Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Gianmarco Quaresmini is set for a season of double duties as he enters the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup and Porsche Carrera Cup Italia with the Ombra Racing squad.

The Italian will return to the team after running with them in Porsche Carrera Cup France, where he finished twelfth place in the series. Alongside that series he also competed in the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia, finishing third in the championship with Tsunami RT.

The 26-year-old also took part in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup double-header at Monza with the Dinamic Motorsport team, finishing sixteenth and fifteenth in the highly competitive series that supports the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

“I’m really happy about this program, because after 2021 with the Ombra team and with the new car, it was mandatory to go on and double the program,” said Quaresmini.

“Going back to racing in the Supercup, the championship of the highest level and prestige, accompanying it to the Italian championship is the right step to take.”

Upcoming Danish star Bastian Buus will join the BWT Lechner Racing squad for the upcoming Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season, joining the previously announced Dylan Pereira and Harry King.

Despite only being 18, Buus has already tasted success in sports car racing; in 2020 he won the GT4 Pro-Am European Championship, “It’s really hard to take this all in now. It’s been two years since I switched from a kart to a race car, and while we’ve had big ambitions from the word go, I haven’t had the imagination to think it was possible to get this far in such a short time”, said Buus.

Buus already has his eyes on a championship title for 2022, “Being able to work with a team like BWT Lechner Racing is a dream come true for me. I will get the opportunity to learn a lot from some hugely fast drivers and a fantastically skilled crew. And I’m going to need that because my goal is to secure the Porsche Mobil 1 Rookie Championship. I am really looking forward to getting started working with the team and I am 110 percent motivated to deliver a perfect job from my side.”

The Dane’s ambitions don’t stop at the Rookie title, “One of my overall goals, for the time being, is to be selected for the Porsche Motorsport shootout to become an official Porsche Junior driver. BWT Lechner Racing will be the perfect team to give me the chance to prove my talent and be recognized.

“A big thank you to Robert and Walter Lechner, who are themselves former racing drivers and who have chosen to believe in my performance and give me a chance this season. Also thanks to BWT and my sponsorship network, Flatout Club, which has helped to enable me to enter into the agreement – without them all this would not have been possible.”

Chase Janes will go from Hickory, North Carolina, to Martinsville, Virginia. On Thursday, Reaume Brothers Racing announced Janes has been scheduled for his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début at Martinsville Speedway on 7 April.

Janes primarily competes in late models at Hickory Motor Speedway, where he won six races in 2020 a year after missing all of 2019 with a broken wrist. In 2018, he finished top ten in the track’s late model championship.

“Coming off of surgery in 2019, I knew it would be a climb to just get back to where I was,” said Janes. “After a successful 2020 and 2021, I’m very blessed for the opportunity that Josh (Reaume), Frank (Bickford), and everyone with the team has given me. Everything happens for a reason, and I’m excited to roll into Martinsville in April.”

RBR fields the #33 full-time for a variety of drivers, with Jason White and Loris Hezemans making starts in the first two rounds at Daytona and Las Vegas, respectively, which Janes will presumably pilot. The team also has a partnership with GMS Racing to operate the #43 truck for Thad Moffitt. Hezemans, the reigning NASCAR Whelen Euro Series champion, also drives for the team’s Cup Series partner Team Hezeberg.

“I thoroughly enjoy having drivers make their national series début with our team,” commented Reaume, who owns the team. “Chase has an extensive short track background, and I am excited to see that success translate to Martinsville.”

As many codes of motorsport continue experimenting with electric power, Team Audi Sport has already taken one to the top step of the podium. The Audi RS Q e-tron, driven by Stéphane Peterhansel with Edouard Boulanger as co-driver, won the first stage in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and never looked back en route to becoming the first electric vehicle to win an overall rally raid in just its second start.

The RS Q e-tron made its racing début at the Dakar Rally in January, where Mattias Ekström won four stages and finished ninth in the Cars class. Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah of Toyota Gazoo Racing dominated the Desert Challenge by winning every stage afterwards, but was eliminated from the overall victory after retiring from the first stage with damage from an “unlucky landing” which resulted in a major time penalty. Sébastien Loeb of Bahrain Raid Xtreme, who battled with Al-Attiyah for the Dakar crown and entered Abu Dhabi as another threat, was also the victim of bad fortune when the drivetrain was damaged. Ekström, Al-Attiyah, and Loeb were already familiar with electric motorsport as they have competed in Extreme E.

With Al-Attiyah and Loeb out of the picture, Peterhansel was consistent in his performances. Despite finishing Stage #2 in fourth after being hindered by a tyre puncture, he maintained his overall lead in the next stage after the next closest challenger Yazeed Al-Rajhi—who had narrowed the gap to the leader to less than eight minutes—was knocked out by a broken differential. Peterhansel finished Stage #3 in third.

“It wasn’t easy to find the right rhythm on the sometimes very treacherous broken dunes,” Peterhansel commented. “Our pace was right and we didn’t take too many risks. Once again, the Audi RS Q e-tron was a lot of fun.”

The fourth stage saw another fourth-place run for Peterhansel with a twelve-minute advantage over Martin Prokop. A sixth in the fifth and final segment allowed Peterhansel to secure the overall victory with a time of 17:43:07, nearly half an hour faster than Prokop’s 18:12:56. The win is Peterhansel’s seventh in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge’s Cars category, breaking a tie with fellow Frenchman Jean-Louis Schlesser for the most in the event’s history. He also won as a Bike rider in 1996.

NASCAR announced Thursday a pair of position changes for Executive Vice President Steve O’Donnell and Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation Ben Kennedy. The former has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, while the latter will rejoin NASCAR’s competition department as Senior Vice President of Racing Development and Strategy. Both begin their new duties effective immediately.

O’Donnell, who has worked for NASCAR since 1996, became EVP and Chief Racing Development Officer in 2014. After starting his tenure at the sanctioning body in the marketing arm, he moved to operations which entails overseeing the sport’s rules and regulations.

“NASCAR is in a prime position for growth, and I look forward to helping our talented team continue the work necessary to build our sport,” O’Donnell said. “I am deeply passionate about NASCAR, its fans and those who work in our industry. Together, we will continue the unprecedented collaboration to ensure our sport’s success.”

Kennedy, a member of the France family that runs NASCAR and a former Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series driver, transitioned into the sport’s executive side after ending his driving career in 2017. As SVP of Strategy and Innovation, he was the mastermind of the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in February.

“I am excited to return to the Competition team and continue to learn from some of the most innovative leaders across our sport,” stated Kennedy. “The racing this season with the Next Gen car is some of the best we’ve ever seen. It is truly an exciting time in NASCAR, and I look forward to helping this talented team grow our sport.”

Actor-turned-racer Michael Fassbender is set to make his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut this year with the #93 Proton Competition entry alongside Matt Campbell and another to be confirmed driver.

After competing in the Ferrari Challenge North America for a few years, Fassbender partnered with Porsche and together created the Road to Le Mans series on YouTube, which has followed the Irish actor since 2019, as he worked his way up from the bottom of the Porsche Pyramid.

Starting out in the Porsche Super Sports Cup in Germany, Fassbender got to grips with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, competing in 10 races throughout the season. He claimed five top-ten finishes, with his best results coming at Hockenheim and Spa-Francorchamps when he finished in eighth place.

2020 saw a mixed bag of competition, as the world battled against COVID, racing programmes were disrupted. Despite this he managed to take part in Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup as a guest driver in Barcelona, unfortunately a race that would end with a non-finish. A month later he would get his first taste of the Circuit de la Sarthe, competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland race, supporting the main 24 Hours of Le Mans event.

That year also saw him move in to the European Le Mans Series with Proton Competition, competing at Paul Ricard (seventh place), Spa-Francorchamps (fourth place), Monza (fifth place), and Algarve (fourth place).

Following a year away from the sport, Alex Albon has returned to Formula 1 with Williams, where he will hope a fresh start can re-ignite his hopes for a potential seat with a race-winning car.

The story of Alex Albon’s time in Formula 1 is rather sad, much like that of Pierre Gasly and his time at Red Bull Racing. The 2019 season would see the young driver score two points finishes in the first four races, before being promoted to the Red Bull seat after the summer break. Albon scored an incredible fifth place after storming through the field from the back of the grid in his first outing for Red Bull at Spa, and was turning heads throughout the paddock.

The British-Thai driver performed very well in his first season, and continued his contract with Red Bull going into 2020. However, Albon’s performance started to drop over the course of the year, meaning he couldn’t be the backup that Max Verstappen and Red Bull needed to challenge for both championships. Red Bull were the second fastest car in 2020, and Albon was consistently scoring below the top four – meaning he was being out-scored by slower cars in some of the races.

After only two podiums (both of which were third place finishes) compared to Verstappen’s eleven podiums and two victories; Red Bull pulled the plug and replaced their number two driver with Sergio Perez for the 2021 season. Albon wasn’t even demoted to Alpha Tauri, he simply took a year out as a reserve driver in order to make room for rookie, Yuki Tsunoda, who would be occupying the second Alpha Tauri seat alongside Gasly.

Ahead of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue event this weekend, reigning champions AF Corse have released a video and images of their livery and race suits for the season ahead.

While the livery remains largely the same to the previous year, the team have added “extra graphics that accentuate the vehicle’s dynamic character and emphasise the theme dominated by the Italian “tricolore” flag.” The Ferrari 488 GTE will also feature the logo celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Maranello brand.

Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado return to defend their title, joined by the new pairing of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco. The new season gets underway this weekend with the official 2-day Prologue test, before racing at the 1000 Miles of Sebring from 16-18 March.

Actor Michael Fassbender will make his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut this season as a 62-car grid is confirmed for the 90th running of the event.

The 2022 entry list was delayed after the Automobile Club de l’Ouest reopened the application process earlier this week. The application extension came as a result of some teams withdrawing from the race after the FIA sanctions in regards to the Russian invasion on Ukraine came into action. It had not been confirmed when the entry list would be seen after the second application window, but the announcement has come 24 hours after that process closed.

Five Hypercars fill the top class of the race – both Toyota Gazoo Racing and the sole Alpine Elf Matmut full season entries along with a duo of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus. The inclusion of two cars comes from an agreement with WEC, ACO and Glickenhaus that if the team entered one full season entry they could have two Le Mans entries. The team were hoping to pull together a third car in the reopened application period but they didn’t have enough time to complete the necessary steps.

Surprisingly, the LMP2 regular Racing Team Nederland has not made it onto the 62-car strong grid, instead taking up the second reserve spot. The #29 machine usually races full season FIA World Endurance Championship which grants it automatic entry to the blue-ribboned event, but as the car is not a permanent feature this year they have not qualified for automatic entry.

27 cars make up the LMP2 field, the largest field of the race. Joining the full season WEC cars; DKR Engineering, TDS Racing x Vaillante, Nielsen Racing, CD Sport, Duqueine Team, Cool Racing, Graff Racing, Inter Europol Competition, IDEC Sport and Panis Racing all bring a sole entry, whilst Team WRT and Algarve Pro Racing WEC entries have been granted a second car. The second Team WRT entries comes courtesy of the team winning the LMP2 championship in the European Le Mans Series last year.

It appears there is no category that Bruno Senna can’t race in, as the Brazilian is announced as one of the world’s first electric flying car pilots, after joining Airspeeder!

Senna, who has raced most notably in Formula 1, Formula E, FIA World Endurance Championship as well as being a World eX race winner, has been announced as a racing development pilot and global ambassador for Airspeeder, the creator of the world’s first racing series for electric flying cars. The first EXA race is set to be announced imminently, Senna will be joining a strong list of pilots, which will include one of Australia’s leading female racing drivers and also a Drone Champions League racer.

The racing will at first be remotely piloted, before eventually becoming a fully crewed racing series from 2023 and beyond. Senna will play a key role in the development of the sport and the technical and dynamic development of the Speeders that will take part in it.

Matt Pearson, Founder, Alauda Aeronautics and Airspeeder is very proud to have Senna onboard and believes the Brazilian brings an unrivalled pedigree to the championship.

“We are proud that Bruno Senna has chosen to join the Airspeeder family as a racing and development pilot. Throughout his career he has demonstrated his incredible prowess as a pure out-and-out racer. However, Bruno is also a world-class developer of racing vehicles who is fascinated with advancing cutting-edge technologies.

Wednesday marked four days since Nikita Mazepin was released by Haas F1 Team as the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued to impact Russian sport. Various drivers and athletes of Russian and ally Belarusian nationality, including Mazepin, have either been required to compete under a neutral flag or were banned entirely from international sporting events. Unhappy with losing his ride despite accepting the former’s conditions, he has launched the “We Compete As One” foundation, which intends to support such athletes who have been unable to take part in their respective sports internationally due to “political reasons”.

“Today I am announcing the creation of a new foundation to help athletes who have been blocked from competing for political reasons. #WeCompeteAsOne”, tweeted Mazepin.

The foundation’s name is a jab at F1’s “We Race As One” campaign intended to promote diversity and acceptance in motorsport. With many Russian athletes being prohibited from entering international events, those like Mazepin have defended themselves by arguing such verdicts unfairly single them out for the actions of their government. A week prior, the Russian Automobile Federation released a statement condemning the FIA’s decision to require Russian and Belarusian drivers to race under FIA flags, accusing it of being “discriminatory and contrary” of the FIA statues.

On 5 March, approximately a week and a half after Russia began its Ukrainian invasion and a fortnight before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Haas dropped Mazepin and title sponsor Uralkali, which is operated by his father Dmitry and provided a stable financial boost for the team during tumultuous seasons of recent. While Mazepin’s presence has long been maligned due to his behaviour, background, and on-track performance, the action to fire him was finally taken as the invasion and ensuing criticism mounted. Even if Mazepin had not been released, he would not have been able to race at the British Grand Prix due to Motorsport UK forbidding Russian drivers from competing.

The older Mazepin is close with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which resulted in the European Union imposing sanctions on him and many Russian nationals on Wednesday.

The demise of the Boost Mobile Super Trucks resulted in a diaspora of its roster towards other endeavours. For Shae Davies, he will be heading to open-wheel racing. On Wednesday, Versa Motorsport announced Davies has joined the team for the rest of the 2022 S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship and Tasman Series.

Davies will serve as a team-mate to Cooper Webster, who finished runner-up in Race #3 of the season-opening round at Symmons Plains Raceway in February and is consequently second in points. Located in Bundoora, Victoria and led by Toby Pope, Versa Motorsport was founded in late 2021 and debuted at that year’s Sydney Motorsport Park round, where Webster scored a Race #2 podium by finishing third.

“We are very excited to have Shae join the Versa Motorsport Team,” Pope stated. “Being such a highly experienced and successful driver locally and offshore, we can’t wait to start working with Shae and are focused on building together for the rest of season.”

While he is not unfamiliar with open-wheel cars as he raced in Formula Ford and the F1600 Championship Series in 2012, much of Davies’ career in the decade since has been in closed-wheel and touring car categories. He was a regular in the Repco Supercars Championship and its Super2 and Super3 feeder divisions, which included winning the 2013 championship in the latter. Between 2018 and 2019, he left Australia to compete in the Blancpain GT Series Asia and GT World Challenge Europe.

In 2020, he began competing in the Boost Mobile Super Trucks, a newly formed Australian offshoot of the American Stadium Super Trucks. Although the inaugural season only lasted one weekend of three races at the Adelaide 500 due to COVID-19, Davies made the most of the round by winning Race #3. He returned to the series for 2021, during which he was the Fastest Qualifier in two of the season’s three weekends at Darwin and Townsville. He also recorded a pair of victories at Symmons Plains and Darwin. Despite finishing with the same amount of points as Paul Morris with 93, Davies lost the tiebreaker for the championship on wins as Morris’ four trumped Davies’ two.

Hitech GP are one of the leading teams in junior single-seaters nationwide. Since 2002, they have become an established name for their results in Formula 3 series’ around the world, as well as the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

They joined the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship (now GB3) for 2020, and the Silverstone-based outfit expands its programme to the F4 British Championship in 2022.

We take a look at their first two race-winning campaigns in Britain’s premier single-seater series here, and look ahead to what they can achieve in their third year in GB3.

2020

Hitech joined the championship when it was still called the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship, and took three wins and 14 total podiums in their first season, with 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship contenders Kush Maini and Reece Ushijima.

Maini mounted a title challenge after being called up on the eve of the season, winning at Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Snetterton as 2022 FIA F3 Hitech driver Kaylen Frederick took the championship with Carlin at the final round.

Longtime Porsche customer racing team Wright Motorsports will return to the Porsche Carrera Cup North America series for the 2022 season with a three-car entry.

Leading the entry list for the team is Varun Choksey who will be racing in the #13 car as a Pro class entry as he moves up from the Formula Regional Americas Championship, where last season he took six podium finishes, finishing fourth in the title standings. The 25-year-old had a successful test at Sebring International Raceway this week, finishing eighth fastest over the two days.

“I’m very excited to be driving for Wright Motorsports in Carrera Cup North America this year,” said Choksey. “The team has been very welcoming these last few months, and I’m looking forward to a successful season with them this year.”

Returning for a second season is John Goetz, who after a five year hiatus returned to racing last season. Over the ten rounds he took eleven top-five finishes including three podiums in the Pro-Am class. For 2022 Goetz will race the #57 Porsche in the Am class. This weeks test saw him end the four sessions as the third fastest Am driver.

“I’m looking forward to another year working with the Wright team in Carrera Cup,” said Goetz. “The excellent execution on all aspects of racing makes running with them a challenging pleasure. 

Kelly-Moss Road and Race driver Riley Dickinson topped the timesheets during the two-day test at the Sebring International Raceway ahead of the first race weekend of the 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup North America series.

This week (7-8 March), a total of 40 drivers set times throughout the two day test session that saw Dickinson set the fastest time of 2:02.254 in the morning session of the second day.

Trenton Estep gave MDK Motorsport an impressive start to their series debut, finishing the four sessions as the second fastest driver, just six hundreths of a second back. 311RS Motorsport‘s Pro-Am driver Leh Keen showed impressive pace to not only lead the Pro-Am field, but also finish as the third fastest driver overall. Last year’s championship runner-up Kay van Berlo ended the 16-hour test with the fourth fastest time.

With conditions warm and dry, most of the fastest laps from the two days came in the third session on the Tuesday morning. The final hour of the afternoon test was run under wet conditions giving competitors a chance to get used to their cars in slippery conditions.

In the Am class is was MDK Motorsports team owner / driver Mark Kvamme who set the fastest time of 2:04.776, good enough for fourteenth overall.