Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

For much of the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s summer break, everyone expected Nasser Al-Attiyah to spend Friday’s final stage of the Desafío Ruta 40 preparing for a new chapter in his career as his contract with Toyota Gazoo Racing expired that day. While his free agency status is technically still in the air for 2024, he does not need to worry about that for now and could just enjoy his third win of 2023.

Now sticking with TGR through the end of the 2023 season, Al-Attiyah led a Toyota sweep of the T1 category in Argentina by winning nearly every stage in Argentina including the Prologue. He would have had a perfect rally if not for tyre punctures in the final moments of Stage #2 that befell him and every T1 driver, which Juan Cruz Yacopini capitalised upon to steal his maiden stage victory. Al-Attiyah still salvaged a second-place run that day before returning to his winning ways for the final three days.

The only T1 driver with multiple wins in 2023, having previously won the Dakar Rally and Sonora Rally, Al-Attiyah leads Yazeed Al-Rajhi in the W2RC by 51 points. He only needs four more points at the season-ending Rallye du Maroc in October to clinch his second straight title. His navigator Mathieu Baumel already secured the co-driver’s championship with a seventy-point advantage over Al-Rajhi’s partner Timo Gottschalk, who did not run Dakar.

“It’s always a good feeling to win and now I only need a few more points in Morocco for the championship,” Al-Attiyah commented. “It was great to be racing here in Argentina again and I’m already looking forward to coming back next year to defend the title.”

Even if Al-Attiyah was too powerful to defeat, Yacopini still had reason to celebrate as he finished a career-best second in his home race with the forementioned stage win being his first. While unable to catch the leader for the overall, he held off Al-Rajhi for the runner-up position.

As the Desafío Ruta 40 came to a close Friday, it was imperative for leaders to avoid making mistakes that might upend their races at the last moment. Bike riders did not quite seem to get that memo.

Perhaps due to riders being more cautious or even too aggressive to maximise their ranking, Stage #5 saw all but two names in the top RallyGP category along with six in Rally2 receive penalties for speeding. Most were of the two-minute variety, though more egregious cases got triple that.

Adrien Van Beveren and his Honda team-mate José Ignacio Cornejo were the only RallyGP riders not to get busted, though they finished on complete opposite ends of the leaderboard. Cornejo finished eighth and last in class as he was dealing with illness, while Van Beveren had finished fourth but ended up the winner as the entire podium was penalised. Initial stage winner Toby Price was one of those who got six minutes, relegating him to fourth.

Ross Branch and Ricky Brabec got two minutes but were able to hang on to their podium spots as Van Beveren moved up. Van Beveren beat Branch by fifty-eight seconds.

Tosha Schareina and Luciano Benavides, the top two in the RallyGP overall entering Friday, opted for more conservative strategies to preserve their positions and consequently finished in the bottom half of the class. Benavides still finished seventh of eight regardless of his six-minute penalty while Schareina was fifth even with two minutes tacked on, though it did not affect their overall.

The Toyota TS050 Hybrid is a prototype sports car developed by Toyota Gazoo Racing for competition in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), including the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is a part of Toyota's commitment to endurance racing and showcases their hybrid technology and engineering expertise. Here are some key details about the Toyota TS050 Hybrid:

1. Hybrid Powertrain: The TS050 Hybrid features a hybrid powertrain consisting of a gasoline engine and an electric hybrid system. The specific configuration and components evolved over the years as the car underwent updates and improvements.

2. Different Generations: The TS050 Hybrid has seen several generations, each featuring technological advancements and refinements. These updates were aimed at enhancing performance, efficiency, and reliability.

3. Competitive Success: The car achieved notable success in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Toyota Gazoo Racing competed against other renowned manufacturers like Porsche, Audi, and Peugeot during its tenure.

4. Le Mans Dominance: The TS050 Hybrid was particularly dominant at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the most prestigious endurance races in the world. Toyota secured multiple victories at Le Mans with this car, including their first-ever win in 2018.

The final four rounds RX1e class of the 2023 FIA World Rallycross Championship will take place as previously scheduled in RX2e machinery. After not racing at the top level since July, the RX1e title will be decided by two double-header events, with two full events happening over each weekend, at the ever-popular Killarney International Raceway in South Africa (7/8 October) followed by the season finale at a brand new street circuit in Hong Kong (11/12 November).

The Cars

Following the fire at Lydden Hill in July, the first fire of its kind in the decade-long history of top-flight electric motorsport, the decision was taken not to race the RX1e machines while the investigation into the cause was taking place. This investigation is still ongoing, but the decision has been taken by the FIA World Motorsport Council to run the final four rounds of the season in ZEROID X1 vehicles, better known as the RX2e-spec cars.

While not as powerful as the RX1e class, the RX2e category has provided some fantastic racing. The speed of the cars was obvious at Lydden Hill when the cars were essentially on the pace of the British rallycross supercars. The championship decider at Estering in Germany was equally exciting, with Team E driver Nils Andersson claiming the title. With the cars generating 270kW of power, the equivalent of 362bhp, and with all of the power available instantly, the cars have proved to be no slouches.

The Drivers

So far, no official entry lists have been revealed. However, the World RX media centre has confirmed there will be a minimum of eight drivers competing, including frontrunner and championship favourite Johan Kristoffersson. After the three events successfully run so far, Kristoffersson is already a mighty 27 points ahead of nearest rival Niclas Grönholm. Kristoffersson was also unstoppable when he switched to the RX2e class for the Belgian round of the season at Mettet, so will surely be the one to beat.

His teammate, Ole Christian Veiby, as well as both CE Dealer Team drivers Grönholm and Klara Andersson, have also competed in the RX2e class this year. So far, there has been no official confirmation that they will be taking part in the final four rounds, but it seems very likely that they will be.

Extreme E‘s hydrogen-powered sister project Extreme E will make its début in 2025 with plans of becoming an FIA World Championship the following year if it meets select criteria. The series was originally supposed to run its inaugural season in 2024.

World Championship status is held by seven series: Formula E, Formula One, the Karting World Championship, the World Endurance Championship, the World Rally Championship, World Rallycross Championship, and World Rally-Raid Championship; the World Touring Car Championship was also one until its shutdown in 2017, as was its short-lived successor World Touring Car Cup. Under Article 2.4.3 of the FIA’s International Sporting Code, a series can be designated as a world championship if a given season takes place on at least three continents, each race is registered on the International Sporting Calendar, and the organiser agrees to let the FIA conduct all investigations and inspections.

On the other hand, Extreme E is classified as an FIA International Series and can only qualify for Championship status upon satisfying Article 2.4.3, which it hopes to do by 2024. If it succeeds, XE would join Formula E and World Rallycross as electric-based championships; FE and XE are both founded and overseen by Alejandro Agag.

“Establishing alongside the FIA a world-first hydrogen racing world championship will be a momentous milestone for Extreme E and the new Extreme H series,” said Agag. “Eventual accreditation as an FIA Championship and then an FIA World Championship means we would be amongst the top tier of global motorsport categories, and Extreme H would be the first-ever world championship racing series of its kind.

“What started as a conversation many years ago about racing in extreme environments, showcasing the incredible performance and innovation of E-SUVs, has now demonstrated enormous growth and further pioneering technical advances as we move forward with the transition to hydrogen and Extreme H, a world-first.

Tosha Schareina has been the top rider at the Desafío Ruta 40 as evidenced by his three stage wins in as many days to kick it off. However, Luciano Benavides was not going to let a Spaniard run Argentina again.

After finishing runner-up in each leg from Monday through Wednesday, Benavides finally snapped Schareina’s win streak with a masterful showing in the second half of Stage #4. He beat Schareina by just thirty-six seconds, narrowing his overall deficit to 5:47 entering the final stage on Friday. With third-placed Ricky Brabec over twenty-three minutes away, Benavides is the only rider with a chance to take the win from Schareina barring disaster for the leader.

While a relatively tall order, another top showing on Friday is especially imperative for the Argentinian as the rally ends in his hometown of Salta.

“Finally, I have got a stage win at my home race; the most important one at Fiambalá,” said Benavides. “Honestly, at the beginning this morning, I was taking things a little steady because I didn’t feel so confident. But then after the neutralisation, I saw the dunes and decided to push.

“It was really good. I was able to catch Tosha ahead of me and then opened for a few kilometres. I really gave my all today, and so towards the end of the special I started to get tired, and I think because of that, I made a small mistake that maybe cost me two minutes. But I was still able to take the win and it feels great. Tomorrow is the final stage and I get to open on the way to Salta, which was always my plan and will feel great in front of my home fans. Hopefully, I can deliver another good result and a strong finish to the rally.”

Season 3 of the World Rally-Raid Championship will be mostly familiar, but the only change is especially major as the midseason point stays on the opposite side of the Atlantic. On Thursday, the Amaury Sport Organisation, jointly approved the 2024 schedule with sanctioning bodies FIA and FIM.

The lone difference from 2023 lies in the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Transibérico replacing the Sonora Rally as the third round. After hosting the championship in April, the Sonora Rally announced its withdrawal from the W2RC in July to focus on domestic competitors without being overshadowed by the international series.

A race on the Iberian Peninsula in Portugal and Spain was first revealed by ASO director David Castera in June. The peninsula previously held the Andalucía Rally that closed out the inaugural W2RC season in 2022 but was dropped for 2023. The previous iteration of the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Transibérico, the Transibérico Rally, was part of W2RC predecessor World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies in the 1990s and 2000s. It will be the first W2RC race in multiple countries and the first FIA rally raid to do so since the World Cup’s 2021 Silk Way Rally.

Asides from the swap, the other four rounds return from 2023 beginning with the Dakar Rally on 5–19 January, which remains in Saudi Arabia for a fifth year. Sixty percent of the 2024 route will go through new locations. While Saudi Arabia will continue as the Dakar host until 2029, the ASO has not ruled out crossing over into neighbouring countries in the future.

The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, founded by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem in 1991, has been part of the World Cup and W2RC since 1993. Like in 2023, the ADDC will have a late February start before ending in March.

In the early months of 2022, things were looking up for Juri Vips. The Estonian was entering his second season as a full-time competitor in Formula 2, with two wins already under his belt in the series, along with a sixth-place finish in the championship the year prior. Red Bull Racing signed him to a reserve/test driver position following four years of service in the team’s junior academy. While not a guarantee, Vips was closer to a Formula 1 seat than any prior time in his career.

However, all of that success didn’t stick around for long. In June of the same year, Vips used a racial slur during a Twitch stream, resulting in a complete severance of the relationship between the then-22-year-old and Red Bull. Team Principal Christian Horner stated that “everybody at some point deserves a second chance” in relation to Vips, who proceeded to finish out the F2 season with Hitech Grand Prix without Red Bull’s support.

After a dormant 2023, Vips’ second chance was realized on Monday as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing signed the 23-year-old to finish out the final two races of the IndyCar Series season in the #30 Honda following the team’s release of Jack Harvey.

Team co-owner Bobby Rahal immediately defended the decision and Vips himself at the beginning of a virtual press conference on Monday.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team announced contract extensions for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, securing their places on the works team until 2025. Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff said that it was a “straightforward decision” to resign their current driver pairing, due to their merits as individual drivers as well as the “stability” they provide to the team. 

“Continuing with our current driver line-up was a straightforward decision. We have the strongest pairing on the grid and both drivers are playing a crucial role in the team to move us forward. The strength and stability they provide will be key building blocks for our future success.”

Considering the immense success the team has achieved in partnership with Seven-time World Champion Hamilton, Wolff said that his continuing with Mercedes was no surprise. He added that Hamilton’s role as a leader, both on and off track, has been essential to the team as they vie for contention in future championships and pursue projects aimed to promote inclusion and sustainability. 

“Our partnership with Lewis is one of the most successful in the sport’s history. It was always a formality that we would continue together – and it’s energising for us all to be confirming that publicly. His qualities as a pure racing driver are illustrated by his remarkable track record; but over our years together, he has grown to become a pillar and leader of our team. 

“Those leadership qualities are crucial as we focus on fighting for world championships again. As F1’s biggest global star, he has also played a key role in shaping our commitments to diversity, inclusion and sustainability, that will be foundations for our success in the years ahead.”

Although Matt DiBenedetto has helped turn Rackley WAR into a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoff team, he is looking for a change of scenery for 2024. On Wednesday, he announced he and the team have mutually agreed to split up at the end of the 2023 season.

“After careful consideration, I have decided not to return to Rackley WAR for the 2024 race season,” reads a statement from DiBenedetto. “I’m very thankful to have been a part of the team’s tremendous growth over these two years. We’ve shared many accomplishments together such as the team’s first win, making the playoffs, 6 top 10’s in a row, and much more. I’m thankful for the opportunity Rackley WAR, Curtis (Rackley), Willie (Allen), Chevrolet, and all our partners have given me these past two years and for believing in me.

“I’m looking forward to what the future holds, as of right now I don’t have any 2024 plans but I am exploring all options in all series. Thank you to my dedicated and awesome fan base, as well as NASCAR and the whole industry for being able to make a career out of what I love!”

DiBenedetto joined Rackley WAR in 2022 after spending the last seven years in the Cup Series. It was his first time driving in the series since qualifying for John Wes Townley at New Hampshire in 2016. While missing the playoffs in his maiden Truck season, he scored his first victory in any national series later that year at Talladega.

He and the team showed marked improvement in 2023, stringing together six straight top tens in the second half of the regular season to qualify for the playoffs.

The Desafío Ruta 40‘s third stage, a loop outside Belén, alternated between fast and slow sections. Likewise, the field seemed to flipped between reaching the finish and bowing out with many contenders bowing out for mechanical failure.

After winning Stage #2 in T3, Mattias Ekström‘s day was already over on the twenty-eighth kilometre when his front differential broke. His exit opened the door for class leader Mitch Guthrie to win ahead of Red Bull team-mate Austin Jones. A similar issue occurred in the production SSV class when Eduard Pons, winner of the first two stages in T4, broke a tie rod at KM 43.

Wednesday was unusually one-sided in the T1 category as all five Toyota Hilux drivers completed the stage while the Mini JCW of Sebastián Halpern—the only non-Hilux in the class—was forced to retire after forty kilometres with a broken axle. Halpern had struggled with a broken alternator on Tuesday, and his retirement the following day effectively ends his hopes of repeating after winning the last DR 40 in 2018.

Even if not for the DNF, Halpern was already facing an uphill battle to catch the Hiluxes. Nasser Al-Attiyah extended his overall lead with his second stage win while Stage #2 victor Juan Cruz Yacopini went from trailing him by seventeen seconds to over eleven minutes including a one-minute penalty. Yazeed Al-Rajhi, the only other driver close enough to the leader, is eighteen minutes back.

While Ekström and Halpern are still able to compete on Thursday onwards if their vehicles can be repaired, medical concerns have forced riders Sam Sunderland and Paolo Lucci out of the race. Sunderland, who was running seventh overall in RallyGP entering Wednesday, fell ill overnight and reached the Stage #3 refuel point where he elected to withdraw. Lucci, the Rally2 points leader, crashed in Stage #2 and hit his head and side on the sand; although he completed the stage, he struggled to sleep and wake up the following morning, and plans to return home for evaluation.

If there was a time for Ty Majeski to receive a points penalty, entering the final race of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs’ Round of 10 is a good one. On Tuesday, NASCAR announced Majeski and the #98 ThorSport Racing team have received an L2-level penalty for a right rear tyre infraction discovered prior to last Sunday’s race at the Milwaukee Mile.

Specifically, the tyre was found to have violated Section 14.16.A of the rulebook along with the A and C clauses of Section 14.16.1, the former concerning wheels and tyres while the latter discusses the wheel assembly. Section 14.16.1.A states that “[o]nly NASCAR-approved wheels, listed in the NASCAR Parts Database, will be permitted”, while Section 14.16.1.C mentions that “[e]xisting approved wheels in the NASCAR Parts Database that meet or exceed SFI 35.2 can be used for the entire five year life. New Wheels must have an SFI 35.2 punch date sticker.”

Majeski was ordered to the rear of the field for the race, where he finished seventh. With the penalty, he and the #98 respectively lose seventy-five points in the driver’s and owner’s championships, along with five playoff points. The points deduction does not impact his playoff position as he is already locked into the Round of 8 via his win at IRP to begin the postseason, but would hurt him in the final standings if he fails to make the Championship Round as his points total would revert to what he earned in the regular season plus two thousand.

Still, perhaps the more costly part of the penalty lies in losing his crew chief Joe Shear for the next four races. He will return for the final Round of 8 race at Homestead.

The #98 is not the only team to lose points after Milwaukee. Kyle Busch Motorsports‘ #51, driven by Matt Mills, was also docked ten points for a filler panel violation.

Stage #2 of the Desafío Ruta 40 from La Rioja to Belén was like multiple stages in one, hitting the World Rally-Raid Championship with a gauntlet of terrain that ranged from dry lakes to gravel and vegetation to sand dunes and fesh-fesh. As competitors struggled through the changing conditions, so did their vehicles which consequently shook up the stage results in many classes.

Perhaps the biggest example is in T1, where Nasser Al-Attiyah and Yazeed Al-Rajhi had finished 1–2 in the Prologue and Stage #1 only to suffer more tyre punctures than they had spares on them. The two got stuck shortly after the 250th-kilometre mark along with fellow T1 leaders Juan Cruz Yacopini and Sebastian Halpern, with Yacopini—who had been running third behind Al-Attiyah and Al-Rajhi for most of the day—being the first to break free and pull away.

Yacopini scored his first W2RC stage win as a result of the carnage, with Al-Attiyah finishing runner-up and 10:42 back. Al-Rajhi’s punctures dropped him off the podium int ofourth as the fellow Toyota Hilux of Eugenio Amos finished third. Halpern’s Mini JCW Rally Plus suffered two flats and a broken alternator that relegated him to fifth.

“We tried to prepare older tyres and we broke the rear suspension,” said Al-Attiyah. “It was not a good day, but good day for us as we finished. We got two punctures in one time and we fixed it, and then another puncture we stopped to fix and then number four and then number five.”

Like Al-Attiyah and Al-Rajhi, Michael Docherty‘s bike let him down during the day. After the Rally2 rider ran top five among all bikes throughout the first half, a mechanical issue forced him to stop just fifty kilometres before the finish. As Bradley Cox overtook him for the lead and eventual Rally2 stage win, Docherty was forced to retire for the day. Fortunately for him, he is allowed to rejoin the rally for Stage #3 if his team can get the bike repaired.

The Italian Army loves Extreme E, so much so that the series will return to the Capo Teulada military training area on the island of Sardinia for yet another round on 16/17 September.

Sardinia replaces what was supposed to be a race in either the Amazon or United States. In May, Extreme E CEO Alejandro Agag confirmed issues with funding forced the series to drop plans of going there but hopes to do so in the future.

“It’s exciting news that Extreme E will be heading back to Sardinia for the next rounds of the championship in September,” said Agag on Tuesday. “Sardinia has been the setting for some thrilling on-track moments since we launched Extreme E and always provides incredible racing, with yet more expected when we return in September.

“What’s more, given what has been happening across Europe with the extreme heat and weather patterns experienced throughout the continent, there is an important climate story to tell.

“As a global championship, it remains our ambition to host a race in the USA in the future, as well as in other regions across South America, such is the passion for motorsport there. Nevertheless our return to Chile, which was a hugely successful event for Extreme E in 2022, will go ahead in December as our Season 3 Finale.”

When Championship Off-Road returns to Crandon International Raceway this weekend, so will Jerett Brooks as he pilots the #1 Pro 2 truck.

Brooks retired from full-time competition after winning the Pro 2 championship in 2022, wanting to focus on family after achieving all that he wanted to in short course racing. While he did not win a race in his final year, he won the title over Cory Winner by just two points on consistency. It was Brooks’ sixth pro short course title.

Due to his retirement, the Pro 2 truck that his team built was acquired by Brock Hanmer. A fellow Pro 2 driver in Great American Shortcourse, Hanmer elected to skip Crandon and provided the truck for Brooks.

Brooks is not the only special face in the Pro 2 field at Crandon as Ryan Beat Motorsports will field two trucks for Casey Mears and Amanda Sorensen. Mears will drive the #25 while Sorensen is in the #12.

While Mears is new to Crandon, he is more than familiar with off-road racing as he competed in the adjacent Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group in his early career before switching to pavement racing. The legendary Mears family also has roots in the discipline, with his father Roger being a Baja 1000 star.