I was “lucky” enough to latch onto tickets to Friday practice at this week’s Verizon IndyCar race at NRG Park (formerly Reliant Park) in Houston. You’d think I’d be excited as blue blazes to go to an IndyCar race in the same city where I live. Yeah, it’s not quite that simple. As much as they try, the promoters of this event can’t shake one obvious fact: This is a race in a large parking lot. I snuck out of work for a few hours Friday afternoon and head to…
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Pro Mazda – Juncos Racing Signs Argentina’s Julia Ballario
As we approach the Mazda Road to Indy Winterfest, the driver announcements are starting to come in! Juncos Racing, a stalwart in the Pro Mazda Championship, has announced the first member their 2014 team. Julia Ballario will join the team beginning in March on the Streets of St. Petersburg. Ms. Ballario is be the first Argentinian woman to race in the US, and comes to the Pro Mazda Championship with a significant amount of experience in both open-wheel formula cars and in touring cars, and competed with Juncos in Pro…
Read MoreUSCC – 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 MoreIndyCar – 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 MoreIndyCar – 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 MoreIndyCar – 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 MoreIndyCar- 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 MoreFlag 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 MoreFlag 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 MoreIndyCar-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…
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