Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

FDNY Racing, the lone team from the inaugural NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season in 1995 still operating today, will return for a twenty-ninth year in 2023. The team announced Sunday that Bryan Dauzat will pilot the #28 Chevrolet Silverado for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. While other starts were not immediately revealed, they are expected to also race at Pocono Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway with Dauzat as in previous years.

Led by Jim Rosenblum, FDNY Racing is a small operation consisting of volunteers from the New York Fire and Police Departments. The team assumed their current identity shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks, in which 343 FDNY firefighters died in rescue efforts, and race winnings are donated to the Uniformed Firefighters Widows and Children’s Fund.

Dauzat, a Modified veteran, joined the team in 2014 and has been their exclusive driver since 2017. In 2018, he scored the team’s maiden top-ten finish when he placed sixth at Talladega. He finished twenty-third in last year’s Daytona event but failed to qualify for Pocono and was involved in a lap 32 crash at Talladega. His best finish at Daytona is eighteenth in 2018; FDNY has six top twenties there in ten tries, with Ryan Ellis holding the highest run of sixteenth in 2015.

Daytona and Talladega are common stops for small teams as superspeedways, where drafting is imperative to success and wrecks are common, provide them with the best opportunity for success. While Pocono is a large circuit whose length is equal to Daytona, FDNY has it circled on their annual calendar as the closest track to home in Mamaroneck, New York. The team has also raced at other 1.5-mile tracks like Charlotte and Kansas, especially in 2020 when COVID-19 led to expanded fields to make up for cancelled qualifying.

The Daytona race will take place on 17 February. Pocono is scheduled for 22 July, and Talladega is on 30 September.

As the Dakar Rally continues to shift towards alternative fuel sources, KH-7 Epsilon Team is doing the same for 2023 as their MAN TGA 26.480 truck will partially use hydrogen. Jordi Juvanteny will drive the truck, numbered #522, with Jordi Ballbé and José Luís Criado as co-pilot and technician, respectively.

Hydrogen had already been employed by GAUSSIN with their H2 Racing Truck at the 2022 Rally, which did not compete for classification and was primarily intended for experimenting.

“The planet asks us for changes and we should not wait for an institutional reaction,” said Juvanteny at a media event on Wednesday. “We have to do it together and start now. We are an amateur team with the desire to do different, innovative things and thus contribute a small grain of sand on the planet which asks us to.”

For 2022, the team’s truck was a zero-emission vehicle that relied on a blend of Repsol’s hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and finished twenty-first in class. They have won the 6×6 subcategory every year since 2019 with sixteen total victories, while also being the best finishing Production truck in 2021.

Weighing 11,500 kilograms, the 2023 MAN’s hydrogen power comes from Spanish energy company EVARM, who specialises in converting vehicles for other fuel supplies. The fuel mixes hydrogen and diesel, the former of which is injected from a pair of 420-litre tanks that will be refilled via generator between stages. While the diesel/hydrogen blend is balanced at 50/50, the team hopes to increase to 90% hydrogen for the 2024 race. This would coincide with the Rally introducing a separate category for alternative fuel vehicles that year.

Mitch Evans will be hoping it’s third-time lucky for his ABB FIA Formula E World Championship hopes, with the New Zealander having come close to glory for two consecutive years. Season Eight was by far the best of Evans’ Formula E career to date, with the Jaguar TCS Racing driver having fought reigning Champion Stoffel Vandoorne for the entirety of the season.

Ultimately, Evans fell short, with his retirement from the second race at the London E-Prix having put a huge dent in his title hopes last year. Nevertheless, it’s time to put Gen2 in the past, with the all-electric series preparing to enter a whole new era of the sport, Gen3.

The cars are faster, lighter, more powerful, more efficient, lighter, and drastically different visually, partly due to the new 470bhp cars boasting front and rear powertrains. With all that in mind, Evans sat down with The Checkered Flag at the team’s launch of the I-TYPE 6, the team’s first Gen3 challenger. Evans is “recharged” and “ready” to get the new generation of the sport underway, one that sets to be enthralling.

“I’ve had a few months off so recharged, excuse the pun!” Evans exclusively told The Checkered Flag.

“Yes, I’m feeling good and I’m ready to get back into another season.”

It’s no secret that Russian competitors in international championships have staggeringly decreased in number following their country’s invasion of Ukraine in February due to the FIA’s “emergency measures” stipulating they must condemn the war and agree to race without their nation’s emblems. While many refuse to sign the terms, a trio of Russians did and thus confirmed their entries in the 2023 Dakar Rally, though they will have different nationalities.

In the T1 class, Denis Krotov will race the #238 Mini Cooper for X-raid Team alongside co-driver Konstantin Zhiltosv. The latter confirmed the two’s Dakar entry in September, with Zhiltsov switching to an Israeli licence while Krotov will represent Kyrgyzstan.

A Moscow native, Krotov has raced at Dakar since 2019, finishing fifteenth in his début and twenty-eighth with Zhiltsov in 2022. After the invasion, the duo remained in Russia to take part in the Russian Rally-Raid Championship, winning the T1 category at the premier Silk Way Rally in July. Krotov was second in the standings to Vladimir Vasilyev prior to this weekend’s Serif Line race in Ulyanovsk, but opted for the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas’ season finale and competed in the Dubai International Baja.

“It is necessary to race, otherwise you lose your skills, and then you need to stop all this altogether,” Zhiltsov told Match TV in September after his switch. “A career in professional sports is rather fleeting, so some cardinal decisions must be made.”

Meanwhile, Alexey Kuzmich will be the navigator for Yasir Seaidan‘s #410 in the T4 category at Dakar. Like his fellow Russians, Kuzmich was in Dubai as co-driver to Middle East Bajas Cup runner-up Hamad Al-Harbi. Unlike Krotov and Zhiltsov, however, he elected to race with no stated nationality and used the FIA emblem.

Brothers Luke and Dan McMillin had plenty to celebrate when the 2022 SCORE International season came to a close as they finished 1–2 in the final Trophy Truck standings. The former was one of twenty-nine drivers and riders who won a class championship in 2022, with other categories seeing points battles as narrow as two points.

Luke McMillin, who helped Rob MacCachren win the 2021 Baja 1000 and Trophy Truck title, was a top contender in the class from the start with a victory in the San Felipe 250. MacCachren, winner of the Baja 500, returned the favour by joining his #83 truck for the season-ending Baja 1000 to help McMillin win the event for the third straight year. Although Bryce Menzies presented the biggest challenge to McMillin by finishing runner-up in San Felipe and winning the Baja 400, a pair of retirements at the Baja 500 and 1000 dropped him to a distant fifteenth. Dan McMillin finished second at the 1000 to seal runner-up.

Juan Carlos Salvatierra completed his dominant 2022 with the Pro Moto Unlimited title. He was the best Moto rider overall in the first three races, and his team rebounded from a fuel pump failure at the 1000 for a podium to ice the championship.

The closest margin came in Class 7 and Pro Moto Ironman, the former of which saw Dan Chamlee ride 500 and 400 wins to edge out Scott Brady by only two points. In Pro Moto Ironman, Brandon Wright and Aaron Richardson traded blows, and although the latter finished second at the 1000 and one spot ahead, Wright held on with 465 points to 463. All but one of the UTV categories also enjoyed title battles with single-digit differences.

Unless one was only racing that event, winning the Baja 1000 usually also ensures a class championship albeit not always. Jorge Sampietro was fourteenth in Trophy Truck Spec at the 1000 while Elijah Kiger won, but the former’s 500 victory and latter’s poor showing in San Felipe enabled Sampietro to win the season-long title by sixteen points. Likewise, Hiram Duran won the 1000 in Class 10 but was ninth as he was hamstrung by a pair of retirements in San Felipe and the 400. Austin Weiland was the victim of a more extreme case as he won three of four in Pro UTV Forced Induction, but not finishing San Felipe relegated him to fourth.

With the start of Season Nine and Gen3 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship rapidly approaching, news is flying out of the all-electric series as the season opener edges ever closer. With that in mind, Mahindra Racing have announced that accomplished Formula 2 driver Jehan Daruvala will be their reserve driver for 2023.

Daruvala is the only Indian driver to have won a race in Formula 2, something he’s successfully done four times during his career so far. The twenty-three year old is certainly a hot prospect for Mahindra to have gotten hold of, with the Indian driver set to work in the simulator and provide support in car development at the team’s Banbury base.

Daruvala is set to attend some races during the upcoming season, including, the team’s home race, the inaugural Hyderabad E-Prix. Whilst it hasn’t been confirmed, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Daruvala drive in at least one FP1 session during Season Nine, with Formula E introducing a rookie rule similar to the one used in Formula 1.

The driver’s dream of joining an Indian side has “come true”, with Daruvala incredibly excited and grateful the the “opportunity to contribute” to Mahindra’s upcoming campaign.

“To be a part of an Indian motorsport team is a dream come true. Formula E is very competitive, and I am really excited about this new chapter of my career. Season 9 promises to be very exciting with the all-new Gen 3 car and I am looking forward to learning and contributing, especially to car development and supporting the team. Mahindra Racing’s pioneering efforts in promoting sustainability globally are commendable and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute.”

Roy Nissany and Brad Benavides will form the all-new line-up at the newly rebranded PHM Racing by Charouz team for the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship season.

PHM Racing, which only made its racing debut in 2022 in the UAE, Italian and ADAC Formula 4 Championships, has joined forces with the Charouz Racing System outfit for both Formula 2 and the FIA Formula 3 Championship ahead of the 2023 season.

“Joining Formula 3 and Formula 2 is the next step in our evolution as a comprehensive development program for young driver talents,” said Team Founder Paul H. Mueller.  

“We are excited to offer drivers a team that can take them from karting all the way to the doorstep of Formula 1.”

Israeli driver Nissany will compete in his fifth season of Formula 2 across the past six years – he did not compete in the 2019 season – and will race for his fourth different team. 

Virtuosi Racing has confirmed that Jack Doohan will remain with their FIA Formula 2 team for a second consecutive season in 2023, and he will be joined next year by Amaury Cordeel.

Alpine Academy star Doohan’s rookie season saw him claim three race victories, six podium finishes and three pole positions as he put in a strong championship challenge, and the young Australian was rewarded with two free practice outings with the BWT Alpine F1 Team in Mexico City and Abu Dhabi.

“I’m thrilled to be continuing with Virtuosi Racing for my second year in Formula 2,” said Doohan.  “After a strong first season together, I couldn’t be happier to be going into 2023 with the same great team around me.

“I can’t wait to get redemption from this season.”

Andy Roche, the Team Boss at Virtuosi Racing, is delighted to be able to retain the services of Doohan, who will be looking to improve on his rookie season and fight once more at the front of the field in 2023.

Jamie Chadwick dominated the W Series for all three years of its existence, but this only added to the torrent of concerns about the championship’s viability in helping women find higher opportunities in racing. As a result, she will head stateside in 2023 and make her début in American open-wheel racing as she joins Andretti Autosport in Indy NXT.

She will drive the #28, a number vacated by Christian Rasmussen as he moves to HMD Motorsports, with sponsorship from DHL; the #28 DHL combination is also utilised by Andretti in the NTT IndyCar Series with Romain Grosjean. Chadwick is the first female driver to compete in Indy NXT since Carmen Jordá ran five races in 2010, but the first full-timer since Ana Beatriz and Pippa Mann the year prior.

In October, Chadwick participated in the Chris Griffis Memorial Test at Indianapolis, where she ranked last in sixteenth after clipping the wall.

“Andretti Autosport is proud to be supporting Jamie alongside DHL for the 2023 Indy NXT season,” said team owner Michael Andretti. “Jamie’s successful career speaks for itself, but the Indy NXT series gives Jamie the opportunity to continue her development in a new type of racing. DHL is a long-standing team partner; we are happy to welcome them to the Indy NXT series and excited to welcome Jamie to the team. We’ve turned out five Indy NXT champions over the years and look forward to continuing our role in developing new talent.”

Indy NXT, formerly known as Indy Lights, is the second rung of the USF Pro Championships below the top-tier IndyCar Series. The American open-wheel ladder, known colloquially by its former name Road to Indy, has become a popular landing spot for drivers unable to land better chances in European formula racing. For example, Christian Lundgaard and Marcus Armstrong came to IndyCar from Formula 2 while Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson did so from Formula One.

As JD Motorsports envisions returning to three full-time cars for the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, they have already locked in two of the seats as Bayley Currey and Brennan Poole respectively return to the #4 and #6 Chevrolet Camaros. The team also hopes to bring back the #0 for multiple drivers.

​”We’re full throttle here and getting ready to go,” said team owner Johnny Davis. “Bayley and Brennan are signed on and looking forward to chasing races and points next year. We’re actively moving along looking for sponsor commitments and for drivers and sponsors for the #0 car.”

Currey joined JDM for the final races of the 2021 season after spending much of the year with Mike Harmon Racing, an opportunity that he parlayed into a full schedule in 2022. He finished twentieth in points and scored a top ten at New Hampshire.

Interestingly, Poole has taken the same career trajectory as Currey. He struggled to make races for MHR for much of 2022 before being picked up by JDM for three races at the end of the season, which included a fourteenth at Homestead. This eventually led to a full-time ride for 2023. It will be Poole’s third full Xfinity season after 2016 and 2017 with Chip Ganassi Racing, during which he scored eighth- and sixth-place points placements.

Poole and Currey also made sporadic Truck Series starts in 2022, the former for G2G rRacing and the latter with Niece Motorsports.

Sage Karam will continue his foray into the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2023 as he returns to Alpha Prime Racing for a part-time schedule. His first race will be at Atlanta Motor Speedway on 18 March.

After spending much of his career in the NTT IndyCar Series, albeit as an Indianapolis 500-only driver, Karam entered the Xfinity Series in 2021 with Jordan Anderson Racing. A year later, he ran nine races for Alpha Prime and scored a fifth-place finish at Daytona; it was APR’s first top five. He also rejoined JAR for a Truck Series start at Martinsville.

“Sage has managed the learning curve from open wheel to stock car racing extremely well given his limited starts in the series,” team owner Tommy Joe Martins stated. “He continues to grow and show more and more speed and discipline each time he hits the track. Sage puts us in a great position to contend for our first win, and our team couldn’t be more excited to have him back for 2023.”

While he has been tackling NASCAR more often, he intends to continue racing in IndyCar even if limited to the 500. He finished twenty-third in the 2022 edition for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, a year after scoring his best finish in the race of seventh. The 2013 Indy Lights champion ran much of the 2015 IndyCar schedule for Chip Ganassi Racing and scored his lone podium at Iowa en route to a points finish of twentieth.

Karam also has sports car and rallycross experience, the latter of which included finishing runner-up for the Nitro Rallycross NEXT championship with DRR.

It has been revealed by DS Penske that the famous black and gold livery from DS Automobiles‘ partnership with Techeetah will carry over into their new partnership with Penske Autosport, as the side unveiled to the world their FIA Formula E World Championship challenger for Season Nine and the inauguration of Gen3.

DS enter the new partnership with Penske on the back of having been perhaps the most successful team in Gen2, matched only by the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team. During the previous generation of the all-electric series, DS claimed two Drivers’ Championships and two Constructors’ Championships, in Season Five and Six. They’ll be hoping to combine their winning mentality with the highly ambitious and experienced Penske Autosport, a partnership that could prove highly successful.

They revealed their first Gen3 challenger, the DS E-TENSE FE23 to the world Thursday evening, with the newly signed Stoffel Vandoorne being a “big fan” of of the design. The team have, of course, acquired the services of the reigning World Champion, who will be eager to defend his crown emphatically despite the sport now entering a new, exciting era.

“I am a big fan of the new livery and I could not be more excited to share the finished product. We have an extremely exciting racing year ahead of us and I am pumped to be able to put the pressure on the other teams right from the start of the season in Mexico!”

“We all share the same passion” – Jean-Éric Vergne

Alongside Vandoorne at DS Penske will be the incredibly successful Jean-Éric Vergne, who has been retained by DS for another campaign. Season Nine will be the Frenchman’s eighth season racing for DS in the all-electric series, with the thirty-two year old having claimed consecutive Drivers’ Championships in Season Four and Five.

Season Nine of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is certainly edging ever closer, as the renamed Nissan Formula E Team unveiled their stunning livery for their first Gen3 challenger the Nissan e-4ORCE 04 in Madrid, Spain. There is so much to look forward to for the Japanese outfit, who as well as having a completely new livery, also have a new driver line-up to go with it.

With Sébastian Buemi and Maximilian Günther having left the side, Norman Nato and Sacha Fenestraz have been brought into the team, who have big ambitions for Gen3. 2023 will be a special year for Nissan in the all-electric series, given that they’ll be running under just their name alone, having acquired and dropped the e.dams name from the outfit’s official team name.

The team have opted for an exciting blend of youth and experience for 2023, with the experience coming thanks to Nato. At thirty years old, Nato has done it all in his career, with the Frenchman having won in a variety of championships including Formula 2 and previously Formula E. Nato won the Berlin E-Prix race in Season Seven for ROKIT Venturi Racing, in what was his last full season in the championship.

He did step in for Sam Bird at the Seoul E-Prix last season, after the Brit broke his hand. The experienced driver is certainly looking forward to the start of Gen3 and is crucially a huge fan of the “great” design.

“I really like the new livery, it’s different and will definitely stand out on track. Cherry blossom design is a great touch. This season is also a new beginning for me, and one I’m extremely excited for.

Feryn Dakar Sport was hoping to field a pair of Toyota Land Cruisers at the 2023 Dakar Rally, but the FIA has ruled otherwise. The team announced Friday that the FIA rejected the #257 and #268 Land Cruisers of Koen Wauters and Tom de Leeuw because their rollcages do not meet regulations.

The Feryns were going to take part in the 2023 Rally after running the Dakar Classic in 2022. De Leeuw, with Cédric Feryn as co-driver, finished eighth overall in a Mercedes-Benz 2635A truck while Pascal Feryn and Wauters were twelfth in a Land Cruiser 100. Wauters is no stranger to the Rally, having competed in it twelve times throughout the 2000s and early 2010s while being a household name in Belgian music and television.

Until the FIA’s verdict, de Leeuw and Cédric were scheduled to run the #268 Land Cruiser whereas Wauters and Pascal raced the #257; both cars were entered in the T2 class where they would have competed against the dominant Land Cruiser of Toyota Auto Body. Although the team’s #706 Land Cruiser that Nicola Feryn and Kurt Keysers were to pilot in the Dakar Classic was accepted, they withdrew in solidarity.

The team described the ruling as “no less than a firm slap in the face” to the crew, especially as an inspection by the Amaury Sport Organisation in September had approved the vehicles.

“Our Toyotas are oldies by rally standards,” said Wauters. “Every year, even every month, there are always new developments. To get a good picture of whether our cars would be in accordance with the regulations, we requested a pre-inspection from organiser ASO a few months ago. In September, an inspector from ASO came to our workshop. After a thorough inspection, he confirmed that our cars were in compliance with the regulations, so the final preparations were started and the final test work could begin.

The FIA Formula 1 World Championship has confirmed that the 2023 Chinese Grand Prix will not take place due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation in the country.

Formula 1 was set to return to China for the first time since 2019, however, due to heavy restrictions and continuous lockdowns that have been put in place, leading to many protests across the country, and the sports governing body has made the decision to cancel the race for next year at the Shanghai International Circuit.

In a statement, F1 said, “Formula 1 can confirm, following dialogue with the promoter and relevant authorities, that the 2023 Chinese Grand Prix will not take place due to the ongoing difficulties presented by the COVID-19 situation.

“Formula 1 is assessing alternative options to replace the slot on the 2023 calendar and will provide an update on this in due course.”