNE, Dec. 15, 2011 – Ford of Europe announced today it is extending its participation in the FIA World Rally Championship into 2012 and 2013. Long-term partner M-Sport, the British-based preparation company, which has successfully operated Ford’s WRC activities since 1997, will continue to operate the programme from its state-of-the-art facilities at Dovenby Hall in north-west England. The Fiesta RS World Rally Car will continue as Ford’s WRC flagship in 2012 and 2013. The car, based on the successful Fiesta road car, claimed a clean sweep of the podium in…
Read MoreWRC – Ford Standoff Maybe Nearing an End
As soon as the WRC season ended, it was time to prepare for the short turn around that is the 2012 campaign. However, the future of M-Sport and Ford’s involvement in the World Rally Championship was brought into question as the latest deal between the two came to an end. Mikko Hirvonen left the team to pair with eight times champion Sebastien Loeb and dark days loomed for fans of the blue oval. Recent events in the media have shown that perhaps the standoff between Ford and M-Sport have come…
Read MoreEpisode 116 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Shaun and Mike as they cover all of this week’s top motorsport news. ALMS fires back at Grand Am, and qualifying is officially added to the WRC. We also talk about the latest driver signings in both IndyCar and F1. As always, thank you for the download and enjoy the show.
Read MoreFormula 1 – Miracle on Congress Avenue
Merry Christmas, US Formula 1 fans! After learning that the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) actually had the money, or so was the claim, and that the breakdown between their group and Formula One Management (FOM) was a result of a disagreement on the details of the contract offered to COTA, we wrote optimistically about the potential of the USGP returning to the 2012 Formula 1 calendar. We knew that it was a long shot renegotiating a contract at the 11th hour with a master of manipulation in Bernie Ecclestone,…
Read MoreStar Mazda – 2012 Schedule Annouced
The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear announced their 2012 Race Schedule this morning. Well, most of it anyway. The a June event and the final event in October are still TBA, but we have the rest of the ten-event schedule. One big difference from last season is that many of the weekends will involve double-header races. So although there are only ten race weekends, there will be between 16-18 actual races. This has the potential of making for a far more challenging and interesting championship. As with previous seasons,…
Read MoreEpisode 114 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Shaun and Mike for all of the hot news this week in motorsport. We talk Ogier going to Citroen and Shaun tries to rationalize the Ford/M-Sport situation. We also look back and talk about the Brazilian Grand Prix. Where will Kimi go? Well we found out today Renault. We talk about it during the show. Join our Mazda Road to Indy editor Doug Patterson as he talks with Accelerace’s very own Ardie Greenamyer. Listen for details in the show about how you can…
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