Back at the end of August the FAZZT racing team announced their intention to compete full time next year in the IndyCar series with Alex Taglianni their driver. The ownership group consists of Montreal entrepreneur Andre Azzi, Rubicon Sports Agency owner Jim Freudenburg and actor Jason Priestley. Clearly, this endeavor is not just a pipe dream. They purchased the assets of Roth Racing which included their Indianapolis race shop and four good Dallara chassis. Further, they have signed Taglianni to a four year deal with an option on a 5th…
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IndyCar – Possible Momentum
The IndyCar series is suffering from another long delay between races. Not only is the series out of the public consciousness on the DirecTV-less Versus network, they are suffering from these huge gaps in the schedule during NFL football season. Keep in mind though that the IRL, when putting together this years schedule was lobbying hard to keep Surfer’s Paradise on the schedule and team it with the flyaway race in Japan. But even with the setbacks, there are some signs of possible momentum on the near horizon. We will…
Read MoreIndyCar – Briscoe’s Incident at Motegi
IndyCar – Versus Acknowledges History
We have complained a bit here at Open Paddock about the way the TV broadcast ignores the historic records of past greats like AJ, Mario, and even Paul Tracy when they wax poetic about the winningest driver in IndyCar history being Dixon or Hornish before him. Both Versus and ABC have been equal opportunity offenders on that count. I thought at the beginning of the season when the IRL published their first combined historic record book, that we had seen the end of this. The combined book includes all records…
Read MoreIndyCar – Points Battle TIGHT!
Going into the Motegi race, Ryan Briscoe had a comfortable 25 point lead and with the promise of Penske perfection behind him, looked to be a shoe in to win the Championship with only two races left. But a giant monster pit exit cone attacked him, ending his chance at extending his points lead. You can see our race wrap up for more details on that. Scott Dixon went on to score maximum points for the weekend (53) for pole, most laps lead and the win. Dario Franchitti took home…
Read MoreIndyCar – Stagnant Momentum
Shortly before the beginning of the 2008 IndyCar season the long cold war with CART/CCWS came to an end when the former series declared bankruptcy after making a deal with the IRL. The IRL offered the existing CCWS teams a free 1-year engine lease and a free chassis for 2 years to any team that would run the entire season. On top of that, the IRL’s TEAM program guaranteed all full time participants 1.24 million USD per car that ran the full season, plus additional bonuses for podiums, poles and…
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 MoreIndyCar – Danica May Do Double Duty
According to an article on ESPN.com, Danica to try NASCAR in ’10, Ms. Patrick will attempt to follow in Tony Stewart’s shoes by running a full-time IndyCar schedule while also running a significant number of NASCAR Nationwide and ARCA Series races for Tony Stewart’s team. In fact, it looks like she’s be running more races in the taxis than in proper race cars. As I see it, this is very unfortunate. The additional workload will certainly not help her racecraft in an open-wheel car, rather I’d say it will hurt…
Read MoreOP-Ed – RE: Miller, Chicago, and Scariness
Robin Miller has long been known as an antagonist and rabble-rouser in American Open-Wheel Racing, but now he’s gone too far. In his article, Miller’s Post-Chicago Notebook at SpeedTV.com, he calls the current oval-racing product from the IndyCar Series “suicidal.” Personally, that inescapable pack racing scares the hell out of me because of the reality of what can happen. … Indy car racing should be challenging and dangerous, just not suicidal. — Robin Miller Are you serious, Robin? This isn’t some soapbox derby. This is IndyCar Racing! This top level…
Read MoreIndyCar – Pink Lloyd for Miami
If you recall a few weeks ago, Alex Lloyd ended his relationship with Chip Ganassi. He signed with Chip after winning the 2007 Indy Pro Series championship in the hopes of getting a race seat. But this proved to be very difficult. Chip’s contract with Target would not allow him to run a 3rd car unless it had the same funding as the two Target cars (estimated at $8 million per car), so Alex drove for Chip (through Rahal and Schmidt) at the last two 500’s, and that was it.…
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