Today, Belardi Auto Racing announced that Jorge Goncalvez would join Anders “The Viking” Krohn to round out their 2011 Firestone Indy Lights driver roster. Jorge has made it to the Firestone Indy Lights series through a somewhat unique route. While he has has some experience in karting, beginning in 2006, he also started racing cars that same year. He ran one race in the Formula Renault 1.6 Panam GP Series and made the podium! Not bad for your first time out. He then moved to Formula Renault Campus France in…
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Mazda Road to Indy Weekly Wrapup: 2/13-2/19
There’s not been a whole lot going on this past week in the Mazda Road to Indy Program, but we did get a couple of big driver announcements late in the week. The fields are starting to fill up, so in the coming weeks, we’ll be putting together a preview of the 2011 seasons for the Cooper Tires presents the US F2000 National Championship powered by Mazda, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, and the Firestone Indy Lights Series including a summary of driver/team combinations. For now, though, let’s…
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy Wrap-up: 2/6-2/12
Well, I mentioned it on the OpenPaddock.net Podcast Ep. 75, but I didn’t think things would happen so fast. We’ve had a lot of testing going on recently, and at this late date, testing isn’t solely for the cars, but is a genuine evaluation of driving talent. Think of these late pre-season tests as job interviews. With so much testing going on, it only stood to reason that we’d start hearing more and more driver announcements in the comming weeks. Well, we ended up with four just this week and…
Read MoreEpisode 75 – Openpaddock.net Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThe 75th “diamond” edition of the Openpaddock.net podcast is packed full! We have Mike Cockrall (@TeamCanada1) on to talk the new Edmonton track layout. Kristi talks IZOD IndyCar and Doug with the Mazda Road to Indy. We preview Rally Sweden as the WRC calendar kicks off and talk the aftermath of the Robert Kubica accident. What’s next for Lotus Renault? What is next for teams and their drivers during the offseason? We talk about it all, so sit back and enjoy the diamond addition!
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy Wrapup: 1/29-2/5
There’s not been much in the way of announcements this past week from the Mazda Road to Indy teams and series, but there has been a lot of testing! Winning top prize for “Most Grueling Testing Program” is Juncos Racing which took their four-driver team on a three-week boot camp tour, testing at three very different tracks in three consecutive weeks. Not only does the non-stop testing give the engineers a lot of data and the drivers a lot of seat time, but it also, and more importantly, gives the…
Read MoreGarage 36 – Liza Markle and the New INDYCAR Nation Fan Club
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download Liza Markle, INDYCAR’s new Director of Fan Engagement, joins us for our third episode of Garage 36 where we bring you the news and happening of the INDYCAR Nation, The official fan club of the IZOD IndyCar Series, Firestone Indy Lights, and the Mazda Road to Indy. 2011 brings some significant changes and new personnel to the fan club formally known as Indy Downforce. For this up coming season, all members will enjoy exclusive access to news, videos, photos, and interviews throughout the…
Read MoreIndy Lights – Ostella Completes Test with Jensen MotorSport
Toronto native, David Ostella, signed on wtih Jensen MotorSport last November to run in the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights Series after competing for two years in the Star Mazda Championship with the AIM Autosport team. Ostella got his first opportunity to test a Firestone Indy Lights car down at Sebring International Raceway around the short course and laid down a best time of 58.4 s. “It was a really productive test for David and for our team. This was David’s first time driving the Indy Lights car on a road…
Read MoreInside The Helmet – Anders Krohn
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download We had the great pleasure and honor to speak to Anders Krohn, driver for Belardi Auto Racing for the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights season. Anders had one of the earliest starts in motorsports I’d ever heard of, getting his own kart when he was only 3-1/2! He gives us some insight to his early career in karting and Formula Ford racing in his home country of Norway, how he came to race here in the United States, and the value of racing for…
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy Wrapup: 1/15 – 1/28
Not a lot has happened since my last update. Not much until this week, that is. A lot of things have started coming together for a variety of teams and drivers, and I’m expecting February to be extremely busy for US F2000, Star Mazda, and Firestone Indy Lights news. Also, in the coming weeks, we plan on having some chats with a variety of drivers and teams about their 2011 plans beginning early next week with Anders Krohn of Belardi Auto Racing. Anders has a very remarkable story, and I…
Read MoreIndyLights – Belardi Adds Liberty Engineering as Primary Sponor
Things are continuing to look upbeat for the Belardi team and their driver Anders Krohn. Today, Belardi Auto Racing announced that they have added Liberty Engineering as their primary sponsor for the entire 2011 Firestone Indy Lights season. In recent years, the Firestone Indy Lights series has been a hard sell, especially without having a television contract until a couple weeks ago. Hearing that a smaller team to the series was able to secure a solid sponsor such as Liberty Engineering is very good news. “Certainly the brand attributes of…
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