Tag: 2014

Pro Mazda – Jose Gutierrez Joins Juncos Racing

Doug Patterson

Juncos Racing continues it’s tradition of recruiting and developing young South and Central American talent, bringing them to the US open-wheel racing scene. The team continues to build it’s 2014 Pro Mazda Championship roster with their signing of Jose Gutierrez from Monterrey, Mexico will be joining the team for the full 2014 season. Like his new teammate Julia Ballario, Jose had raced for the team at Mid-Ohio in 2013. This will be his first full season in the Mazda Road to Indy. Last season, in addition to his occasional outings…

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SCCA – BFGoodrich Tires Super Tour at NOLA Wrap-Up

Doug Patterson

The SCCA Mid-States Conference Majors Tour had their second event and Rounds 3 and 4 of racing this past weekend at the relatively new NOLA Motorsports Park just outside of New Orleans, LA. The new facility opened for business late in 2011 and is already starting to attract attention from many of US racing leagues including INDYCAR. The opening rounds of the Mazda Road to Indy Winterfest are coming up next weekend at NOLA Motorsports Park. The venue is a perfect place for club racing, and the warm climate makes…

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IMSA – Old Tech Versus New, Who Has the Edge at Sebring?

Doug Patterson

As with the elimination of the split in North American open wheel racing, the joining of Grand-Am and ALMS is anything but a smooth merger. The open-wheel racing scene didn’t have the equivalency issues that the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship is facing as the Panoz DP-01 that the Champ Car World Series was using never saw use in the Indy Racing League, now known as the IndyCar Series. Both CCWS and IRL teams were mandated to use the same Dallara chassis, and still are. By contrast TUSCC teams may use…

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Episode 217 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Doug Patterson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadYour host Shaun, his co-host Mike and his other co-host Mike lead you through this week’s news in motor racing. The trio look at how the IndyCar grid is shaping up, and comment on the National Guard deal with Rahal that we all knew was all but complete. Shaw previews Rally Sweden and the first round of the Canadian Championship. Rally America officially announces it’s deal with NBCSN and the WRC will air on MAVTV. Bernie slams the F1 farce, and Whitesell brings us…

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SCCA – NBCSN Adds the Pirelli World Challenge to its Line-Up

Doug Patterson

NBC Sports Network is now the home of nearly every motor racing series we love! The newly arrived network which was the evolution of the old Versus network after NBC acquired ComCast has quickly established itself as the new home for motorsport. When Fox’s SPEED channel became Fox Sports 1 (or 2 or the Foxy Ocho…whatever) it ceased being a racing-centric channel, although many would argue that it already had when the old Speedvision died. NBCSN which already had the IndyCar Series acquired the rights to Formula 1, they aired…

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The Missed Shift – A Nose By Any Other Name

John Olsakovsky

Philosophical Ponderings of Proboscises Now that Formula 1 has done their dog and pony show at Jerez and the teams’ 2014 cars are revealed, we have a new talking point: the noses.  My favorite is the Definitive F1 Nose Chart over at Jalopnik.  Although, personally, I think the Williams nose looks more like the the antagonist from The Ant and The Aardvark: Yeah, it’s the best I got.  There’s a reason I never attempted the comedic arts. I’ve seen comparisons to Max Rebo, Binky from Life in Hell, and genitalia…

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Episode 216 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Doug Patterson

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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadYour regular quartet of misfits meet once again to discuss the week’s news in motorsport. We even talk about NASCAR! I know, right? We discuss the wee bit of IndyCar news that’s out there and highlight a couple of USF2000 driver announcements. Pechin and Shaw discuss the biggest event of the past week, IMSA’s TUDOR United Sports Car Championship Rolex 24 at the Daytona International Speedway. We look at the exciting race that it was, but also discuss the indecision and waffling by the…

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TUSC – GT Classes Shine Brightly at Daytona

Shaun

As the Tudor United Sports Car Championship kicked off on Saturday, a lot of attention was centered on the GT classes. Both GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) had been the brightest stars in their troubled series before the merger, and on Saturday the classes again showed the world that GT racing is becoming the big-ticket item in North America. With a number of new cars making their debut, and new teams racing with new cars for the first time, the GTLM and GTD classes saw some of…

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Episode 215 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Doug Patterson

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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThe illustrious Mr. Shaun Pechin returns to the OpenPaddock.net Podcast as he, Mr. Mike Whitesell, Mr. Mike Shaw, and Dr. Douglas Patterson stumble and stagger their way through the week’s motorsports news. We begin with a little NASCAR (that’s right!) and move into some of the changes happening in IndyCar. We also review the list of IndyCar and IndyLights drivers that will be competing in this weekend’s Rolex 24. Mr. Shaw gives us a rundown of the WRC’s first event, Rallye Monte Carlo, and…

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