Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Friday saw the return of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship to the United States with two exciting practice sessions, with the second being extended from sixty to ninety minutes due to a Pirelli tyre test session.

Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc posted the fastest time in the second practice session, the Monegasque driver was one of the drivers who posted their times on the 2022 spec tyres after sitting out the first session after his team gave Robert Shwartzman a chance behind the wheel of the F1-75.

Leclerc’s fastest time was a 1.36.810 on the medium tyre with Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo also in the top three on soft tyres. The session, however, was primarily used for Pirelli to gather data on their work in progress tyre compounds ahead of the post-season test for the definitive versions in Abu Dhabi.

Free Practice 2 saw the first laps on the weekend for Leclerc, Ricciardo, Bottas, Nicholas Latifi and Kevin Magnussen. The latter lost a large amount of time due to Antonio Giovinazzi’s crash in the first session of the weekend.

Carlos Sainz Jr. led the drivers that were restricted to the unmarked Pirelli tyres, and it was a strong showing for Haas F1 Team‘s Mick Schumacher, who completed the top five. Lando Norris completed a strong session for McLaren coming home in sixth, but it could have ended badly for the Brit after he narrowly missed the wall after sliding at the pit entry.

For the 2023 Dakar Rally, Sodicars Racing intends to bring in some student aid. On Thursday, Sodicars announced a new partnership with Nebrija University in Madrid, Spain, where students will attempt to redesign the Sodicars BV2 for Manolo and Mónica Plaza Perez to race.

The two parties first teamed up for the Baja Aragón in July, where a team of students joined the Plazas and Sodicars at the race. The Plazas would finish fortieth overall and thirteenth in the T1 category.

The students are a mixture of undergraduates and master’s pursuers from the university’s Higher Polytechnic School. Among their responsibilities in the redesign are to improve the aerodynamics and handling as well as reduce the vehicle weight.

“Nebrija to Dakar is a long-term project that extends beyond the 2023 Dakar Rally,” explained Sergio Corbera, who oversees the university’s automotive department. “It is an initiative with a clear roadmap on which evolve and gradually integrate new technological advances developed by university students in this type of vehicle.”

Manolo Plaza has raced in the Dakar Rally fifteen times since 1996. He was a regular from his debut until the race was cancelled in 2008, from which he spent the next decade competing in its replacement Africa Eco Race. Plaza made his return to the Dakar Rally in 2020 with daughter Mónica as co-driver.

The eight-time world rally champion Sébastien Ogier has snatched back the rally lead in RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada and he is the overnight leader after the first full day of action in Spain. Thierry Neuville was leading the rally after the morning loop but when stage five opened up the afternoon lop the Frenchman was back in the top and he managed to hold off the fast-charging teammate Kalle Rovanperä who currently sits 4.8 seconds back in second.

Neuville however is 7.7 seconds back on Rovanperä, he has complained about his pace during the afternoon and he didn´t want to push the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 too much for fear of sliding. Neuville´s teammate Ott Tänak who had an eventful morning is still holding on to fourth place with 7.5 seconds back on the Belgian while the Spanish home hero Dani Sordo in a similar Hyundai ends the day in fifth despite having a puncture on stage seven.

Sordo wasn´t the only one who suffered from punctures on the afternoon, Toyota´s Elfyn Evans dropped down to sixth after hitting the same rock which caused the puncture for Sordo, Takamoto Katsuta also managed to hit the very same rock and also caught up a puncture. The two Toyotas are in sixth and eighth respectively with M-Sport´s Craig Breen sandwiched between them in seventh.

Adrien Fourmaux also in a Ford trails Katsuta by just 2.7 seconds in ninth while his teammate Gus Greensmith completes the top ten with 7.5 seconds down on the Frenchman.

In the WRC2 class, Teemu Suninen is looking to take his first victory of the season after he passed Nikolay Gryazin on the final stage before the midday service and he has been holding on to it since then. In the title fight between Emil Lindholm and Kajetan Kajetanowicz, it is currently going in Lindholm´s favor as he is sitting in front of the Pole with 11 seconds to spare.

The Sand Races World Cup will be the newest world championship sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), running a three-race inaugural season in 2023. The FIM Cross-Country Commission, who oversees cross-country bike and quad rallying such as the Bajas World Cup and the World Rally-Raid Championship, will take the new series under its wing.

Sand racing, not to be confused with desert racing as seen in Baja or traditional rally raid, is an enduro discipline that runs along beaches. True to the name, sand races mandate the course must be at least ninety percent sand, and it also features elements like jumps similar to motocross.

While bikes and quads are the emphasis as they are usually under FIM jurisdiction in other series, the FIM has not ruled out SSVs as a future class (which are generally overseen by the FIA).

“The launch of the FIM Sand Races World Cup marks the start of a new competition,” said Cross-Country Commission director Jean-François Wulvérick. “With all the stakeholders, we look forward to building and developing together the competition on sand, which is very popular with riders, teams, manufacturers and the public. We are going to optimise the sporting and technical rules to make it evolve at the World Championship level in the future.”

The 2023 season begins with the Enduropale du Touquet in France, the largest and oldest sand race in the world, on 3–5 February. The Enduro del Verano in Argentina follows three weeks later. After a ten-month silence, the season resumes and ends with the Monte Gordo Beach Algarve in Portugal.

Bryce Menzies and Andy McMillin were the favourites in the 2021 Baja 1000 as their Trophy Truck dominated the overall before the vehicle died. They will seek to bounce back as they announced the continuation of their partnership for 2022.

Both sponsored by Red Bull, Menzies and McMillin are among the top Trophy Truck drivers in desert racing and perennial frontrunners at the Baja 1000, with the latter boasting five 1000 wins to his name (2006, 2009, 2011, 2014, and 2015). Although Menzies has never won the 1000, he is a popular name with success in SCORE International and short course.

Their truck will be the first to start the 1000 after Menzies won the Baja 400 for the second straight year. Menzies has had an up-and-down 2022 season that began with winning the pole and finishing runner-up to Luke McMillin (Andy’s cousin) at the San Felipe 250, followed by retiring from the Baja 500 when his engine died. In a reversal of San Felipe, Menzies then defeated McMillin at the Baja 400.

McMillin’s 2022 has been plagued by misfortunes in virtually every race. In San Felipe, overheating and a transmission change doomed him to a sixteenth-place class finish. He switched from #31 to Eric Hustead‘s #38 truck at the 500 when the original driver was unable to make the trip, but failed to finish that race when his engine blew following a myriad of issues including oil dilution and piston scuffing, the latter of which prompted Joe Gibbs Racing to recall the motors for repairs. The 400 presented better results as he finished eighth, though he still an eventful day highlighted by Clay Lawrence‘s tyres coming off and impacting McMillin’s truck.

The Baja 1000’s tough nature makes partnerships common, especially if a driver wants to help a peer in the SCORE World Desert Championship. Luke McMillin, who is competing with Menzies for the Trophy Truck class title, will join forces with Rob MacCachren for 2022; the two won the 1000 overall in 2021. Other TT alliances include Tavo Vildósola and Alan Ampudia, along with Apdaly Lopez and Broc Dickerson.

Stage #2 of the Andalucía Rally promised to be a technical two-part leg as the run to Málaga was hyped up by director David Castera as boasting “some WRC-style sections” and mountains. Unfortunately, competitors never got the chance to see for themselves as poor weather conditions resulted in its cancellation.

While the rain would not have badly impacted the racers themselves, fog prevented safety helicopters from taking off from Sevilla to oversee the race. The stage was initially delayed for two hours, then shortened to 84 kilometres before being called off entirely.

“We made the decision to cancel Stage #2 of the Andalucía Rally because our helicopters were unable to reach the special due to adverse weather conditions,” Castera explained. “The course itself was mostly clear, but it lies 120 kilometres away and the pilots would have had to fly through very foggy areas with no visibility at all. We held out for as long as we could before cancelling the stage. We shortened the course with every passing hour, but we had to make a go/no-go decision by 2 PM. When the clock struck two, our helicopters were still unable to reach the special, so we had no choice but to call it a day.”

With no racing taking place, the FIA was busy addressing infractions in the previous leg. The #312 T3 of Ricardo Ramilo Suarez suffered a four-minute penalty and €100 fine for speeding in Stage #1B, going as fast as 27 km/h over the 50 km/h speed limit. José Gameiro, the lone T2 in the race, had a minute added to his time for the same violation as he went 41 km/h instead of 30 km/h. In T1, Maria Luís received five minutes for going 87 in a 30 zone.

The overall leaders obviously remain the same from Stage #1B.

Leaders after Stage #2

After quite the week off track with Oracle Red Bull Racing‘s minor breach of the spend cap being a hot topic and discussions still ongoing with the team, the FIA Formula 1 World Championship is back in Austin, Texas.

There was a general impatience to get out onto the track at the Circuit of the Americas as the teams lined up in the pit lane under the Austin sunshine. All of the rookies made their way out onto the track, including American driver Logan Sargeant in Williams Racing‘s FW44.

Carlos Sainz Jr. sets the pace early on a lap time of 1:41.381, just ahead of BWT Alpine F1 driver Esteban Ocon. However, the session was about to be halted as Antonio Giovonazzi, in his first return to Formula 1 since the 2021 season, collided with the barrier off of turn 6 resulting in the session being suspended under a red flag and forcing the Haas driver to exit his car just ten minutes into the session.

Mechanics in the Haas F1 Team garage reported on the damage, claiming Giovonazzi over-heated the clutch moments before the crash making a gearbox change likely.

With forty-six minutes left on the clock, the session was allowed to continue as the track welcomed last year’s winner and current Formula 1 World Driver’s Champion, Max Verstappen out onto the circuit. Unsurprisingly, Verstappen was quick to set the fastest time of 1:38.272 on a brand new set of soft tyres, half a second ahead of Ocon, making the top three round off as Verstappen and the two Alpine drivers.

Esteban Ocon and the BWT Alpine F1 Team are looking forward to being back in Austin for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, as we enter the eighteenth round of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Ocon came away from the Japanese Grand Prix a fortnight ago with some very important points for the Alpine team, in their fight with McLaren F1 Team for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship. The Frenchman finished the race at the Suzuka International Racing Course in fourth place, which is his best race result to date this season.

Alpine currently have a thirteen point advantage over McLaren in the team standings. with the hope of being able to extend that gap over their rivals around the Circuit of the Americas.

Ocon spoke about the testing track, as we look ahead to this weekend’s sessions with the Frenchman comparing Austin’s iconic circuit to an “exciting roller coaster ride”.

“COTA is like an exciting rollercoaster ride for driver and machine that really puts both to the test. You can split the circuit in two parts with the very high-speed section at the start, going pretty much flat out before turn 11. Then, following the long back straight, we pass the iconic observation tower and tackle a combination of technical low-speed corners to end the lap. It’s fast and flowing, but also bumpy, which adds to the challenge. I like this track and I’m looking forward to being back.”

Kevin Magnussen is looking forward to the chance to score points in Haas F1 Team‘s home race this weekend, in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Formula 1 returns to the United States Grand Prix for the tenth year this weekend, and Haas will be hoping for a rare points finish of late after they returned from the summer break in poor form. Magnussen has taken part in five races in Austin, three of them for Haas, and he is hoping to return to the top ten and add to his twenty-two points this season.

Magnussen discussed his thoughts on the Circuit of the Americas as he looks ahead to the race weekend.

“I don’t think it’s really evolved in terms of how I approach it. It’s a great track, it has become very bumpy so some years when we get there it’s super bumpy and then others, they grind down those bumps so the circuit changes its character a little bit in that way.

“As I said, it’s a great track, especially sector 1 – it’s super high-speed, the ‘esses’ I think are actually some of the coolest corners in F1. There’s a bit too much run-off for my liking but the layout itself is very cool, so I’m looking forward to going back there.

The FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns to the Circuit of the Americas for the United States Grand Prix this weekend, with the World Championship closing in on its finale.

Austin returns for the tenth year on the calendar, and it has established itself as one of the best weekends, with good racing and an eager fanbase. The Haas F1 Team are gearing up for their home Grand Prix, and with a struggle of late they hope they will be able to get back in the point scoring positions.

Team Principal Guenther Steiner is excited at the chance to return to the USA this season and recalls his first experience of the fan favourite track.

“When the US Grand Prix in Austin was first held, it was something completely new. Formula 1 hadn’t been in the States for a long time and there were a lot of naysayers saying it wouldn’t work. Thanks to Bobby Epstein, who kept on pushing, as it’s now a fan favorite after 10 years. Formula 1 without Austin is difficult to think about – Austin has become a classic.

“It has brought a lot to the fans as they can go to a great event, this season with 400,000 expected spectators and for the rest of the world, it’s great racing in the States.”

The Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT driver Thierry Neuville has become the third rally leader after the four morning stages in RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada when he passed the Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT French star Sébastien Ogier on stage four by posting the fastest time, now only 0.5 seconds are separating them heading for the second pass through the same stages this afternoon.

With only six seconds separating the top four drivers it will be a tight duel to see who will be taking the overnight rally leader after today. The 2022 champion Kalle Rovanperä was leading the rally early on but got passed by his Toyota teammate Ogier on the third stage, however, Ogier´s lead was short-lived when Neuville went fastest on the last stage of the loop.

Neuville´s Hyundai teammate Ott Tänak has been getting issues with his alternator as he went to the midday service, he managed to get it repaired but that is not the only issue he has got this morning. His Hyundai i20 N Rally1 also had a hybrid issue after the second stage but despite the drama, he is still in fourth overall.

Toyota´s Elfyn Evans is comfortably in fifth and he has an advantage by 13.9 seconds over the local hero Dani Sordo, and he also had a good margin of 12.5 seconds over the following Takamoto Katsuta who is in seventh.

Rounding up the top 10 are the three M-Sport Ford WRT drivers of Craig Breen, Adrien Fourmaux, and Gus Greensmith, while their teammate Pierre-Louis Loubet dropped down to 11th overall after a puncture on the third stage and had to pull over shortly after the final stage to extinguish a small engine bay fire before continuing. 

While Great American Shortcourse is a short course off-road series and Ultra4 USA focuses on rock crawling, both will begin their 2023 seasons together in Johnson Valley, California with the King of the Hammers.

GAS was previously due to attend KOH in 2022 with an exhibition race called the Off Road Race of Champions, which would have pitted the 2021 class champions in Pro 2, Pro Lite, Pro Buggy, Production 1000 UTV, Pro Turbo UTV, and Mod Kart against each other in stadium trucks; the winner would receive a scholarship to contest the full 2023 Stadium Super Trucks season. However, the plans were abandoned as SST’s leadership was occupied with launching the SPEED UTV brand.

King of the Hammers is Ultra4’s premier event with a three-week calendar from 26 January to 11 February. It will award double points and go towards the national championship, both of which also apply to the Visions Off-Road in Oklahoma and the season-ending Legends of the Fall in Arizona. Much of the schedule is otherwise divided into East and West regional championships, though both will also come together for the Crandon International Off-Road Raceway round in late August, which is expanded from their previous Crandon World Cup participation; this new Crandon round has a three-year deal through 2025. Ultra4’s Youth 170 classes will also support every round except for KOH with their own regional and national standings.

The collaboration makes sense for all parties involved as GAS is co-run by Hammerking Productions owner Dave Cole, whose company previously oversaw KOH and Ultra4 before selling them to MidAmerica Outdoors in March.

Great American Shortcourse’s third season of operation will see the series continue racing at Glen Helen Raceway and the SBC Fairgrounds in Southern California. For the first time, however, GAS will also head outside California with a round in Primm, Nevada; behind the Buffalo Bill’s Resort and Casino is an off-road course that has hosted desert races like the Mint 400 and Best In The Desert.

The second leg of the Africa Eco Race on Wednesday was overshadowed by tragedy when Armindo Neves suffered fatal injuries after falling off his bike in the closing stages. He was 52 years old.

Riding the #123 SWM 500 for Desert Rose Racing–Team SWM Portugal, he had finished the first stage in twenty-first. The accident occurred with just 23 kilometres remaining in Stage #2’s run from Bousaïd to Tagounite, Morocco. Despite attempts to aid him, he succumbed to his injuries.

“This Wednesday, October 19, 2022, at km 443 of the Bousaid-Tagounite special of the Africa Eco Race, motorcycle rider N°123 Armindo Carreiras Neves fell heavily,” began a statement from race organisers. “Although joined and taken care of very quickly by two helicopter doctors and a doctor from a tango vehicle on the track, the Portuguese biker could not be brought back to life. Aged 52, this experienced driver took part in the Africa Eco Race for the first time on his SWM.

“Since 2009, when the AFRICA ECO RACE was created, this is the first time that such an accident with a fatal outcome has occurred on the event. During the daily briefing, Jean-Louis Schlesser, very affected by the tragedy, urged the participants to be extra careful on the rest of the Rally and asked them to drive with Armindo in mind. The entire Africa Eco Race team sends its sincere condolences to his family.”

While the Eco Race has been targeted by threats of warfare, Neves is the first fatality in the race’s history. He is also the second Portuguese rider to die in a major rally raid after Paulo Gonçalves suffered cardiac arrest during the 2020 Dakar Rally, the original Europe–Senegal route of which is currently taken by the Eco Race; the 2022 Rally saw another death when mechanic Quentin Lavallée was killed in an accident.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Principal Otmar Szafnauer is looking forward to being back on home turf as the FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns to Austin for the United States Grand Prix.

Alpine had a great result last time round at the Suzuka International Racing Course for the Japanese Grand Prix as Esteban Ocon fought of seven time World Champion Lewis Hamilton in wet conditions to finish in fourth place and Fernando Alonso finished in seventh, the Spaniard missing out on sixth place by eleven hundredths of a second in an epic photo finish with Sebastian Vettel.

The double points finish for Alpine allowed them to climb ahead of McLaren F1 Team in the Constructors’ Championship as they lead the British team by thirteen points, and Szafnauer is hoping that the team can extend their gap in fourth place in the standings over their rivals.

Szafnauer spoke about returning to one of his favourite races in the Formula 1 calendar as the team have bought a small modification to its recently upgraded floor of the car for this weekend’s race with Alpine’s Team Principal confirming that this will be their final upgrade of the year.

“It’s always great when we race in the United States – home turf for me – especially in Austin, which is a favourite among many of us in Formula 1,” said Szafnauer. “It’s a very demanding racetrack that usually brings some good racing with a fast first sector, the long, back straight and some slow-speed corners towards the end, which has some opportunities for overtaking.

Ruben Saldaña Goñi‘s hope of making his Dakar Rally début in 2023 were seemingly dashed in late July when his application was rejected due to insufficient experience. Three months and a participation in the Rallye du Maroc later, he is on his way to Saudi Arabia.

Competing on a KTM 450 in the Rally2 category, Saldaña finished twenty-third overall with stage finishes of thirty-ninth, twentieth, twenty-seventh, twenty-second, twenty-ninth, and twenty-sixth. He was the third best finisher among rookies in the class, with the top newcomer Stefano Caimi—who was sixth overall—also clinching a trip to Dakar.

His run was enough to convince the Amaury Sport Organisation to reverse their decision on 12 October, which he publicly revealed a week later. Being part of the World Rally-Raid Championship, the Rallye du Maroc is a Road to Dakar event that allows competitors with no previous Dakar Rally experience to be invited if they are among the best performers in select races. T4 driver Toomas Triisa secured his spot after finishing eighth in Morocco, while Luis Díaz Soza won said class at the Atacama Rally in August to do the same.

“Receiving this letter is a reward for years of dedication to this sport,” wrote Saldaña. “As you know, all my life the idea of ​​one day being able to run a Dakar has followed me and this is not something you go and buy.

“As this race grew, the requirements to be able to take the start increased, and this year has undoubtedly been the strictest to date. This year, the available places have been reduced by 20% compared to last year. It is warned that it will be the hardest and longest edition to date, with two additional stages, fewer links, more specials and split roadbooks to prevent some drivers from following others without worrying about navigation. These elements increased interest in the Dakar.