Sam Schmidt Motorsports announced today that it will be returning to the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing, a relationship that they continue from 2009. Best of all, they’ve secured Townsend Bell to drive the car! Bell has had a great run in the 500 the last couple of years with his best finish coming last year finishing fourth while running for KV Racing. This year he’ll be running the #99 car for SSM and hoping for an even better finish. While there are some who…
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IndyCar – Interesting Changes for 2010 and THE KNOB IS GONE!
The IZOD IndyCar Series had its annual pre-season safety meeting today at which several changes were announced for the 2010 season. Some of which were already known, some were speculated, and one comes as a bit of a surprise. So Long Fuel Knob! The knob is gone! However, don’t get too elated thinking that we’ll see the end of fuel mileage races. We’ll still have those, but “making fuel” will now be relient on the driver’s skill to finesse their machine and precisely control the throttle. “Teams and drivers can…
Read MoreDakar – Day 9 Highlights
F1 – Alonso in Ferrari Red
Ferrari has kicked off its annual WROOM! media event this week and guess who was there in red for some photos…you guessed it. After a season that guaranteed a Fernando Alonso to Ferrari move, the Spanish double world champion was seen in the Scuderia’s colors on the ski slopes. Joining Alonso was now recovered incumbent Felipe Massa and third driver Giancarlo Fisichella. The annual event is being held at Madonna di Campiglio. Having Fred in the new Santander red outfit looked pretty good. It will be interesting to see how…
Read MoreF1 – Ferrari “281”
Car launch season is upon us with a few teams setting up release dates for their 2010 challenger. Ferrari have not released their launch date as of yet, but according to crash.net the car may look similar to another car that has already been on the grid. F1 technical artist Giorgio Piola has indicated that the new Ferrari takes many design cues from the Red Bull RB5 that ran so well last year. The Adrian Newey designed RB5 was the closest challenger to the Brawn GP cars for most of…
Read MoreDakar – Rest Day Summary
Rally – M-Sport Enter IRC
Malcolm Wilson and his M-Sport squad have decided to follow up the much anticipated launch of the new Fiesta rally car with their entrance into the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The team will compete in the opening round of the championship with Mikko Hirvonen at the wheel. Ford becomes the eighth manufacturer to participate in the IRC, adding a certain level of excitement to the 2010 season. This and the welcome addition of a Subaru car for sale have made this a lucrative off season for the IRC as it looks…
Read MoreEpisode 21 – Open Paddock Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Mike and I this week as we travel to South America for Dakar….ok not really…but we cover it and have a Robbie Gordon revelation. We cover Ken Block to WRC, RHR to Andretti and hit a couple F1 high points. All in all it is a great show and it is signed, sealed, and delivered as it is nearly every week.
Read MoreRally – Ford and Block Join Forces
After months of “rumor” and speculation as to the future of Ken Block, we finally have our answer and it is more than we could have hoped for. Ford will now team up with Ken for a global sports push in 2010. What does this mean you ask? Ken will drive in the 2010 World Rally Championship in a Ford Focus WRC and run Rally America events in the all new and amazing Ford Fiesta. Specific event breakdown has not been outlined at the moment. This is huge news after…
Read MoreF1 – Flavio Wins! Appeal to Follow…
One of the biggest news stories of 2009 revolved around the “crash gate” episode. We are all familiar with the story of Nelson Piquet Jr. intentionally crashing so that teammate Fernando Alonso could take victory. Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds were both blamed for the incident and received a lifetime ban and 5 year ban from FiA competition. The verdict on the appeal filed by Flavio and Pat was released today and the fiery Italian boss may be back a lot sooner than Max Mosley had hoped at the time…
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