Rally – Ford Looks to Turn up the Heat as WRC Turns Tough in Greece

FROM: Abu Dhabi Ford Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team faces the toughest round of the FIA World Rally Championship in Greece next week intent on extending its excellent record in one of the series’ classic fixtures. Intense heat and rocky mountain tracks make the Acropolis Rally (16 – 19 June) a gruelling test of man and machine, but Ford has won there seven times in the last 10 encounters. The rally returns to the series after a year’s absence and this seventh round marks the halfway point of the…

Read More

INDYCAR – Don’t Look to the Olympics

Yesterday the Indianapolis Business Journal released an article in their sports section where it was opined that NBC’s recent win for the next few Olympic installments would help INDYCAR/Versus ratings. An assessment that I believe is a little bit of a stretch and probably wishful thinking at best. No disrespect to the author obviously, but I just don’t see how this is going to help anything. The Olympic Games is a massive television draw that is usually spread out over a number of networks. Swimming on one channel and track…

Read More

Episode 92 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin the OP trio this week as they cover all the rally action from STPR to Ukraine. We also talk the decision to hold Bahrain as well as the adopted 2013 technical regulations. Are you over your 500 hangover yet? We have a Texas preview as we look at the 30 car field! Sit back and enjoy as always!

Read More

Mazda Road to Indy – Jensen Motorsport back on track in Montreal

After the flurry of activity during the Month of May, the Mazda Road to Indy program is set to take a race weekend off as all three series, 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 all will skip the IZOD IndyCar Series event at the Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. The next race for all three series will be the weekend of June 17th at the Milwaukee Mile. Until then, the teams…

Read More

Winning the 500 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin me as I sit and talk with Emily Jones about her summer internship with Bryan Herta Autosport. She gives us a first hand account of what it was like working with the team that won the 100th Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500! She also answers accusations of nearly assassinating 2/3rds or the Paddock crew. All in all it is a great account from start to finish of May and all the hard work that goes into winning the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’! We…

Read More

Service Park – STPR, Ukraine, and 2012

Another weekend of great rally action warrants another edition of the Service Park. We had the Rally America boys and girls going at it here domestically and the Prime Yalta round of the IRC as well. Don’t forget the FiA has released the 2012 WRC calendar as well with the return of an old friend and some new faces being excluded. 2012 WRC Calendar: The FiA has released next year’s calendar and to a few peoples surprise, Monte Carlo is back on for 2012. If you remember, Monte Carlo had…

Read More

Episode 91 – Openpaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Mike and Shaun as they are fresh off of their trip to the fabled Brickyard! They round up an amazing Indianapolis 500 and bring you up to speed on other INDYCAR news going forward. We also discuss the Monaco Grand Prix and Mike says that I fire him to much because of his hair color. We also get into Rally Argentina and Sebastien L

Read More

INDYCAR – Indy 500 Rewind

So we are now back in our houses and hopefully recooperated from a wild weekend! What a race for sure! The highlights are posted on the main page so feel free to view it over and over like I have been all day. I am not going to give you a lap by lap account as we sorta did that on Twitter as the event unfolded so instead I will break down the teams one by one and give a grade on their overall performance. Bryan Herta Autosport: A+ What…

Read More