IndyCar – Hideki Mutoh Rides Again

The young Japanese driver that showed so much promise in 2007 in the Firestone Indy Lights series and as an Andretti Autosport driver in the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2008 and 2009, ran what was thought to be his final season in lack-luster fashion with Newman-Haas Racing in 2010. After the 2010 IndyCar season, he returned to Japan to run in the 2011 SuperGT Championship, driving a Honda HSV-010 GT for Autobacs Racing Team Aguri. Now he’s set to return for an encore appearence in the IZOD IndyCar Series with…

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IndyLights – New Hampshire Beat Down

The Firestone Indy Lights race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway can only be described as a beat down by Josef Newgarden (@RacerOfTomorrow) who was the ONLY driver to finish on the lead lap. That’s right. He lapped the entire freakin’ field! He might have done it twice if not for the yellows. The three primary Sam Schmidt Motorsports cars of #11 Newgarden, #7 Esteban Guerrieri, and #77 Bryan Clausen (@BryanClauson) were in a completely different class during qualifying. During practice, Josef, Bryan, and Esteban posted times of 147.457, 145.749,…

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INDYCAR – SSM Engineer Leaves for Andretti

Curt Cavin reported yesterday that Alex Tagliani’s race engineer Allen McDonald had left his current SSM operation in favor of a return to Andretti Autosport. McDonald has a history with Andretti including winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2007 with Dario Franchitti. It was also reported that both Andretti and McDonald wanted this deal which further prompted Sam Schmidt to make some rather pointed comments at Michael in regards to his Shanghai tactics. The fact of the matter is while I respect the hell out of Sam Schmidt, he does not really have any room…

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INDYCAR – Pippa 500 is On!!

A great news story has finally been made official today as Pippa Mann was announced at Conquest Racing for the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500. Pippa is no stranger to the 2.5 mile oval and claimed pole position for the FIL Freedom 100 race last year. Her run to pole position marked the first time a female has ever held first starting spot at the yard of bricks. She will be driving the #36 car alongside Sebastian Saavedra. “Having the chance to compete in the Indy 500 is something…

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IndyLights: Long Beach 100 Recap

Last week after the Firestone Indy Lights race at Barber Motorsports Park, I went on a bit of a rant regarding the need for these young aspiring drivers to learn a modicum of control. Apparently, many of their team managers went on similar rants as this week’s race on the Streets of Long Beach was far less chaotic. To be sure there were incidents and accidents, but just your normal racing incident type of things, not the mass carnage and mayhem we saw at Barber. For a circuit that has…

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IndyLights – Newgarden Signs with Sam Schmidt Motorsports

We already knew that Josef Newgarden, @RacerOfTomorrow on Twitter, had made the bold move of declining his invitation to the FIA Young Driver Excellence Academy after his 2010 season in GP3 in hopes of securing a ride in the Firestone Indy Lights Series. Well, it seems that Newgarden’s gamble paid off big time as it was announced yesterday that he’ll round out the Sam Schmidt Motorsports Firestone Indy Lights full-time squad joining Victor Carbone and previously rumored, but not yet officially confirmed, Esteban Guerrieri. Bryan Clausen and Conor Daly will…

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Mazda Road to Indy Weekly Wrapup: 2/13-2/19

There’s not been a whole lot going on this past week in the Mazda Road to Indy Program, but we did get a couple of big driver announcements late in the week. The fields are starting to fill up, so in the coming weeks, we’ll be putting together a preview of the 2011 seasons for the Cooper Tires presents the US F2000 National Championship powered by Mazda, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, and the Firestone Indy Lights Series including a summary of driver/team combinations. For now, though, let’s…

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Mazda Road to Indy Wrap-up: 2/6-2/12

Well, I mentioned it on the OpenPaddock.net Podcast Ep. 75, but I didn’t think things would happen so fast. We’ve had a lot of testing going on recently, and at this late date, testing isn’t solely for the cars, but is a genuine evaluation of driving talent. Think of these late pre-season tests as job interviews. With so much testing going on, it only stood to reason that we’d start hearing more and more driver announcements in the comming weeks. Well, we ended up with four just this week and…

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Mazda Road to Indy Wrapup: 1/15 – 1/28

Not a lot has happened since my last update. Not much until this week, that is. A lot of things have started coming together for a variety of teams and drivers, and I’m expecting February to be extremely busy for US F2000, Star Mazda, and Firestone Indy Lights news. Also, in the coming weeks, we plan on having some chats with a variety of drivers and teams about their 2011 plans beginning early next week with Anders Krohn of Belardi Auto Racing. Anders has a very remarkable story, and I…

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