Tag: New Hampshire

GRC Round 5: New Hampshire

Doug Patterson

Editor’s Note: Here’s the latest in a series of fan-submitted commentary on the Global Rallycross Championship from Mike Shaw (@oregonwings). We hope you enjoy it as much as we here at OpenPaddock have. The X-Games was over. Loeb returned to France, Toomas Haikkenen is recovering with his broken ankle after a gnarly collision with the jump ramp, and Marcus Gronholm was still out after his bad concussion. Round 4 of the GRC was going to New Hampshire, and I was beginning to lose interest in this new take on a…

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Indy Car Returns to NASCAR Country

Doug Patterson

Written by Jim Shepka: Let’s face it, New England is the home of the Tour Modifieds. It was born here back in the 40’s and the sound can be heard running on the bullrings every Friday and Saturday night all around the region. It wasn’t until the expansion of the old road course in Loudon into the current version of the ‘Magic Mile’ that the ‘Cup’ tour was eventually brought to the masses in New England. It’s also been nearly 20 years since Indy Cars (pick your version) have run…

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Episode 101 – OpenPaddock Podcast

Shaun

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadEditor’s Note: This program is rated Radio MA for stron language. If you enjoy the show outloud in the house, suggest turning it down or using headphones. We typically do not stray into this territory as bad as we did on this episode. Apologies for those we offend….except Brian Barnhardt. Welcome to the 101st edition of the OpenPaddock.net Podcast. Shaun and Doug go over some brief news from the motorsport world and dive into New Hampshire. We also have a segment with our very…

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Will Power, flips out, and flips off, Barnhart jumps over shark infested waters

Mike Shaw

Sunday I found myself working as a pit road spotter for Jake Query of IMS Radio. This was my first time ever doing this, what a wild race to start out. What seemed like another dull Dario run away, all went out the window on lap 118. On the TV broadcast Sato took full blame for the crash. However on pit road it seemed like the 10 also came down a little to initiate contact. “What the hell just happened?” was all Dario said on the radio after. Chip Ganassi…

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IndyLights – New Hampshire Beat Down

Doug Patterson

The Firestone Indy Lights race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway can only be described as a beat down by Josef Newgarden (@RacerOfTomorrow) who was the ONLY driver to finish on the lead lap. That’s right. He lapped the entire freakin’ field! He might have done it twice if not for the yellows. The three primary Sam Schmidt Motorsports cars of #11 Newgarden, #7 Esteban Guerrieri, and #77 Bryan Clausen (@BryanClauson) were in a completely different class during qualifying. During practice, Josef, Bryan, and Esteban posted times of 147.457, 145.749,…

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Dario takes pole for Loudon, Pippa is taken to the hospital after crash

Mike Shaw

Saturday was a hot and sunny day in New Hampshire. While the stands were more filled than Friday, it is still a light turnout for qualifying. Speeds were slower today for most of practice than they were on Thursday, however later in the day enough Firestone rubber was laid down to correct this.   The speeds were increased just in time for qualifying today. To no ones surprise Dario Franchitti snagged the pole position. What was a slight upset was Oriol Servia was P1 most of the session before being…

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INDYCAR – Scheckter to Fly at New Hampshire

Shaun

Tomas Scheckter will be back in the IZOD IndyCar series this weekend as it was announced he will sub for the injured Justin Wilson at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. This past weekend at Mid-Ohio, Wilson suffered a fracture in his spine after catching air coming out of turn one. The subsequent landing impact would cause serious damage to his back and see him out for an expected three months. Scheckter, who has 14 starts with DRR, last competed at the Indianapolis 500 with S&H/KV Racing in the Redline Extreme Energy…

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IndyCar – Hello Loudon, Goodbye NASCAR

Shaun

With the news that the IZOD IndyCar Series (IICS) will be returning to Loudon next year, the dreaded NASCAR track disease that we here at Open Paddock said was a series debilitating syndrome may finally be going away. It is true that we here at the site have been very critical of the IICS and their schedule that consists mainly of the cookie cutter NASCAR tracks. For one, they show next to no attendance figures, and they also do not promote “drivers” racing but instead a true test of engineering…

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