USCC – Thoughts on the Roar

Well it is finally here! The 2014 Tudor United Sports Car Championship has completed the merger process and also completed their first major test in preparation for the Rolex 24 Hour race. I have said since last season that I was excited at the prospect of having both championships merged together and the exciting racing we could expect! Like a lot of folks who tuned into the great coverage of various media outlets worldwide of the Roar Before the 24 test session, I was interested in speeds and lap times…

Read More

IndyCar – Young F1 Talents Seeking Refuge

The motorsports world is a vicious place. It is a cut throat business that has only become worse since the economic recession. The fight for top level seats and pay drives is reserved for a handful of seats per series. Drivers are increasingly reliant on board room talent versus driving talent. Formula 1 is a series that has benefited from a great crop of young talent recently. Drivers like Sergio Perez, Paul di Resta are just a couple of names that standout as brilliant talents that may not have a…

Read More

IndyCar – Tuesday Talk

Tuesday Talk is a weekly rumor/opinion section about happenings in the IZOD IndyCar Series, Firestone Indy Lights, Pro Mazda Series and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Series. All opinions expressed within should be considered as 100% accurate and infallible, because everyone knows I’m never wrong. Houston. Wow. What an event. Taking away all the ancillary factors, Houston wasn’t a bad race. The field was pretty racy. Just go back and look at the box scores. Bourdais went from 13th to 5th. Servia went from 21st to 7th. Vautier went from 22nd…

Read More

IndyCar – BREAKING NEWS: Tony Kanaan to Ganassi

Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press reports that 2013 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Winner and 2004 IRL Series Champion Tony Kanaan has signed a deal to drive for Chip Ganassi Racing in 2014. The popular Brazilian has made his free agency aspirations well known in the media since it was discovered that KV Racing Technology was having difficulty financing his 2013 effort. His name had been linked to the Ganassi seat, but also seats at Andretti Autosport, Bryan Herta Autosport, Panther Racing and a possible return to KV Racing Technology.…

Read More

IndyCar- The business of racing 2.0

Which of these drivers would you hire? Driver A has 104 career IndyCar starts. He has 8 wins, 26 podiums, 37 Top Fives, 13 Poles, 10 Fastest Laps with a lowest full time season placing of 6th. Driver B has 82 career IndyCar starts. he has 1 win, 8 podiums, 16 Top Fives, 2 Poles, zero Fastest Laps with a best full time season placing of 7th. Driver A spent most of those starts at the helm of one of the series’ top seats. He’s been in championship contention, raced well on…

Read More

Flag to Flag – 19 September *14:40 Update*

14:40 EST: GRC – Chevrolet Sonic Set for Debut The all new Chevrolet Sonic is set to make its Global Rallycross Championship debut at Charlotte. The Sonic will look to compete with rivals Ford but are realistic on their current position. The fact is this effort is a privateer entry with manufacturer support, but not a full team of folks like we see with the Fiestas. Head over to Racer.com and check out the story and look for the Sonic on a track near you. 10:00 EST: Formula 1 –…

Read More

Flag to Flag – 18 September *Update 1:58 Eastern*

In an attempt to try something new, I would like to test a flag to flag post that will be a running microblog if you will of key stories throughout the day on the various series we cover here at the site. This will be a living and breathing post that will be compiled throughout the day with bigger stories getting a whole article dedicated. A lot of these stories will be linked to pages like Autosport and Racer, but will have a little sprinkling of opinion for good measure!…

Read More

IndyCar-Tuesday Talk

Tuesday Talk is a segment where we discuss news bites from around the world of IndyCar. All opinions expressed within are those of the writer, and should be taken as the exact opinion of absolutely everyone involved with OpenPaddock, because Kevin Neely is an amazing, insightful writer. So it looks like Andretti Autosport has roughly half the funding needed to run Juan Montoya in the 2014 season. Michael is working hard to make the Montoya ride happen. This leads to some questions, though. If Andretti digs up the cash to…

Read More

IndyCar – Tuesday Talk

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadTuesday Talk is a segment featuring random news and notes from the world of IndyCar. All opinions expressed are mine, meaning they are inherently correct. Disagree? Well, I’ll pray for you. First off, congratulations to Charlie Kimball for his first career win. I don’t think anyone has worked harder for a victory in the last few years than Charlie. He came up from the Euro F3 ranks into Lights with PBIR and Andretti. Back in 2011, Charlie got his break into the IZOD IndyCar Series…

Read More

IndyCar – Updates to the 2013 Rulebook

INDYCAR has made the following updates to the 2013 rulebook, effective immediately. 7.6.1.2–Restarts On restarts within 15 laps of the finish of a race, all lapped cars will be moved to the back of the field. 9.2.2–Race Procedure Penalties If circumstances do not permit a penalty to be served during a race, the Race Director shall declare the results provisional and officials shall review the penalty. The review is independent of  technical inspection. (Basically, time penalties can be issued.) 14.14.6.6.5–Tires If a car receives tire damage during a race, the…

Read More