Rally – Skoda Dominates Argentina

The third round of the IRC championship was held this weekend in the beautiful settings of Argentina. The stages that usually play host to the WRC would be ran with names like Meeke, Hanninen, and al-Attiyah and cars like Peugeot and Skoda. All eyes would be on Kris Meeke after a dominant win in Brazil a couple weeks ago, but it was not to be for the British star. Skoda, who has put together a very formidable effort would take a dominating 1-2-3 in the event and further strengthen their…

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Rally – Fiesta to Test Current Focus Motor

With the World Motor Sport Council agreeing to run the S2000 chassis with a 1.6 litre turbo engine, Ford has decided to take a head start on the issue of development. The Fiesta S2000 will be fitted with the current 2.0 litre turbo charged engine used in the Ford Focus WRC. This is a tactic that has been used by Citroen in the development of the DS3 using the C4’s engine. Ford hopes that by using the chassis and engine package, they will be able to gauge how the car…

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Diffuser Row Take 2

It was Australia of last year when we found out about a trick double decker diffuser that was placed on the Brawn GP machine that raised a number of questions. The diffuser was then made legal and the other teams were forced to design one for the rest of the season. However, by that time the damage had been done and Button would go on to be your champion. The FiA announced today that the diffuser will change again and now a select number of teams have been told to…

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Episode 30 – Open Paddock Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Mike and myself this week as we recap Bahrain and the IndyCar season opener from Sao Paulo Brazil. Interesting topics will also include Virgin F1’s CFD claim, Ferrari’s impressive display, and why the media is all over Schumacher after Nico Rosberg outpaced him for one race. Mario Moraes riding shotgun with Marco Andretti through the first corner, Ryan Hunter Reay’s awesome performance as well as Fantasy IndyCar results for the Openpaddock.net team. Sit back with a leftover pint of your Irish favorite and…

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Rally – WRC Jordan Will Happen

News coming out of the WRC website indicate that the six months of rain that fell last week in a 72 hour span will not hinder Rally Jordan and that the show will go on. Last week seen fierce weather devastate much of the rally surface and even chunks of ground were taken by massive flash floods. To compound the problem, some of the stages are actually below sea-level which caused impossible situations as the water ran down from higher ground. The Jordanian government is currently working around the clock,…

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F1 – Monster to Sponsor Mercedes GP Drivers

It would appear that Red Bull is no longer the only kid on the energy drink block as Monster has announced a deal that will see them sponsor Mercedes GP. Monster has global reach in terms of motorsport and sponsors the likes of Ken Block, Ricky Carmichael, and scores of other motorcross drivers. It only makes sense that the drink company would now make their presence known in the realm of F1 to further that global success. Below is the brief press release on the deal: On the day of…

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F1 – Bahrain Review and Some Thoughts

The first race of the 2010 world championship has come and gone and everybody can be happy that the natural order has been restored. However the most anticipated season in F1 history continued to display the same gremlins that the FiA just can’t shake. Fernando Alonso would eventually take victory after Sebastian Vettel hit engine trouble (spark plug) in the closing stages. Fernando is the second straight full time Ferrari driver to win on his debut. The Maranello based squad put on an impressive debut with a 1-2 finish as…

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F1 – Bahrain Quali Results

While yesterday marked the first day in which cars took to the track for the 2010 FiA Formula 1 World Championship, today was the first day where we actually got to see who had what in terms of outright performance. Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix was some of the most exciting action I had seen in terms of grid position in some time. Sebastian Vettel would claim his sixth career pole position in a most spectaculor fashion by beating second place Felipe Massa by a tenth of a second.…

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