During the off-season, its always fun to see what new racers will be coming to the Mazda Road to Indy. Typically, though, deals aren’t done and driver announcements aren’t made until late November or December at the earliest, and are more often finalized just a month if not a couple of couple of weeks before the beginning of the season. JDC MotorSports got a head start on the field with their first official 2012 driver announcement, naming Scott Hargrove as newest driver in the Cooper Tires presents the US F2000…
Read MoreTag: 2012
IndyCar – New Images of the 2012 Chassis and Rear Diffuser
We have some new photos of the 2012 Dallara IndyCar chassis, IR12, in both the Honda and Chevrolet livery thanks to our photographic partner, Tom Turk, from Piratical Photography. One of the interesting things Tom ran into was a reluctance by Chevrolet to allow him a view of the rear diffuser. Odd since it should be the same exact underwing! Either they were just being overly protective, or something fishy is happening. I’m chalking it up to an overzealous engineer. We were able to get some shots of the rear…
Read MoreEpisode 107 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Shaun and Mike as they recap the events from WRC France and the IndyCars from Kentucky. We talk a bit about the 2012 schedule or lack there of and look ahead to the season finale in Las vegas. As always, thank you for the download and enjoy the show!
Read MoreRally – Rally America Announces 2012 Schedule and New Owner
The Rally America Series has a new owner and a new schedule for 2012. While the six events remain the same, the length of the season is extended beyond the X-Games in an effort to provide more continuous support for many of the regional rally events throughout the year. It also gives teams time to recover and rebuild between rallies. During the 2011 season, half of the championship events were crammed into a short couple of months. With the new schedule, and events spaced out a bit more, there should…
Read MoreIndyCar – Thoughts on the 2012 Dallara Aerodynamics
We’ve now seen the new 2012 car in both its road course trim and its oval trim. The road course package was tested at Mid-Ohio last month the Monday after the race there. This past Tuesday, test driver Dan Wheldon shook the car down in its oval trim at the Iowa Speedway. Perhaps it would be better to call it its short oval trim, as the car was still fitted with a multi-element front and rear wing and looks very much like the road course package used at Mid-Ohio. Regardless,…
Read MoreRally – Why Loeb’s Extension is Good for the WRC
Usually when you have a driver that has dominated a sport as much as Sebastien Loeb has, you tend to think it is bad for business. Honestly, who wants to watch a guy win every single title and nearly every single event? Personally I don’t overly like it but at the same point, I don’t want that person to just pull over. I believe the other teams just need to up their game. That is something that Ford has had a hard time doing this season or any season since…
Read MoreRally – Lotus Exige in the Cards?!?
Feel free to slot this under “what the hell are they thinking”, but it appears through some reporting out of England that Lotus may be set to go rally. I should say ahead of time that I don’t see this happening whatsoever. The level of involvement Lotus has put forth in GT/Le Mans/INDYCAR makes sense. The British company has a circuit racing pedigree with their tiny and very nimble cars. Taking them off road onto the gravel is a business era of mammoth proportions in my mind. Stick to what…
Read MoreLeMans – Lotus to Contest Full North American and International GTE Schedules
Lotus (Group Lotus, the car people, not Team Lotus the Tony Fernandez team) released news today that they will compete in a full North American and International schedule in the GT2 classe with the Lotus Evora GTE. They will race in the American Le Mans Series in a factory-backed effort through the newly formed Lotus Sport USA, and will also look toward fielding an LMP2 car by 2013. Heading up the new program are sports car racing veteran Ian Dawson and financial guru John Pritzlaff. “We are very happy to…
Read MoreRally – MINI Continues 2012 Preperations
This weekend marks the running of the Acropolis Rally in Greece. Typically recognized as one of the hardest rallies on both car and crew around. The MINI works team will not be competing in the event this year, but that has not stopped the team from travelling to Greece. The John Cooper works drivers took part in the typical rally recce today along with their 2012 championship competitors. While the team is not going to run their machines during the event, they did take down pace notes for next season’s…
Read MoreLeMans – DeltaWing Partners with Gurney and Highcroft for 2012’s 24 Hour
Ben Bowlby’s DeltaWing concept has not faded into the past, as much as many IndyCar fans may wish it. The concept lives and will make an appearance in a place where we here at OpenPaddock had thought it was best suited from the beginning, endurance sports car racing. After all, the concept originally produced and displayed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2010 could only very loosely have been called an open-wheel car. It genuinely does resemble a prototype sports car more than a single-seater formula car. However, that…
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