Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Robby Gordon remains undefeated in Stadium Super Trucks qualifying at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this decade. For the fourth year in a row, he set the fastest time to earn himself a bonus point.

Since SST returned to Long Beach in 2021 (the 2020 weekend was cancelled due to COVID-19), Gordon has been the Fastest Qualifier in each iteration. Much like in 2022, he held off Matt Brabham for pole as he led by .476 of a second. Gordon has topped Long Beach qualifying six times total, with two prior coming in 2016 and 2018.

Brabham enters Long Beach as the defending winner after sweeping the 2023 weekend. A win by either him or Gordon would break a tie with the other for the most SST victories at the street circuit with six, while no driver has won three straight there.

Max Gordon recorded his second-career best qualifying effort in third, behind his second at Nashville in 2022.

After narrowly losing the Race #2 win in 2023, Myles Cheek qualified fourth and improved upon his sixth that year.

It has been a little while since we last saw the IndyCar Series in action. While fans did see cars on track at The Thermal Club, that was for a non-points exhibition-style race. As far as points races go, there has still been just one this season. That was well over a month ago in St. Petersburg. Josef Newgarden commanded the race from pole, and now holds a 14-point lead in the championship standings over Pato O’Ward and Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin. Behind those two sit Will Power and Andretti Global‘s Colton Herta.

Now, IndyCar descends on the sunny shores of Long Beach, California, just 20 miles south of Downtown Los Angeles for the Grand Prix of Long Beach. As far as drivers go, some changes have been made. Theo Pourchaire is set to make his IndyCar debut, filling in for David Malukas in the No. 6 for Arrow McLaren. Nolan Siegel will also make his maiden IndyCar voyage, sitting in the No. 51 for Dale Coyne Racing, a seat that was filled by IMSA star Colin Braun in St. Pete.

Al Unser Jr. holds the record for the most wins at the track with six, but as far as those in the field this weekend, Alexander Rossi is the only multi-time winner at Long Beach with back-to-back wins in 2018 and 2019.

Read on to find out all you need to know about this weekend’s action under the sunny California skies.

The Chaborz M-3, a lightweight military buggy used by the Russian Armed Forces, will enter the Silk Way Rally in 2025 pending upgrades to make it fit for rally raid competition. The entry will be overseen by the government of the Chechen Republic, where the car is made. Adam Khakimov, the Republic’s Minister of Industry and Energy, told TASS on Tuesday that entering the largest rally in Russia will help promote tourism and interest in off-road vehicles.

Once such modifications are performed, which include redesigning the chassis and certain body parts, the M-3 will likely race in the Open category. While sharing various traits with side-by-side vehicles, especially being based on the FunCruiser Lite UTV, it does not meet T3 or T4 regulation.

Sergey Zlobin recently tested the M-3 on the campus of the Russian Special Forces University in Gudermes. A former F1 test driver for Minardi and rallycross competitor, Zlobin won the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class as well as the European Le Mans Series’ GTE title before transitioning to a directorial role at SMP Racing, which currently competes in domestic series.

“[He] evaluated the characteristics and capabilities of the off-road vehicle,” Khakimov said about Zlobin. “The information obtained will be used to determine the necessary improvements and adjustments to the parameters of the buggy in accordance with the requirements of auto racing championships.”

The Russian Special Forces University, a school to train Spetsnaz personnel, commissioned ChechenAvto and FunCruiser Lite maker F-MotoSport to produce the M-3 in 2016. Chaborz means “bear wolf” in Chechen and is also the series name for the M-6, a larger six-seat patrol vehicle released around the same time.

The Taurus T3 Max dominated the Dakar Rally‘s Challenger class in January, winning nine of twelve stages and finishing 1–2 with Cristina Gutiérrez and Mitch Guthrie. However, they perhaps performed a little too well.

A complaint was lodged against both drivers’ engines during the race, prompting the FIA to claim them for teardown and inspection back in France. Three months later, the FIA confirmed the motors are legal and their finish will stand.

João Monteiro and South Racing Can-Am filed the protest on 17 January, claiming Guthrie and Gutiérrez originally had bearings in their engines made from composite material in violation of FIA rules. The allegation came on the heels of Taurus drivers Eryk Goczał and his uncle Michał Goczał being disqualified for using such material in their clutches, which is forbidden under Article 2.3 of the FIA International Sporting Code’s Appendix J, Article 286.

During a hearing on 3 April, the FIA’s Technical Delegate clarified this restriction does not apply to certain engine parts and that “the use of bearing made of composite material is allowed.” The verdict came down during the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, incidentally won by Monteiro in the SSV category.

“We will continue down the same path we have been following, never ceasing to develop the most efficient car in the Challenge category market, the lightest, the one with the lowest maintenance cost, with the capability for any driver, regardless of the team, to be as competitive as their abilities demonstrate,” concludes a statement from Taurus, a joint collaboration between MCE-5 Development and Wevers Sport.

Lamborghini Iron Lynx are set and ready for the 2024 6 Hours of Imola, the second round in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is located just over an hour’s drive away from the team’s headquarters and they are eager to put on a good show for their home fans.

The Lamborghini SC63 is the Italian marque’s first entry into the Hypercar category in the WEC. The bright green car certainly turned heads at the season opening Qatar 1812km and finished a respectable 13th out of 19 Hypercars on the grid. The car also finished a promising 7th in the 2024 12 Hours of Sebring, where the team experienced what the engineers called probably the toughest conditions the car will face all year.

After completing these races without major issues, the team are focusing on maximising their potential at their home race. Now with race experience under their belts, the team will use that to create a baseline set up during the practise sessions. Reliability and learning remain the top priorities for a programme still so early in its development, but the team are very keen to showcase what they can do in front of their adoring home crowd.

The 4.9km Imola circuit is a favourite for drivers and teams alike, but offers a significant challenge. For the Lamborghini Squadra Corse drivers who share driving duties in the one SC63 competing this weekend, their experience may prove invaluable. Mirko Bortolotti won in GT cars at Imola, Edoardo Mortara competed at the circuit in the early days of his career, while Daniil Kvyat finished 4th in the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda.

Especially compared to the wide, smooth Lusail International Circuit in Qatar, the tight twists and turns of Imola mean that traffic management and overtaking opportunities in general will be tough for the Hypercars to contend with. Traffic management will be particularly tricky when attempting to negotiate their way past the slower LMGT3 cars with which they share the track.

It was a long eight months, but the Stadium Super Trucks are finally back for 2024. For the third year in a row, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will open the season as the California street circuit continues its run as the only track left from the inaugural season in 2013.

Matt Brabham enters as the defending winner after sweeping both events in 2023. After spending that year primarily competing in Indy NXT and Trans-Am alongside SST, Brabham is now an IMSA driver.

Myles Cheek hopes to avenge his heartbreak when Brabham passed him for the lead and win in Race #2 with two laps remaining. Settling for second, he still earned his maiden career podium after finishing seventh in the first race as he was getting used to the truck; the weekend was his first in SST since 2017.

Before they focus on the NORRA Mexican 1000 the week after, Robby and Max Gordon will tackle Long Beach. Robby is tied with Brabham for the most wins at Long Beach with five, and the father/son duo swept the 2022 weekend that included a 1–2 finish in Race #1.

Bill Hynes, the longest active driver besides the elder Gordon, returns for his tenth full-time campaign. After finishing tenth in the first Long Beach race in 2023, he was taken out of the second after getting turned by Robert Stout; Stout, a series regular since 2021, is not entered as he prepares for the upcoming Championship Off-Road season.

Aleš Loprais and his team have started work on building a Tatra 815 Puma for the Dakar Classic, intended as a tribute to his uncle Karel Loprais. The project began in early April.

Karel Loprais raced the Paris–Dakar Rally from 1986 to 2006, exclusively for Tatra as an employee for the company, with his first race in the Puma 4×4 truck (officially designated as T 815-2 R55-16) taking place in 1998. Already a three-time winner prior but coming off a retirement in the 1997 edition due to an engine failure, he hoped the Puma would be more reliable and his wishes were answered as he scored two stage wins en route to victory in the Truck class. Over the next three years, Loprais added two more wins in 1999 and 2001 while finishing second in 2000 and 2002.

The Puma was eventually put on display in at the Tatra Technical Museum (Technické muzeum Tatra) in Kopřivnice. He continued to race at Dakar through 2006 before retiring. Loprais died in December 2021 at the age of 72.

The younger Loprais also began his career with Tatra, working as his uncle’s navigator in 2006 before taking over as driver. In 2011, he won the Silk Way Rally in Russia and remains the race’s only non-Russian or -Belarusian Truck champion. After bouncing between various manufacturers between 2015 and 2019, including a return to Tatra, he currently races for fellow Czech manufacturer Praga. Aleš finished runner-up in class at the latest Dakar in January.

In March, Tatra Trucks launched Projekt T 162 “Karel”, building a rally raid-spec T 162 truck that was conceived in 1988 but never realised.

Neil Woolridge Motorsport will look to defend their South African Rally-Raid Championship in a new Ford Ranger T1+ sporting a redesigned front end. Reigning champion Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer will pilot the #200, on the heels of their Dakar Rally début, while brother Lance Woolridge and Kenny Gilbert are in the #234.

Gareth entered the Dakar in January after winning the SARRC. His race was upended by a rollover in Stage #7 that knocked him out of the overall, though he was able to reach the finish; although he finished forty-first overall in the Ultimate class, he placed as high as seventh on the final day. The programme was fielded by NWM in partnership with WRC team M-Sport, and he also had two-time Dakar winner Nani Roma as a team-mate.

The redesigned Ranger, however, does not have M-Sport involvement, though the team still maintains relations with NWM ally Past-Racing in both rally and rally raid. Based on the production model, the 2024 Ranger’s body has been reworked to improve airflow and vehicle cooling. This is particularly emphasised by the new grille that leads into the front cooling package, the latter of which has been shrunk to allow more space in the engine bay for mechanics to work. The wheelarches have also been widened to channel air into the dampers.

Its approach/departure angles are now more fluid for better aerodynamics, which was partly achieved by lowering the hood to help the driver see out the windshield. The differential guards on both ends have been strengthened to better protect the vehicle. Underneath the front is a modular bashplate.

Other elements such as the engine and suspension remain the same. The former is 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 Ford EcoBoost engine like its predecessor, though the engine control software has been updated. The suspension entails bespoke dampers 76 millimetres in diameter with 350 mm of wheel travel, the latter complying with FIA T1+ regulations.

For the first time, the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is heading to Europe for the 6 Hours of Imola on 21 April. After an absolutely thrilling season opener at the Qatar 1812km, excitement is building for the first European race on the calendar.

The Track

Imola appears on the WEC calendar as a replacement for Monza, as the “Temple of Speed” is undergoing renovations in 2024. This is the first time the championship has headed to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari and the first 6 Hours of Imola since the 2011 Le Mans Sports Series. The 4.9 kilometre track is the home event for many WEC teams and drivers, all of whom will be wanting to impress.

The legendary track, familiar to racing fans the world over, presents a very different challenge to the Lusail International Circuit which hosted the previous round. The most significant difference is that Imola is much narrower. The tight twisting nature of the track will present complications as the faster Hypercars try to overtake the slower LMGT3 class. Porsche Penske Motorsport driver André Lotterer is already considering how best to compensate for this. “It will definitely be a challenge, it’s not a very big track and it’s narrow too so traffic will be tricky” the German explained, adding “setting up the car correctly will be key.”

LMGT3 driver Charlie Eastwood said, after a recent testing session at Imola, “we found that the delta of lap time between GT3 and Hypercar was significantly smaller than most circuits. The main reason for this is that at Imola in the GT3 cars, you can take a lot of kerbs. There has been a completely new profile of the kerbing around most of the circuit so that the GT3s can get right on top of the kerbs, which the Corvette was handling very well at the test but the Hypercars cannot – they have to drive around them. They are going to struggle to pass the GT cars very easily and likely see a lot of aggression into braking zones.” It should be a thrilling and action packed race.

Hypercar

Lotterer’s team, Porsche Penske Motorsport, were the class of the field in Qatar, with the #6 car comfortably winning the race and the sister #5 car taking pole position and eventually finishing 3rd in the race. As if that weren’t enough, privateer Porsche outfit Hertz Team JOTA secured a brilliant 2nd place, just 1.1 seconds ahead of the #5 factory Porsche. All eyes will be on whether they can maintain that momentum at such a different circuit.

After retiring from the Dakar Rally in January, Hennie de Klerk and his TreasuryONE Motorsport team will be approaching the upcoming South African Rally-Raid Championship like it is a leg on the former.

He and his co-driver Juan Möhr will have a full kit of spare parts and tools onboard their WCT Toyota Hilux, then perform repairs and changes themselves without the help of their team when they are at the service station. The team’s technician Tjaart van der Walt will be present to oversee the stops but not get involved. Under World Rally-Raid Championship rules, crews are not permitted to help their drivers if they are stuck in the Selective Section and face disqualification if it happens, and de Klerk and Möhr will treat the service areas as such.

“As we so painfully learned this year, there’s no tomorrow at the Dakar if you do not finish today,” said de Klerk. “To that end, we will use our local races to develop our strategy to best deal with our future Dakar challenges. That means concentrating on endurance and reliability, rather than just speed.”

2024 marked de Klerk’s third Dakar Rally after being the best-finishing rookie in the 2018 edition in twenty-eighth followed by a thirty-fourth in 2020. He returned to the race after four years in a new Toyota Hilux T1+ designed by WCT Engineering, which is mostly the same as its counterparts built by Toyota Gazoo Racing and Overdrive Racing but less complex so that privateers can afford it. Möhr joined the team after last racing the Dakar in 2016 with Mark Corbett.

The duo fell early due to a time penalty in the Prologue for a navigation error, then broke a prop shaft early in Stage #2 which forced them to complete the leg with rear drive only. They scored their best finish of thirty-first in the Ultimate class in Stage #4, but another driveshaft failure and rollover struck during the second half of the Chrono Stage and ended their race.

The late Ted Toleman is perhaps best known for kickstarting the Formula One careers of those like Ayrton Senna, Rory Byrne, and Pat Symonds via Toleman Motorsport. After selling the team to sponsor Benetton in 1986, Toleman decided to remain involved in racing, albeit in a slightly different discipline from what he was used to.

In 1987, a year after his F1 exit, Toleman and company decided to enter the Paris–Dakar Rally. Although the race had only been active for a decade, it quickly grew into the world’s preeminent rally raid and still holds this reputation today. Toleman’s maiden start came a year after fellow F1 outfit Minardi did a Dakar one-off in a truck, where they retired after seven stages.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the last great adventures left. I’ve always been one for pitting yourself against the elements. After doing the Atlantic, the desert was a natural,” said Toleman in a team promotional video for the 1989 race titled Heat and Dust. “I think perseverance and patience (are most important) because you have to be patient with one another. It’s a long time to be together under stress. I think those are the important features.”

The programme was revealed at 1 Savile Row in London, the former headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society and current home of menswear tailor Gieves & Hawkes, consisting of Toleman as driver and Barry Lee as navigator of a Range Rover. Lee was a multi-time hot rod national and world champion who also enjoyed success in the British Saloon Car Championship and rallycross. However, their début was cut short when two team members were arrested at the Algerian border for alleged currency irregularities.

For their second attempt in 1988, the duo decided to modify an Austin Metro 6R4, a brand that previously competed in Group B rally much like many Dakar vehicles of the time. Dubbed the TG88 Raider, sported a longer wheelbase and a 3.9-litre V8 engine from a Land Rover that produced 230 horsepower, as opposed to the V6 of the original model. The car proved to be quick, which landed it on the front cover of Autosport‘s 7 January issue. Although the Metro was fast, Toleman’s support truck was not and got stuck in the sand, causing it to take too long to reach the finish and forcing him to retire yet again.

Tacita‘s newest line of electric bikes for 2024, particularly the Enduro, Motard, and Motorally models from the T-Race line, were developed using what they picked up from their Dakar Rally effort in January.

The Italian bike manufacturer entered the Dakar Rally in the Mission 1000 class as Tacita Formula Corsa, fielding two Tacita Discanto bikes for Oscar Polli and Silvayn Espinasse. Polli, the 2008 FIM FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Champion (precursor to today’s World Rally-Raid Championship) and 2012 Africa Eco Race winner, failed to start the first stage and fell into an early hole in the rankings, but managed to complete the race as the last finisher in the category. Espinasse was eighth of nine finishing Mission 1000 entries.

New for the 2024 race, Mission 1000 is designed for vehicles on alternative power sources like electric, hybrid, and hydrogen. Tacita, Arctic Leopard, and Green Power Race raced on electric bikes while the other teams were in cars or trucks.

The T-Race bikes are all designed using lessons that Tacita learned from the effort. Each bike, as well as those in the T-Cruise series (Urban and Turismo), has a five-speed gearbox, liquid cooling and a battery management system to prevent overheating, and a 120-volt system for the controller. The Motorally, which is closest to the Dakar bike, also comes with a battery setup that allows for it to be swapped out within three minutes.

All three T-Race models weigh roughly 196 kilograms and have 0.7 millimetres of fairing made from carbon and Kevlar. The Enduro and Motard bikes have nine kWh of bettery while Motorally boasts thirteen.

The newest addition to Red-Lined Motorsport‘s REVO line will make its début when the 2024 South African Rally-Raid Championship begins at this weekend’s Nkomazi 400 as Chris Visser and Dave Klaassen pilot the REVO+ GT-R.

As the name suggests, it is a T1+ car that uses an engine pulled from the Nissan R35 GT-R. Nicknamed “Godzilla”, the GT-R is Nissan’s flagship sports car and has seen extensive action in GT and endurance racing.

The GT-R’s 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V6 VR38DETT engine produces 421 kW of power (565 horsepower) with 632 Nm of torque. Ironically, the standard engine is too powerful for FIA cross-country rally rules, which have a 264-kW limit, meaning it had to be de-tuned to remain legal. Testing took place in December. Such an engine is also being used in the Dacia Sandrider, Renault’s factory rally raid programme that will compete in the 2025 Dakar Rally and World Rally-Raid Championship.

The newest REVO comes on the heels of Red-Lined’s REVO T1+, the company’s first foray into the T1+ subcategory. Created in 2023, it is currently used in the SARRC as well as the W2RC, the latter on a full-time basis by Aliyyah Koloc and Buggyra ZM Racing. Both the REVO T1+ and GT-R comply with T1+ regulations like using 37-inch tyres and having 350 mm of suspension travel.

Red-Lined often bases their rally raiders on Nissans. Their VK50 and VK56 cars are based on the Nissan Navara; both are T1.1 models, which have smaller wheels at 32 inches and 280 mm in suspension travel.

Bournezeau Rallye Aventure, also known as Team B.R.A. for short, will be pulling double duty in January 2025 as they plan to enter both the Dakar Rally and the Dakar Classic. Yannick Grèzes will race the former in a Drakart Scorpion while his son Tenessy Grèzes and Julien Bessé enter the latter with a Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80 and Mitsubishi Pajero V6, respectively.

Drakart is an American manufacturer that builds side-by-side vehicles for American desert racing like SCORE International and Best In The Desert, though their vehicles are also FIA compliant and thus eligible for Dakar. In 2017, the company built a rally raid car loosely based on the Ford Edge.

Grèzes’ Drakart Scorpion is a 2WD model eligible to compete in the Challenger category. 2025 will be his first Dakar since finishing ninety-third overall and thirty-third in the H1 class at the 2022 Dakar Classic in a Suzuki Vitara. He previously raced the main Dakar Rally in 2005 and 2007 on a bike and car, respectively. Anthony Drapeau returns as his navigator after working with him in 2022.

Tenessy, who has shared cars with his dad in French rally competition since he was sixteen, finished eighty-first in the 2022 Classic (thirty-third in H2). He drove a Land Cruiser BJ73, which the family found was within their price range so they opted to race. Lucas Longepe, who has been friends with the younger Grèzes since their early teens, will be his co-driver again.

Bessé’ is the founder of Config-racing.com, an online racing equipment store that sponsored the Grèzes in 2022. Francky Corbeau will serve as co-driver.

Robert Stout will make his début in a Pro 4 truck during the 2024 Championship Off-Road season, running a part-time schedule for Adrian Cenni Racing in the #28.

“I’ve wanted to race these trucks for over ten years. It’s the best of the best at the highest levels of the sport,” said Stout in a press release. “I have massive respect for all the players in this class but I can’t wait to battle with them.”

Although mainly a sports car driver, Stout won the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series‘ Production 1000 UTV championship in 2019 a season after claiming Rookie of the Year honours. After LOORRS’ shutdown, he switched from UTV to off-road trucks—albeit on pavement—when he entered the Stadium Super Trucks in 2021.

He scored his first of three career SST wins during his rookie season at Nashville en route to a third-place points finish. Another third came in 2022 with a win at Bristol. The two-round 2023 season saw him finish sixth but scored another victory in Race #1 at Nashville.

While SST was his main focus over the past three years, he also returned to short course by competing in the UTV-based Texas Outlaw Series.