IndyCar – Pippa Mann in the Coyne #18 for Texas, Oriol Servia in the Panther Racing #4

INDIANAPOLIS (June 5, 2013)- Oriol Servia returns to IZOD IndyCar Series action this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway as the pilot of the #4 National Guard Chevrolet of Panther Racing. Servia previously competed this season with Panther-Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in the #22 entry before a lack of funds caused the car to be parked after the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. Servia finished P11 in this year’s 500 and currently sits 18th in standings, having missed both races of the Duel in Detroit. Following the 500, Servia was 9th in…

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INDYCAR – Rice and Panther Team for Indy

Good news this evening as Panther Racing has announced that Buddy Rice will drive the #44 machine at the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500. He will team with J.R. Hildebrand for the month of May and maybe more according to Speed.com. That adds yet another defending race champ to the equation. Rice won the race in 2004 with Rahal/Letterman Racing. After two years of sports car racing in the GRAND-AM series, Rice will jump in an IndyCar for the first time since 2008. This is really a great deal…

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Episode 68 – Openpaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Mike and I as we talk about all the American open wheel drivers coming out of the freakin wood work! First JR to Panther and we then discuss tomorrow’s Chip Ganassi announcement that should see Graham Rahal and hopefully Charlie Kimball announced to a satellite team. Shaun commits numerous 151c violations by forgetting his lines and barely survives an attack by Champ Car fans on the OP headquarters. There is some rally, F1, and Le Mans thrown in there too as well as…

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Road to Indy – Weekly Wrapup: 12/6-12/10

Once again, we had a jam packed week of mostly cool news for the now Mazda Road to Indy program. Yes, I said MAZDA. They’re now the official title sponsor of the program, and they bring some other benefits as well. However, I say mostly cool news because there was one downer for the week. Dan Andersen’s racing operations via Andersen Racing will cease in 2011. Andersen Racing had fielded entries in both the Star Mazda Championship and the Firestone Indy Lights series. Andersen will still run the US F2000…

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Episode 67 – Openpaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin the Paddock boys this week as we talk Toyota and Le Mans, Solberg in Mote Carlo, and wrap up Penske’s sponsorship shopping spree. We stay clear of 151c violations for the most part but Paris Hilton nearly ruins that. Sit back as always and enjoy the show!

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IndyCar – Ed Carpenter Takes Kentucky Pole…. ?!

“Shocking” is the word many would pick to describe this situation, but maybe not so much when you look at how Dan finished at Kentucky last year and how well both Panther Racing cars did last weekend at Chicago. Ed has been a stalwart finisher at Indy and no slouch on the ovals for the last few seasons, but the downgrading of Vision Racing from full season team to occasional sponsor has certainly not helped his cause. Ed’s fight with Briscoe at Kentucky has to go down as one of…

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IndyCar – Wheldon Signs at Panther

The last 2 weeks have been an absolute drought when it comes to IndyCar information. The only thing we have had to talk about was the press release that the IRL accidentally leaked on their website and quickly took down claiming that Brazilians hacked their website. (Look for a Rio announcement on Friday by the way. That cat is well and truly out of the bag.) But today Panther put an end to that by announcing that Dan Wheldon has been signed for the 2010 season. This also ended speculation…

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