Pro Mazda – Season Opener at COTA Preview

The Pro Mazda Series Presented by Cooper Tires has the honor of being the first, and for this season, the only INDYCAR-sanctioned series to race at the new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX. The Mazda Road to Indy teams and drivers have been at COTA all week testing and practicing for qualifying and racing today, and a racing tomorrow in support of the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series. Testing earlier in the week provided few genuine surprises, as we mentioned on our most recent podcast, Episode 177.…

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Formula 1 – Ferrari Downplay Pace

Ferrari has looked pretty good so far during pre-season testing. At a minimum they look a lot better than a year ago. I found it really funny that a lot of fans on the forums have been rather critical of Stefano Domenicali and Ferrari for playing down their pace heading into Australia. The Italian squad firmly believes they will not be the fastest car for 2013 season opener. While it is hard to judge pace during testing, Fernando Alonso and Ferrari set one of the fastest times at the last…

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Formula 1 – Force India Getting it Wrong Already

If I am Jules Bianchi, I am one pissed off reserve driver today. I have worked well with my Sahara Force India team all year last year, and tested well with them this off season and still I get snubbed. To be honest I would be an ex-reserve driver at this point. This after finding out that Adrian Sutil who has not driven a racing car but once over the last year and a half has been signed to the second race seat at my team. This is a real…

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Indycar-Zen and the Art of Relevance

Hooray for sinus infections. I’ve had one for the better part of this week. Instead of suffering through another day at the office, I elected to stay home and rest up a bit. On the tube right now is a replay of the Daytona 500. Undoubtedly, NASCAR is the benchmark of motorsports here in the United States. I can remember a time not so long ago when Indycar drivers were the household names and NASCAR was pretty much a regional series. Now things are pole shifted; NASCAR drivers are widely…

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Episode 177 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadTonight we’re happy to welcome to the show Peter Portante who will be piloting the #41 Intercity Lines/B&S/California Scents racing machine in the Cooper Tires USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda for Belardi Auto Racing. Peter won the Skip Barber Race Series Championship Shootout and the MAZDASPEED Scholarship to compete for a full-season in USF2000, and chose to join Belardi Auto Racing after heavy recruitment from a number of teams. What is truly unique about Peter’s entry into formula car racing in general, and…

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Formula 1 – Preseason Team Power Rankings

Welcome to the 2013 Formula 1 season! Well…sorta I suppose. Cars are not on the grid in Australia, but we are through launches and only a few weeks from the opening round of the 2013 campaign. We have had two testing sessions occur with one left in Barcelona. Testing is never a really good way to tell anything, so we will launch the first power rankings of the season anyway. I will break them up into team and driver’s rankings separately as a driver performance does not always match the…

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Rally – Photos from the 100 Acre Wood

For the first time in a very long while, the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in and around the Mark Twain National Forest in Southeastern Missouri saw snow-packed roads! It made it tough for many of the volunteers and some of the teams to make it to the event, but there were still a healthy number of folk who made it in before the snows hit. The benefit for us fans was that we were treated to a Sno*Drift Part II on Friday, and great strategy and racing as…

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