Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Rob MacCachren might have been in a celebratory mood in the six days since winning the 54th Baja 500, but a number of his fellow competitors were less than pleased with their placements in the official results by SCORE International. On Thursday, in the wake of multiple driver protests and appeals, SCORE released an amended finishing order that added or erased penalties, and awarded time credits that removed chunks from their finishing times. Much of these come in response to a bottleneck that greatly hindered the field’s races.

The bulk of the situation developed at the 102nd mile which lies a mountain point called the Summit, where Dan Myers‘ Trophy Truck co-driver suffered from heat exhaustion and required medical attention. After fellow competitors assisted the navigator, he was driven down the Summit and airlifted via helicopter to hospital. While Myers’ truck was stopped, John McNeil‘s Trophy Truck Spec went off course to go around it but got lodged on a rock, destroying the vehicle’s driveshaft and blocking the path. A support Ford Ranger owned by Ramon Torres helped drive the co-driver back to base before pulling McNeil’s truck out of its rut. The co-driver has since recovered, while Myers and McNeil would respectively finish seventeenth and twenty-first in their classes.

SCORE released the results on Sunday, initially regarded as official before being taken down and re-posted with slight adjustments to settle errors like a four-hour speeding penalty on Class 11 winner Alex Gonzales. However, the second edition was also met with uproar as drivers argued their ensnaring in the delays severely impacted their final times. Twenty-two entries received credits for sacrificing time to aid those like Myers’ team; Trophy Truck Spec drivers Christian Sourapas and Jordan Brenthel along with Trophy Trucker Gary Magness were awarded credits that nullified over an hour of lost time.

However, others argued they should have received credits as well and called out SCORE for the supposedly arbitrary manner of their allocations, especially as credits have the power to impact the order. Sourapas initially got just twelve minutes of credits despite being “one of the vehicles actually assisting in the medical emergency.”

In the Pro UTV Forced Induction class, Brandon Schueler got a twenty-five-minute credit to place second ahead of Branden Sims despite the latter physically finishing ahead of him without penalties. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Sims condemned the time credit by claiming SCORE “randomly pick and chose which vehicles received a ‘time credit’ for sitting in an emergency situation logjam where over 50+ vehicles were stuck not able to do anything except sit and wait. Some teams received a time credit for this and others did not, feels like I was penalized without doing anything wrong.” He also went as far as to threaten the 500 would be “my last race with @scoreinternational if they don’t fix this issue, I work too hard to be robbed of the position my team and I earned.” Fortunately for him, such an ultimatum was unnecessary as the new results restored his runner-up finish.

Sergio Pérez began the Azerbaijan Grand Prix the same way he ended the Monaco Grand Prix and last year’s race at the Baku City Circuit, on top. The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver topped the session after running on the Soft tyres, clocking a 1:45.476.

The usual protagonists were close behind, with Charles Leclerc in second +0.127s adrift of the Mexican with championship leader Max Verstappen in third +0.334s behind. The second Scuderia Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr rounded off the top four, who were well ahead of the rest. Half a second separated the top four, whereas Fernando Alonso in fifth was an entire second behind Pérez.

The BWT Alpine F1 Team have brought some “circuit-specific modifications” to Baku, which appear to be working well thus far. Lewis Hamilton was sixth after the opening session, however, the Brit was one of a number of drivers to experience from vicious porpoising down the 2.22km main straight. The sheer volume and aggressiveness of the porpoising was highly likely to have been as a result of the typically windy conditions in Baku, with many on the grid complaining of the conditions.

Yuki Tsunoda impressed in seventh-place, just ahead of George Russell, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon who rounded-off the top ten. Lando Norris who finished the session in eleventh, was staggeringly +2.2s off the pace, with the entire field being seperated by over three seconds.

At the bottom of the timesheets sat Nicholas Latifi and Mick Schumacher, two drivers who are driving for their Formula 1 careers. It was the worst possible start to the weekend for both of them, Latifi’s car “just died” after seven laps of running and Schumacher had to park his VF22 before even setting a laptime. The young German suffered from a suspected water pressure issue.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix Free Practice 1 Full Results:

Marking the manufacturer’s return to the world motorsport stage after 20 years, Cadillac Racing have revealed the first images of their highly anticipated LMDh contender.

Having been a major contender in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since 2017 with the Cadillac DPi-V.R, the American brand has already aligned itself with the top tier of sportscar racing in America. This new project sees the team looking to expand on their racing presence, looking to take their victorious streak to race tracks around the world. The Project GTP Hypercar will make its on-track debut at the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona before taking on full season campaigns in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The car has been co-designed by Cadillac Racing, Cadillac Design and Dallara to incorporate key brand characteristics into optimising the LMDh regulations. Elements such as vertical lights and floating blades link the Project GTP back to the Cadillacs of the past as well as a subtle nod towards the future.

Chris Mikalauskas, lead exterior creative designer for Cadillac, commented that: “The Project GTP Hypercar is a unique convergence of form and function and showcases Cadillac’s future performance aesthetic.” 

Testing will begin in the summer, with the driver line ups for the IMSA and WEC program still to be announced.

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest have announced that the 100th anniversary of the first 24 Hours of Le Mans race next year will take place on the 10/11 June.

For the last few years the Le Mans weekend has always had a clash with a Formula One race, usually the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as it has this weekend. The ACO were keen to work with F1 to try to keep the Le Mans weekend clear of any clashes next year, hence the decision to hold it on the 10/11 June.

As Formula One has not released its 2023 calendar yet, this remains to be seen, but it is the hope that these wishes from the ACO will be respected by Liberty Media.

Next year, Le Mans celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first race, even though it will only be the 91st time the race has occurred. With the return of Peugeot, Ferrari and Porsche to the top class of the event, it is likely to have a big show around it, making it understandable why the ACO would like to keep all the focus on the Circuit de la Sarthe next year.

In reaction to Philippe Cimadomo having been prohibited from entering the 90th 24 Hours of Le Mans, TDS Racing x Vaillante has drafted in Nyck De Vries as his replacement.

The exclusion of Cimandomo from the race came after heavy impact with the barriers in third practice at Porsche Curves where the Frenchman nearly wiped out the LMP2 pole-sitting #31 WRT. Sean Gelal was in the car at the time and luckily escaped with no damage after Cimandomo caught the rear right of the ORECA. The TDS driver was overtaking traffic when he swerved across the track, spinning off to make heavy impact with the Armco barriers.

The team spent the rest of Thursday rebuilding the car, only to find out that Cimandomo was banned for racing (this event only) in the late hours of the evening. It was a last minute call to bring De Vries in as the third driver, but even that might not be enough to get the car to the grid for the 2022 rendition of the prestigious race.

De Vries, who has partaken in the past three 24 Hours of Le Mans, has no remaining night sessions to meet the required minimum laps set in the dark. This will mean his entry to the race will be under special acceptances from the race director, stewards and marshals. The team have also had to request to be made and LMP2 team rather than Pro/Am as De Vries is a platinum classed driver, so there is no Am on board the #13 anymore (Cimandomo was the Bronze driver).

Being that both requests and exception are approved, De Vries will still have to set a minimum of three laps during Saturday’s warm up to be allowed into the race.

The ten hours of practice ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans have now been complete, with Jose Maria Lopez taking the final fastest lap in the darkness. He led Sebastien Buemi in a Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two to cap of the week.

It was a steady session with most teams focusing on getting final set up tweaks and checks complete, so the lap times reflected more of the pace we will see in Saturday/Sunday’s race. The 3:28.322 from Lopez was a far cry from the 3m24s we were seeing in Hyperpole but much closer to the times we expect to see over the weekend.

Glickenhaus Racing spent the first half an hour of the two hour session in the garage, leaving the Alpine Elf Team third in class, but once they came out the French car dropped down the order. None of the other Hypercars were on Toyota’s pace, with #709 Glickenhaus third in the standings, 2.5s off the pace. The #708 and #36 were an additional tenth and two tenths off the #709 respectively.

Alex Lynn led the way in LMP2 with a 3:32.226 set at the start of the session. Most cars did a flying lap at the beginning of the two hours before settling into long runs for the remainder of the time, or disappearing into the garage. The #65 Panis Racing was second, just under two tenths off Lynn’s time, with #28 JOTA closing out the top three in class.

The most interesting news of the session comes from the cars that had incidents in Free Practice Three. All bar the #13 TDS Racing x Vaillante managed to return to the track after the #30 Duqueine Team and #39 Graff Racing had extensive rebuilds to do. The Graff came out about an hour into the session, going straight into the run off at Tertre Rogue during its out-lap. Luckily it wasn’t a second excursion into the barrier, but it did return to the pits for a few extra checks before setting out on a slightly longer stint.

Brendon Hartley has taken Toyota Gazoo Racing‘s seventh overall 24 Hours of Le Mans pole position in a session dictated by track limits. Nick Tandy led Anotnio Garcia across the line for a Corvette Racing one-two in GTE Pro, adding to the strong week the American manufacturer has had so far.

At the start of the session, Toyota seemed to be running away with overall pole. Kamui Kobayashi and Hartley both set 3m25s laps, which were seconds ahead of the other Hypercars. In a surprise twist, Nicolas Lapierre came out in the #36 Alpine Elf Team and put a 3:24.850 on the table, the first sub 3m25s that had been seen all weekend. This left it up to Toyota to mount the challenge.

Getting stuck behind an Am car hindered both Toyotas in their penultimate flying laps, Hartley losing half a second in the final sector. It has looked like Kobayashi had done enough, setting a 3:24.585, but the time was deleted for track limits, promoting Alpine back up to provisional pole. In a confusing chain of events, Kobayashi’s time was reinstated, but it no longer mattered as both Toyotas went faster again, Hartley taking pole with a 3:24.408, four tenths up on Kobayashi. Kobayashi’s 3:24.828 outpaced Lapierre by just 0.022.

The two Glickenhaus Racing cars had a quiet Hyperpole after looking so promising through practice. Ryan Briscoe outpaced Olivier Pla in the #708 by just under half a second after having had a few laps deleted for track limits himself.

Filipe Alberquerque started Hyperpole looking like the man with the advantage, but Robin Frijns bided his time to set a sensational 3:28.394 in the #31 WRT. 1.3s up on the Realteam by WRT in the hands of Norman Nato, none of the LMP2 cars had an answer for the incredible pace Frijns found.

Toyota Gazoo Racing took a one-two in the final day practice session before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, whilst Corvette Racing continued their streak of having both of their cars finish in the top three in class during practice sessions.

It wasn’t a seamless run through the three-hour session for the #8 Toyota, which found itself stationary on track around the halfway mark of the session. An electrical fault saw Ryo Hirakawa moving slow down the Mulsanne, having to do a power reset before gradually making his way back to the pits. The team managed to get the issue solved and the car back out on track, but that will be a cause of concern for Hirakawa and team mates Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley going into Hyperpole later this evening.

The fastest laps of the session were set early, with Kamui Kobayashi‘s 3:26.796 unchallenged throughout the three hours. Hartley’s best was three tenths down on the sister car, with Olivier Pla in the #708 Glickenhaus Racing third, two tenths further back.

The Alpine Elf Team LMP1 car finished 2.4s down as it has been so far this week, but a change in their Balance of Performance (BoP) will hopefully bring them into the fight for Hyperpole. The #709 spent some time in the garage this session, but made it out on track to set the fourth fastest time of the class.

Filipe Alburquerque gave United Autosports their first fastest lap of the weekend in class with a 3:30.964 in the #22. It was a United one-two ahead of FIA World Endurance Championship rivals WRT when Alex Lynn went 0.061s slower than Alburquerque. It couldn’t have been closer at the front, however, as Robin Frijns was only 0.06s behind Lynn’s time, seeing the top three covered by 0.121s. It is assumed that these three will be the qualifiers in this evening’s Hyperpole, so LMP2 will definitely be the class to watch.

Scuderia Ferrari go into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the back of a nightmare Monaco Grand Prix, after a strategic error saw Charles Leclerc miss out on victory at his home circuit.

Ferrari’s confusion resulted in them falling further behind Oracle Red Bull Racing in the Constructors’ championship, heading into a weekend which should suit their rivals better.

The Baku City Circuit has produced some enthralling races in the past, with this weekend’s looking set to be another unpredictable classic. Ferrari will most likely be up against it in Baku, with the 2.22km main straight playing right into Red Bull’s hands.

Leclerc will be wanting to get himself back into the lead of the Drivers’ championship, whereas Carlos Sainz Jr will be hoping to draw himself into the title fight.

Nicola Bariselli, Ferrari’s PU Track Operations Manager, explained what type of circuit Baku is ahead of the weekend.

Toto Wolff is hoping the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team can claw themselves back into the title fight this weekend, at the usually highly unpredictable Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

It was a mixed Monaco Grand Prix for Mercedes, with George Russell finishing fifth and Lewis Hamilton in eighth. The seven-time World Champion had superior pace to those ahead of him, but was unable to get past Fernando Alonso.

The Baku City Circuit thankfully offers a number of overtaking opportunities, none greater than the 2.22km main straight. Baku usually produces a highly unpredictable and chaotic race, one which could offer the Silver Arrows with some unmissable opportunities.

The team have faced varied levels of success in Azerbaijan, however, the moment that’ll live in the memories is when Hamilton ran on at Turn 1 last year at the restart. Had the Brit not run-off at the first corner, then he would’ve ended up scoring enough points to make him an eight-time World Champion.

Russell has also faced bad luck at the venue before, after famously running over a lose drain, heavily damaging his Williams car.

Alex Albon is hoping to bounce back from a disappointing Monaco Grand Prix, where Williams Racing’s recent struggles continued. The Thai driver is hoping for better fortunes this weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, an event he enjoys.

The Baku City Circuit has provided some of the most unpredictable races in recent years, something which Albon is hoping for again this weekend. An unpredictable race could work well for Williams, as they look to get themselves back into the points.

Albon is looking to “hit the ground running” in Baku, where he predicts the FW44 will be better suited.

“I really like Baku as it tends to be a circuit with a lot of opportunities. It’s been a good track for me in previous years. Baku is a street circuit but presents a different challenge to what we faced in Monaco a couple of weeks ago. The races are quite unpredictable, which I think will work well for us and on paper it’s a circuit that should also suit us. We’ll be looking to hit the ground running from Friday onwards and come away with a good result for the team.”

“Baku never disappoints” – Nicholas Latifi

Nicholas Latifi will also be hoping for a crazy race in Azerbaijan, as his future in the sport continues to appear uncertain. The Canadian is looking forward to racing this weekend, where a shock points finish could save his Formula 1 career.

Now a staple on the FIA Formula 2 calendar, the grid heads to the streets of Baku once more for round six of the 2022 championship.

The Baku City Circuit is the third longest track that the drivers will race on this season, behind the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and the legendary Circuit de Spa–Francorchamps. A tight, twisty Castle section mixed with the high-speed start/finish straight awaits the grid this weekend.

The Story So Far

Felipe Drugovich is in the best form of his Formula 2 career with three wins in his last four races. Back to back Feature Race wins means that the Brazilian has a healthy thirty-two point lead on the man in second place, Théo Pourchaire.

The two championship contenders couldn’t be separated in the Monaco Feature Race, with Drugovich just holding off Pourchaire on his way to the win. The battle between the two of them went on all weekend, with the MP Motorsport man pipping the Frenchman to pole position by just a tenth and a half.

PREMA Racing’s Dennis Hauger achieved his maiden victory in Formula 2 , becoming the first rookie to take a win this season after he inherited the lead from reverse grid pole-sitter Jake Hughes who stalled on the grid and never looked back.

This weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix is one that usually offers plenty of unpredictability, resulting in some big points for some unexpecting drivers. Williams Racing will be hoping for the traditional Baku City Circuit chaos, so that they can get themselves back into the points places.

It’s been a tough few rounds for Williams, with the recent Monaco Grand Prix not being one for the British team to write home about, however, they have performed well in Azerbaijan before.

Lance Stroll finished on the podium for Williams in 2017, in what was another Azerbaijan classic. Whilst a podium looks unlikely, points could be possible if they are met with good luck.

Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson, previewed what he’s expecting from the eighth round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

“The streets of Baku are a quite different challenge to those in Monaco and although there are some very tight and slow corners here, there are also long straights and fast corners to contend with. There is a temptation to significantly lower the downforce and drag level for this circuit but how far it is correct to do so will depend on a range of risk-reward trades, which the drivers will have to consider during the practice sessions.

“Like Monaco, Pirelli have provided the softest of their compound range, which should be suited to Baku providing that they don’t grain. The smooth track surface can make warm-up difficult, but this is compensated by the long lap.

“The camber of the roads, large gradient changes, and the varying track width all add to the challenge at this circuit and ensure that setting the car up to be strong over the full 6km lap is very tricky. However, the same circuit characteristics that provide the setup challenge also lead to good racing and exciting on-track battles in Azerbaijan. Taming the streets of Baku is not easy, but it can be enjoyable and rewarding when done well.”

Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing are eager to get coveted prospect Sammy Smith into NASCAR’s higher levels. On Thursday, JGR announced Smith will make his Xfinity Series début at Road America on 2 July as part of an eight-race itinerary in the #18 Toyota GR Supra.

After Road America comes dates at Pocono Raceway (23 July), Michigan International Speedway (6 August), Watkins Glen International (20 August), Kansas Speedway (10 September), Bristol Motor Speedway (16 September), Martinsville Speedway (29 October), and the season finale at Phoenix Raceway (5 November). Road America and Watkins Glen are both road courses while Kansas is the lone 1.5-mile oval.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to run the #18 Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing,” Smith stated. “Making the jump to this level is huge for me and my career, and I’m thankful for all of my partners and supporters that have helped me get here.”

A member of Toyota’s driver development programme, Smith stood out in late models before moving to the ARCA Menards Series East with JGR in 2021. That year, he scored top-five finishes in all but one race along with three wins en route to the championship and easy Rookie of the Year honours. Four races into the 2022 ARCA East season, now with JGR’s Camping World Truck Series arm Kyle Busch Motorsports fielding the car, he has won thrice and is once again atop the standings.

As Smith turned eighteen five days ago, JGR hopes to have him commit to the national ARCA Menards Series for the rest of the year. Save for a retirement in his maiden race, he has top fives in his three next starts in the series. His lone ARCA run to date was a third at Phoenix in March, where he won the pole and led the most laps.

After struggling during the first day of the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans, the sole LMP1 Alpine Elf Team has been handed a power boost through the Hypercar Balance of Performance (BoP).

The French manufacturer had a very difficult first day of the event, never setting a time within two seconds of the other Hypercar runners. In qualifying, they were behind three of the six fastest LMP2 cars in the overall order. The Automobile Club de l’Ouest made the decision during the third practice session to make changes to their power output.

Alpine have received an 11MJ boost to their maximum energy per stint and up to 7kW of additional power relevant to the RPM of the car. Toyota Gazoo Racing and Glickenhaus Racing have received no changes.

Alike with the GTE BoPs, the ACO can continue to change these up until the race start, so if they feel more needs to be done to bring the competition closer together there could be additional changes.