Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Grant Enfinger was greeted with a welcome sight as Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway neared its conclusion: Ty Majeski and Zane Smith colliding and wrecking as they battled for the lead with just five laps to go. Enfinger inherited the top as a result, and held off Christian Eckes in overtime.

Enfinger led the most laps with 65 and won Stage #1, but Majeski and Smith were the class of the final segment before they tangled.

“I didn’t know what his plan was there,” Smith said. “I saw an interview earlier where at this track he has more experience here than any others. He still races like it’s his first time here. We see time and time again that the guy on the bottom has to be a little conservative, and that’s why the leaders always choose the top. Maybe he’ll learn next time.”

Majeski took responsibility for the wreck, explaining that he was dealing with “low air pressures and we had the splitter bent, got into turn three obviously trying to get ahead of the #38, hit the splitter, had to check up, and went up the race track. When you go up the race track, his side took the air from mine, and I went around and wrecked us both. Inexcusable, I misjudged it. Trying to win the race and obviously wrecked two really good Ford F-150s. I’m disappointed in myself. Got to execute when you have the fastest truck by a mile like that. Just inexcusable. Got to be better.”

With the two out of the picture, Enfinger had to keep Eckes and Stage #2 winner Stewart Friesen at bay. Upon successful, he notched his second win of 2023 after winning at Kansas in May.

Johan Kristoffersson and Anton Marklund have proved their worth as champions of the FIA World Rallycross Championship and FIA European Rallycross Championship respectively. The pair dominated the first day at Montalegre, Portugal, despite battling treacherous conditions as the day progressed.

Kristoffersson has continued his remarkable record of winning every single SuperPole in World RX history. The Swedish superstar completed his lap 0.508 seconds faster than Kristoffersson Motorsport teammate Ole Christian Veiby, stamping his authority early on the 2023 season. He continued relatively untroubled in the two heat races of the day to take the maximum of 100 points into tomorrow’s heats.

Veiby sits second in the standings with Niclas Grönholm just behind him in third. Grönholm provided some great entertainment in heat 1 as he battled with returning hero and 9-time World Rally champion Sebastian Loeb. With a fabulous display of talent from both drivers, they battled sideways on a rapidly dampening track after merging at the Joker merge on the last lap absolutely together. Ultimately it was Grönholm who took the honours, but Loeb has made his competitive intentions for this season very clear.

Timmy Hansen sits in fourth, sandwiched between Grönholm and Loeb, with brother Kevin Hansen in sixth. Hansen World RX Team must surely be scratching their heads wondering what they can do to take the fight to the all conquering Kristoffersson. Klara Andersson, Gustav Bergström, Timo Scheider (in a 2022 SEAT Ibiza) and Guerlain Chicherit complete the running order at the end of day one. There were only 7 seconds separating all of the competitors in heat 2. With conditions expected to be tricky on Sunday, it is truly the case that anything could yet happen.

In the Euro RX1 category, it was Marklund who took the first two heat wins of the weekend. Enzo Ide, the winner of 2022’s event at Montalegre, has been right in the thick of the action all day, finishing just behind Marklund in heat 1. Janis Baumanis, winner last time out at Nyirád, Hungary, has also been in the mix, finishing second in the heat 2 and lies third in the overnight standings. Patrick O’Donovan has been Captain Consistency all day, and sits fourth overall. Tamás Kárai has put in a solid performance as well to finish day one in fifth position.

NAPA Racing UK‘s Ash Sutton continues to set the pace and has sealed a second successive pole position claiming the honors on Saturday (3 June) at Thruxton on the BTCC’s visit to the Hampshire circuit.

The so-called King of Thruxton, Josh Cook looked potentially set to resume his dominance on the circuit topping both practice sessions and was P1 halfway through qualifying before Sutton set an effort of 1:15.489s to seal the top spot.

Tom Ingram snuck into second to keep pace with his championship rival. Five minutes remained but no effect was really made on the order after a restart following the tyre stack going out of place from Dan Cammish.

One of the main stories of the session came from the Power Maxed Racing squad with series rookie, Mikey Doble producing a stellar effort to sit inside the top four behind Sutton, Ingram, and Cook. Jake Hill and Colin Turkington for Team BMW followed, but Andrew Watson and Aron Taylor-Smith finished in seventh and eighth to complete a great day for PMR.

Cammish settled for ninth after his previous moment with Rory Butcher rounding out the top ten positions. Track limits also dominated again with many falling foul again and losing potentially their best lap times.

Max Verstappen took pole position ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. with an incredible lap which saw him finish over four tenths ahead of the Spaniard. Lando Norris impressed and managed to put his car on the second row in third alongside Pierre Gasly.

It was an action-packed qualifying session, with multiple shock exits along the way, which will make it an interesting race tomorrow afternoon.

Q1 – Hamilton Quickest, Leclerc Shock Exit

Q1 saw an action-packed 18 minutes, with the threat of rain looming over the track and constant running from the drivers. The session got going with a few teams looking to get out quickly, some got laps in but within a few minutes there was a red flag due to gravel on the track after Alexander Albon, Nyck de Vries, Yuki Tsunoda and Guanyu Zhou all went off track.

Logan Sargeant will start twentieth on the grid tomorrow, after struggling with the conditions. His Williams Racing team-mate Albon was also knocked out and will start directly ahead of him on the grid in eighteenth.

The biggest shock of the session was the struggles of Charles Leclerc. The Scuderia Ferrari driver struggled for the whole session to improve his lap times and the final running of the session saw him fall all the way down to nineteenth, where he will start tomorrow’s race.

For the second time this season, Sam Bird has apologised to team-mate Mitch Evans and everyone at Jaguar TCS Racing, after the Briton took his team-mate out on Saturday in the Jakarta E-Prix.

Jaguar Team Principal James Barclay won’t be remembering Saturday’s tenth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship anytime soon, with both Evans and Bird having qualified poorly. Neither driver progressed to the duels, with all the Jaguar-powered cars having seemingly struggled.

Despite their poor performance in qualifying though, both Evans and Bird progressed into the points during the race, until the incident occurred at the first corner. Similar to their collision in Hyderabad, Bird simply carried too much speed into the corner and braked too late, with Evans having been helpless. Bird went into the back of his team-mate, sending him into the barrier on the outside of the corner.

The Briton took “full responsibility” for crashing into Evans, with Bird having apologised to everyone at the Coventry-based team. He’s opening to “regroup tonight” and perform better in the second race on Sunday.

“I take full responsibility for the incident today on track and want to apologise to the team for the mistake. We had a difficult qualifying and race, and unfortunately so far this weekend, the car hasn’t been performing at the level we would hope. We’ll regroup tonight and come back stronger tomorrow.” 

Maximilian Günther admitted after the race that he “didn’t have enough” to claim victory on Saturday at the Jakarta E-Prix, with the German having converted pole position into a third-place finish.

Günther’s rostrum marked his second podium from the last four races, with the Maserati MSG Racing driver having topped every single session so far in the Indonesian capital other than Saturday’s race. He made a strong start to the race and led the opening stages; however, he soon fell behind race winner Pascal Wehrlein and Jake Dennis.

Whilst Günther managed to stick with Wehrlein and Dennis, he ultimately didn’t have the pace to defeat either of the Porsche powered drivers. The Maserati driver also revealed after the race that the car wasn’t “as perfect” as it was during the other sessions; however, he was extremely pleased to be back on the podium again. Günther’s podium also promoted him to tenth in the Drivers’ Championship.

“I am happy. For sure we always want to win, as a racing driver when you start on pole you want to win. We were leading for a few laps, but we just didn’t have enough to beat the two Porsche guys,” admitted Günther after the race.

“From the beginning they did a fantastic job, congratulations to Jake and Pascal. I had a few small issues, the car was not as perfect as it was the rest of the weekend, but still a good race car underneath me and happy with what we achieved today and this weekend, fantastic to be on the podium again. It was the maximum today, and we try to keep improving.”

Jake Dennis was left feeling “pretty annoyed” after Saturday’s Jakarta E-Prix, despite having claimed a well-deserved podium in the tenth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The Avalanche Andretti Formula E driver has looked quick in the Indonesian capital since Free Practice 1 Friday evening, with him having demonstrated his strong pace in qualifying, where he salvaged a front row start. Dennis was comfortably beaten to pole by Maximilian Günther; however, second was still a great starting position. Whilst second was a very good result, it did leave him to start from the dirty side of the grid, something which saw him fall to fourth by the exit of the first corner.

Despite having fallen to fourth, Dennis clearly had the best race pace, something he made the most of when he activated his final Attack Mode. He breezed past Stoffel Vandoorne and Günther at the opening corner, before setting his sights on race winner Pascal Wehrlein. Dennis quickly caught Wehrlein whilst his Attack Mode was still active, with the Briton having made the most of his superior straight-line speed down the start/finish straight.

As he switched to Wehrlein’s inside though, the German blocked him incredibly lately, something which infuriated Dennis. He ultimately didn’t get another chance to pass Wehrlein, meaning he had to settle for second. The Andretti driver was shocked that the block wasn’t investigated and believes what Wehrlein did was “ridiculous”, with him noting that he “can’t protest” due to Andretti being Porsche’s customer team.

“Pretty annoyed to be honest,” admitted Dennis after the race.

Pascal Wehrlein is very much back in the title fight, with the German having claimed a strong victory in the first of two races this weekend in Jakarta.

Having lost the championship lead recently in Monaco, Wehrlein was a driver on a mission from the start of the Jakarta E-Prix, with him seemingly recognising how important the tenth and eleventh rounds of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship are. Whilst the eleventh round takes place on Sunday, Wehrlein qualified third for the tenth round on Saturday, whilst championship leader Nick Cassidy could only manage tenth.

The TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team driver made a solid start and slotted into second at the opening corner, before overtaking Maximilian Günther for the race lead a few laps later. Wehrlein controlled the race beautifully and was largely unchallenged throughout, with the exception being a brief attempt at blocking Jake Dennis on the run to Turn One.

It was a win which Wehrlein desperately needed, with him recognising that it was the “big turnaround” that he’s been looking for after not finishing on the rostrum since the end of January. Following his win, he cut Cassidy’s lead from twenty points to just two, ahead of Sunday’s second race of the weekend.

Wehrlein was ecstatic after the race, with him now targeting back-to-back wins on Sunday just like he did in Diriyah.

Max Verstappen led the final practice session in Spain ahead of Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton, who showed much-needed improvement for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

Under the looming threat of rain, all twenty drivers took to the track, eager to make the most of the dry conditions. Verstappen swiftly emerged as the frontrunner, leading Pérez and Hamilton.

However, the session was abruptly stopped when Williams Racing rookie Logan Sargeant lost control of his car, sliding through the gravel and lightly colliding with the barrier at the final corner, luckily for the American the damage on the car looked minimal.

After the session resumed, raindrops started to fall, meaning all drivers remained in their garages waiting for the conditions to get better. That didn’t happen though and Lando Norris was the first to venture out on intermediate tyres, followed later by Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc for Scuderia Ferrari.

The laps times didn’t really represent who had pace due to the little running in the dry and with the track becoming too wet for any improvements in lap times, Verstappen’s early time of 1m 13.664s remained the fastest, with Pérez trailing by a mere 0.250s. Hamilton held onto third place, a little over four-tenths behind Verstappen, showcasing notable progress for the Mercedes team.

After three years of riding a KTM 450 for Nomade Racing Assistance, Mathieu Dovèze has joined up with the top KTM programme for Rally2 riders as he announced Friday that he will race for BAS World KTM Racing Team. Besides testing, he intends to run the 2023 Rallye du Maroc before entering the 2024 Dakar Rally.

In an interview with Moto Verte, Dovèze revealed the opportunity arose after meeting team manager Bart Van der Valden while training. While the team will provide him with KTM factory backing and more basic needs that are to be expected out of a more sophisticated outfit, the burden is still on him to find more backing to cover as many expenses as possible.

“I will no longer have to sleep in a tent; I will be in a truck on the Dakar,” Dovèze stated. “The team benefits from factory support from KTM, so we will have good suspensions and a good bike. We will also have good information from KTM on the competition. I haven’t tried the bike yet but I have 100% confidence in the team. We have seen what they were capable of doing in the past.

“I’m continuing to find partners while working with the current ones to finance my Dakar. Unlike in previous years, I started at the end of this year’s Dakar to get ready for training and all the preparation as much as possible. It’s a monstrous job with the partners and I wanted everything to be completed as soon as possible to devote myself to myself. I hope I now have all the tools and the right people to get there.”

Hailing from an enduro background, Dovèze made his Dakar début in 2021 for Nomade. His third attempt in January saw his best overall finish as he finished seventh with a runner-up in Stage #6.

Pascal Wehrlein returned to winning ways after a recent run of bad races, with a stellar performance at the Jakarta E-Prix. The TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team driver put on a strong defensive display to win the tenth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship from Jake Dennis and Maximilian Günther. Championship leader Nick Cassidy could only salvage seventh.

Wehrlein Hits the Front

With Cassidy starting from tenth, Dennis knew he had a huge chance to take a big chunk out of the Kiwi’s advantage, with the Briton having qualified on the front row. Nobody could stop Günther though, from claiming pole position, with the German having topped every single session so far this weekend. Could Günther extend his run?

As the lights went out, it was the Maserati MSG Racing driver who had the better start, with Dennis having fallen backwards. Günther retained the lead into the opening corner whilst Dennis tumbled to fourth, behind championship rival Wehrlein and reigning World Champion Stoffel Vandoorne. Wehrlein was clearly a man on a mission given that he recently lost the lead of the standings, with the German having overtaken Günther for the lead on Lap Four.

Wehrlein swept past his German counterpart at the opening corner, whilst Vandoorne in third opted to take his first Attack Mode. Over the next couple laps, Wehrlein, Günther, and Dennis all activated their first Attack Mode, with the trio having maintained position. Elsewhere, Cassidy made three places in the first seven laps to be in seventh by Lap Seven, whilst fellow championship contender Mitch Evans ran in ninth.

Dennis Hunts Down Wehrlein

The end of Lap Eight saw a change of leader, as Wehrlein opted to activate his second Attack Mode, demoting him to third behind Günther and Vandoorne. By Formula E standards it was certainly a calm start to the race, likely due to the nature of the track and that energy preservation wasn’t as important as it has been at previous rounds.

Maximilian Günther will start the tenth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship from pole position for the first time, having defeated Jake Dennis in the Final of the duels at the Jakarta E-Prix. Elsewhere, it was a disappointing session for championship leader Nick Cassidy, who could only claim a fifth row start. With three of the top five in the championship starting in the top four, Cassidy will need a miracle to ensure his advantage doesn’t take a huge hit.

Group A

The start of qualifying as always saw Group A kick-off proceedings, with all the drivers in an odd position in the Drivers’ Championship having gone first. Hoping to make it into the top four from the opening group was championship leader Cassidy, Dennis, Jean-Éric Vergne, Sam Bird, Jake Hughes, Stoffel Vandoorne, Sacha Fenestraz, Dan Ticktum, Sérgio Sette Câmara, Robin Frijns and debutant Roberto Merhi.

Based on the opening two free practice sessions, Dennis was arguably the favourite to make the duels, something he illustrated by almost topping the group following the initial push laps. Reigning World Champion Vandoorne set the time to beat after the initial laps, with the top-four having been occupied by the Belgian, Dennis, Cassidy and Fenestraz ahead of the final push laps.

As the twelve drivers started their final push lap, it was clear that the track was continuing to evolve. Improvements were being made across the board, with Dennis having stormed to the top of the group, ahead of the DS Penske duo of Vandoorne and Vergne. It was frustration though, for the championship leader, as Cassidy was dumped out of the top four by Robin Frijns, who was by far the star of the group. It means Cassidy will start the tenth round from the fifth row of the grid, giving him plenty of work to do.

Into the duels: Dennis, Vandoorne, Vergne and Frijns.

The Citroën 2CV might be known as a post-war “umbrella on wheels” designed to help French farmers motorise their transport, but Barbora Holická will use it for a slightly more daunting task next January when she brings a 1979 model to the Dakar Rally to compete in the Dakar Classic. The project is nicknamed “Duckar“, a portmanteau of “duck” and “Dakar” as the programme will support raising ducks at Safari Park Dvůr Králové, and is intended to celebrate the 2CV’s seventy-fifth anniversary.

The 36-year-old competes in the Czech rally championship, almost exclusively in a Citroën DS3 R1 since 2014. She won the women’s title in 2016 and 2017, while winning the latter’s Class 9 title. In 2018, she received the Eliška Junková Award as the best female competitor in Czech motorsport.

In April, Holická piloted the 2CV in the Rallye Praha Revival.

“When I want to take on the biggest challenge of my racing career, it has to be a Citroën and what else but a 2CV,” Holická proclaimed. “We want to prove that even the extremely demanding terrain of the Dakar tracks can be handled with this iconic car. If it can drive sixty on a plowed field, it can also handle the Dakar tracks.”

The 2CV is one of eighteen Citroëns eligible to race the Dakar Classic as of 2023. Three teams fielded a Citroën in the 2023 edition, with Mathieu Abrial and his father François Abrial respectively finishing forty-sixth and fifty-second overall in Visas while Cornelis Lambert Kamp was seventy-sixth in a Citroën CX.

After selecting from a pool of fifty-four, the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame will induct nine figures into the Class of 2023. The names were revealed Thursday while the induction ceremony will take place in September.

“The ORMHOF Gala is off-road’s biggest night of the year. It’s the off-road reunion and celebration everyone looks forward to attending,” said Hall of Fame chairman and inductee Mark McMillin. “We’re excited to welcome the Class of 2023 to the Hall of Fame on September 9 at Michael Gaughan’s South Point in Las Vegas.”

Excerpts sorted alphabetically by last name

Jeff Cummings: Until his retirement in 2022, Cummings was a longtime employee of BFGoodrich, having worked there from 1979. Under his leadership, BFGoodrich established itself as the top tyre manufacturer in SCORE International competition and broke 100 overall victories at that the 2022 San Felipe 250. Cummings was named the Sal Fish SCORE Person of the Year in 2013.

Scott Douglas: Idolised by NASCAR great Jimmie Johnson, Douglas boasted eight desert racing championships in series like SCORE and Best In The Desert along with three Baja 1000 class victories. His success also extended to short course racing with a pair of BorgWarner Cup titles and the inaugural AMSOIL Cup in 2011.

Maximilian Günther was once again the driver to beat Saturday morning at the Jakarta E-Prix, with the Maserati MSG Racing driver having topped Free Practice Two after setting the fastest time of the weekend.

As the sun rose over the Indonesian capital, it was Free Practice 1 pacesetter Günther who led the field out onto what was still an incredibly dusty circuit. There was very early drama though, for Günther’s team-mate Edoardo Mortara, who brushed the wheel at Turn Sixteen. Having been second fastest on Friday, it was a far from ideal start to the first race day for the Swiss driver, who returned to the pits and jumped out of the car.

Circuit evolution was clearly going to play a role in the session, as the times tumbled drastically in the opening minutes of the session. It was Günther who once again sat as the fastest driver at the close of the opening ten minutes, with the German having proven once again that he had excellent one lap pace. With seventeen minutes remaining on the clock, several drivers moved ahead of Günther, with Mitch Evans having jumped to the front thanks to a 1:09.070.

It was fellow title contender Jake Dennis who led at the halfway stage of the session though, with Günther having also moved back into the leading places after setting the second quickest time. As the morning session entered its final ten minutes, it was António Félix da Costa who moved to the top of the timesheets, whilst reigning World Champion Stoffel Vandoorne slotted into second ahead of Dennis.

Dennis has clearly got bags of pace this weekend though, as the Avalanche Andretti Formula E driver went back to the top with just over seven minutes remaining; however, Sam Bird quickly replaced him. Bird set a strong 1:08.478 to move to the top, with his time having been the quickest of the weekend so far by half a second. Bird was soon demoted to second by Günther, who came close to breaking into the high 1:07s.