Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Diesel cars are common at the Dakar Rally today, but Ramón Termens made history in 1987 when he and Miguel Prieto scored the first top-ten overall finish for such a vehicle in their Nissan Patrol Fanta Limón. His family confirmed his passing on Thursday.

Termens and Prieto first teamed up in 1986 as Nissan Motorsport formed a partnership with Coca-Cola to field the Patrol in rally raids. Dubbed the Nissan Patrol Fanta Limón to reflect Coca-Cola’s sponsorship, the car featured a 2,800cc four-cylinder turbodiesel engine capable of 146 horsepower with a top speed of 150 km/h. It had already enjoyed success with Prieto and various co-drivers by winning the diesel category at the Tunis Rally and Baja España Aragón, but Termens’ début as the Patrol’s navigator was a coming-out party as he and Prieto won the Rallye des Pharaons outright.

The duo then entered the Paris–Dakar Rally in 1987 as one of two Patrols. The Nissan Fanta Limón team struggled early when their support truck broke down in Stage #2, forcing them to proceed without spare tyres before their #212 team-mates Jorge and Hansi Bäbler were forced to retire after rolling down a dune. Prieto and Termens’ #211 car reached the finish in ninth overall to win the diesel class, while also becoming the first diesel car to place in the top ten.

The #211 was retired shortly after and donated to the Salvador Claret Automobile Collection in Spain. It sat in the museum for three decades before the Nissan Technical Centre Europe discovered it in 2014, receiving it in poor condition due to neglect. The team eventually began an extensive restoration effort with the goal of completion by 2017 to celebrate the thirty-year anniversary of its Dakar effort. Led by Pedro Diaz Illan, a member of the 1987 Dakar team, NTCE finished the project by November 2016.

“The spirit of innovation that was at the heart of Nissan’s entry into the 1987 Paris-Dakar has been all around us as we have completed this project,” said NTCE technician Juan Villegas. “We felt inspired by the memory of that team, which decided to participate in the most challenging race in the world and achieved such success.”

NASCAR fans are finally free from the tumultuous era of Motorsport Games‘ hold on the exclusive licence. On Thursday, Motorsport Games announced it has sold the licence to iRacing, who plans to develop a simulation-based console NASCAR game by 2025.

iRacing has long been touted as the top sim racer for NASCAR. Founded by former developers who worked on the acclaimed NASCAR Racing series at Papyrus Design Group, the subscription-based PC game has evolved into NASCAR’s prime choice for esports and has partnerships with a multitude of disciplines including sprint cars, open-wheel racing, sports cars, and even rallycross and short course off-road.

Since 2010, NASCAR has overseen the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series while also sanctioning the university-based College iRacing Series. When the COVID-19 pandemic froze the 2020 season, real-life drivers got together to run the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, which set television rating records for esports during its two-year run.

“When we were approached with the option to acquire the license for the simulation-style NASCAR console game, which was the console game and franchise that we were dreaming about doing, it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up,” said iRacing president Tony Gardner. “Having the ability to build a NASCAR console game is a privilege we promise to execute with the utmost care. We look forward to working diligently with NASCAR industry stakeholders to deliver a product that provides an amazing experience for the gaming community and NASCAR fans worldwide.”

The arrival of iRacing is a more than welcome sight for fans who have been desperate for stability and solid installments on the console side, which many feel has not been achieved since EA Sports’ beloved NASCAR Thunder series in the early 2000s. Since EA surrendered the exclusive licence after 2008, NASCAR console games have struggled to gain traction with Eutechnyx’s series drawing mixed reviews. 704Games took over in 2016 with help from Monster Games to revive the NASCAR Heat brand, another popular series at the turn of the millennium, only for bugs and other issues to plague its lifespan.

The last time Ryan Newman raced in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was on his way to his second consecutive title before starting a Cup Series career that has spanned eleven seasons, while Newman was in his eleventh year as a Cup full-timer. A decade later, now a part-time driver looking for occasional racing opportunities, he will enter the Xfinity race at Homestead-Miami Speedway for MBM Motorsports, driving the #66 Ford Mustang.

Newman’s most recent Xfinity start was a thirteenth at Texas in 2012, when the championship was still called the Nationwide Series. He has seven wins in the series, six of which came in a seven-start stretch in 2005 including the season finale at Homestead.

While he never won at Homestead at the Cup level, he has five top tens. The best was a runner-up in 2014 en route to a second-place championship finish despite going winless.

“Homestead is one of my favorite tracks on the schedule. From being able to rip the fence to having to manage tire wear, the track suits my driving style perfectly,” driver Ryan Newman said. “My goal is to give Carl (Long), MBM Motorsports and their partners a fantastic run and hopefully end the evening in Victory Lane.”

After departing what is now RFK Racing at the end of 2021, Newman has mostly focused on grassroots modified racing and the Superstar Racing Experience, winning the latter’s 2023 SRX title. He also returned to NASCAR and has run five Cup races for Rick Ware Racing.

Hailie Deegan will run for NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year honours in 2024. On Thursday, AM Racing announced Deegan has signed a multi-year deal to race the #15 Ford Mustang on a full-time basis.

Deegan ran her first Xfinity race in 2022 at Las Vegas, where she finished thirteenth for SS-Green Light Racing in the best finish for a woman in her Xfinity début. The start came during her sophomore year in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Now in her third Truck season, she sits nineteenth in points with two top tens and a best run of sixth at Texas. She joined ThorSport Racing for 2023 after spending the previous two years with what is now TRICON Garage.

A former Toyota prospect, she became a Ford Performance development driver in 2020. That year, she placed third in the ARCA Menards Series standings before graduating to the Trucks.

“I am excited about the opportunity to compete full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, starting next year with AM Racing,” said Deegan. “From the start, the team has been nothing but great to work with, and the vision that Wade (Moore, AM Racing president) has for the team to accomplish align with my values perfectly.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen captured pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix ahead of Russell and Piastri after a strong qualifying session in Lusail, putting him in a solid position to take the driver’s championship this weekend. 

Q1 – Sargeant, Stroll eliminated, track evolution sees times tumble

The drivers were quick to get out on track when the green light lit up to start their warm up laps on the sandy surface of Lusail International Circuit. Field front-runner Max Verstappen was first to set a time with a 1:26.884. Fernando Alonso, who had a strong free practice one, took the lead soon after with a 1:26.715. First place continued to be passed around as the drivers completed their first laps, with Charles Leclerc taking the lead briefly before Lando Norris set the fastest lap, which was promptly removed for track limits. Verstappen’s second lap placed him in second, four hundredths away from Leclerc’s time of 1:26.444. 

Alonso’s second lap saw a considerable improvement, putting him in first with a 1:25.685 as the track continued to grip up. Times were expected to improve quickly as the dust cleared through the session. Norris began a second lap to put his name on the board, but backed out in the second sector. Track limits would prove to be an issue for the drivers, with Oscar Piastri also losing a lap to track limits in the last seven minutes of running. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and George Russell waited until later in the session to do their first laps, and both found their way to the top five. With six minutes to go, it was Lance Stroll, Zhou Guanyu, Liam Lawson, Kevin Magnussen and Norris—yet to put in a time— in the elimination zone. 

Leclerc put in a 1:25.452 to take the lead with about four minutes to go. Norris’ first classified lap allowed him to capture first soon after with a 1:25.131, but he quickly lost it to Verstappen with two minutes to go after the championship leader put in a 1:25.007. Lawson, Nico Hülkenberg, Stroll, Zhou and Magnussen made up the bottom five with a minute to go, with the knock-out time expected to be about 1:26. Alex Albon at risk in fifteenth. 

As the checkered flag came out, Magnussen, Lawson and Zhou were unable to improve their times, and were officially out in Q1. Stroll improved his time, but remained in the bottom five in seventeenth place— making for another frustrating session for the Canadian driver. Logan Sargeant ended up being knocked by team-mate Albon out by a tenth of a second, missing out on the opportunity to outqualify his team-mate for the first time and a Q2 appearance. 

As Max Verstappen closes in on a third consecutive FIA Formula 1 world championship, the Dutchmen set the pace in Free Practice 1 at the Qatar Grand Prix with a fastest time of 1:27.248.

Verstappen enters tomorrow’s sprint schedule requiring just three points to capture the drivers’ championship, and the early signs suggest that the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver will have every chance to secure the title at the first time of asking this weekend.

Strong winds experienced throughout the day at the Losail Circuit led to the surface of the track being coated in sand, subsequently causing the drivers to tip-toe around in the early stages of the session.

As the drivers struggled to immediately adapt to the slippery conditions on track, Carlos Sainz Jr. remarked that his father, Carlos Sainz Sr., a world champion rally driver, would be better suited to deal with such tricky conditions.

For Scuderia Ferrari, the early signs appear to be positive as Sainz and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top three. Sainz was just 0.334s back from Verstappen while Leclerc was a further tenth back in third place.

Century Racing formally unveiled the Century CR7 T1+ on Thursday, adding a new challenger to the subcategory. The car will make its début at this weekend’s South African Rally-Raid Championship‘s Renergon 400 with Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer as driver and navigator, respectively, with the main focus being the 2024 Dakar Rally.

The CR7 is a four-wheel-drive car, a break from the team’s traditional 2WD vehicles; an AWD car was last developed by Century with the BMW X6 T1.1 in 2012. While certain components like the double wishbone rear suspension and the general shape carry over from its predecessor CR6, the CR7 otherwise draws more from the upgraded CR6-T. For example, the CR7 and CR6-T both use a twin-turbo V6 Audi RS4 engine capable of 434 horsepower, while the CR6’s 370-hp motor comes from the Chevrolet Corvette LS7. The CR7 also has less wheel travel and a lower centre of gravity.

The team has also produced two more CR7s, though those are lacking key features and are therefore not prepared for racing at the moment as further development and testing continue.

“It’s been a largely successful launch for a clean sheet product but in no way do we underestimate the amount of work left to have this car win races, let alone finishing them,” said team manager Julien Hardy. “I need to stress that this upcoming race debut is simply an extension of our testing programme, and an opportunity to see how everything works in a different environment than our two test tracks. The 4WD system is very novel and has been performing as planned but we’re still lacking information about the high speed behaviour of the car. Cooling on continuous runs is also something we need to confirm but we’re pretty satisfied with the launch spec so far.

“The aim will be to finish each loop without issues but Brian and Leonard have been instructed to stop if anything suspect is happening and are under no pressure to complete the full race distance. At this stage, preserving the car in running condition is more important than a race finish as we want to keep putting mileage on all the launch components as quickly as possible.

Toby Price will hit double-digit Dakar Rallies on the familiar saddle of a KTM 450 Rally Factory. On Wednesday, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing announced they have signed Price for the 2024 race and World Rally-Raid Championship.

“I’ve been racing for KTM for fifteen years now and for the factory since 2015, so it feels great to be able to race the biggest, toughest rally for them once again,” said Price. “It’s been a long journey with the KTM brand and one that I think it’s fair to say has brought both sides heaps of success along the way. With this contract extension signed now, I’m really looking forward to focusing on the Dakar early next year and hopefully keeping KTM up front.”

Price impressed in his Dakar Rally début in 2015 when he won a stage and finished third overall, and built upon it by winning the 2016 edition outright for bikes. He added a second victory in 2019.

The 2023 edition saw a battle between Price, Skyler Howes, and Luciano Benavides for the overall. While Price’s only stage win came in the Prologue, he stalked Howes for much of the rally before taking the lead in Stage #12. Benavides mounted a dramatic comeback in the final two legs to take the win, though Price still settled for second.

He claimed the W2RC lead with a third at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, followed by another third among championship-eligible riders at the Sonora Rally. Mechanical issues at the Desafío Ruta 40 cost Price the top spot, and he enters the season-ending Rallye du Maroc trailing Luciano Benavides by nine points.

Liam Lawson has admitted that missing out on a full-time drive with Scuderia AlphaTauri for the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season is disappointing, but he is keen to continue to show what he can do whilst he has the opportunity to do so in 2023.

The New Zealander was drafted in at short notice to make his Grand Prix debut earlier this year during the wet weekend at Circuit Zandvoort after Daniel Ricciardo broke his wrist in a practice accident on Friday afternoon.

Since then, he has shown himself more than capable behind the wheel of the AT04 and has secured AlphaTauri’s best result of the season of ninth in the Singapore Grand Prix despite having never driven the circuit before.

Lawson says his latest opportunity in Qatar this weekend will give him another chance to show just what AlphaTauri will miss next season before he fully turns his attention back to his regular race seat in the Japanese-based Super Formula championship.

“In Japan, the news came public that I’m back to the role of reserve driver next year,” said Lawson.  “Obviously, my goal is to be in Formula 1 full-time, so as much as it’s disappointing, it’s still my goal, and it’s now about trying to make sure that I can make that happen in the future.

FIA Formula 2 race winner Oliver Bearman will make his FIA Formula 1 World Championship practice debut later this year as he participates in two sessions with the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team.

The eighteen-year-old, who won four races during his rookie Formula 2 season with Prema Racing, including both races of the Azerbaijan weekend, will take part in the opening session of both the Mexico City and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekends with Haas.

The British racer will begin bedding himself into the Haas team this weekend in Qatar, with the Ferrari Driver Academy racer set to be in the garage learning everything he can in preparation for his maiden outing in three weeks time.

“I am so happy to be joining MoneyGram Haas F1 Team driving in Mexico and Abu Dhabi,” said Bearman. “Getting to Formula 1 has been my dream since I was go-karting so to be driving a car for the first time this year is really special.

“I’m grateful to the team, and of course Ferrari, for allowing me this chance. I’m working hard to make sure I’m ready to support the team as best I can on both occasions.”

2023 FIA Formula 3 champion Gabriel Bortoleto has become the newest member of the McLaren Driver Development Programme, and will be given support by them into the next phase of his career.

Bortoleto was the surprise package of the 2023 season and was able to clinch the title during the season closing round at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, and he will now join the programme led by former FIA Formula 1 World Championship driver and multiple 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro.

The Brazilian will join Pato O’Ward, 2024 Reserve Driver Ryo Hirakawa and Ugo Ugochukwu within the programme, while McLaren will also look into the potential of Brando Badoer, the son of former Formula 1 racer Luca Badoer, with the Italian been signed to a one-year Optioned Driver role.

“I’m pleased to welcome Gabriel to the McLaren Driver Development programme,” said Pirro.  “I’ve known him well since the beginning of his motorsport career and he’s got all that is needed on and off track to be a star.

“He also fits very well with our team culture at McLaren. I look forward to working with Gabriel and helping him develop in his motorsport career. 

Pierre Gasly started on the front row of the grid in the first Qatar Grand Prix back in 2021, and although the Frenchman missed out on points that weekend, he felt it was a strong weekend for him.

The BWT Alpine F1 Team driver, then racing for Scuderia AlphaTauri, inherited second place on the grid thanks to penalties for both Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas, but he was unable to convert his starting position into points after a difficult Sunday at the Lusail International Circuit.

Gasly, who was in Qatar last year for the World Cup final, is hoping for a better result this weekend as the FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns to the country, and he knows that, with it being a sprint weekend, that Alpine need to hit the ground running early to maximise their potential.

“I really like Qatar,” said Gasly.  “I was actually there for the Football World Cup last December, so I certainly have fond memories there, even if the Final did not go the way of France.

“Even so, a fantastic experience to be at one of the biggest sporting events in the world and something I will remember forever.

NASCAR’s 2020s schedule shake-ups are continuing for another year as the 2024 NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck Series feature various changes that, while perhaps not as wide-scale as in recent years, are still major ranging from the return of Iowa Speedway to configuration swaps for Bristol Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Cup and Truck Series’ Bristol Dirt race has been dropped after a three-year experiment and will return to being on the concrete. Likewise, Indianapolis has stopped flirting with the infield road course as the Cup and Xfinity Series race on the 2.5-mile oval again. With the Truck Series dropping Knoxville Raceway after 2022, NASCAR’s national series no longer have dirt races for the first time since 2012.

“We’re certainly open to dirt racing, whether it be with our Cup Series, Xfinity Series or Craftsman Truck Series. Something we’re going to continue to consider,” said NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing development and strategy Ben Kennedy. “That said, I think after we’ve seen racing on the dirt at Bristol play out for the past few years and hearing some of the fan feedback, we felt like it was an opportunity for us to shake things up a bit, move back to the concrete surface in the spring, and move back to all asphalt and concrete tracks for ’24.

“I think that said, as we think about what the future looks like, dirt racing does have a unique place in motorsports. You think of a lot of our drivers, they came from dirt racing. You think of some of the best racing that I’ve personally seen, it’s on dirt. Do I think there’s going to be a dirt race sometime in the future? I think so. What that track looks like or what the time is, we’ll see, but it’s something we’re going to keep our pulse on for sure. I think similar to some of these unique styles of tracks like street courses, if it does come back on the schedule, I don’t think it’s going to be something where we have fifteen different dirt tracks. I think it might be one or two that we’d have throughout the year and really make it something special.”

Perhaps the largest change is the addition of Iowa Speedway to the Cup calendar. The track, owned by NASCAR, had long been considered a potential Cup host site as it welcomed Xfinity and Trucks only to be dropped from both schedules due to COVID-19 in 2020.

The 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship will come to a close at the Rallye du Maroc, where 102 entries across five FIA classes are preparing for the 2024 Dakar Rally and/or making a last push for the titles. Combined with the 136 riders from the FIM side, there are 238 total entries for the rally.

Pending disaster, Nasser Al-Attiyah has his second consecutive W2RC crown all but wrapped up as he leads Yazeed Al-Rajhi by 51 points and only needs four more to clinch.

After skipping the Desafío Ruta 40, Bahrain Raid Xtreme returns for Morocco with a four-pronged attack led by Sébastien Loeb. Orlando Terranova returns for his second start after Dakar. Brothers Cristian and Marcos Baumgart, customers of Prodrive starting in 2023, impressed in their W2RC début at Sonora with a pair of stage podiums.

Guerlain Chicherit, who won the 2022 Rallye du Maroc in a Prodrive Hunter, has switched to a Toyota Hilux from Overdrive Racing. Besides championship contenders Al-Rajhi and Juan Cruz Yacopini, Overdrive retains Denis Krotov who joined the team in Argentina along with part-timer Eugenio Amos. T3 regular Guillaume de Mévius will make his T1 début in a Hilux from the team.

Martin Prokop and his Ford Raptor makes his return after skipping the American rounds. Elsewhere in the Ford T1 camp, Nani Roma will pilot M-Sport’s long-hyped Ford Ranger T1+ in its maiden W2RC start after finishing sixth in the truck’s first race at the Baja España Aragón in July.

Mike Krack admits the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team have not performed to the level they had hoped in recent races, but they are not giving up on the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season and have more updates to implement on their AMR23.

Aston Martin, and in particular Fernando Alonso, began the season strongly with multiple podium finishes, but top six results have been hard to come by for either the Spaniard or team-mate Lance Stroll, with the team having scored only six points across the past three races.

This has seen the Silverstone-based team slip from second in the Constructors’ Championship to fourth behind both the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team and Scuderia Ferrari, and they have the resurgent McLaren F1 Team looking to demote them even further before the season concludes in Abu Dhabi next month.

“The last few races have been challenging in terms of performance, operations, and reliability,” said Krack, the Team Principal at Aston Martin.  “We need to be at 100% with our operations and our reliability if we are to add performance and do a better job for Lance and Fernando.

“Lance was forced to park the car with the rear wing issue, while Fernando picked up four points. Being honest, that’s not the level we expect of ourselves. We need to keep our heads down and keep fighting.