The Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda is positioning itself to be the premier F2000 series in North America by reaching out to various amateur and semi-pro formula series throughout the country by offering scholarships to various SCCA, Formula Ford, and F2000 competitors to step up to the US F2000 National Championship. I understand that there’s some bitterness in the F2000 community about US F2000, but it is the first step on the Mazda Road to Indy program and the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Ladder. That’s not…
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Road to Indy – Weekly Wrapup: 12/13 – 12/17
Once again, it’s been a good week for the newly titled Mazda Road to Indy program, although perhaps not AS packed as last week. We can’t always expect banner weeks like we’ve had recently, but still there are some big positives from this week’s news. We have the signing of a driver in Firestone Indy Lights, a couple of Firestone Indy Lights drivers graduating to the IZOD IndyCar Series, and some testing opportunities. Let’s start with the official driver announcements. Driver Announcements Charlie Kimball This Thursday, in a move we…
Read MoreRoad to Indy – Weekly Wrap-up 11/29-12/3
Given the blossoming of weekly features we’ve seen here at OpenPaddock.net with Spike’s Indy Hump Day Report, and Shaun’s Sunday Service Park, I’ve decided to join in the fun. Every Friday (or Saturday morning) I will try to have a wrap-up of the weeks headlines from the Road to Indy. There’s been a lot of things happening so far this off-season, which is rather surprising given that a lot of driver/team combinations typically aren’t agreed upon in most ladder series until a month or so before the beginning of the…
Read MoreIndyCar – Hinchcliffe Interviews Randy Bernard
IndyCar – Saturday Wrap-up from Iowa
Saturday was a busy day at the Iowa Speedway. The qualifying session and races for the US F2000 National Championship presented by Cooper Tires powered by Mazda, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, and the Firestone Indy Lights were all held on Saturday, which made for a packed schedule of on-track activity. I would report on the qualifying sessions for the US F2000 and the Star Mazda, but I didn’t see them. I COULDN’T see them! The track didn’t open its gates until 1:00pm, and since I was tardy…
Read MoreIndyLights – No. 100 at Kentucky
The original Indy Lights series, sanctioned by CART, ran from 1986 to 2001. In 2002, the Indy Racing League revived the series as the Menards Infinity Pro Series until the title co-sponsors withdrew and the series was renamed the Indy Pro Series. In 2008, with the merger between the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series, Firestone came on board as a title sponsor and the old name “Indy Lights” was resurrected. The series now known as the Firestone Indy Lights Series celebrated its 100th race sanctioned by…
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