Jensen MotorSport has already been showing some strength in the latter half of this season, but now they’ve grabbed another gear and are shooting for significant improvement. Today, the team announced the hiring of veteran GP2 engineer Raul Prados! Mr. Prados’ experiences includes working with top-shelf European open-wheel such as Carlin and iSport, and he engineered the winning car in the 2010 GP2 Asia series. Most of all, I love Mr. Prados’ comments and optimism in regards to open-wheel racing in North America: “This is an exciting new chapter of…
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IndyLights – Rusty Mitchell, Horses, and Horsepower
A curious thing crossed my virtual desk here at OpenPaddock this week, a press release. …no, that’s not especially unusual, but its content sure was. Normally, teams and drivers issue a release previewing their thoughts and expectations for the upcoming event, but this was a bit more than the simple “we hope to roll off the transport fast and win” type of hype and blase quotes. This was a nice little background piece on Rusty Mitchell, with whom we spoke prior to his running the Firestone Freedom 100 back in…
Read MoreIndyLights – Jensen Motorsports Wins Firestone Image Award
Jensen Motorsports has had a tough 2011 in the Firestone Indy Lights Series. Their primary driver, Canadian David Ostella, has had the pace to bring home a quality finish for the team, but it seems that they’ve been caught out all too often by mechanical gremlins or just plain being at the wrong place at the wrong time and being taken out by a competitor as happened at Toronto. Their second driver, Oliver Webb, also promises to have good pace and the team should be in a position to score…
Read MoreIndyLights – Driver’s-Eye View of Baltimore From Team E Racing’s Rusty Mitchell
IndyLights – Highlights from the Streets of Baltimore
IndyLights – Yacaman’s Spin-And-Win, Newgarden Clinches Championship
It seems that the Baltimore Grand Prix is the place for securing series championships. Petri Suvanto locked up the US F2000 title yesterday, Tristan Vautier secured the Star Mazda championship this morning, and this afternoon Sam Schmidt Motorsport’s Josef Newgarden charged from the back of the grid after initiating two FCYs during qualifying to finish in P2. He lead the Firestone Indy Lights Championship by 68 points coming into the Baltimore weekend, which of course put him in a strong position, but now he heads to the last two races…
Read MoreIndyLights – Highlights from New Hampshire
IndyLights – New Hampshire Beat Down
The Firestone Indy Lights race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway can only be described as a beat down by Josef Newgarden (@RacerOfTomorrow) who was the ONLY driver to finish on the lead lap. That’s right. He lapped the entire freakin’ field! He might have done it twice if not for the yellows. The three primary Sam Schmidt Motorsports cars of #11 Newgarden, #7 Esteban Guerrieri, and #77 Bryan Clausen (@BryanClauson) were in a completely different class during qualifying. During practice, Josef, Bryan, and Esteban posted times of 147.457, 145.749,…
Read MoreEpisode 98 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Shaun and Mike this week as they talk everything motorsport. We recap the German Grand Prix as well as Edmonton. Are we harsh this week like we were with the Toronto show? We also prepare for Rally Finland and the high speed/crest a plenty event as Ford looks to rebound and assert themselves back into the title hunt. As always, sit back and enjoy the show….Episode 99 next week….
Read MoreEpisode 97 – OpenPaddock.net podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Shaun and Doug as they recap this past weekend’s rally action as well as rumors surrounding Subaru and the WRX. Doug has all of the Firestone Indy Lights news from the week as well as a look ahead to Edmonton. We cover Foyt and Honda as well as who else will pick what. As always, sit back and enjoy the show!
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