Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Boris Said has enjoyed a decorated career as one of NASCAR‘s premiere road course racers, which he plans to end for good after the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on 7 October. He will drive the #17 Chevrolet Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports, a part-time car that the Cup Series powerhouse occasionally fields for their Cup regulars but will branch out for Said and Rajah Caruth, the latter entering the season finale at Phoenix Raceway on 4 November.

Said has raced in virtually every closed-wheel vehicle with four wheels ranging from sports cars and Supercars to rally cars and Stadium Super Trucks. This extensive repertoire made him one of the more versatile road racers in motorsport, which he has translated into a NASCAR career heavily centred around such tracks spanning three decades.

He last competed at the Xfinity level in 2021 when he raced at Circuit of the Americas for MBM Motorsports; an attempt at Road America ended with him missing the show. All but six of his twenty-nine career starts in the series have come at road courses, which included winning at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2010.

His experience also includes fifty-five Cup Series and sixty-five Craftsman Truck Series races, including two full-time seasons in the latter in 1997 and 1998 with a win at the 1998 Sonoma event. While Said never won a Cup race, he has eight top tens and two poles, one of which was on an oval at Daytona where he went on to finish fourth.

Now 61 years old, Said anticipates the Roval to be his final NASCAR race. His last start in any division was the Cup Series at COTA in 2022, finishing twenty-sixth for MBM.

Joe Gibbs Racing will have more than just one seat to fill for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. On Tuesday, JR Motorsports announced they have signed Sammy Smith away from JGR to drive the #8 Chevrolet Camaro.

“Sammy is a great fit for our programme and will mesh well with our other drivers,” said JRM team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. “He’s a young, talented racer who’s willing to learn and carries himself with a lot of professionalism. He has a bright future ahead. I’m excited for our team to help him continue his journey.”

Smith was a Toyota prospect who enjoyed massive success in the ARCA Menards Series East before moving up to the Xfinity Series for 2023. He won at Phoenix just four races into his rookie campaign and is currently sixth in points with twelve top-ten finishes.

He replaces Josh Berry in the #8 as the latter joins Cup Series team Stewart-Haas Racing. His sponsor Pilot Flying J will reunite with JRM, having previously appeared on Michael Annett’s #1 until his retirement at the end of 2021; Smith and Annett’s families are close friends, with the former’s father Kurt being Annett’s business manager.

“It’s special to welcome Pilot Flying J, TMC Transportation, and Allstate Peterbilt Group back into the JRM family,” commented team CEO Kelley Earnhardt Miller. “They were part of our Xfinity programme for five years and were instrumental in helping us become a four-car operation in 2017. This reunion shows a lot of promise with a talent like Sammy at the wheel. We can’t wait to go to work with them.”

Ryan Vargas is not much of a road course racer, but he was more than up for the challenge against the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series when he and 3F Racing made their series débuts in last weekend’s NASCAR GP Germany at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. Despite being his first time competing in Europe and doing so in the top-level EuroNASCAR PRO class, he scored tenth-place finishes in both races.

Vargas got to showcase his skill early when he cracked the top ten in qualifying to advance to the Superpole round, pacing in tenth.

Race #1 took place on his 23rd birthday, where he notched a tenth. While post-race penalties tossed up the results, most notably causing Vittorio Ghirelli to lose the win to Paul Jouffreau due to a non-spec air filter, Vargas mostly avoided scrutiny to keep his top ten.

“The Euro cars are a bit more rigid and built to handle road courses better,” he posted on social media. “A mix of a bias-ply tire and lower power means you can absolutely THRASH the car around and find different ways to find speed.

“Plus, they’re still big stock cars, so they’re WILD to drive.”

Although Championship Off-Road has been the premier short course league in the Midwest, American Outdoor Events hopes to usurp the throne with its new championship. Tentatively dubbed the National Pro Off-Road Series until a formal unveiling takes place at the Performance Racing Industry Show on 7 December, it will race at virtually the same locations as COR across an identical summer through fall time frame.

AOE owns multiple off-road properties including MidAmerica Outdoors and Great American Shortcourse, the latter serving as the West Coast short course counterpart. MAO, located in Oklahoma and doubling as AOE’s headquarters, hosted the Championship Off-Road season finale last weekend and also oversees a pair of UTV and truck racing series. Other AOE series include Ultra4 USA, American SxS Takeover, and America Pro Rock Racing.

Seven races are planned for 2024 across six tracks. Five of the events at MAO, Bark River International Raceway, Crandon International Raceway, and ERX Motor Park were on the 2023 Championship Off-Road calendar including Crandon’s premier Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run and Polaris World Championship Off-Road Races. Lucas Oil Speedway will host the season finale in October; while not a COR track, the Missouri circuit kicked off the inaugural MAO Racing Truck Championship Series in April. The series also plans to race on the West Coast, though a date and location have not been revealed.

Nearly all of the COR Pro classes—Pro 4, Pro 2, Pro Lite, Pro Buggy, and Pro Turbo SxS—will be featured in the AOE series, with COR’s Pro Stock SxS translating into AOE’s Pro NA SxS. AOE currently does not have plans for Pro SPEC, which was introduced by COR for 2022 as a spec-based truck division, though additional classes are “being considered”. COR’s Sportsman categories operate with some autonomy via Midwest Off Road Racing, though the region’s sportsman short course scene recently underwent its own split with SODA and IODA.

USD$1.5 million (€1.42 million) in prize money will be available, with an additional $200,000 (€189,230) at the non-championship Crandon Red Bull World Cup.

AM Racing hopes to become a two-car team for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, adding another Ford Mustang to partner the #25 currently driven by Brett Moffitt.

“With our focus on becoming a predominant championship-calibre team, adding a second car to our team’s program is a crucial step in that process,” said team owner Kevin Cywinski. “We have made great strides in 2023, but the opportunity to add additional resources and expand our footprint for 2024 will strengthen our programme for the long term.

“Housing two competitive NASCAR Xfinity Series teams allows the opportunity to bring additional qualified team members who share the same family-oriented vision and integrity to building and producing two equally fast race cars with one goal: winning.”

After seven years as a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular, AM Racing expanded to the Xfinity Series for 2023 with Moffitt as the driver. Moffitt, the 2018 Truck champion, previously attempted three races in the series for the team in 2021 and 2022. The team also switched from Chevrolet to Ford as part of a new technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing.

Moffitt currently sits fifteenth in points with nine top-ten finishes and a best run of fourth at Chicago.

Chandler Smith will pilot a Chevrolet Silverado RST for the first time on Saturday when he enters the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. He will drive the #25 Silverado of Rackley WAR.

Rackley WAR parted ways with Matt DiBenedetto with three races left in the season, leaving the team needing someone in the seat for the remaining events. Despite making the playoffs, DiBenedetto announced August that he intended to leave the team for other opportunities. He departed Rackley WAR after recording twelve top-ten finishes in 2023, and won his and the team’s first race the previous year at Talladega.

“I’m super grateful for Rackley WAR giving me the opportunity to run their truck this weekend at Talladega,” said Smith. “Being able to represent Rackley Roofing, WAR Shocks, and this entire organisation is extremely cool. I’m definitely proud of and looking forward to the opportunity.”

Smith raced in the Truck Series for Toyota and Kyle Busch Motorsports from 2019 to 2022, including the full campaign in the last two years. He won two races in 2021 en route to Rookie of the Year honours followed by a three-win 2022 campaign to reach the Championship Round, where he finished third in points.

He switched to Chevrolet and graduated to the Xfinity Series for 2023. Driving for Kaulig Racing, he sits fifth in points as the highest ranking rookie with a win at Richmond. Smith has also run two Cup races with Kaulig.

In 2015, Brett Moffitt won the NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year with Front Row Motorsports. Eight years later, he returns to the team, albeit in the Craftsman Truck Series for Saturday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway. He will drive a newly opened #34 Ford F-150 with sponsorship from Fr8Auctions, who previously backed his 2015 Cup campaign.

Moffitt ran all but the road courses and Talladega for FRM during his Cup ROTY season, taking over the #34 from David Ragan who was at Joe Gibbs Racing in relief duty for the injured Kyle Busch. Despite earning ROTY, he did not return to FRM for 2016 and instead dropped down to the Truck Series on a part-time basis.

He won the 2018 Truck championship with Hattori Racing Enterprises before spending two years at GMS Racing. Since 2021, Moffitt has been an Xfinity Series regular and is currently running the full calendar for AM Racing.

His last Truck Series action also came with AM at Kansas in 2022. In three career Truck starts at Talladega, he has two top tens and a best run of fourth in 2019.

“It’s really cool to have this opportunity in the Truck Series again, especially with a championship team,” said Moffitt. “I always loved my time at FRM and now we’re back together again with the same scheme that we all raced together. All the credit goes to the people at Fr8 for making that idea come together. I can’t wait to go race for a win and help Zane (Smith) in his title defence.”

Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece hope to “Shake and Bake” their way to victory when the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday. Their Stewart-Haas Racing team revealed new liveries for their #14 and #41 Ford Mustangs on Monday, designed to respectively resemble the #26 Wonder Bread and #47 Old Spice cars that Cal Noughton Jr. and Ricky Bobby drove in the 2006 film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Wonder Bread and Old Spice have even signed one-off sponsorship deals for the race.

“Talladega Nights is one movie that most people have seen and laughed with, and these really cool paint schemes will bring back those memories,” said Preece. “Getting to have my team-mate Chase Briscoe in the Old Spice car makes it all come together. The movie remains relevant after all these years, and there’s no better track than Talladega to work with your team-mates.”

Talladega Nights, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as Ricky and Cal, has been regarded as one of the most iconic NASCAR films. While its comedic nature has drawn a rather mixed reception from the fan base, it has remained a nexus between NASCAR and pop culture in the sixteen years since its premiere.

For the 2012 Talladega spring race, Kurt Busch‘s #51 car was painted to resemble Ricky’s #62 “ME” scheme that he used in the film’s climactic race. The opportunity arose as his Phoenix Racing team did not have sponsorship at the time, while Busch had a reputation similar to Ricky’s at that stage in the movie of being a lone wolf with stacked odds against them. The following year, having moved to Furniture Row Racing, Busch once again boasted a Talladega Nights livery for the fall event, this time with Wonder Bread branding on the #78.

Truck Series driver Tyler Ankrum also had a livery from the film at the 2021 Darlington throwback race. While his #26 was based on the Wonder Bread car, Ankrum’s usual sponsor LIUNA was onboard.

Championship Off-Road‘s first excursion outside the Midwestern United States was a short-lived affair as the inaugural weekend at MidAmerica Outdoors was cut short by rain on Sunday, but there was enough action on Saturday to finally crown the 2023 Pro class champions.

Headlining the seven top categories was Pro 4, where C.J. Greaves clinched his third consecutive class championship and eighth total. While Greaves was already cruising to the title with his six wins, Jimmy Henderson hoped to spoil the party before stalling late. Kyle Chaney, looking for his first win of the year, ended up spinning and losing the lead to Greaves. His cousin Kyle Greaves was the only other 2022 champion to successfully defend their title as he won in Pro Lite.

Greaves also claimed the Pro Stock SxS title with wins in all but four rounds. He could have gone three-for-three in Pro Turbo SxS if not for Chaney rebounding from his second-place campaign to beat Greaves by just nine points.

The Pro Turbo SxS gap tied with Pro SPEC for the narrowest of the Pro classes. Pro SPEC, now in its second year of operation with a much larger grid, saw a duel between class newcomer Chad Rayford and 2022 runner-up Nick Visser that ended with the former barely escaping with the title despite Visser winning in MAO.

Ronnie Anderson scored his maiden Pro 2 race victory, while Cory Winner clinched his first title after runner-up Mickey Thomas‘ tyre punctured.

William Byron continues to have a knack for pulling off wins in the most unexpected situations: his first three wins of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season at Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Darlington came in overtime restarts, followed by a fourth at Atlanta after taking the lead before rain cut it short. Only at Watkins Glen was he truly the top driver where he dominated for his fifth win.

His series-leading sixth victory of the year saw the return of his clutch gene when he took the lead for the restart with six laps remaining. He kept Ross Chastain and pole winner Bubba Wallace at bay to record Hendrick Motorsports‘ 300th Cup Series win.

The final twenty laps were marked by a series of frantic restarts. Prior to the six-lap dash, Martin Truex Jr.‘s wreck set up a run that lasted for two laps during which Byron found a run with team-mate Kyle Larson, only for the latter to hit the wall and produce another caution. Byron struggled on the ensuing restart but received another chance when a massive accident took out Team Penske‘s Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric, Wallace’s team-mate and Stage #1 winner Tyler Reddick, and A.J. Allmendinger.

“I think it was kind of one of those days that I knew it would be a grind from start to finish,” said Byron. “Honestly, we had kind of advanced forward quicker than maybe I expected and got the Stage #1 points and felt good about that. The sequence in Stage #2, I just made a mistake and pitted there, and Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) made the right call, and we restarted twenty-fifth or wherever we were. It was just really hard to go forward after that. We slowly inched our way forward after Stage #2 and got ourselves to like fifteenth and I felt good about our race car. we had good confidence, like I could do what I needed to do and pass people on the long run, so I felt good about that.

“Once we got in the top ten, it was picking one off each six, seven to ten laps, and once we got a sniff of probably the first two rows, our car was right up there and just needed a couple good restarts. I didn’t hit the sequence of restarts very well. The first one was pretty good with Kyle. Had pretty good push there and they couldn’t get clear, and then the next one after that I was terrible on. The final one, I just felt like I got a good launch and knew what I wanted to do in (turns) one and two and got a good run off of two and put it three wide, and that was kind of it.

The 2024 Can-Am Maverick R was branded as the most powerful UTV upon reveal in August. Indeed, it only needed just one race to prove its meddle as Dustin Jones won the Silver State 300 overall in its competitive début.

Jones, a Can-Am Off-Road ambassador, set a total time of 5:11:39, leading a contingent of Can-Ams with Vito Ranuio and Phil Blurton trailing. It was the first time in Best In The Desert‘s sanction or any major American desert series that a UTV won a race outright. He had started fourth while World Rally-Raid Championship T3 leader Mitch Guthrie was on pole, though Jones quickly worked his way past the trio ahead of him. Ranuio finished three minutes behind Jones.

Blurton was also in a Maverick R; when the R was revealed, the 2021 SCORE International overall champion called the stock model faster than his usual race-ready Maverick. Jones’ Maverick, prepared by S3 Power Sports, featured stock suspension parts and gussets along the front lower arms.

While an overall victory with a UTV podium sweep is obviously impressive, there is the caveat of the field only having a single Trick Truck and three Class 6100 cars, both categories that typically dominate races. Said truck, driven by Jonathan Brenthel, finished eleventh overall while his brother Jordan Brenthel was fourth behind the UTVs in a Class 6100. Only forty-five entries also took part, partly owing to the race taking place just a week after SCORE’s Baja 400 while the California 300 is in two weeks; the Silver State 300 is normally held in April, but was moved to September due to heavy flooding.

Guthrie, who finished runner-up in the BITD’s Vegas to Reno in August, settled for fourth in the UTV Trophy Unlimited class and ninth overall.

Four-time BTCC champion, Colin Turkington may be all but out of the BTCC Drivers’ Championship hunt, but concluded Silverstone with a milestone taking BMW’s 150th win in the championship.

Michael Crees was initially on pole, but Dan Rowbottom soon picked off top spot. Only for Turkington to be making progress close behind as he soon caught up with Rowbottom taking the lead.

The NAPA Racing UK driver was soon fending off Ronan Pearson and Tom Ingram, while Ash Sutton soon joined the mix. Ingram saw off Rowbottom, with Sutton joining close behind and chopping and changing with his teammate.

Rowbottom eventually held off Pearson for fourth, whilst Josh Cook finished sixth. Ricky Collard was close behind. Going into the final round in two weeks, Sutton holds a 45 point gap to Ingram meaning it is very likely that the former will regain his title.

2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race Three – Silverstone 

Michel Anglade, a legendary helicopter pilot from France who oversaw search and rescue operations from the air for the Dakar Rally in its infancy, was killed along with another passenger in a helicopter crash on Wednesday in Bazoches-les-Gallerandes. He was 78 years old.

According to Bazoches-les-Gallerandes mayor Alain Chachignon, Anglade and another man were flying a Dynali H3 Sport ultralight helicopter when it crashed into a field during the evening. A nearby farmer noticed the scene before alerting authorities. The identity of the second passenger has not been publicly revealed, though his son told La République du Centre that he was “passionate about aviation and skydiving” and was a member of the Airborne Center who jumped on the anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Born in 1945, Anglade grew up in a family of wine growers but frequently visited the Carcassone aviation club in his youth, and elected to pursue a career in the field after receiving his pilot’s licence from the club. After serving with the French Army Light Aviation from 1964 to 1979, he founded Hélifrance to provide helicopter support for emergency services and the film industry.

He later befriended Thierry Sabine, working alongside him as his helicopter pilot for the inaugural Enduropale du Touquet in 1975. When Sabine founded the Paris–Dakar Rally in 1979, Anglade was entrusted with search and rescue duties for lost competitors. He suffered serious injuries when his Écureuil crashed while returning from the 1985 race, forcing multiple operations over the next two years; due to his recovery, he did not participate in the 1986 Rally where Sabine was killed in his own helicopter accident. Anglade continued to fly for the Dakar until 1991 when the Amaury Sport Organisation took over as the race’s sanctioning body from the Sabine family.

Flying in a time before GPS service was used, Anglade conducted his Dakar race operations using a compass, though he recalled often being “more lost than the competitors”; at one point, his crew brought a Tuareg onboard to help them find the course. In 1989, he rescued bike riders who had been lost for five days. One of his fondest memories came when six competitors got lost in the Ténéré desert during a sandstorm, during which Anglade had to siphon fuel from wrecked cars while searching for them; over three days, Anglade battled dehydration and exhaustion before receiving help and water from a Tuareg.

Dakar Rally alumnus Gilles Gard died Saturday after a battle with cancer at the age of 56. He had been fighting the disease for months before passing Saturday morning at a hospital in Cahors, France.

“He had a great day yesterday, he surprised me by being able to get up and be seated at the table, and he was happy, I think,” said his partner Sylvie in a video posted on Facebook. “I must also inform you as he wished. Who will be able to talk to you anymore, who will be able to talk to me anymore, who will say anything to anyone anymore? He loved you very much. He tried everything for lots of people. He was perfectly kind. I spent sixteen years with him and I couldn’t forget them now.

“The page will turn and I’m less certain I would be able to turn it, but one thing I know is that all your support has made him so happy these last few days. He thanks you for it and I thank you for it.”

Gard was a two-time cancer survivor in the 2000s, defeating lymphoma in 2001 followed by leukaemia in 2004. Although lymphoma forced him to end his endurance motorcycle racing career and leukaemia kept him in lengthy isolation in a sterilised room, he remained in shape by pursuing physical training like using an exercise bicycle. This inspired him to become an advocate for using sport to stay healthy while battling illness, purchasing exercise bikes for hospitals in France including the Cahors clinic through his Team Gard programme. In its first decade of operation, Team Gard bought ninety-three bikes includding twelve in 2023.

Once fully fit again, Gard made his Dakar Rally début in 2012, fulfilling a childhood dream after growing up watching the race with his father. He retired after crashing shortly before the end of Stage #2, and also did not finish the 2013 and 2014 editions. While Gard bowed out from all three attempts, being able to run the legendary rally raid multiple times was enough to prove his point of staying fit to better recover from disease.

Ash Sutton is at it again in a drive that may have just sealed another BTCC Drivers’ Championship for the imperious NAPA Racing UK driver who came from 23rd on the grid to win Race Two at Silverstone

It was one of his greatest wins in an illustrious career so far as Jake Hill looked to be cruising towards victory and a second one of the day as Sutton and Tom Ingram battled their way through the order.

However the safety car saw Hill slow and he was soon down the order. Aron Taylor-Smith then led until the penultimate lap as Sutton who was already in the top six as of Hill’s demise dived down the inside through Woodcote. As Ingram got into third past Rory Butcher.

Sutton now leads Ingram by 47 points and the latter now looks to be the only cork in the bottle en route to the former reclaiming the tittle with four races of the season left. Adam Morgan, Andrew Watson, Josh Cook and Colin Turkington rounded out the top seven. 

But all accolades went to Sutton and also Ingram for a true master class and in the case of Sutton, a champions elect drive.