Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

When the Race of Champions heads to Australia in March 2025, Sébastien Loeb will seek his record-breaking fifth individual crown while Hayden Paddon will represent neighbouring New Zealand for the first time. Both rally drivers confirmed their entries on Wednesday.

Loeb is currently in a three-way tie with Didier Auriol and Mattias Ekström for the most “Champion of Champions” titles at four each. After losing to Marcus Grönholm in the 2003 final, Loeb exacted revenge the following year. From there, he alternated between first and second with another win in 2005 but defeats in 2004 and 2006, the latter to Ekström. He won the 2008 edition over David Coulthard then added his fourth over Sebastian Vettel on the snow in 2022.

At the latest ROC in 2023, Loeb lost to Thierry Neuville in the opening round. He and Adrian Tambay were also knocked out of the first round in the Nations Cup for France. Loeb’s only Nations Cup win came in 2004 with Jean Alesi.

“I won Rally Australia once and I have so many good memories from the Race of Champions,” said Loeb, referring to his 2004 Rally Australia win en route to his first of nine World Rally Championships. Since then, he has mainly focused on rally raids like the Dakar Rally. “Competing and winning ROC in front of the enthusiastic French fans in Stade de France (in 2005) ranks as one of my all-time best racing memories and it’s always nice to meet up with the other drivers in such a special atmosphere.

“I am pretty good at adapting to different types of cars and tracks so my objective is of course to try to win my fifth ROC title now that this great event is back in a big stadium again.”

Barring a miracle, Christine GZ will have to wait until 2026 for her next Dakar Rally. On Tuesday, she announced that due to a lack of funding, she will not be able to race the 2025 edition as she had hoped.

“I would love to say we are READY FOR @dakarrally,” began GZ’s post, “but unfortunately… we didn’t make it. We tried it all, but couldn’t find the budget….”

GZ made her Dakar début in 2024 after years of competing in the Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship. Driving a Can-Am Maverick X3 for FN Speed Team, she finished thirteenth in the SSV class after hanging within the top fifteen for much of the rally before late mechanical issues hampered her progress in the final few days, including a broken front differential in Stages #10 and #11. Still, she ended the race with a best daily finish of tenth.

Outside of cross-country rally, she has competed in stage rally and Extreme E. GZ was involved with the latter since the inaugural season in 2021, where she finished ninth in points, while her last start was a third at the first Hydro X Prix in 2023 for Carl Cox Motorsport before becoming the series’ test driver.

Ricardo Torlaschi, who served as her navigator for the Dakar, will enter the 2025 race with TH-Trucks. Scheduled for 3–17 January, it will be his thirteenth Dakar.

After an impressive début in 2024, Sara Price will run her second Dakar Rally next January with former winner Sean Berriman by her side. The two will compete in the SSV category in a Can-Am Maverick R, set to be FIA-approved for the 2025 season.

Price clinched free registration for the 2024 Dakar after winning the National Car/UTV class and the Road to Dakar at the 2023 Sonora Rally. Afterwards, she entered the Rallye du Maroc to prepare for Dakar and finished runner-up in the SSV class with two stage wins.

Although relatively new to rally raid, her strong entry into the discipline continued at Dakar. She became the third woman to win a Dakar stage when she topped her class in Stage #10, and went on to finish fourth overall in SSV and second among those registered for the World Rally-Raid Championship behind eventual champion Yasir Seaidan.

She had hoped to run the full 2024 season but was sidelined by funding issues. Instead, she focused on the E1 Series electric boat racing championship, finishing second in points alongside Lucas Ordóñez for Westbrook Racing.

“I’m thrilled to team up with Sean and the Can-Am Factory Team for Dakar 2025,” Price said. “Sean’s experience and success in Dakar bring an immense amount of knowledge to the table, and with Can-Am’s support, we’re well-positioned to make a serious impact and give it all we got to fight for that top spot.”

Lancia will make their return to motorsport in 2025 with the inaugural Trofeo Lancia Rally, a spec rally series for the new Ypsilon Rally4 HF. Its champion will then be assured a spot on the Lancia Corse HF factory team for the 2026 European Rally Championship.

The Italian marque competed in a variety of disciplines including Formula One and endurance racing, but the bulk of their successes came in rallying with ten World Rally Championships as a manufacturer and five for drivers. The Lancia 037 and Delta, competing as Martini Racing, were among the most iconic cars of the 1980s as the former claimed the 1983 constructor’s title and the latter notched six in a row from 1987 to 1992.

The factory racing programme was shuttered at the end of 1992. Over three decades later, in 2022, Stellantis returned to racing with the Lancia Delta Evo-e RX piloted by Sébastien Loeb and Guerlain Chicherit in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, though the cars were destroyed by a fire later in the 2023 season.

Produced in tandem with a production counterpart by the same name, the Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 HF is an electric rally car that features a 212-horsepower engine, a five-speed transmission, and a limited-slip differential. Stellantis Motorsport began selling the car for customers on Friday at €74,500 each.

“2025 will mark the return of Lancia to motorsport as we aim to reestablish our presence in contemporary motorsport competitions,” said Lancia CEO Luca Napolitano. “With a mix of tradition and innovation, Lancia looks to the future with passion and ambition. With 2026 set to be the year of the Gamma flagship, which will be produced in Stellantis’ Melfi factory, 2025 is dedicated to the return of the haloed HF name, which will first make an appearance on the Ypsilon and later show up on the Gamma and the new Delta with the HF Integrale label.

Tanner Foust will try his hand at sports car racing for the first time in November when he runs the Porsche Endurance Challenge North America‘s season finale at Circuit of the Americas. He will share the #98 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport with Patrick Dempsey and Patrick Long, competing for Dempsey-Wright Motorsports.

Foust has excelled in a multitude of disciplines on both pavement and off-road as a multi-time Formula DRIFT and rallycross champion, while also competing in disciplines like Extreme E, desert racing, and short course. Since departing Extreme E at the end of 2023, he has been focusing on being a brand ambassador for various companies and doing Nitrocross.

Before Nitrocross paused its 2024/25 season after two weekends, Foust was fifth in the Group E standings with a best run of fourth in the second Utah race day.

Sports cars marks a change of pace for Foust. He is certainly no stranger to such vehicles as a stunt driver and host of various motoring shows, though the Porsche Endurance Challenge will mark his first time racing competitively.

“It’s an incredible honour to be invited as the third driver for this powerhouse motorsports duo,” said Foust. “Pat Long and Patrick Dempsey are two of my personal heroes. They are both extremely inspirational on and off the track. To top it off, we’re hitting the iconic COTA circuit in a Wright Motorsports-prepped Porsche GT4; it doesn’t get much better than that.

Nearly two decades after his last start in a World Rally Championship event, Didier Auriol will make his return at Rally Japan in November. He will race a Toyota GR Yaris that complies with the All Japan Rally Championship’s JN1 class regulations, but is not homologated by the FIA and he therefore will not be classified in the results.

Auriol won the 1994 World Rally Championship and twenty rallies in a career that spanned two decades. After breaking into the series with Lancia, he moved to Toyota for the 1993 season and quickly made waves. His Castrol-sponsored Toyota Celica was one of the most iconic vehicles of the decade, and with which he won seven times.

His most recent WRC start came at the 2005 Monte Carlo Rally as a privateer, where he retired.

Speaking to DirtFish, Auriol explained the entry came together thanks to Toyota Gazoo Racing‘s sponsor Fit Easy. Although Rally Japan was added to the calendar after he had retired from full-time racing, Fit Easy (a Japanese company) hoped to have the Frenchman race in front of the Japanese crowd.

“People in Japan have great memories of me driving with the Toyota Celica so the thinking was it would be nice to come here for the fans,” Auriol said to DirtFish. “I called my old co-driver and said it could be interesting to do this, to have some fun together. Maybe it’s the last one.”

Polaris Off-Road Vehicles unveiled Tuesday the the Polaris RZR Pro R Race Replica Limited Edition, a UTV modelled after the RZR Pro R Factory that currently leads the SCORE International Pro UTV Open class standings and won the latest Dakar Rally in January.

As the name suggests, it is a replica of the second-generation RZR Pro R Factory used by Polaris Factory Racing. Like its predecessor for much of 2023, it has been the fastest UTV outright at all three SCORE rounds so far in 2024 with Cayden MacCachren and Brock Heger; the latter won the 2023 Pro UTV Open championship while the former is atop the class points with the Baja 1000 to go.

A rally variant built by PFR for Sébastien Loeb Racing won the 2024 Dakar Rally in the SSV category with Xavier de Soultrait, marking the first time a manufacturer besides Can-Am topped the class since 2018. PFR technical director Alex Scheuerell revealed to The Checkered Flag that the rally model was the first second-generation UTV to come “out of our workshop.” Heger and PFR team-mate Max Eddy Jr. will also race the 2025 Dakar in one.

Being designed after the race car, the Race Replica is more durable than the traditional RZR with reinforced bumpers. It also comes with a rear light bar from Rigid Industries identical to that used on the Pro R Factory, and a forward-facing 32-inch front light bar on the roof that projects 20 thousand lumens up to 3,077 feet 937 m). Method Race Wheels‘ 407 Bead Grip wheels, which are also used by PFR, are attached to 32-inch KM3 tyres from BFGoodrich.

Rockford Fosgate also provides a Stage 6 audio kit that comes with a 400-watt subwoofer. By comparison, the usual RZR has a Stage 4 system.

While the 2025 Championship Off-Road schedule is not expected to be released until the first week of November, pieces of the puzzle are starting to be put together.

For example, what is certain is that the season will begin with a new date when the series visits Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri for the Show-Me Off-Road Shoot-Out. Announced in August, it will be Champ’s first time competing in Missouri. While mainly known for its dirt oval, the track hosted short course from 2007 to 2020 and again in 2023.

Most of the returning tracks from 2024 will do so on three-year contract extensions that retain them on the calendar through 2027. One such venue is Antigo Lions Roaring Raceway, which will kick off the summer with the Antigo Off-Road National. Concurrent with this, Antigo will host the second annual Race for Kyle Cup, a Pro 2 versus Pro 4 race introduced in 2024 to honour the late Kyle LeDuc, who created Antigo’s redesigned track in 2023. The Antigo Lions Club plans to make additional renovations ahead of the 2025 weekend.

“After speaking with Carl (Schubitzke) and his team, as well as with racers, I am excited about continuing Kyle’s vision for our track,” said Antigo Lions Club secretary Zach Zagar. “Having a three-year agreement makes this possible. It’s great to know that we are all working together to take the event to the next level.”

The Dirt City Motorplex has a round locked in for 26/27 July. Located in Lena, Wisconsin, Dirt City has hosted the Dirt City Off-Road National since the inaugural Champ season in 2020, while its Mayhem at the Motorplex was upgraded from an independent, sportsman-only race to the season opener in 2024.

Matt Mingay will be among the contingent of Australians welcoming the Stadium Super Trucks back to his home country when he enters the Adelaide 500 in November. He will race a truck sponsored by Nulon Products and his longtime partner Hot Wheels.

Mingay has been involved with SST since the series first arrived in Australia in 2015, scoring two third-place finishes at the inaugural round in Adelaide. He ran every Australian race weekend that season, scoring a win at Gold Coast.

However, his career came to an abrupt halt during his SST American début at the 2016 Detroit Grand Prix when he rolled and suffered severe facial injuries. Attempts to return to the series were abandoned when he could not be medically cleared in time, leaving him sidelined until the 2020 Adelaide 500. In what would be his latest SST start to date, Mingay finished at the back in Races #1 and #3 due to spins and mechanical trouble and sixth in between.

SST continued in Australia through 2021 before being axed from the Supercars Championship‘s support card. A deal to return was reached in May.

“It’s been years since they last showcased here in Aus, and I can’t wait to feel that adrenaline rush again and put on a great show for all the fans,” wrote Mingay on Monday. “Stadium Super Trucks are the most exciting form of racing out there! It’s all about making yourself known to the other drivers—contact is part of the game, and with the reverse grid format, anything can happen! You never know who’s going to take the win, which makes for some heart-pounding action every single lap.”

Days after Carlos Tatay published a video on social media that criticised the FIM for denying him disability insurance coverage, the federation released a statement on Friday reaffirming their support for him and that they would indeed cover the costs in advance. However, Tatay also urged fans not to take the FIM’s announcement at face value.

Tatay alleged in his initial post that the FIM would not provide coverage for his medical expenses, which became a contentious issue after he was paralysed below the waist due to an accident while competing in the 2023 Moto2 European Championship at Portimão. The Spanish and Valencian motorcycle federations have argued since the injury over who should cover the bill, a debate that slogged on for so long that Tatay has since pursued legal action.

While Tatay no longer competes in pavement motorcycle racing because of the injury, he resumed his racing career in cross-country rally in the spring. He has competed in the FIA World Baja Cup and Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship, and has hopes of racing the Dakar Rally as early as 2026.

According to Tatay, the FIM cited his rally endeavours as a reason not to provide disability compensation and instead claiming he was not disabled, therefore making him ineligible for insurance coverage.

“The FIM stands alongside Mr. Tatay since the very first day following his unfortunate crash sustained during the Moto2 European Championship event in Portimão (Portugal) on 2 July 2023,” the federation stated. “The FIM riders’ insurance programme was immediately activated and all emergency medical treatment on the event venue, assistance and repatriation costs were borne by the insurance and paid to Mr. Tatay.

As the Russian invasion continues, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) could use all the help they can get, even from the unlikeliest of sources. Motorsport UK (MSUK) was one of these contributors, raising money to purchase a Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer 6×6 armoured ambulance that went to the 46th Airmobile Brigade on the frontlines in Kurakhove in September.

The effort was organised and coordinated with the Automobile Federation of Ukraine (FAU), a fellow FIA member club, under the watch of Kostyantyn Bevz. A member of the FAU Rally and Officials Committees, Kos was the first Ukrainian to serve as an FIA steward for a World Championship event when he oversaw the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in February and March.

The Checkered Flag spoke with Kos about the Pinzgauer, the Western world’s support—and lack of—for Ukraine, and the importance of knowing history in order to fight back against Russian disinformation.

Pinzgauer for Ukraine

The seeds that would grow into the Pinzgauer were first planted in the early months of the war. Shortly after Russia launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Kos reached out to his FIA stewards to see how they could help, and Britain’s Andy Milns was up for the task.

“We started the conversation regarding what we can do with the motorsport society of UK to bring some aid to Ukraine,” he began. “Andy Milns found a review from one of the magazines that the UK embassy in Ukraine decided to purchase, order, and deliver armoured ambulances from a UK manufacturer.”

Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg got his nickname when he was little after being diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. Despite the disorder and the injuries he went on to sustain as a motocross rider, he went on to become a five-time X Games gold medalist and short course off-road champion.

In recognition of his career, Polaris launched a new series titled Tough Doesn’t Quit that focused on him for its pilot episode. The episode premiered on Tuesday.

“If I had to define toughness, I say toughness is more mental for sure,” began Stenberg in the video. “Physical is whatever. You can get hurt and cry about it and be okay in an hour, but if you’re not mentally strong, you’re not going to get anything accomplished.”

Tough Doesn’t Quit will follow athletes and individuals who overcame difficult times in their lives, which Polaris feels is reflected in the technology used in their Polaris RZR and other vehicles.

“That same relentless spirit fuels Polaris in everything they do,” reads a Polaris statement. “They don’t just build machines: they innovate and evolve constantly. Polaris’ Tough Doesn’t Quit campaign highlights not only the stories of its athletes and owners but also the brand’s unwavering commitment to producing the toughest, most durable machines in the industry. Research and Development are constantly pushing the boundaries, rigorously testing our products to ensure that they withstand the most extreme conditions. From the roughest trails to the toughest competitions, Polaris vehicles are built to last.

In a video posted to his social media on Wednesday, Carlos Tatay called out the FIM for refusing to cover his disability insurance following the spinal injury that ended his motorcycle racing career. To add insult to metaphorical and literal injury, he stated the FIM denied his disability status altogether by citing an article about him competing in cross-country rallies in a side-by-side vehicle.

Tatay was paralysed from the waist down while competing in the 2023 Moto2 European Championship weekend at Portimão, suffering an incomplete spinal cord injury when he fell off his bike and slid into the tyre barrier. He continues to use a wheelchair today due to the injury.

During his recovery in the immediate months following the accident, the Spanish and Valencian motorcycle federations—both FIM members—were embroiled in a legal dispute over who should cover his medical expenses once he returned to Spain. Much of the issue could be traced to new FIM rules in 2023 that required each ASN to update their insurance policies, though Tatay noted neither federation had done so in time and were still operating on the law from 1993.

Tatay continues to have an FIM licence despite no longer racing a bike, meaning he is still considered an FIM member and therefore eligible for the federation’s insurance. In the event of permanent disability, a rider would receive at most fifty thousand euros to pay for their medical insurance.

However, the 21-year-old pointed out his inquiries to the FIM went disastrously.

Had one of the biggest blunders in Belgian police history not occurred, Jonathan Savel would be at the start of the Dakar Rally in January. In an email to his family, director David Castera confirmed Savel would have been accepted for the 2025 race with his performance in the World Rally-Raid Championship.

Savel was an officer in the Federal Police Special Units’ POSA (“Protection, Observation, Support, Arrest”) division, which specialises in tactical police operations. On the morning of 18 March, he was leading a POSA house raid in Lodelinsart when the suspect—wanted for weapons and drug trafficking—opened fire from behind a door, mortally injuring him and wounding two other agents; the shooter was killed in the ensuing gun battle. Savel was 36 years old.

He is the fifth DSU member to die in the line of duty. His funeral was held five days after the mission, which was attended by thousands including the Ministers of Defence, Interior, and Justice. Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden posthumously gave him the Civic Decoration, which is awarded to civilians for acts of valour.

Three police officers in Charleroi were subsequently arrested in connection with the botched operation and charged with forging of documents, embezzlement by a public official, breach of trust and professional secrecy, unlawful access of police databases, and weapons infractions.

The raid took place three weeks after Savel finished twenty-third in the Rally2 category and fifth among Malle Moto riders at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. It was his second championship start after a fifty-fourth in class at the 2023 Rallye du Maroc. He hoped to use the latter along with the non-W2RC Hellas Rally Raid he ran earlier in 2023 to qualify for the 2024 Dakar Rally, but his application was rejected due to insufficient experience.

The 2024 FIA World Baja Cup has come to a rather abrupt end. On Wednesday, the İstanbul Off-Road Kulübü announced the cancellation of the Baja Troia Türkiye due to low entries.

The race was supposed to be the fifth and final round of the season, scheduled for 7–9 November. However, once registration closed on Tuesday, organisers found there were not enough drivers signed up to meet the minimum for the FIA. Wednesday’s news mark the second year in a row that an FIA Baja Cup season finale was cancelled after the World and Middle East Baja Cups’ Jordan Baja was canned in 2023.

ISOFF hopes to have the event back in 2025, where it will be the second race and planned for 15–18 May.

“Our club diligently worked for eight months to prepare for the Baja Troia 2024 race, planned to be held in Çanakkale,” begins a statement from ISOFF. “We conducted numerous meetings with local authorities to ensure a smooth operation for all stages of the race. As part of our meticulous preparations, we secured:

“With the support of the Governorship, the Provincial Special Administration, General Directorate of Highways, Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports, Çanakkale Municipality, Provincial Security Directorate, Provincial Gendarmerie Command, Uludağ Elektrik, Regional Directorate of Forestry, and other institutions, we finalised the assignments and preparations for all teams involved throughout the race.