Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Ken Schrader is no stranger to the Superstar Racing Experience. Even before its inaugural season in 2021, he tested the spec series’ vehicle on various occasions; last month, Schrader tested an SRX car alongside Jeff Fultz at Five Flags Speedway to prepare for the season opener at the Florida short track on 18 June.

On 16 July, he will finally get a chance to race one at I-55 Raceway. The series announced his entry as a guest driver on Tuesday.

“It’s super exciting for me to be working with Kenny again after knowing him for so long,” said series CEO Don Hawk. “He returns in 2022 as an SRX test driver, but more importantly a superstar driver in the race at I-55 Raceway. He belongs in there I can’t wait for this race.”

Schrader has a long background of racing on both dirt and pavement. From 1984 to 2013, he raced in the NASCAR Cup Series, winning four races for Hendrick Motorsports during the legendary organisation’s early years. He is one of thirty-nine drivers with victories in all three national series (Cup, Xfinity, Truck).

Now mainly a grassroots racer, he dabbles in a variety of disciplines across the United States. From 2013 to 2017, he entered the Truck Series’ dirt race at Eldora Speedway, winning the pole for the inaugural race and scoring a best finish of fourth in 2014. His dirt specialist background is currently used for ARCA Menards Series competition, and he is a three-time series winner at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds.

Last week it was confirmed the eight-time WRC champion Sébastien Ogier would return for his second outting in the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship at Rally de Portugal on 19-22 May, a rally that he has won five times before, including the maiden win in 2010.

Throughout the past couple of days the teams have completed their usual pre-event tests and on Tuesday Ogier joined Toyota Gazoo Racing on for the team’s pre-event testing in Portugal for the first time since Rallye Monte-Carlo.

Some local videographers have been out on the stage where the team have carried out the Tuesday’s test. The video is showcasing the first run for Ogier on gravel in the new Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 machine.

The reigning champion have said that he was excited to return to a WRC car after three months away, which is his longest rally break of the career so far.

This season, 25-year-old Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet switched from Hyundai’s second team, over to the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team and he will drive seven FIA World Rally Championship rounds in the new Ford Puma Rally1 hybrid machine.

Although the French driver did not get any points from his team debut in Rally Croatia, after having to restart the rally due to three punctures, he had an exceptional comeback on Saturday where he scored his first top-three stage time in the career.

Now he feels that he is on the right track. In the last two seasons Loubet drove in the Hyundai’s 2C Competition team with his last rally being at the Acropolis Rally in Greece in September. Unfortunately a road accident in the French capital of Paris made him to withdraw from the season remainder due to his injury.

In an interview with DirtFish.com, Loubet has pointed out the Hyundai i20 Coupé WRC car he used at 2C is nowhere near the back then factory cars. Throughout the two seasons for the team, he only managed to score a few points.

“I am happy that after two years where I struggled so hard, it’s good to have the feeling back and after seven months at home with my issue it’s good to feel comfortable.” Loubet told DirtFish.com.

VP Racing Fuels has become the exclusive fuel provider for the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, but the new partnership’s blueprint expands beyond merely giving gas for cars. As part of EuroNASCAR‘s goals to become a fossil-free series by 2025, its cars will be powered by VP’s new N20 sustainable gasoline compound.

N20 falls under Appendix J of the FIA’s Sporting Code regarding unleaded fuel. It is also capable for use in street cars as it qualifies for the European EN228 petrol fuel standard’s E10 category, which states up to ten percent is ethanol; by comparison, standard unleaded 95 petrol only allows five percent ethanol at most. Switching from traditional unleaded fuel to the new gasoline will not affect either a road car or a EuroNASCAR stock car’s performance, the latter of which is bolstered by the sanctioning body’s stipulation of a “drop-in” fuel replacement that allows teams to make the change without changing further components in the fuel system or engine.

“N20 Race Fuel is the first fuel developed in collaboration with the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series and the first such effort for VP in Europe,” stated VP Director of Sales and Operations Europe Alexej Borscs. “N20 will provide series racers with an innovative race fuel formulation, incorporating 20 percent of second generation sustainable components. These components not only reduce the need for fossil sources and help cut the net greenhouse gas emissions but also come from agricultural waste, a feedstock that does not compete with the food supply chain, bringing both innovation and sustainability to the product. This is an exciting time for both organizations, and we look forward to this new opportunity together.”

Biofuels have continued to grow in recent times as motorsport seeks more sustainable and environmentally friendly options, with ethanol—which is derived from corn—becoming a popular choice. The NTT IndyCar Series utilises Speedway‘s E85, which is eighty-five percent ethanol, while NASCAR’s American divisions like the premier Cup Series has Sunoco E15. Other disciplines have opted to go further with power from sources like electricity and hydrogen in place of internal combustion.

“The sustainable development strategy is a key part of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, starting with our racecars built without electronic and complex material making them vastly recyclable,” commented NWES head Jérôme Galpin. “We are very happy to launch this technical partnership with VP Racing Fuels which is the first step of our roadmap to a 100 percent road standards fossil free fuel. Our goal is to contribute to the development of the petroleum free fuels of the future, not only for racing but for everyday use. This is why our fuel development will be based on the RON 98 standard fuel pump specifications. Maybe in some years people will fill their road cars with a fuel the EuroNASCAR contributed to develop, and there is no better way for racing to support ecology and sustainable development.”

Former FIA Formula 1 World Championship race winner Heikki Kovalainen from Finland has revealed his plans to make his FIA World Rally Championship debut this season in the WRC2 support class.

Kovalainen retired from circuit racing last year after seven seasons in F1 and the Japanese Super GT series, where he claimed the 2016 title driving for Lexus Team SARD.

However, rallying is not an unfamiliar territory for Kovalainen, in 2015 he made his rally debut at his home rally of Arctic Lapland Rally where he claimed a podium finish in the SM1 class in a Ford Fiesta R5.

After his rally debut, he has only focused on the national Japanese Rally Championship. Between 2016 and 2021 he has driven a rear-wheel-drive Toyota GT86 CS-R3 and claimed only one overall win in 2020 with it.

After the 2021 season, Kovalainen has switched over to an older spec Skoda Fabia R5 for this year, a car that was used by his compariot Esapekka Lappi in 2015, the car is fielded by the Rally Team Aicello and he has won the two-first rounds of the season.

Toto Wolff hopes the Miami Grand Prix weekend will not be as difficult as the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

George Russell may have salvaged a fourth-place finish at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, but team-mate Lewis Hamilton could not find a way into the points and was ultimately classified down in thirteenth position.  It was also a weekend where neither Mercedes driver made it into Q3 in Qualifying for the first time since 2012.

Wolff, the Team Principal at Mercedes, says a lot of hard work has been done since the race at Imola, and they head stateside with confidence of a stronger weekend for team and drivers.

“It was a very difficult weekend for us in Imola,” said Wolff. “George did a great job to finish P4 from an unpromising starting position but with Lewis, we didn’t give him the tools or track position to show his true pace.

“Since we returned from Italy, we’ve learned as much from the weekend as we can and, in parallel, our learning has continued in the wind tunnel and simulations.

For the remainder of the season the Haas F1 Team, who have started the season brilliantly, will be promoting HaasTooling.com, the online tooling division of American machine tool builder Haas Automation. Haas Automation is owned by Gene Haas, who also owns the Haas F1 Team.

Haas have started the year in impressive fashion, with Kevin Magnussen currently sitting tenth in the Drivers’ Championship on fifteen points and with the team in eighth on the same number.

The reasoning as to why the team are promoted the site, is because it’s now available in the European Union. The website offers a wide selection of high-performance, high-value cutting tools, toolholders, and workholding products for direct purchase online, with shipping directly to the customer.

HaasTooling.com was launched in 2020 to help reduce the cost of tools in the Haas Automation shop. The site has sold more than 450,000 high-quality tooling products to machine shops, engineering firms, and educational facilities throughout the United States. The website has been designed to be easy-to-use, so that the user doesn’t have to spend hours searching for the tool they need to purchase, making it a fast and practical website.

Haas tooling is available for purchase in a number of different ways, including, directly through HaasTooling.com, through the MyHaas mobile app, from a local Haas Factory Outlet (HFO), or with a new Haas machine.

Back on Earth Day which fell on 22 April, Williams Racing announced a multi-year agreement with Coral Eyewear, which will see the release of Williams sunglasses. Throughout the season drivers Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi, will wear Coral’s famous polarised-mirror sunglasses.

Coral Eyewear was set-up in 2019 by British entrepreneur George Bailey, the company creates stylish, sustainable eyewear using regenerated ocean waste and other recycled materials. The special Williams Racing sunglasses which are expected to be released prior to the British Grand Prix, will feature the team’s colours and limited-edition engravings.

Part of the reason for this agreement comes as a result of Williams announcing their new sustainability strategy in October 2021. The team are aiming to educate and inspire the world on their quest to become a catalyst for change, the partnership also demonstrates their commitment to sustainability on and off the racetrack.

The frames of Coral’s Eyewear are made from pellets of recycled nylon created from regenerated ocean fishing nets and fabric scraps from landfill, called ECONYL. A staggering 600,000 tonnes of fishing nets are believed to be abandoned in the oceans every year, with each net estimated to entangle thirty to forty marine animals annually.

Williams Racing Chief Marketing Officer, Claudia Schwarz, believes the partnership demonstrates the team’s commitment to sustainability, in what she calls a “very special and exciting” collaboration.

Mario Isola says there is a lot of excitement about the forthcoming Miami Grand Prix, but being a new venue means Pirelli are being conservative when it comes to tyre compound choices.

Pirelli are bringing their C2 (white-walled hard), C3 (yellow-walled medium) and C4 (red-walled soft) compounds to the track, the middle of their range of available compounds in 2022.

On a track that has some high-speed sections much like the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia as well as some slower, more technical sections, Isola, the Motorsport Director at Pirelli, is expecting a lot of track evolution and a lot of initial grip levels.

With cars likely to run at a medium level of downforce, Isola foresees some sliding around the higher speed corners, but he is interested to see the first Miami Grand Prix and how Pirelli’s tyres face up to the challenges of the brand-new circuit in the United States.

“There’s been a huge buzz of excitement around the first Miami Grand Prix, where the track has some similarities to Jeddah, although there are some parts that are slower and more technical than Saudi Arabia: especially the section from Turns 11 to 16,” said Isola.

With the first-ever Miami Grand Prix just a few days away, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Juan Pablo Montoya have all been announced as ambassadors for the event at the newly-built Miami International Autodrome.

The three racing legends were unveiled as ambassadors for the event by South Florida Motorsports, Richard Cregan, CEO of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix couldn’t hide his excitement of having the legends onboard.

“It will be a great pleasure to have the opportunity to work with these greats. When you consider what they have all achieved and the status they enjoy in the history of motorsport, then you can understand why they are referred to as legends. For me personally, it is an honour to be working together with Mario, Emerson and Juan Pablo for the upcoming Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.”

Mario Andretti is undoubtedly one of the most famous drivers in the history of motorsport. Andretti holds a prestigious honour of having won a race at every single discipline he entered, a list that consists of midgets, sprint cars, dirt track cars, stock cars, IndyCars, Formula 1, Formula 5000 and sportscars. Andretti who was born in Italy and emigrated to America, claimed victory 111 times during a career which spanned over five decades and six continents. Andretti remains the only driver to have won the Daytona 500, Indy 500 and the Formula 1 World Championship.

Andretti is honoured to have been announced as an ambassador for the inaugural event.

For the first time the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will race in Brazil, with a race in São Paulo having been announced on Monday.  The event will first join the calendar in season nine starting in early 2023.

Previous attempts to race in Brazil have ultimately proved unsuccessful, but the latest news sees the city that hosts the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix join the calendar for the first time on a five-year contract, with an option for an extension.

Season nine is set to get underway in 2023 and will see the first year of the Gen 3 Formula E cars, and Alberto Longo, Formula E co-founder and Chief Championship Officer, has welcomed the news that the next generation cars will race in Brazil.

“We are delighted that the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will be heading to Brazil for the very first time pending approval at the FIA World Motor Sport Council in June,” said Longo. “The country has a huge, long-standing passion for motorsport, it’s a big market as one of the largest countries in the world, and São Paulo itself is a historic race location.  

“We can’t wait to welcome the Brazilian fans, they are like no other and there is sure to be a lively, unique atmosphere as the fans enjoy Formula E racing with the leap forward in technology and performance we are going to see with Gen3.”

2009 Formula 1 World Champion, Jenson Button, was one of the most popular drivers in the sport during his lengthy career at the pinnacle of motorsport. The British driver who won his famous title with Brawn GP, began his career in Formula 1 career in 2000 with Williams. Button who later raced for Benetton, Renault and BAR, rose to fame in 2006 whilst driving for the Honda Team where he took his first Grand Prix victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Button raced for Brawn GP in 2009, after Ross Brawn led a management buyout of Honda. After winning the title, Button made the move to McLaren, where he remained for the remainder of his career in the sport. Nowadays, Button is a team owner in the relatively new Extreme E series, the all-electric SUV off-road championship.

In a recent interview with the Gentleman’s Journal, Button discussed the impressive progress made by the new all-electric series

 “They were kind of like bucking broncos when we started, so you’d hit a bump and it’d flick up, which shouldn’t be the case for an off-road vehicle, but there’s been a lot of changes to the suspension, it’s helped a lot, which is good.” 

Sticking with electric, Button explained as to why Formula 1 won’t be all-electric anytime soon. Many have wondered if the championship will soon turn to all-electric vehicles due to the sport’s shocking carbon footprint, especially with the championship now supporting sustainability as well.

Ross Chastain has one of the NASCAR Cup Series‘ brightest futures as a two-time race winner, but he has time to dabble in the Camping World Truck Series. On Tuesday, Niece Motorsports announced Chastain will return to the team’s #41 Worldwide Express-sponsored Chevrolet Silverado RST in four races beginning with Friday’s Darlington Raceway event. Additional starts will come at Texas Motor Speedway (20 May), Charlotte Motor Speedway (27 May), and Sonoma Raceway (11 June).

A member of the Niece family since 2018, Chastain has competed part-time in the Truck Series after a runner-up championship finish in 2019. In March, the team added a one-off truck for Chastain at Atlanta, where he was caught in a wreck and finished twenty-third.

“It’s an honour to represent a first-class organisation like Worldwide Express both on and off the track and I’m always looking forward to getting behind the wheel of a Niece Motorsports Chevrolet,” said Chastain. “It’s a great opportunity for both sides and thanks to Trackhouse Racing for allowing me the opportunity to compete in the Truck Series with Niece and Worldwide Express.”

Eleven races into his first Cup season with Trackhouse, he is sixth in points with a pair of victories at Circuit of the Americas and Talladega.

“It’s really incredible to see how this organisation has grown over the last handful of years, and Ross has certainly been instrumental in that,” stated team owner Al Niece. “We are excited to have him come back for some more races this year, and thrilled to have Worldwide Express come on board for more races with our team. We’re thankful for the commitment they’ve made to our organisation and are looking forward to Darlington.”

Ahead of the July 1 release of the brand-new Formula 1 video-game, F1 22, Codemasters and EA Sports have announced the signing of Charles Leclerc as their first-ever Formula 1 ambassador.

The championship leader will take centre-stage on the cover of the worldwide version of the game, with Lando Norris and George Russell standing either side. The premium Champions Edition, which comes with three-days early access, will feature the four previous World Champions that are still on the grid. This version will see Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso on the cover. As well as the early access, the Champions Edition features a time-limited Miami influenced pack.

Lee Mather, F1 Senior Creative Director at Codemasters, is very happy to have the championship leader onboard with the brand-new game.

“F1 22 is celebrating the best young talent in F1, and we are excited to build a deeper relationship with Charles Leclerc. Established as part of the new era of Formula 1, we will work with Charles throughout the season to bring our players closer to the action. We’re also proud to celebrate our former World Champions with the F1 22 Champions Edition. They continue to inspire the next generation of drivers, and it’s an honour to have them together on the cover of our digital-only version.”

With the championship season opener growing ever closer, W Series has announced that for its first double-header in Miami, Hard Rock International will be its title sponsor.

The championship’s third season will be opened by two races at the Miami International Autodrome, in support of the first Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix on the 6-8 May 2022. W Series Miami is presented by Hard Rock International and will see the races take place on the new track which is located around the Hard Rock Stadium.

Hard Rock International promotes diversity, recognised for this by Forbes Magazine’s Best Employers for Diversity. W Series aims to encourage and build limitless opportunities for young girls and women in the motorsport industry, which coincides with the inclusiveness of the brand’s ‘Love All-Serve All’ motto, supporting the hiring and career progression of women. The Hard Rock International Brand is recognised globally with hotels, shops, casinos and cafes in 68 countries across 253 locations.

W Series’ Chief Executive Officer, Catherine Bond explained, “W Series’ 2022 season will start with a bang in Miami, so Hard Rock – a brand which, like W Series, champions diversity and creating more opportunities for women – is the perfect title partner for our opening double-header as we continue to make lots of noise in the USA”

“As a massive Hard Rock fan – I love their food and visiting their cafes around the world – I am delighted.”