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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Le Mans – Initial Thoughts on the R18

German marque Audi has released its 2011 challenger the R18. While 2010 was a bittersweet year for the squad and its R15 challenger, the team has vowed to impress not only the fans but its French rivals as well. I will preface the article by saying I am in no way a car designer or engineer but did want to comment on this car. I waited and waited Friday as I followed my tweet stream of the press conference provided by @dsceditor. The coverage was excellent and it was a…

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Rally – Sordo Looking at Ford or MINI

While we have known for sometime that Dani Sordo probably would not return to Citroen, the real question we had to ask ourselves is where IS he going? The Spanish driver appears to be on the verge of a deal with either Ford or Prodrive MINI. Autosport ran a story this morning that had Prodrive technical director David Lapworth talking about a potential future for Sordo at the team. It does look at this moment anyways that Marcus Gronholm will not be making a return to competition full time this year.…

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Sunday Service Park – 11/27/10

Welcome to the newest column at Openpaddock.net! As the rally season takes its short break they call an off season, the Sunday Service Park will be my time to give some opinion on the week’s news and address rumors within the WRC and Rally America blogs. This week has seen the driver market get kicked up a notch and Petter Solberg is trapped in the middle. Petter Solberg Last week during the podcast I had made the argument that Petter would be a reasonable fit at the Prodrive MINI operation.…

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IndyCar – Edmonton Return Makes Headway

Late Friday afternoon, the Edmonton City Council voted 9-2 in favour of a plan to revive the Honda Edmonton Indy 300. The initial deal between the City of Edmonton and race promoter Octane Racing Group fell through when the city demanded that the runway currently used as part of the racing circuit remain open and operational during the race weekend. This meant that an additional $3M needed to be invested in the venue to lay new tarmac and rebuild the pit and grandstand areas on the opposite side of the…

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Episode 64 – Openpaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin the paddock boys for a World Championship edition of the podcast. We talk about Sebastian Vettel’s title drive and why we think he is deserving. We also go over Rally Wales and some of the WRC silly season rumors as we say good bye to the Focus and C4. The final part of the show will bring about the IndyCar talk for the week as we look at Chevrolet and some of the engine specs for 2012. Sit back for with your favorite…

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Rally – Ostberg to Compete in Fiesta for 2011

News broke today on Autosport that has Mads Ostberg collaborating with M-Sport for the 2011 campaign in the new Fiesta RS WRC. Big news for Ford as Ostberg will bring his Adapta Motorsport rally team into the M-Sport fold. The Norweigian driver has competed in select rounds of the championship this year in a Subaru WRC car and has put together great performances for the technology. A move to a better drive was in order and must be considered a welcome addition to the team. One thing that we need…

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F1 – Ferrari Succeeded in 2010

As headlines ring around the world hailing Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel on his world championship, there have been some very vicious headlines as well regarding Ferrari and their strategy that lost the title for Fernando Alonso. While I have distanced myself from Ferrari and latched on to Mercedes (Schumacher), I still think these attacks are ridiculous after you compare 2009 and 2010. For that very reason alone, Ferrari should be praised and their season should be viewed as successful. look back at 2009 for just a second. Felipe Massa…

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