One of the highlights of my traditional week and a half at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is Carburetion Day. …and no, not for the “Has-Been Band-of-the-Year” concert. Besides, I trashed my animal-print spandex pants long ago, so no Poison concert for me. For one, Carb Day is a day I share at the track with my Dad as we watch the Firestone Indy Lights race from the stands above the suites just to the south of the Pagoda, after which we adjourn to our favourite Irish pub, the Claddagh, and…
Read MoreTag: Dempsey
IndyLights – Peter Dempsey Announces Race Recap Partnership with OpenPaddock
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Read MoreEpisode 163 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadShaun makes his last appearence on OpenPaddock Live before being shipped out to Qatar to pound sand and watch MotoGP racing. Joining Shaun are Mike (as always), Doug, and the new Shaun, Kevin Neely. On the docket this week: Rally WRC – the future of M-Sport. Will Nasser Al-Attiyah’s Qatar money be the team’s saving grace? WRC – Sistemas Integrales de Telecomunicacion (SIT) slated to take over timing duties for 2013. Kubica will drive the WRC Citroen C4 in two rallies this month. Back…
Read MoreIndyLights – Andretti Autosport Strikes Back
So far the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights Championship has been dominated by Sam Schmidt Motorsports. In past years, Andretti Autosport, when they were in partnership with AFS Racing, had fielded back-to-back championship winners with Raphael Matos (2008) and J.R. Hildebrand (2009). Up until the Toronto race, SSM drivers had won five of the six races, only losing the Barber race to Team Moore’s Victor Garcia (who may have been running with an illegal suspension). While there’s no doubt that the SSM staff is extremely talented, and they have been working…
Read MoreIndyLights – Q & A with Andretti Autosport’s Peter Dempsey
Peter Dempsey started out the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights season with O2 Racing Technology, and got off to a great start finding the podium in the first two races and leading for a time at Long Beach. If you’re a regular reader here at OpenPaddock, or a regular listener of our podcast, you already know what happened to Peter and his team during the David Hobbs 100 at the Milwaukee Mile. Peter had already sat out of the entire 2010 racing season here in the US after becoming the winningest…
Read MoreIndyLights – Influx of New Drivers
As we head into the coming race weekend on the Streets of Toronto, we have a few driver announcements. Two new drivers from the Formula 3 ranks and a change of team by a third. While this still doesn’t swell the ranks beyond the low- to mid-teens, its better than nothing. Right now the Firestone Indy Lights Series is in a bit of crisis with the specter of inequity haunting it, rightly or wrongly, and car counts barely making it into the double-digits. Seeing new drivers come to the series…
Read MoreIndyLights: Long Beach 100 Recap
Last week after the Firestone Indy Lights race at Barber Motorsports Park, I went on a bit of a rant regarding the need for these young aspiring drivers to learn a modicum of control. Apparently, many of their team managers went on similar rants as this week’s race on the Streets of Long Beach was far less chaotic. To be sure there were incidents and accidents, but just your normal racing incident type of things, not the mass carnage and mayhem we saw at Barber. For a circuit that has…
Read MoreInside the Helmet – Peter Dempsey
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe were fortunate enough to have a wonderful conversation with the winningest driver in the history of the Star Mazda Championship, scoring a total of 9 wins over the 2008 and 2009 season, Peter Dempsey. Dempsey now drives the #36 Pulse/Microbiology car for O2 Racing Technology in the Firestone Indy Lights series. Last weekend in his first race, he led the first 11 laps of the race, and finished on the podium in P3. In our interview, Peter talks with us about his early…
Read MoreIndy Lights – Éirinn go Brách
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, O2 Racing Technology announces that they have signed the winningest driver in Star Mazda Championship history, Dubliner Peter Dempsey. Dempsey competed in the Star Mazda Championship for Andersen Racing in 2008 and scored wins at Road America, Trois-Rivières, Mosport, and the New Jersey Motorsports Park against the likes of John Edwards, Alex Ardoin, and Joel Miller. He would finish 3rd in the championship that year. In 2009, Peter raced for AIM Autosport and improved on his results scoring five race wins at Iowa…
Read MoreStar Mazda – 2009 Season Review – Battle for the Championship
Star Mazda Series – 2009 Season Review Battle for the Championship: Circuit Trois-Rivières Headed into the home stretch for the 2009 Star Mazda Championship, rookie Adam Christodoulou and Peter “The Irish Steamroller” Dempsey were locked in a battle for the lead. Coming to Quebec, Dempsey had a slight edge on Christodoulou, but with four races left Peter’s 19-point lead was tenuous at best. The first weekend for the series north of the border wouldn’t turn out great for either contender, but especially not for Peter. He and his team missed…
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