Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

T5.2 trucks, a subcategory intended for assistance vehicles that provide parts and other service to competing teams, will undergo slight rule changes for the 2025 Dakar Rally. Among these are the introduction of a separate assistant race director focused exclusively on T5.2 as well as route modifications on safety grounds.

The Truck class consists of T5.1 and T5.2, with T5.1 being racing trucks. While T5.2 is exclusively for support trucks, it is included in the final classification alongside T5.1 and drivers and crews must follow the same FIA regulations as those competing in the race. For example, teams in either class will be disqualified from the rally if they receive three stage penalties, though T5.2 trucks are not informed of their disqualification until the end of the race while T5.1 is eliminated immediately.

T5.1 and T5.2 trucks are also generally the same, the latter is limited to a top speed of 125 km/h whereas the former can go up to 135 km/h (a reduction for 2025 from 140 km/h). As such, the FIA permits teams to switch from one subclass to the other given it happens before pre-race administrative checks and scrutineering.

T5.2 crews can help competitors in distress during marathon stages, where teams are otherwise forbidden from assisting; however, they must also complete the stage in order to offer their services in the marathon bivouac. When in the Empty Quarter, all trucks will follow a different route from the other classes, though T5.2 will be allowed to break from it and rejoin everyone else to provide help. This also applies to the 48-hour Chrono Stage, where T5.2 trucks will follow a modified route from their T5.1 counterparts that avoids dunes.

The new assistant race director role will serve “as a point of contact for the crews of these vehicles, but also for their Team managers present at the bivouac.”

Mathieu Baumel is going from working with one Fall Guy to the other. On Thursday, Guillaume de Mévius announced Baumel will be his navigator for the rest of the 2024 season and beyond, which will include the 2025 Dakar Rally barring any developments in the two months between then and now. Baumel replaces Xavier Panseri, who ran three of the first four World Rally-Raid Championship races by de Mévius’ side.

Their first race will be the FIA Baja World Cup’s Baja España Aragón on 26–28 July.

“Look who’ll be by my side for the rest of the season,” wrote de Mevius. “We are very happy to start a new adventure together. “A big thank you to @xavpanseri for this amazing year. This incredible second place @dakarrally will remain engraved in my memory.”

Baumel is perhaps the most decorated rally raid co-driver today with four Dakar Rallies and FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cups apiece and two World Rally-Raid Championships to his name, all as the navigator for Nasser Al-Attiyah. Despite being the twice reigning World Champion and Dakar victors, however, Baumel and Al-Attiyah parted ways after a disastrous 2024 Dakar, ending a ten-year relationship.

In April, Baumel linked up with Guerlain Chicherit for the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid when the latter’s usual navigator Alex Winocq was out due to injury, though their race ended with a crash. This provided for a reunion with Toyota, where Baumel had spent most of his time with Al-Attiyah before they departed for Prodrive ahead of the 2024 season.

The 2024 class of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame features twelve names across a variety of disciplines from desert racing to rally. The inductees were nominated in March before a commitee reviews their qualifications and makes a final decision in June.

The induction ceremony will take place on 3 November at South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas.

Sorted alphabetically by surname

Ken Block: Block needs little introduction as one of the biggest motorsport icons in history. Prior to his untimely passing in January 2023, Block was a multi-time American rally and rallycross champion whose impact on racing as a whole remains to this day.

Marlin Czajkowski: Nicknamed “Marlin Crawler”, Czajkowski innovated a multitude of technology for off-roading and particularly rock crawling such as the on-board welder, and the axle joint and crossover steering link for Toyota. Czajkowski died in March 2023, though his son Mike still oversees his company Marlin Crawler Off-Road.

Who said the best in the business could only race in the highest category?

With the World Rally-Raid Championship on a four-month break, Nasser Al-Attiyah will dabble in the Challenger class for the first time when he drives a Taurus T3 Max at the Baja España Aragón on 26–28 July. His effort will be fielded under the Taurus B.V. banner (a joint collaboration between MCE-5 Development and Wevers Sport) with Édouard Boulanger as his co-driver as usual.

Al-Attiyah is atop the W2RC with one race to go, leading Yazeed Al-Rajhi by twenty-five points with wins at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and BP Ultimate Rally-Raid. 2024 is his first year with Prodrive, racing a Prodrive Hunter for the first four rounds before the team switches to the new Dacia Sandrider for the season-ending Rallye du Maroc in October.

While Aragón will be his first racing foray in Challenger, Al-Attiyah is no stranger to the vehicles it hosts. Last July, after winning the 2023 Baja Aragón in a Toyota Hilux, he test drove an MCE-5 T3M (predecessor to the Taurus T3 Max) around his Nasser Racing Camp at nearby Castellfollit del Boix. He had high praise for the T3, describing it as a “really nice machine” that “young drivers and new generation” should drive before they consider higher categories.

It is not uncommon for drivers to try out other categories even if they already have extensive experience in the premier Ultimate division. In April, Prodrive colleague Sébastien Loeb entered the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid in a Taurus; despite Challenger being a lower tier, Loeb displayed impressive pace that included nearly winning Stage #2 outright as he lost to Al-Attiyah’s Prodrive Hunter by just thirty-five seconds.

Apache Automotive‘s APH-01 hybrid car will finally be eligible for FIA competition when they enter the Baja España Aragón on 26–28 July, competing in the Challenger class and particularly under the T3.U subcategory. The company will field three APH-01s for rally drivers Pierre-Louis Loubet, Charles Munster, and Julien Saunier.

T3.U is a subcategory introduced by the FIA for the 2024 cross-country rally season intended for electric and hybrid Challenger (formerly T3) vehicles. It takes inspiration from T1.U of the premier Ultimate class, which was filled by Team Audi Sport’s electric RS Q e-tron series for three years and won the Dakar Rally in January before their demise shortly after.

Appendix J, Article 286 of the FIA’s cross-country regulations stipulate a T3.U car must be capable of travelling on a flat road for at least five kilometres while “being only propelled thanks to the e-motor(s)” and reaching 90 kilometres per hour within twenty seconds. The battery and battery management system must be commercially available and approved by the FIA. The Rechargeable Energy Storage System, which includes every battery pack, the housing they are encased in, and any other internal components, can be built as the team pleases as long as it weighs sixty kilograms at minimum including cooling fluid.

After being revealed in June 2023, Apache made its competition début at the Baja Portalegre 500 last October with Mathieu Serradori. Although the race is part of the FIA European Baja Cup, Serradori was not included in the final results since the APH-01 did not meet FIA regulation at the time, instead being regarded as an Open/Experimental entry. In January, Apache enlisted Loubet and motocross star Gautier Paulin for the Africa Eco Race; despite it being both drivers’ first times in rally raid, Loubet won five stages but finished outside the top ten due to mechanical issues while Paulin was the overall winner.

Loubet has raced in the World Rally Championship since 2015, which he juggled with competing in WRC-2. After winning the WRC-2 title in 2019, he fully committed to the top level and spent two WRC seasons apiece with Hyundai and M-Sport Ford (the latter also having a rally raid arm). He finished twelfth in the 2023 standings before returning to WRC-2 for 2024 with Škoda on a part-time schedule. François Borsotto, who partnered with him for the AER, will continue as his co-driver.

Charlie Herbst announced Tuesday the launch of Challenger Racing Team, which intends to provide logistical, technical, and even media support for fellow rally raid riders.

Herbst placed eighteenth in Rally2 and a career-best thirtieth among all bikes at the Dakar Rally in January with a best daily finish of thirteenth in Stage #8. It was his sixth Dakar but first on a GasGas 450 Rally after switching over from KTM. His entry was fielded under the Team All Tracks banner, and now he wants to do the same for other riders. While Herbst is registered for the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship, the Dakar is his only start so far.

“In 2017, I set myself on my first completely crazy challenge, which was to participate in this fabulous Dakar,” said Herbst. “It was really complicated to find people to guide me on this project, whether on a sporting, financial or logistical level. I really struggled to find the answers to my questions.

“Today, I was really keen to be able to set up my own structure and to be able to provide support for all riders who want to embark on this crazy project. This new operation will be called Challenger Racing Team. It aims to accompany the rider from the start to the finish line. Whether it is for the creation of a partnership on a sporting level, the search for sponsors, roadbook training, participation in the World Championship, the idea is to support you from start to finish and on all levels.

“Our strength is to allow you to benefit from our networks, our partners and our experience. The big positive of this plan will be to be able to support you on every level, from communication to the sponsorship dossier, organising events for your partners, searching for sponsors, making your bike’s livery before the race. We will offer you a studio with 360-degree photo and video shots to present your bike, your equipment, and your partners.”

Paratrooper and motorcycle rider Thierry Vladikine died Sunday at the age of 62. He had been battling illness and was checked into the Clinique Claude Bernard in Albi.

Vladikine was a member of the French Marines‘ 8th Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment in the 1980s, particularly working at the garrison in Castres. The 8e RPIMa (8e Régiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie de Marine) primarily serves as a peacekeeping unit.

In1988, he entered the Paris–Dakar Rally on a Suzuki DR 600 prepared by twice champion Gaston Rahier. The following year, Vladikine switched to a Kawasaki KLR 650.

He wrapped up his service as a master corporal. In 2021, Vladikine was among 236 former military personnel—including thirty Marines—who signed an open letter penned by former officer Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac to President Emmanuel Macron to warn of civil war if the country continued upon its current trajectory. The letter, heavily right wing and anti-immigrant in rhetoric, received an endorsement from far-right leader and presidential aspirant Marine Le Pen and was regarded as a threat of a coup d’état.

“It is with sadness that I inform you that the 8th Para Thierry Vladikine has just made his last jump, to join the DZ (drop zone) of the brave under the wings of our patron saint Michel,” reads a statement from an unofficial 8e RPIMa site run by paratrooper Jean-Daniel Salles. “Died in his 62nd year on July 14, 2024 of illness at the C.Bernard clinic in Albi. He had served with the 8 RPIMa in the 1980s at the HQ of the Regiment. A motorcycle enthusiast, he had run the Paris-Dakar under the colors of the 8th.”

Dennis Zenz is used to riding shotgun in the Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1U and calling the shots for Seth Quintero, but he got a chance to sit behind the wheel himself during the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Not that it’s something he’d want to do in an actual race anytime soon, of course.

Zenz drove the Hilux during the second day of the Festival of Speed, taking part in the Hillclimb, which he sandwiched between his usual duties as the navigator.

“Must say I was pretty nervous to do a mistake, but at the end enjoyed every single second. Mhhhh but to be honest, I think I’ll stay in the codriver seat. Don’t wanna get lost to often with @sethquintero_103 being my navigator,” wrote Zenz.

The Hilux was among a fleet of vehicles brought by Toyota Gazoo Racing that included their World Rally and Endurance Championship cars and even a hydrogen-based Toyota GR Yaris that actor Rowan Atkinson drove.

Zenz, Quintero, and TGR team-mate Lucas Moraes‘ co-driver Armand Monleón all took the truck around the festival’s three stages including the Off-Road Arena and Forest Rally Stage. Moraes was not in attendance as he recovers from a concussion and cuts he suffered in a cycling accident, though with the next World Rally-Raid Championship round not until October, he hopes to rejoin the team for media events starting with the Summer Olympics in August. Quintero particularly wowed the crowd with his doughnuts.

Toyota Gazoo Racing have put their victory at the 6 Hours of São Paulo down to “flawless driving, strong team work and a superior tyre strategy.” The Japanese team’s second victory of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) puts the team just four points behind Porsche in the manufacturers’ championship, a tantalising prospect with three races still to run.

The weekend started strongly for Toyota. At the circuit where they claimed their maiden hybrid-powered WEC victory back in 2012, the team managed to lock-out the front row of the grid, the first time this has happened for Toyota since the final race of the 2023 season. Brendon Hartley in the #8 car locked up at the first turn, running wide. However, the Australian recovered into second position, keeping the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport car at bay while Mike Conway in the #7 car built a commanding lead.

The lead changed hands in the third hour. The #7 car suffered a control unit issue, forcing them into the pits and dropping them down to 18th in the Hypercar class. In the #8 car, Ryo Hirakawa and then Sébastian Buemi both put in fantastic, clean, professional drives, meaning that they secured victory when the chequered flag fell with a gap of 1:08.811 ahead of the second place #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport car.

Meanwhile, a gutsy recovery drive from Nyck de Vries put the #7 car back into the points, no easy feat given the depth of talent on the 2024 WEC grid. When Kamui Kobayashi took over, the pressure did not alleviate, the Japanese driver securing fourth place with a superb move on the #51 Ferrari AF Corse with less than five minutes left on the clock.

“For the team, this was definitely our week” enthused #7 driver and team principal Kobayashi. “We had good pace in qualifying then both cars were really strong in the race and we managed the tyre degradation really well. Congratulations to car #8 for the victory; they drove a great race. Obviously, car #7 had the potential to win but unfortunately we had an issue and that cost us time in the pits. From then on it was a difficult situation for us but we tried our best to come back, and fourth was the best we could realistically achieve.“

Joey Evans has challenged many of the world’s toughest off-road races from the Dakar Rally to the Africa Eco Race, though it was not an easy road to get there. Now, he wants to add the Baja 1000 to his résumé.

In 2007, while competing in an off-road race in his home country of South Africa, Evans suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury when fell off his bike at the start and was run over by the rush of fellow competitors. The accident resulted in paralysis from the chest down and initial fears he would never be able to walk again. Despite the odds, he was riding again shortly after the turn of the decade.

By 2013, he was doing cross-country rallies and getting himself back in shape to pursue his dreams of the Dakar Rally, one that would be realised in 2017; racing the #132 bike, Evans finished ninety-third overall. Three years later, he tried his hand at the Africa Eco Race that followed the Dakar’s original Europe-to-Senegal route, where he finished the race even after crashing into a camel on the penultimate leg’s road section. He also has experience as a rally navigator, working with Terence Marsh in the South African Rally-Raid Championship in 2018.

Since the Dakar, Evans works as a public speaker and is the author of the bestselling book From Para to Dakar: Overcoming Paralysis and Conquering the Dakar Rally. He is also an adventure bike brand ambassador for KTM.

With two major rallies out of the way, he now intends to tackle Baja for the first time, riding in the Pro Moto Ironman category for solo riders. The effort will be in partnership with the Adaptive Sports Fund, a nonprofit focused on helping those with disabilities participate in sport; Evans will put the names of donors to his Baja 1000 fundraiser on his bike, though proceeds will go towards the ASF while Evans pays for racing expenses himself.

The Silk Way Rally might not be Le Mans, but being one of the premier rally raids in the world still makes the White Tiger a worthwhile addition to Roman Rusinov‘s trophy case.

Rusinov won the T3 category for his maiden rally raid victory, a year after the endurance racing champion made his début in the discipline and finished second in class at the 2023 SWR. Sergei Kariakin, who held off Rusinov for last year’s T3 victory, claimed three of the final four stages but electrical issues and a fire in his car’s engine during the post-Stage #7 liaison relegated him to last among the four T3 finishers. Rusinov had electrical issues of his own on the final day but managed to bring it to the finish safely and seal the win.

“We were stressed for the ninety-nine kilometres before the finish, so we drove gently and kept our pace because we understood that we had a big lead and just needed to finish,” Rusinov commented. “This is motorsport, rally raid. There were a lot of small pitfalls, and in some places we drove very slowly. It’s great that we reached the finish line.”

Both Rusinov and Kariakin’s team-mates failed to reach the finish. The former’s G-Drive Racing colleague Anastasiya Nifontova won a leg but exited after crashing into a gully in Stage #9 and rolling. Alexey Shmottev of SNAG Racing, who raced the new Can-Am Maverick R in the Open class, lost control of his car in a tight corner slammed into a tree during the third leg.

Vyacheslav Paputsky, the other retirement in T3 alongside Nifontova, did the same as Shmottev but managed to recover and continue, only for his rally to end two days later when his Yamaha’s engine blew due to defective fuel. Many competitors had bemoaned the fuel quality, provided by Lukoil, and Paputsky recalled a rider who crashed after it caused his bike to stall. Both of Ural Motorsport‘s trucks retired after Alexey Popov crashed into a rut three kilometres into Stage #7 and suffered a compression fracture of the second vertebra while Yuri Naiman broke down just thirty km from the race finish.

Formula 1 heads to Budapest this weekend for Round 12 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

The 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix promises to be an exciting weekend, with the competition at the front as tight as ever. Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team come into the weekend fresh from two consecutive race wins, while Lando Norris will be hoping to right the wrongs of the Silverstone week. You can also never write off three-time world champion and current championship leader, Max Verstappen.

The midfield is incredibly close too, there’s a battle between Visa Cash App RB and MoneyGram Haas F1 Team that will continue this weekend, while Williams Racing will be hoping for more points after Alex Albon drove an excellent race to finish ninth at the 2024 British Grand Prix.

The Hungarian Grand Prix is held at the legendary Hungaroring, which hosted its first race in 1986. The race lasts for 70 laps, making it one of the shortest laps of the year at just 4.381km. With its scarcity of straights, the Hungaroring is frequently likened to a go-kart track, which is f air comparison. The circuit’s flowing layout encourages teams to maximise downforce, although not to Monaco levels. The track needs chassis performance over outright speed. Though challenging, the track is a real drivers circuit, meaning the veterans of the sport such as Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo normally go well.

Oracle Red Bull Racing could struggle at the Hungaroring, which creates a dilemma for Sergio Pérez, who is under pressure to keep his seat with the Austrian team, with a potential mid-season swap a possibility with Red Bull afraid of losing out on the Constructors Championship. It also happens it’s a track that Ricciardo, the rumoured replacement, does well at. The Australian driver has won at the circuit, and taken two podiums during his time with Red Bull, while also driving an excellent recovery drive in 2018, going from twelfth to fourth. He also did well at this circuit last year, finishing thirteenth in his first race back in Formula 1. Pérez has only been on the podium once at the circuit and has only qualified in the top ten five times in his 13 visits to Budapest. 

As its name suggests, the World Rally-Raid Championship is the premier cross-country rally series with stops across the globe from the Americas to the Middle East. As the W2RC nears the end of its third season, however, some feel they might have bitten off more than they could chew.

In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, Shinsuke Umeda opined bringing together major rally raids around the world under a single banner is stretching teams’ resources thin while poor marketing provides little incentive for them to race on a regular basis. Despite finishing runner-up in the 2023 SSV standings, he has only run the season-opening Dakar Rally so far in 2024 due to these factors.

“The rules and laws for rally raids vary significantly depending on the event, with each organiser running things as they see fit,” he wrote. “Now, the FIA is using Dakar as bait to forciby unify them, which is causing problems.”

The W2RC is headlined by the Dakar, which everyone moderately familiar with off-road racing certainly knows, in Saudi Arabia. The series then stays in the Middle East for the the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge before heading to Europe for the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid. A round trip across the Atlantic Ocean rounds out the season with the Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina followed by the Rallye du Maroc in October. In total, the 2024 season visits six countries for five rounds.

A world championship obviously requires teams to travel a lot, but Umeda pointed out the logistics to get to a rally raid are not as straightforward as in pavement-based series. Rallies are typically further from population hubs and are headquartered at temporary bivouacs rather than permanent facilities, meaning hauling personnel and equipment is more expensive and perhaps confusing. The FIA does not help teams with transport save for bringing vehicles from the Dakar to Abu Dhabi, though Umeda added it is “cheaper to hire a local tow truck.” The Dakar’s overseer Amaury Sport Organisation also arranges for shipping vehicles from Spain to Saudi Arabia and back, though some teams still opt to go on their own if it is more affordable.

Ryan Beat did not stand atop of the podium when he won Saturday’s Championship Off-Road Pro 2 race at ERX Motor Park, but he couldn’t even if he wanted to.

The Saturday before the ERX Off-Road National, Beat broke his collarbone, tailbone, and pelvis in a dirt bike crash. Despite fears he would have to miss the weekend, he opted to take part anyway to contend for the Pro 2 championship as he and Mickey Thomas were scrapping for points. After finishing third in the first race on Friday when a flat tyre took him out while leading, he took the top spot again early on Saturday; this time, Beat’s tyres held up and he cruised to his third victory of 2024.

Afterwards, Beat was extracted from his truck by crew members, who handed him his crutches so he could walk to the podium. Standing in front of the top step as his injuries prevented him from climbing it, he referred to the win as “the gnarliest one of my career for sure.”

“Just told myself if I’m going to be dumb enough to get hurt during race season, I need to be tough enough to race hurt so here we are,” he continued. “These guys were moving. I just had to click off clean laps and only push when I absolutely had to. The jumps are what’s hurting me. Luckily BILSTEIN’s got the truck dialed in perfect to where I can jump it and still not hurt.”

Defending Pro 2 champion Cory Winner, who scaled back his calendar to a part-time slate, finished second for his first podium of the season ahead of Thomas. Beat leads Thomas by just six points. Thomas held off Kyle Greaves for third a day after the latter notched his maiden points win in the class (he won the Kyle LeDuc Memorial Cup at Antigo in June, a Pro 2 vs. Pro 4 that did not count for the standings).

Veloce Racing cannot be stopped in Scotland as they won Sunday’s Hydro X Prix Grand Final to complete a weekend sweep. They are the second team to win both Grand Finals in a given round since Extreme E introduced the current race format in 2023, joining Rosberg X Racing at Island X Prix I last year.

Unlike Saturday when they won both of their heat races then the Grand Final, Kevin Hansen and Molly Taylor had to fight for the victory the next day. They came up short in the first heat to JBXE then struggled with penalties for knocking over waypoint flags in the second that relegated them to third. Despite their difficulties, they managed to make the Grand Final with the help of the Continental Traction Challenge, having set the fastest time through said designated section during Q2H1.

“It’s so tricky with doubleheaders because you can’t let yourself go at any point,” Hansen commented. “Getting excited takes away from your focus and we had to be able to perform today too.”

The Grand Final featured an identical grid to the day before, and even the same finishing order as Veloce beat ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team and Andretti XE while RXR struggled to a fourth. Still, it was not as easy of a trip to the top step of the podium for Veloce as Hansen had to stave off Laia Sanz before swapping out with Taylor, who in turn kept Fraser McConnell at bay.

“Today was a real scrap. I think in Extreme E, particularly now with how close the competition is, the fight to get to the Grand Final is insane and it can go any which way,” said Taylor. “Once you get to that Final the slate is wiped clean, and with the support of our fans in GridPlay we were able to put ourselves in a good position on the start line.