Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Championship Off-Road will kick off its 2025 season with the Show-Me Off-Road Shootout at Lucas Oil Speedway. Revealed on Friday, it marks the series’ first time racing in Missouri.

Located in Wheatland and not to be confused with Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Lucas Oil Speedway is a 3/8-mile (.6 kilometre) dirt oval that has hosted a variety of dirt track series including World of Outlaws and High Limit Racing. The Superstar Racing Experience concluded its 2023 season at Lucas Oil Speedway in what remains the series’ latest race to date.

Short course first took place at Wheatland in 2007 with the World Series of Off Road Racing, doing so on a newly built 1.3-mile (2.09 km) infield course. The series folded at the end of 2008 and the discipline did not return again for another eight years. In 2016, the off-road course was rebuilt in time for the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series the following year; while LOORRS was primarily based on the West Coast, the date came together in collaboration with the Lucas Oil Midwest Short Course League. It stayed on the calendar through LOORRS’ final season in 2020.

Pro 4 driver Adrian Cenni described the track as having “everything from a long hang time sky jump to a big bowl turn and tight over under infield section.” The course features nine turns, an over/under jump, and a massive tabletop jump spanning 120 feet in length and twenty feet high.

MidAmerica Outdoors’ Truck and SXS Championship Series raced at the track in 2023. When MAO owner American Outdoor Events attempted to form its own short course series to rival COR for 2024, Lucas Oil Speedway was included as the inaugural season finale, though the breakaway championship ultimately fell through.

When not competing in cross-country rallies, Sergei Kariakin is a staunch supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies. To this end, Kariakin announced Thursday that his SNAG Racing team has sold a modified off-road buggy to the regional government of Sverdlovsk Oblast, which will then be sent to Russian troops participating in the invasion of Ukraine.

“Unlike the carbon sports buggies you’re used to seeing us compete with, this one is for a special purpose,” he said, the former referring to the side-by-side vehicles that the team fields like the Can-Am Maverick R. “It was purchased by the government of the Sverdlovsk region to be sent to the frontline.

“This is a completely standard vehicle, which, of course, is not suitable at all for the demands out there on the front. This vehicle has been fully restored with brake discs and pads replaced, calipers fixed, steering system upgraded due to poor performance, clutch basket replaced, gearbox repaired, and rear differential welded. A platform is being installed at the back, a handle is being added on the top, and everything here will be covered with panelling.

“Without a doubt, the vehicle will look completely different and, most importantly, it will be reliable.

“This is an unusual task for us, but it’s what we love to do.”

Tannner Foust will run the full 2024/25 Nitrocross Group E schedule in the #34 FC1-X with sponsorship from Clarios and its Optima Batteries line.

Foust finished sixth in the inaugural Nitrocross (then Nitro Rallycross) Supercar championship, but his experience in the current top category is limited to a single weekend in 2023/24 at Utah Motorsports Campus, where he placed ninth and third. Most of this stems from his commitment to Extreme E and other projects, spending two seasons in the fellow electric vehicle series with McLaren and notching two second-place runs with Emma Gilmour, and competing in the Crandon World Cup in 2022.

McLaren replaced Foust with Mattias Ekström for the 2024 season, giving the former time to pursue other endeavours. Most of his projects so far this year have been working as an ambassador for brands like Optima, Ram Trucks, and Volkswagen.

With his recent focus on EVs, which includes being the first person to complete the NORRA Mexican 1000 in one in 2021, Clarios was more than eager to step up and fund a Nitrocross effort.

“Competition in the automotive space has proven to be one of the most effective ways to promote innovation and development in personal transportation,” said Foust. “We owe most of the technologies in our daily drivers to advancements made in motorsports. As we move to the world of hybrids and EVs, I believe it’s critical to continue this pace of innovation.”

Albert Llovera will not race Fesh Fesh‘s Ford Cargo EVO I truck in the 2025 Dakar Rally, though the team is open to a reunion in the future.

“Unfortunately, Albert Llovera will not be joining us for the 2025 DAKAR Rally,” reads a team statement on Thursday. “However, we believe that our collaboration will continue, and we look forward to meeting again at the DAKAR Rally or other races in 2026. Therefore, we are looking for a new crew for the special FORD CARGO EVO I.”

Llovera joined Fesh Fesh in 2022, but his IVECO retired after seven stages. The team introduced the Ford Cargo, a 4×4 truck which was developed in partnership with Ford Spain, for the 2023 edition. However, mechanical gremlins plagued him again, beginning with a broken rear axle differential on the opening stage before being knocked out altogether two legs later.

His niece Margot Llobera and Marc Torres rode with him for the latest edition in January. After three legs, Llovera opted to sit out Stage #4 due to a serious headache that he attributed to potholes and bumps; to add insult to injury for Fesh Fesh, their other truck of Vaidotas Paškevičius retired that same day due to radiator damage. Llovera subsequently rejoined ther rally as part of the Dakar Experience and successfully reached the finish seventeenth in the Truck class. His best daily outing was a tenth in Stage #10.

Llovera, a former alpine skiier who took part in the 1984 Winter Olympics, is one of a handful of disabled racers as he uses a wheelchair due to a severe spinal injury. His truck has adaptive controls and pedals to help him pilot it. He has raced the Dakar since 2007, originally starting in a car before switching to a truck in 2016; his best finish was fifteenth in 2020 in an IVECO for Team de Rooy.

František Brutovský‘s effort to recover from the fractured vertebra he sustained at the Hungarian Baja has taken a step in the right direction. On Thursday, he confirmed he has been discharged after a successful surgery, and will spend approximately six weeks getting back in shape.

“The surgery went well without any major complications,” he wrote. “Now, I’ve got a bit of a ‘screwed-together’ spine, and I’m facing 6 weeks of rest—just lying down and taking short walks at most. It’s going to be a long road to get back behind the wheel.”

The injury occurred when his Ford F-150 EVO rolled during the third Selective Section of the Hungarian Baja. He had finished twentieth overall (ninth in Ultimate) in the first SS before improving to eleventh overall and fifth in class the next leg. Brutovský was not the only injury in the race as Fidel Castillo Ruiz broke his collarbone when he rolled that same stage, one of a series of safety concerns that prompted fellow Czech Martin Koloc to withdraw.

The crash resulted in a fractured vertebra that initial diagnosis stated did not require surgery. Once he was transferred to Prague’s Motol Hospital, doctors concluded he should undergo it anyway due to a “risk of poor vertebral healing and subsequent movement restriction.”

While he is expected to be out for any events in September, the timetable should get him back in the driver’s seat for MING Racing Sports‘ next scheduled dates at the Dubai International Baja and Qatar International Baja in November. Both races are intended to help develop the Ford F-150 EVO T1+ for a run at the 2025 Dakar Rally.

The road to the Dakar Rally is not an easy one to traverse. Rolando Martínez learned this the hard way, finally receiving his acceptance letter for the 2025 race after a journey that included the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Somos Dakar spoke with Martínez about making the race and his goals, which includes educating his fellow Paraguayans on what cross-country rally is really like.

Martínez has been running rallies in Paraguay since 2019, winning the Desafío Guaraní (a former Dakar Series race) in 2019 before competing in the domestic and Argentinian championships. He finally decided to try signing up for the 2024 Dakar but was turned down by the Amaury Sport Organisation due to a lack of experience.

As such, he looked at the four World Rally-Raid Championship rounds that could be used to qualify. He made his début at the 2023 Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina, where he finished eleventh in Rally2. An additional start at the Rallye du Maroc would have taken place had he been accepted for the 2024 Dakar.

With the 2025 Dakar as his primary objective, he planned to run the full W2RC in 2024. At the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Martínez crashed on the final day and broke two vertebrae while sitting seventeenth in Rally2 and coming off a thirteenth in Stage #4. The injury sidelined him for the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, and he had to wait until the DR 40 in June before making another start.

The 38-year-old impressed in Argentina with a seventh in class with two tenths in Stages #3 and #5.

After a summer break, one of the most exciting series in motorsport, the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), is back. The sixth round of the season takes place on 1 September, with the Circuit of the Americas in Texas playing host to the Lone Star Le Mans. With tight battles throughout the 36 car grid in both Hypercar and LMGT3 classes, here is your guide to the first American WEC race since 2020.

Located in Austin, Texas, the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) has become a firm favourite among fans and drivers alike since it opened in 2012. The famous steep incline up to a very wide turn 1, the fast flowing section of corners which follow, the 1.18km straight into a fierce hairpin, and a triple-apex right-hander just when the drivers think they’re safe all combine to create a fabulously challenging and entertaining circuit.

COTA has played host to WEC before, most recently in 2020, and the sport’s social media pages are currently awash with clips from previous races from the Lone Star State. There are some similarities, particularly with certain marques being in contention for victory. However, the spectacle is set to be even greater with WEC going through an unprecedented “Golden Age” with 18 Hypercars and 18 LMGT3 cars ready to do battle.

Hypercar

There will be plenty for the American fans to cheer. In Hypercar, despite being 7th in the championship, Cadillac Racing have been showing the increased potential of their thunderous V8 Cadillac V-Series.R, including leading a large chunk of the 2024 24 Hours Of Le Mans. With the news that they are partnering with Hertz Team JOTA and fielding a two-car line-up in 2025, the two-driver line-up of Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn will be very keen to bring home a good result for the team and boost their chances of retaining their seats for next season.

After a tricky start to the season, Toyota Gazoo Racing have reasserted their position as serious contenders at the pointy end of the championship. The #8 car dominated proceedings at the 6 Hours of São Paulo, while the #7 car took victory in the 6 Hours of Imola despite, in the words of Kamui Kobayashi, not having the fastest car. The #7 crew currently sit 3rd in the drivers’ standings on 95 points, just three points behind the #50 Ferrari AF Corse crew in 2nd.

While his son has been the ace of Formula One since the turn of the decade, Jos Verstappen continues to get behind the wheel himself by dabbling in rallies. In October, he will find himself in a 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 RS, competing in his first ever classic rally at the Tour de Corse Historique.

Verstappen is long associated with pavement racing as an ex-F1 driver who has also competed in A1 Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Although he later dialled back his driving to focus on his son Max, the elder Verstappen decided to resume his career in 2022 by competing in the Belgian Rally Championship. In three years, he has already scored six wins in the domestic series, the latest coming at the Rally van Haspengouw in February in the Master Cup class.

He made his World Rally Championship début at the 2022 Ypres Rally, finishing sixtieth in WRC2.

“He doesn’t yet have the terrain reading skills of a true specialist to anticipate changes in grip on the track. However, he retains an exceptional sensitivity to braking from his circuit days,” commented co-driver Renaud Jamoul. “He presses very hard on the pedal until the point of lock-up, then releases gradually, like an ABS system.”

Of course, the 1974 Porsche is a much different beast from the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 that he’s used to. The car was built with Group 3 rules in mind, featuring a three-litre aircooled flat-six engine with a top speed of 244.62 kilometres per hour. Only fifty-six models were ever produced, making it highly sought after by car collectors to this day; by comparison, Porsche made 1,580 of its predecessor, the 1973 Carrera 2.7 RS.

Seth Quintero will drive a slightly different off-road truck from his Toyota Hilux this weekend when he races the #17 Pro 2 truck at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway. It will be his first time competing in the Red Bull Crandon World Cup‘s Pro 2 vs. Pro 4 race.

Short course is a vastly different discipline than the long-distance races that he’s used to in the World Rally-Raid Championship and Best In The Desert. His main trade is even more gruelling as he races for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the W2RC, and is currently eighth in points with one round to go.

Perhaps the closest thing to short course that he’s competed in is the Red Bull Scramble, though that is done in a side-by-side vehicle rather than a truck. He starred in SSVs in rally raid, winning a record twelve stages at the 2022 Dakar Rally in one followed by taking the 2023 World Championship in the Challenger class. Quintero graduated to the premier Ultimate class in a Toyota GR DKR Hilux EVO T1U for the 2024 season.

The start comes during a four-month break in the World Rally-Raid Championship, with the latest round in Argentina taking place in June while the season-ending Rallye du Maroc is not until 5–11 October.

Quintero’s Pro 2 is prepared by fellow Red Bull athlete Andrew Carlson, who races in Pro 4.

The 2024 Rallye du Maroc will be slightly shorter than the original route announced in June, pared down by twenty-four kilometres down to 2,468 km total with 1,512 km in Selective Sections.

Most of the changes to the Selective Sections are relatively superficial, with the Prologue and second stage being just one km shorter in timed sectors than they were originally planned. Stages #1, #3, #4, and #5 have the same SS lengths.

On the other hand, the distances for the liaisons to and from the timed stages see more modification. The most prominent, although still miniscule in the grand scheme of things, is the last stage as competitors will travel across 102 kilometres rather than the original 115. Likewise, the Prologue’s road section is 49 km rather than 57, while Stage #3’s is three km longer.

Otherwise, everything else including the locations stay untouched. The rally starts in Marrakesh before travelling to Zagora and subsequently finishing along the Algerian border in Mengoub.

Even with the reduction, the 2024 route is still longer than 2023‘s 1,470 km in Selective Sections.

After three years away, Brian Deegan is back at the Red Bull Crandon World Cup this weekend. He will pilot the #38 Pro 2 truck prepared by Ryan Beat Motorsports.

Deegan last raced the Crandon World Cup in 2020, where he finished seventh and beat his friend-slash-rival Travis Pastrana by three spots. He holds the all time lap record at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway, which he set in 2018, and previously won the 2011 World Championship Off-Road Races there in the Pro Lite category.

His last short course start was the 2021 Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run at Crandon, also a Pro 2 vs. Pro 4 race, where he finished fourteenth. He made his Championship Off-Road points début at that year’s season opener in Antigo, where he was eighth and thirteenth.

An off-road racing icon and one of the most decorated motocross riders in X Games history, he began short course racing in 2009, winning the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Pro Lite title in his first year. Two years later, he added a Pro 2 championship. Deegan also raced the Red Bull Frozen Rush in 2015.

Interspersed with his short course racing, his main focus during the 2010s was in Global Rallycross, finishing second in the 2012 standings and third in 2016, and also did a one-off in the FIA European Rallycross Championship. He ran four rounds in the 2023/24 Nitrocross season, a championship overseen by Pastrana, with a best run of seventh at Glen Helen.

The Goczał family has partnered with Wevers Sport to establish the EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team, consolidating the Taurus T3 Max’s rally raid operations into a single coordinated works team.

Consisting of patriarch Marek, his brother Michał, and son Eryk, the Goczałs oversee EnergyLandia Rally Team. The outfit has enjoyed much success in rally raid that includes Michał finishing runner-up in the 2022 World Rally-Raid Championship for SSVs and Eryk becoming the youngest Dakar Rally winner when he claimed the SSV title in 2023. The family moved up to the Challenger category at that year’s Rallye du Maroc in Tauruses, where Eryk dominated early before retiring with a mechanical failure while Marek won ahead of class champion Seth Quintero.

Eryk’s run continued at the 2024 Dakar Rally when he won five of the first six stages to build a convincing lead in the Challenger ranking, only for him and Michał to be disqualfied for a noncompliant clutch; Marek also retired from the race. After focusing on other matters during the spring, they returned to form when Eryk won his class at the Baja España Aragón in July.

On Tuesday, EnergyLandia expanded their alliance with the Taurus project to become the de facto factory team.

“The last few months have been a time of our intense work on the project, which leads us to the Dakar Rally 2025, where we will appear as the only Taurus factory team,” wrote Eryk. “This is the result of the joint forces of Energylandia Rally Team and Dutch Wevers Sport B.V.

Purevdorj Murun has been racing motorcycles for over a decade, mainly focusing on rallies in his home country of Mongolia and other nations in Asia. In January, he will head to West Asia for his Dakar Rally début.

Murun competes in motocross and rallies across Asia, while also enjoying success back home such that he was named “The Best Moto Rider” of 2023 by the Mongolian Automobile Motorcycle Sports Federation. His father Purevdorj Bayarjargal also does cross-country rally in a side-by-side vehicle.

He had tried to apply for the previous three Dakars but was rejected each time before finally being approved for the 2025 edition.

“Long-distance cross-country racing is my favorite sport,” Murun told Ergelt. “This type of competition lasts at least three days. The Dakar Rally, known as the Olympics for motorsports enthusiasts, lasts fourteen days. It is not easy to use all the strength you have to ride an off-road bike for for fourteen days. But it’s a good challenge and the best chance to represent your country in an international competition.”

In February, he entered his first World Rally-Raid Championship event at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in the United Arab Emirates. Despite the odd snag like getting stuck in the dunes for twenty minutes in Stage #2, he impressed by finishing seventh overall in Rally2 with a best daily performance of seventh in Stage #4.

It only feels right that a Petty-themed car would win in the inaugural weekend for a series sponsored by Petty’s Garage, with Richard Petty in attendance.

Mike Skeen had the pleasure of delivering this when he won the second and final race of the inaugural NASCAR Classic presented by Petty’s Garage weekend at Virginia International Raceway. Driving a #45 Dodge Charger with a livery based on the late Adam Petty‘s Spree-sponsored NASCAR Busch Series (now Xfinity) car that he raced at the turn of the millennium, Skeen capitalised on a late mechanical issue for leader Joe Nemechek in Race #2.

“We ran second most the time. I think Joe was mostly playing with us,” remarked Skeen. “It was a great time. Had some good battles, had a little battle with Ryan (Gemmell) there and ended up taking the win. Super happy. Fortunate to take the the run here with Petty’s Garage have the opportunity to drive this car.”

Nemechek’s #47 Toyota Camry sported a paint scheme endorsing Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign, which he had previously used for two Xfinity races during the last election cycle in 2020. A longtime NASCAR veteran who has the third most combined starts across all three national series, Nemechek has mostly focused on historic stock car racing since his last Xfinity start four years ago.

The 60-year-old had won the first race before his Camry experienced problems nine laps in and relegated him to thirteenth. While his weekend ended on a sour note, his NEMCO Motorsports still wrapped it up with a class win courtesy of Donnie Strickland, who drove a Chevrolet Silverado truck with Nemechek’s United States Army wrap that he ran in the Cup Series from 2003 to 2006; Strickland was originally entered in a Toyota Camry but was unable to start Race #1.

With the summer set to wrap up, race fans might have noticed that the Superstar Racing Experience was not tearing it up on short tracks in recent weeks. As it turns out, the series’ acquisition by the Skip Barber Racing School has fallen through, and SRX leadership said Monday that they intend to sue the school’s operator Anthony DeMonte and DMS Apex Holding.

The Skip Barber Racing School, a racing and driving academy founded in 1975, announced in March that it had purchased SRX. The school had been wroking as a logistics partner of the series since the inaugural season in 2021, being responsible for overseeing transport and maintenance of its cars between races.

Although SRX, including then-CEO Don Hawk, signed off on it at the time, it claims the school had failed to complete the deal by the deadline of 30 April. Instead, the school had allegedly not made the required payments despite having all but confirmed the purchase.

“On March 13, 2024, Anthony DeMonte executed an Asset Purchase Agreement (“Agreement”) on behalf of DMS Apex Holding, LLC d/b/a Skip Barber Racing (“Skip Barber Racing”) to purchase the SRX Superstar Racing Experience series (“SRX”),” begins a statement from the series. “The Agreement stated that the parties would close the transaction on April 30, 2024. The Agreement also stated that the transaction was to be private and neither party would announce the transaction without the prior consent of the other party.

“Contrary to that, and without Superstar’s consent, Skip Barber Racing and DeMonte issued a press release falsely stating that they had acquired SRX. In fact, DeMonte and Skip Barber Racing have failed to pay any amount of the purchase price or otherwise fulfill their promise to close the transaction. Consequently, contrary to their false public statements, Skip Barber Racing did not purchase and does not own SRX or any of the series’ assets.