Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Toto Wolff acknowledged that the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team were in damage limitation mode during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend as they looked to minimise their points deficit to Scuderia Ferrari as the two teams battle over second place in the Constructors’ Championship.

On the back of a strong weekend in Singapore, Mercedes were not able to fight at the same kind of level at the Suzuka International Racing Course, with Lewis Hamilton ending fifth and George Russell seventh, both finishing behind one of the Ferraris who finished fourth and sixth.

Wolff, the Team Principal at Mercedes, says the team did as good a job as possible in Japan, and he hopes for a more competitive outing this weekend in Qatar.

“We knew our pace in Japan wouldn’t match what we had been able to show in Singapore,” said Wolff.  “They are very different circuits and the characteristics of Suzuka highlighted the weaknesses of the W14.

“It was therefore important that we limited the damage to Ferrari in the Championship. With six races to go, we are relishing the fight and will be giving it our all to stay ahead, starting this weekend in Qatar.”

On 29 September, The Checkered Flag spoke with Dustin Jones on the heels of his victory at the Silver State 300 in the maiden race for the Can-Am Maverick R.

The full transcript of the interview is available below. Some text has been altered from the actual dialogue to improve readability.

An article on the interview can be read here.

Transcript

TCF: It’s been about a week since the Silver State 300. How did it feel to not only win in the Maverick R’s début, but to win the overall in the UTV?

DJ: Naturally, we were excited and nervous about this opportunity to be the first guys to race this new Maverick R. You could say that there’s no pressure and it’s like, ‘Hey, we understand racing is racing and anything can happen,’ but because we were part of the development and we understand the effort that the engineers put in, this was a whole new design in terms of transmission and in terms of the knuckles for the suspension of it, whether they said it or not, we understood the pressure that came along with this race.

After over two months of no world rallycross action, the 2023 FIA World Rallycross Championship finally gets back underway 7/8 October at the Killarney International Raceway in South Africa with the first double-header of the season. This is your complete guide to what to expect as the championship heads to the southern hemisphere.

Killarney International Raceway

The ever-popular Killarney International Raceway was first visited by World RX in 2017 but has been missing from the calendar since 2019. With spectacular racing from the very first event, including from the likes of legendary drivers Ken Block and Sebastian Loeb, the track quickly cemented itself as a firm fan favourite. The sweeping opening corner, the jump into the intricate gravel section, and the joker merge on the run down to the fast, tight final chicane all practically guarantee spectacular action in every race.

The most dramatic event came in 2019. The championship was in absolute deadlock between Andreas Bakkerud and Timmy Hansen, with just two points separating them as they went into the final. The two made contact on the first lap, but both could carry on. Bakkerud made the better recovery and finished second, but Hansen clung on to fourth place, ensuring that they were tied on points at the end of the season. Having won four events in the 2019 season, as opposed to Bakkerud’s one, Hansen had done just enough to secure a spectacular victory by the narrowest possible margin.

Weekend Structure

The World RX of South Africa marks the first double-header event of the 2023 season. This means that both Saturday and Sunday will feature a full championship round in its entirety, with three heats followed by the semi-finals and the final. With practice getting underway at 8:30am on both days, fans will be treated to two full days of rallycross action.

The Cars

For the first time in World RX history, the competition will be between drivers in completely equal machinery. The title battle has been on hold since the devastating fire that knocked Special ONE Racing out of the championship back at Lydden Hill in July. As the FIA investigation continues, it was decided that the teams would switch to the ZEROID X1 cars used in the support RX2e championship.

Rainbow Truck Team will add a slightly different truck to their arsenal for the 2024 Dakar Rally as they will field a modified Volkswagen Amarok that operates on hydrogen, with Dick Zuurmond and Simon Koetsier as driver and navigator.

Dubbed the Amarok H2, it was developed by E•Lions who specialises in modifying discarded commercial vehicles into fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV). The conversion process entails removing all diesel-related components before installing an electric motor and battery pack, along with the hydrogen fuel cell, while also rewriting any electronics to be compatible with the new technology. A traditional gearbox is used so that the battery can remain at a lower voltage at 48 Volt.

An Amarok is currently used by the Dakar Press Team for photographers heading out to the race; the press corps will switch to a hydrogen FCEV version of the Amarok DC 4Motion from E•Lions in 2024. It is capable of 450 horsepower (850 Newton-meters) on a 44 kWh battery pack. Like with most FCEVs that use the fuel, its tank stores hydrogen at a pressure of 700 bar.

Besides the Amarok, E•Lions has also converted a Volkswagen Crafter.

Rainbow will field the Amarok in Mission 1000, a new non-competition category for the 2024 Dakar Rally dedicated to vehicles on electric, hydrogen, or hybrid power. Rather than running the same route as the main Rally, participants will attempt to complete an adjacent 100-kilometre course each day.

MAZ-SPORTauto has enjoyed a bit of a renaissance year highlighted by Siarhei Viazovich stunning powerhouse rival KAMAZ-master to win the Silk Way Rally, but they are once again unable to bring that momentum to the Dakar Rally. In an interview with sports channel Belarus 5, Viazovich clarified that while Russian and Belarusian athletes are starting to be accepted back into international sporting events, the contrary remains the case for Dakar despite conducting dialogue with the FIA.

Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine with Belarusian support, athletes from both countries were banned from virtually every major international competition unless they agreed to certain stipulations such as condemning the war and not using their nation’s emblems. The FIA implemented such a policy shortly after the invasion, requiring Belarusian and Russian drivers to stand in solidarity with Ukraine and either competing under the neutral FIA banner or switching to a willing country’s flag.

MAZ-SPORTauto and KAMAZ-master, both owned by their respective governments, and their drivers refused the terms and therefore have not taken appeared in World Rally-Raid Championship rounds like Dakar since. KAMAZ’s absence allowed IVECO to win the Dakar Rally’s T5 category for trucks, only the third time a non-KAMAZ team triumphed since 2009.

Although its consequences have been drastic, MAZ still would have been on the sideline even if the invasion did not occur. The team was barred from travelling to the 2022 Dakar Rally via France with their fellow competitors following Western sanctions on owner Minsk Automotive Plant in response to the company’s crackdown on worker protests of the 2020 presidential election; MAZ considered working around the travel issue by going through Syria to get to the host site in Saudi Arabia, but was subsequently prohibited from racing altogether. Another round of sanctions was imposed by the United States Department of the Treasury in March 2023.

“We held negotiations both at the beginning of this year and in the middle of the year,” said Viazovich. “As athletes, we could have been admitted if we signed certain papers, but we rejected these conditions and two conditions that we cannot support at all.

The FIA announced the approval of Andretti Formula Racing LLC’s application to join the FIA Formula 1 World Championship after concluding their analysis of four prospective teams. The Andretti application has now entered the third and final phase of the application process, in which Formula One Management will carry out commercial discussion regarding the addition of the eleventh team.

Phase two of the FIA’s application process took into account several key criteria, including prospective teams’ sporting potential, technical abilities and financial viability. The sustainability and social impact of each applicant were also assessed. Of the four teams that submitted formal applications, Andretti was the only team that met the FIA’s comprehensive review.

FIA President FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said that the FIA’s thorough review was intended to ensure that only prospective teams that satisfy their standards would be approved.

“The FIA was very clear in establishing stringent criteria for entry from the outset of the Expressions of Interest procedure. Our objective, after rigorous due diligence during the application phase, was to only approve prospective entries which satisfied the set criteria and illustrated that they would add value to the sport.

“The FIA is obliged to approve applications that comply with the Expressions of Interests application requirements and we have adhered to that procedure in deciding that Andretti Formula Racing LLC’s application would proceed to the next stage of the application process. In taking that decision, the FIA is acting in accordance with EU directives on motor sport participation and development.”

Matt Crafton and Nick Sanchez have been respectively fined UDS$25,000 (€23,888.75) and $5,000 (€4,777.75) for their fight at the end of Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, the sanctioning body announced Tuesday. The latter’s father Rene Sanchez has also been suspended for the rest of the year. All three were penalised under Sections 4.3.A and 4.4.D concerning NASCAR personnel conduct.

The brawl came in response to a wreck during the first overtime as Sanchez collided with Crafton, causing a massive crash that collected eight more trucks. While Sanchez was not particularly damaged and finished seventh, Crafton was relegated to twenty-fourth.

Afterwards, the two confronted each other in the garage with Sanchez and his family asserting Crafton had snuck up on him before delivering a sucker punch that dropped him to the pavement. With blood on his face, Sanchez yelled at Crafton, “I’m going to fucking kill you in Homestead! You fucked with the wrong guy, motherfucker,” while being separated by fellow driver Cory Roper.

“After the race, Nick and his PR-right hand lady, Christy, were walking next to each other back to his hauler,” recalled Sanchez’s mother Shanie on Facebook. “Rene and I were about 10 steps behind them. Then in a flash, another driver literally came out of nowhere (we think he was hiding behind some tires)- then tapped Nick on his shoulder from behind, when Nick turned his face to see who it was he then sucker punched Nick. Didn’t say a word, no confrontation, just flat out blindsided him. The driver had already changed out of his firesuit into plain clothes to blend in with everyone else. Obviously he was waiting for Nick to walk by- he had it planned.

“Like Nick said ‘it was a cheapshot’. Anyone who knows Nick knows he’s not an aggressor and would never do that to another driver or anyone else, but he didn’t even have a chance to defend himself.

Although Iowa Speedway is owned by NASCAR, the track has never hosted the Cup Series in its seventeen years since opening in 2006 but has welcomed the lower Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series before disappearing from both calendars amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. That will change in 2024 when the Cup Series heads to the Newton circuit on 16 July, while the Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series will also tag along.

“The things Iowans value most are what NASCAR represents best—hard work, family, and community—which is exactly why our partnership has always been a natural fit,” said Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on Tuesday. “We’re thrilled to bring a NASCAR Cup Series race to Iowa Speedway next summer and for this incredible opportunity to introduce millions of racing fans to our great state.”

Designed by NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Rusty Wallace with inspiration from Richmond Raceway, Iowa is a D-shaped track spanning .875 miles (1.408 km). The Truck and Xfinity Series began racing there in 2009, while NASCAR purchased the track in 2013 as the two divisions had a pair of races each. It was removed from both series’ schedules in 2020 due to COVID-19 and has not returned to either since, though ARCA has continued competing there.

Although without NASCAR, the NTT IndyCar Series has maintained a steady presence since 2007 with the exception of 2021. Indy NXT also races at Iowa in support.

Prior to COVID, Iowa had long been floated as a potential Cup site if the series was looking for new locations.

When it was revealed in August, the Can-Am Maverick R was touted as the most powerful UTV on the market. Faster and wider than its predecessors and the side-by-side vehicles of other manufacturers, the car raised as much excitement as it did eyebrows for its design. Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but Dustin Jones proved that trophies are blind to appearance.

The Can-Am factory rider was entrusted with the Maverick R’s for its racing début at the Silver State 300, where he proceeded to make history by becoming the first UTV to win a desert race outright. A week later, “Battle Axe” sat down with The Checkered Flag to discuss the triumph, his thoughts and role in developing the Maverick R, and how UTV racing has grown in the past year.

The Silver State 300

“For me, in the smaller genre of racing, it was life changing to accomplish something like that.”

Despite the hype surrounding the Maverick R, it would be a stretch to say Jones and the Can-Am Factory Racing Team were expecting to blow away the Best In The Desert field at the Silver State 300. In fact, the team was perhaps more anxious than confident.

“We were excited and nervous about this opportunity to be the first guys to race this new Maverick R,” Jones began. “You could say that there’s no pressure and it’s like, ‘Hey, we understand racing is racing and anything can happen,’ but because we were part of the development and we understand the effort that the engineers put in, this was a whole new design in terms of transmission and in terms of the knuckles for the suspension of it, whether they said it or not, we understood the pressure that came along with this race.

Ryan Blaney is a three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at Talladega Superspeedway, even if it meant taking years off his life as each victory came down to a dramatic photo finish. After winning in 2019 and 2020 by .007 seconds, he added his third with a margin of just .012.

Sunday’s YellaWood 500 was a mad scramble even uncharacteristic for Talladega with seventy lead changes, the seventh most in series history, between twenty-four drivers. Blaney and Kevin Harvick led a pair of lines in the final two laps before the former found a run exiting turn two to take the lead.

After committing to the inside, Blaney retook the lead with William Byron pushing before Harvick and Riley Herbst closed the gap on the otuside. Coming to the finish, Herbst and Chase Elliott were hit and spun in front of the pack. As the field wrecked behind them, Blaney and Harvick surged ahead with the former narrowly on top.

“We did a good job of positioning ourselves up towards the front there,” said Blaney. “After we made a mistake at Stage #2 and lost track position, we did a really good job and had a good pit stop and was able to start in the front two rows. The last restart, I guess, the #36 did a great job. Riley did a really good job of pushing me kind of where I needed it, especially when we were leading the top lane. He hasn’t run too many Cup races at all, and I think the only other speedway he has run is maybe Daytona a month ago. So he did a really good job of kind of understanding where to get on me and carry momentum. So appreciate him for that. He did a good job.

“I think the biggest thing was getting clear to the bottom down the back stretch in front of the #24 (Byron) to get alongside the #4 (Harvick). That made it to where, okay, now it’s a drag race between he and I. The biggest job too was making sure the #24 didn’t get clear, so I kind of had to drag brake to make sure the #4 stayed outside the #24 to make sure one of us won and made sure the #24 couldn’t jump outside of me and made sure I had his help.

The most recent World Rally-Raid Championship round, the Desafío Ruta 40 in late August, had ninety-nine total competitors across every class. The W2RC season-ending Rallye du Maroc‘s Rally2 category alone came so close to equating that with a whopping ninety-seven, the most in 2023 and even beating the Dakar Rally by one.

While Rally2 tends to be the largest class with its concentration of amateur and developmental riders, the Rallye du Maroc in particular frequently draws entries in excess of eighty or even ninety. The 2021 race had ninety while 2022 saw ninety-three.

By comparison, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge had the most behind Morocco and Dakar with just twenty-nine. The Sonora Rally featured fourteen while Desafío Ruta 40 had nineteen. The stark dichotomy can be simultaneously attributed to Morocco being a popular rally raid hub while the rally is typically used as a final dress rehearsal for those entering the Dakar.

To this end, many of the non-championship Rally2 riders in Morocco with their last W2RC action being the season opener at the Dakar or another one-off later in the calendar. Fabien Domas, Mathieu Dovèze, Tomás de Gavardo, and Thomas Kongshøj are among those who fall under the former, while the latter camp includes Sunier, Diego Llanos, and Modestas Siliunas. Marshall Méplon is a W2RC newcomer. Samuel Fremy, who last raced at Dakar in 2022, returns to Morocco for his first entry since 2021.

Tobias Ebster will race in Morocco for the first time after punching his 2024 Dakar Rally ticket by winning the ADDC. Javier Campos, Borja Pérez Casimiro, and Sébastien Herbet are running their inaugural championship races of the year to prepare for Dakar.

McLaren F1 Team Principal Andrea Stella praised the team’s efforts throughout the season, which have resulted in a massive step forward in performance in recent races and a double podium result at the Japanese Grand Prix. Stella said that the team will vie for continuous improvement through to the season’s end as they pull closer to the front of the field.

“As we head into Qatar GP week, it’s important to acknowledge how far we have come in the season. Achieving a P2 and P3 in Japan was not an easy task, but it was made possible by the quality of the work of the teams’ work at the factory and trackside.

“We’re more determined than ever to continue improving, as we work towards being consistent in fighting at the top of the field.”

With this weekend being only the FIA Formula 1 World Championship‘s second visit to Lusail International Circuit and the first with current regulation cars, Stella said that the whole field will be trying to extract the most they can from the abbreviated practice time of the sprint format. He added that the team will continue to fight for the most points possible across the Saturday sprint and Grand Prix.

“The Qatar race is fairly new to F1, as we have only visited the Lusail International Circuit once before back in 2021. However, this is the first time we will be bringing the new generation of cars here, so everyone will be trying to make the most of the practice sessions, and the Sprint format only adds to that challenge.

McLaren F1 Team‘s Lando Norris was pleased with the pace of MCL60 at the Japanese Grand Prix, where the team took its first double podium of the season. With seven races to go in the season, the British driver said that the team’s current performance is “encouraging.”

“We’re back racing after a week off. We had a very successful race in Japan with another P2 for me and a double podium for the team. The car had strong pace, which is encouraging as we go into the final seven races of the season.”

With the Qatar Grand Prix quickly approaching, Norris said that the team has taken the last two weeks to prepare back at their Woking headquarters. He added that it will be important to get up to speed quickly on Friday, with only one practice session preceding qualifying in the sprint schedule and additional points up for grabs on Saturday.

“Qatar up next. It’s another Sprint race weekend, so more opportunity for points. This is only the second time we’re racing at the Lusail International Circuit, so we will have to learn as much as we can from the Friday practice session. I’ve been back at the MTC with the engineers in preparation over the last two weeks. We’ll look to extract the maximum from the car and hopefully bring home some more points.”

“I’m excited and can’t wait to get going” – Oscar Piastri

Team-mate Oscar Piastri enters the Qatar race weekend after taking his first ever podium finish in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, and looks forward to the chance at securing more points.

After the Baja TT Sharish Gin, T3 owner/driver Guillaume de Mévius said he would like to see the disparity between his class and the top-level T1 category be narrowed to allow for increased parity and an easier transition into the higher division. A week later, he is ready to make the jump himself.

De Mévius announced Monday that he and co-driver François Cazalet will race a Toyota Hilux T1+ prepared by Overdrive Racing at the Rallye du Maroc. He has clarified that the start does not necessarily mean a permanent transition into T1 yet, but to gauge his capabilities before seeing where to go from there.

“The time has come for us to try our luck in the benchmark category of rally raids,” said de Mévius. “This participation in the Rally of Morocco in an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux T1+ is not yet an official commitment, but a initiative made possible by the involvement of various partners. The aim is therefore to show off our competitiveness with François, so that we can look ahead to the next stage.”

The Belgian currently oversees GRallyTeam, a T3 operation that competes in the FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas where his brother Ghislan de Mévius sits second in points. Guillaume raced for Red Bull’s factory division before forming his own team for 2023 in partnership with Overdrive’s OT3 programme.

After retiring from his Dakar Rally début in 2022, he scored a stage win in the 2023 edition en route to a third in T3. He was the only non-Can-Am driver in the top five. While de Mévius has mostly focused on running his team since Dakar, he won the T3 class at the FIA World Cup’s Baja España Aragón in July.

It’s incredible to think that the two thousand twenty-three season is almost over, but thankfully, I’ve got lots to play for with three championship titles up for grabs.

Next up on my calendar is the final Porsche Carrera Cup GB event of the season at Brands Hatch early next month (8 October) where nothing less than two wins and two fastest laps are essential in terms of the title race.

Since my last column, there have been three Porsche events. Knockhill, near Dunfermline, obviously is my ‘home’ race of the year – a rare opportunity for me to compete in Scotland at a track where my car racing took off at the beginning of my career.

And so it was great to finally record another win at Knockhill in the opening race. I first raced at Knockhill in 2012, racing Minis, and became the Knockhill Young Saloon Car Driver of the Year having won a couple of races there – my last victories at Knockhill until my Porsche victory in mid-August.

I felt proud to be flying the flag for Scotland with ‘home’ sponsors like The Glenturret, Tunnock’s, AL-2 Teknik UK, PyroDry, and Carronbridge Sawmill, and it was especially nice to have success at Knockhill as we had guests present from each of those companies.