One of the magnificent things about a road course event, and the ALMS/INDYCAR weekend at Mid-Ohio especially, is that there is NEVER a quiet moment on the track. There’s always something buzzing around the circuit. This year was no exception as we has the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship, the SCCA Pro World Challenge, the American LeMans Series, the US F2000 National Championship, and the IZOD IndyCar Series taking to the circuit from 0800 to as late as 1900! That also means that is photog was one busy dude! I…
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Inside The Helmet – Zach Veach and Spencer Pigot at MidOhio
USF2000 – Milwaukee Wrap-Up
What a crazy busy weekend as open-wheel racing returned to the Milwaukee Mile. The weekend certainly didn’t go as smoothly, nor as successfully as many had hoped, but there were some fans that showed up and we got to see some racing in spite of the downpour on Sunday morning. It seemed like this weekend was filled with all kinds of off-track drama from the way the race was promoted and managed, to some extremely serious controversy in the Firestone Indy Lights series. Looking on the bright side, though, the…
Read MoreUSF2000 – Veach Joins the Marines! …sorta.
THE YOUNG MARINES YOUTH ORGANIZATION PARTNERS WITH ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT DRIVER ZACH VEACH Veach To Carry The Young Marines Branding Throughout 2011 USF2000 Season WASHINGTON, DC (June 14, 2011) – The Young Marines, a youth education and service program for boys and girls, age 8 through completion of high school, announced today a partnership with 16-year-old Andretti Autosport USF2000 race car driver Zach Veach. The partnership will include Veach carrying the Young Marines imagery on his No. 7 Zakosi Data Backup Mazda, the formation of “Zach’s Pack” and a host of…
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy – Looking Forward to Milwaukee
On Memorial Day Weekend, the Mazda Road to Indy drivers all ran for the first time on ovals, albeit different ones. The Firestone Indy Lights series ran the Firestone Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Carburetion Day, while the Cooper Tires Presents the US F2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda, the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear, and the Mopar USAC Midget Series raced on the Night Before the 500 at the newly renamed Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. This weekend all four series will again compete on…
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy – 2011 Night Before the 500
I know this is rather tardy, but give a fella a break. Last weekend was extremely busy!! Keep in mind that first and foremost, we’re fans. Perhaps we have delusions of being media-types, but we do all have real jobs and real families and friends. We love what we’re able to do here at OpenPaddock, but on a holiday weekend such as Memorial Day, you’ll forgive us if we put our family and friends at the top of the schedule priority. Getting back to business, the Mazda Road to Indy…
Read MoreMazda Road to Indy – Preparing for the Ovals
All of the various series that are part of INDYCAR and the Mazda Road to Indy program have opened their seasons with road and street courses. Beginning next weekend, though, everyone switches to oval tracks! Racing on an oval is not as easy as going fast and turning left as those who attended the USF2000 Oval Clinic earlier this month learned. This past weekend, the Star Mazda Championship, in preparation for their coming sequence of three oval races, held an open test at the Milwaukee Mile. For many drivers in…
Read MoreUFS2000 – Diverse Field Finds Parity
Race #2 this past Sunday on the Streets of St. Petersburg was the fourth race of the 2011 Cooper Tires Presents the US F2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda season, and it saw its fourth race winner as Cape Motorsports’ driver, Petri Suvanto, would take the checkers after starting from pole and successfully defending his position as Andretti Autosport’s Spencer Pigot mounted a challenge during a restart. In addition for separate race winners, the season thus far has seen five separate drivers on the podium and nine different drivers finish…
Read MoreUSF2000 – Video of Race #2 at St. Petersburg
MRTI – School’s In Session at St. Pete
As an educator, I completely approve of this fantastic move by the Mazda Road to Indy program to help young aspiring racers to learn more about the profession, business, and craft of motorsports. So many of us fans forget that there’s far more to being a successful professional racing driver these days that simply being fearless and fast. There’s so much more that today’s drivers need to understand about the business of motorsports, and business in general. Drivers have to be not only fast on the track, but also public…
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