The Mid-Season Grind The two oval races at Kansas and Indianapolis really took a toll on equipment. The devastation seen at Kansas put several teams out of contention for the remainder of the season including Guthrie Racing being banned for their harsh response Sean Guthrie’s endangerment of the Delphi Safety Crew. The first few races of the season saw strong grids with cars numbering in the mid-20s. After Indianapolis, the fields were significantly reduced averaging around 17 cars. This was a disappointing, but considering how many shards of carbon fiber…
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Firestone Indy Lights – 2009 Season Review – Spring Races
Introduction A dedicated feeder series to the primary American Open-Wheel Racing series has been in existance in one form or another since 1986. The American Racing Series began in 1986 to serve as a development platform for CART, since the Formula Atlantics series which had been around since 1965 had failed to race in 1984, and existed as two separate series, a Pacific and an Atlantic series, from 1985 to 1990. In 1991, the same year that the split Formula Atlantics championship merged back into a single national series, the…
Read MoreIndyLights – Kimball Joins Plowman at Andretti Autosport
This morning, it was announced that Charlie Kimball will join Martin Plowman on the AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport Firestone Indy Lights team for the 2010 season. This marks a significant step up for Charlie who raced last year for Palm Beach International Racing, as well as for Plowman (aka Plowey) who raced for the now defunct Panther Racing FIL team. AFS/AA has won the past two series championships with Raphael “Rafa” Matos in 2008 and JR Hildebrand in 2009. There’s no doubt that the AFS/AA rides are currently the best in…
Read More#F1 – JR Hildebrand Tests for Force India
2009 Firestone Indy Lights champion, JR Hildebrand, will test for the Force India F1 team in the first days of December. Read the full article at Autosport.com. JR has been searching for a ride at the next level ever since August (probably before), but many, including myself, thought that meant a seat somewhere in the IZOD IndyCar Series, or perhaps with USF1 USGPE. Turns out that he has his sights set well above the doubtful USF1 USGPE and on a ride with a legitimate team that actually has a car…
Read MoreOP-Ed – Photo Galleries on Facebook
As promised during Podcast Episode 07, we now have some photo galleries up on our Facebook Page. Search Facebook for “Open Paddock”, find our page, and become a fan. You can also get to our Facebook page from the badge on our sidebar on the right-hand side of this page. So far, we have pictures from the 100 Acre Wood Rally America event that was held in Salem, MO, the IndyCar and IndyLights race at the Kansas Speedway, IndyCar and IndyLights practice, qualification, and raceday pics from the Indianapolis 500,…
Read MoreIndyLights – Mid-Ohio Review
The general fan reaction around the blogs, forums, and twitter streams to the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights races at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course have all been about the same, and in my opinion, completely off the mark. I can hear the detractors now, “So, Doug, what makes you think that you’re right in the face of so many who say that the races were boring.” I have two comments to that: I was actually there, and I paid attention to more than just the leader. Listen to the…
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…
Read MoreIndyCar – Sweet Home Alabama
As Bob Jenkins eluded to during Sunday’s broadcast from Edmonton and verified today at IndyCar.com, the IndyCar Series will be racing at Barber Motorsports Park next season April 9-11, one week before the traditional date for the Long Beach Grand Prix. The IndyCar Series has tested at Barber a few times in recent years, but drivers and league officials have stated that there must be some significant course changes before the venue would be suitable for a race, especially in establishing safe run-off areas. The track has proved to be…
Read MoreIndy Lights – The Canadian Swing
No doubt that the Watkins Glen and the Toronto IndyCar races were pretty good, but the oval products has definitely suffered this season. This is certainly NOT the case with the IRL’s feeder series, the Firestone Indy Lights (FIL). On all types of tracks this year, super speedways like IMS, short ovals like Iowa, road courses, street courses, the racing in the Indy Lights series has been fantastic. Sadly, the car count has diminished as the season has worn on, but with a strong core of highly talented drivers, the…
Read MoreIndyCar – Rules and the Law of Unintended Consequences
Since the last weekend in April, the IndyCar series has been oval racing but the excitement of high-speed side-by-side racing has certainly been lacking. At the end of the Kansas Race, I wrote a short editorial, What Happened to Competitive Racing, where I went on a little rant about the new wheelbase rules further limiting the freedom of the engineers and reducing the drivability and competitiveness of the cars. It was pointed out at the time that the extreme weather might have been the primary factor for the lack-luster racing…
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