Tag: Mazda Road to Indy

USF2000 – Winterfest Schedule Announced

Doug Patterson

The annual Cooper Tires Presents the US F2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda Winterfest schedule was announced today. The series will return to Sebring International Raceway the first week of February to run three races and then head to the Palm Beach International Raceway the following week for three more races. The six-race series provides teams an opportunity to test drivers in a competitive format and assess not just their pace, but their racecraft. It also serves as an appetizer for us fans after our motorsports fasting over the long…

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Mazda Road to Indy – Fall IMS Test Recap: USF2000

Doug Patterson

This past weekend, all three series that are part of the Mazda Road to Indy program tested for two days on the infield road circuit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While there were certainly many familiar faces present, including Star Mazda champ Tristan Vautier and USF2000 champ Petri Suvanto, there were also many new-comers testing at all three levels. We’ll break down the test not by day, but by series and look at how things went for the teams and what we can expect looking forward through the off-season and…

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UFS2000 – JDC MotorSports Already Making Deals for 2012

Doug Patterson

During the off-season, its always fun to see what new racers will be coming to the Mazda Road to Indy. Typically, though, deals aren’t done and driver announcements aren’t made until late November or December at the earliest, and are more often finalized just a month if not a couple of couple of weeks before the beginning of the season. JDC MotorSports got a head start on the field with their first official 2012 driver announcement, naming Scott Hargrove as newest driver in the Cooper Tires presents the US F2000…

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IndyLights – That’s a Wrap!

Doug Patterson

The season finale for the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights series took place this morning at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and there was no lack of excitement! Although Sam Schmidt Motorsports had long since wrapped up the team championship, and the team’s primary driver, Josef Newgarden, had secured the drivers’ championship at Kentucky, there was still a fierce battle to be had for second spot in the drivers’ championship and there were some new drivers looking to make a mark as they work on plans for 2012. Andretti Autosport’s Stefan…

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Episode 108 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Shaun

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Shaun and Mike as they talk about Formula 1 from Suzuka and Vettel’s title. They break down the race that was the always amazing Japanese Grand Prix. The boys also look ahead to the INDYCAR World Championship from Las Vegas and ask the question…will this be a real race? How will race control influence all of the events that will be going on? Is race control positioned for world domination? Where they the ones who secretly plotte dthe assasination of the Saudi ambassador?…

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IndyCar – Kentucky Weekend in Photos

Doug Patterson

Our IndyCar photographer, Joe Ferrall, was at the Kentucky Speedway and brought back some really great shots of both the IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights events. Enjoy! You can view the rest of our IndyCar photos from this year and back to 2009 by clicking on the Photo Galleries tab above and selecting IndyCar.

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IndyLights: Jensen MotorSport Adds Serious Engineering Muscle

Doug Patterson

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

Doug Patterson

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…

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Inside The Helmet – 2011 Star Mazda Champion Tristan Vautier

Doug Patterson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe spoke with Tristan Vautier, driver of the #5 JDC MotorSport Cecibon/Circuit du Laquais/Fontanels/Red Line Oil Mazda and the 2011 Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear Drivers’ Champion. Tristan describes his early ventures in motorsports driving in various Formula Renault series in Europe before coming to the Star Mazda Championship in 2010. He also walks us through his amazing and dominating 2011 championship-winning season. We even sneak in a little bit of rally goodness!

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Star Mazda – Team Pelfrey and Tristan Vautier Win Championships at Laguna Seca

Doug Patterson

It was Championship Weekend for the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. As we has mentioned previously, JDC MotorSport’s Tristan Vautier had only to show up in Monterrey to win the championship. As soon as the green flag fell, Tristan was officially the 2011 Star Mazda Drivers’ Champion and will receive a scholarship to compete in the Firestone Indy Lights series in 2012, and presumably drive for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. As is common amongst any champion, the key to Tristan’s success was not just…

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