Like the Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda, the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear ran their second oval event of the season at the Milwaukee Mile in front of the Firestone Indy Lights and IZOD IndyCar Series team owners that are the potential future employers of the young drivers in Star Mazda. Unfortunately, and enormous downpour mid-morning on Sunday delayed the start time until after the IZOD IndyCar Series race (about 6pm local). That late start made for an extremely diminished crowd of fans. In…
Read MoreTag: Mazda Road to Indy
USF2000 – Milwaukee Wrap-Up
What a crazy busy weekend as open-wheel racing returned to the Milwaukee Mile. The weekend certainly didn’t go as smoothly, nor as successfully as many had hoped, but there were some fans that showed up and we got to see some racing in spite of the downpour on Sunday morning. It seemed like this weekend was filled with all kinds of off-track drama from the way the race was promoted and managed, to some extremely serious controversy in the Firestone Indy Lights series. Looking on the bright side, though, the…
Read MoreUSF2000 – Veach Joins the Marines! …sorta.
THE YOUNG MARINES YOUTH ORGANIZATION PARTNERS WITH ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT DRIVER ZACH VEACH Veach To Carry The Young Marines Branding Throughout 2011 USF2000 Season WASHINGTON, DC (June 14, 2011) – The Young Marines, a youth education and service program for boys and girls, age 8 through completion of high school, announced today a partnership with 16-year-old Andretti Autosport USF2000 race car driver Zach Veach. The partnership will include Veach carrying the Young Marines imagery on his No. 7 Zakosi Data Backup Mazda, the formation of “Zach’s Pack” and a host of…
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy – A Star Mazda Championship Primer
Mazda Road to Indy – 2011 Night Before the 500
I know this is rather tardy, but give a fella a break. Last weekend was extremely busy!! Keep in mind that first and foremost, we’re fans. Perhaps we have delusions of being media-types, but we do all have real jobs and real families and friends. We love what we’re able to do here at OpenPaddock, but on a holiday weekend such as Memorial Day, you’ll forgive us if we put our family and friends at the top of the schedule priority. Getting back to business, the Mazda Road to Indy…
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy – Preparing for the Ovals
All of the various series that are part of INDYCAR and the Mazda Road to Indy program have opened their seasons with road and street courses. Beginning next weekend, though, everyone switches to oval tracks! Racing on an oval is not as easy as going fast and turning left as those who attended the USF2000 Oval Clinic earlier this month learned. This past weekend, the Star Mazda Championship, in preparation for their coming sequence of three oval races, held an open test at the Milwaukee Mile. For many drivers in…
Read MoreIndyLights – WillyT Returns to IMS!
For you old school fans, you remember Willy T Ribbs as the first African-American driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in 1991, exactly 20 years ago today, with Walker Racing and funding from comedian Bill Cosby. Those of you who are newer to the sport may only know Willy T as the straight-speaking analyst on Versus coverage of the Firestone Indy Lights Series. Mr. Ribbs now returns to competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, not as a driver, but as a team owner. In a partnership with…
Read MoreIndyLights: Long Beach 100 Recap
Last week after the Firestone Indy Lights race at Barber Motorsports Park, I went on a bit of a rant regarding the need for these young aspiring drivers to learn a modicum of control. Apparently, many of their team managers went on similar rants as this week’s race on the Streets of Long Beach was far less chaotic. To be sure there were incidents and accidents, but just your normal racing incident type of things, not the mass carnage and mayhem we saw at Barber. For a circuit that has…
Read MoreIndyLights – Long Beach Qualifying and New Additions
The Firestone Indy Lights Series will be racing tomorrow in support of the IZOD IndyCar Series on the famous Streets of Long Beach, and today’s qualifying session was very exciting. Before we get to the qualifying results and the implications for the race, first let’s look at some very positive news for the series that broke this week. Two new drivers join the Firestone Indy Lights ranks, and if you’re a regular reader of OpenPaddock, you’ll know that the car count in this step on the Mazda Road to Indy…
Read MoreIndyLights – Control! Control! You must learn control!
Yoda would be shaking his head in disappointment if he saw the carnage at Barber, and I don’t mean to only point at the Firestone Indy Lights drivers. There was plenty of carbon fiber shrapnel in the IZOD IndyCar Series race as well. During the Firestone Indy Lights race, a number of cars capable of victory or at least a podium were taken out by silly, over-aggressive moves. Even the qualifying for the Indy Lights drivers was a bit chaotic. Josef Newgarden, who had been so strong in testing and…
Read More