Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Phoenix Raceway will continue to close out the NASCAR season in 2024 as NASCAR Championship Weekend sees all three national divisions (Cup, Xfinity, Craftsman Truck) and the ARCA Menards Series West run their final races of the year. The 2024 weekend will take place on 1–3 November.

After nearly two decades at Homestead-Miami Speedway, NASCAR moved the final weekend to Phoenix in 2020 to capitalise on its major reconfiguration and renovation project completed two years prior. The Cup Series Championship Race was sold out in 2021 and 2022 (2020 had limited attendance due to COVID-19).

ARCA West and the Truck Series will run their final races on Friday, 3 November, followed by Xfinity on Saturday. The Cup Series closes out on Sunday.

“This honour is a testament to our fans whose overwhelming support makes this a true championship-calibre venue,” said Phoenix Raceway President Latasha Causey. “They pack the grandstands, fill the hillside and create the best camping experience in all of NASCAR inside our breathtaking GEICO Gecko Campground. Now the onus is on us to exceed the already high standards we’ve set to continue building on this momentum and keep them coming back.”

Phoenix also hosts a race weekend in March, where William Byron claimed the Cup event and Sammy Smith won in Xfinity, while Tyler Reif scored the win in the ARCA West season opener held in conjunction with the national ARCA Menards Series.

Esteban Ocon was satisfied after Friday’s two practice sessions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with the Frenchman ending encouragingly inside the top five in both.

The BWT Alpine F1 Team driver, fresh off the back of a third place finish in the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend, finished third fastest in the opening hour of practice on Friday before closing out the day fifth overall, just 0.335 seconds back on pacesetter Max Verstappen.

Ocon felt the team made good progress with the set-up of its A523 between the two sessions, and although he knows there is still some more progress to come, it was a good start to the weekend for the Enstone-based outfit.

“It was a productive Friday here at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the team,” said Ocon.  “We used both Free Practice sessions well, testing different things and getting through our planned programme.

“We made the necessary changes from Free Practice 1 to Free Practice 2 but there is still some work to do to get the car in decent shape both on low and high fuel.

Nico Hülkenberg was delighted with his Friday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, particularly in second practice where he surprised to finish third fastest overall.

The MoneyGram Haas F1 Team driver, who has scored only one top ten finish in the opening six races of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, was happy that the team were able to find some performance in between the two sessions on Friday that gave him a chance to jump up into the top three.

Hülkenberg found a good rhythm throughout the day and felt at home inside the cockpit, something that gives him high hopes for a strong weekend to come.

“It felt decent, especially that lap on new softs, it gives you a lot of grip over one lap,” said Hülkenberg.  “Particularly in FP2, I think we picked up some performance which wasn’t quite there earlier.

“I’m satisfied with how it’s gone and hope we can keep it up for the next two days. There’s always more to explore, there’s always more to do, but I had a good rhythm today and felt at home in the car.

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Fernando Alonso says it is too early to take anything away from the timing screens at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, despite the Spaniard ending second fastest overall to Max Verstappen.

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team driver, who has scored podiums in five of the opening six races of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, ended sixth fastest in the first session on Friday before improving in the second, ending just under two-tenths back on championship leader Verstappen.

Alonso feels Aston Martin’s recent updates to the AMR23 have helped the performance of the car, and he is keen to see where they will end up during Saturday’s Qualifying session amongst a field that appears to be extremely closely matched.

“It’s so close over one lap that I think a couple of tenths will put you in a completely different position in the classification, so we won’t read too much into the times,” said Alonso.  “We went through our test programme this morning in Free Practice One and learnt about the prototype tyres, with the track a little slower than we expected.

“The upgrades we’ve introduced are helping the performance of the car and we are happy with them so far, but let’s see where we are tomorrow when everyone is pushing.”

Max Verstappen was delighted with his opening day of the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday, with the Dutchman topping both free practice sessions.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver, who holds a commanding advantage at the top of the Drivers’ Championship after his fourth win in six races last weekend in Monaco, was more than seven-tenths of a second clear of the pack in the first session, although it was much tighter in the second as he edged out Fernando Alonso by just under two-tenths of a second.

Verstappen was able to experience the faster layout of the final two corners for the first time on Friday, and he felt it was an improvement on the previous configuration, which involved a chicane.

And he felt able to follow other cars through the turns, which he believes is a good thing when it comes to potential overtaking on Sunday afternoon.

“We had a good day today,” said Verstappen.  “The car was in a good window and of course we will try to fine tune a few things here and there but the short runs and long runs look good.

An illness will keep Corey Heim on the sidelines for Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. To fill the hole, TRICON Garage has performed a seat shuffle as Jesse Love moves from the #1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to Heim’s #11, while Toni Breidinger arrives to pilot the #1.

“Really tough to come to terms with missing a race but I know it’s the right decision for my health,” wrote Heim. “Excited to be back soon!”

His sickness means Heim will not be able to defend his Gateway victory after claiming the 2022 win from the pole. He is currently the points leader after eleven races with a win at Martinsville and riding a five-race streak of top tens, and can potentially lose the top spot if second-placed Ty Majeski performs well; Heim leads Majeski by twenty-six points.

Despite missing a race, Heim is expected to receive a waiver to remain playoff eligible.

Love, the current ARCA Menards Series championship leader, was already set to make his Truck début at Gateway in the #1 on a three-race schedule. Fellow ARCA driver Breidinger, who sits eighth in the standings, finished fifteenth in her maiden Truck start at Kansas in early May.

After a two-year wait, Tomáš Ouředníček will race a Toyota Hilux GR T1+ at the 2024 Dakar Rally under the Toyota Gazoo Racing Czech banner. He and co-driver David Křípal unveiled the new programme on Monday.

“For the first time, we don’t have to rely only on our own strength, but we can rely on experienced mechanics who also take care of other Hiluxes on the Dakar,” Ouředníček stated. “Thanks to this, we can really only focus on the sporting result. Toyota is the winner of three Dakars and now we get the opportunity to compete with the world’s elite.”

Ouředníček originally planned to début the Hilux at the 2023 Dakar Rally, but was unable to get the vehicle approved by the Toyota parent company in time. Nonetheless, he attended the rally in a support Land Cruiser to get accustomed to the Toyota camp. Meanwhile, Křípal found a way to take part as a last-minute substitute navigator for T1 driver Antoine Gallard, who retired after severe mechanical problems in the final stage.

The Hilux is one of the top vehicles in rally raid today, having won the last two Dakar Rallies and the inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship with Nasser Al-Attiyah, who currently leads the W2RC standings. Variants are available, with Al-Attiyah and Ouředníček both running the TGR model developed by Hallspeed with Toyota factory support, while a more economically friendly Hilux by WCT Engineering is intended for privateers.

Overdrive Racing will provide technical support for the team.

Max Verstappen topped the timesheets during the second practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but it was much closer in the second session with Fernando Alonso picking up the pace.

Verstappen put in the fastest lap of the session on the soft tyre with a time of 1:13.907, just under two-tenths ahead of Alonso of the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team. The session was a lot closer than the first session, where Verstappen was over seven-tenths ahead of his team-mate in second place, and hopefully, Alonso’s performance is a sign that Oracle Red Bull Racing will be challenged this weekend.

The session was a lot of running from the teams, despite the threat of rain late. Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Ocon showed great performances for Haas F1 Team and BWT Alpine F1 Team, securing third and fifth place respectively. They sandwiched the Red Bull of Sergio Pérez, who fell short of his team-mate, Verstappen by just over three-tenths of a second.

Scuderia Ferrari continued to test their upgraded package, which included modifications to the engine cover, sidepods, and floor. Charles Leclerc, who ran without the updates in FP1, had his first experience with the new components, and put himself sixth on the timesheets, closely followed by his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr., who had already tested the parts during the first practice session.

George Russell emerged as the quickest among the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers, claiming eighth position. He was one and a half tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton, who found himself three places behind Russell. Mercedes haven’t shown their true pace yet with both drivers were still adapting to the significant updates introduced by the team in the previous race in Monaco.

Kove Moto has enlisted Joaquín Debeljuh for the Desafío Ruta 40 on 26 August to 8 September. Debeljuh announced his entry last Friday.

Debeljuh won Argentina’s CaNav domestic rally raid championship in 2018. Four years later, he entered the Dakar Rally for Xraids Experience and finished fifty-eighth overall, thirty-fourth in Rally2. His experience also includes running the Italian Enduro Championship in 2017, Morocco’s Panafrica Rally in 2019, and the South American Rally Race.

RVM, owned by Roberto Martínez, will prepare Kove’s bikes for the DR40. A similar arrangement took place at the previous World Rally-Raid Championship leg Sonora Rally in April with Rocky Mountain Detours.

“I have been following this motorcycle a lot since its launch was covered in the news, its development, and tests. Roberto Martínez contacted me about racing it in Argentina and running the Desafío Ruta 40,” Debeljuh told Motoblog Argentina. “The good thing about this bike is that it comes practically ready to compete. For those who like to do a bit of road and cross-country, it is the ideal bike. Everything is already included, even how to change the navigation tower.”

After a successful rally raid début at the 2023 Dakar Rally where all three bikes completed the race, Kove has expanded their programme to include non-Chinese riders headlined by factory member Neels Theric, who has run Sonora and will also race the W2RC-ending Rallye du Maroc. Debeljuh’s addition is intended to give the team a rider who is familiar with the DR40, similar to them hiring the American Mike Johnson for Sonora and the Mexican 1000, the latter of which saw him finish third among all bikes. Kove recently fielded six bikes on their home soil in the Taklimakan Rally, where their Dakar trio of Sunier, Deng Liansong, and Fang Minji were joined by Theric, Fang Xiangliang, and team director Zhang Xue. Sunier also raced at Sonora alongside Johnson and Theric.

The Baja España Aragón was supposed to be a three-day adventure through eastern Spain, but more pressing matters have forced it to be pushed up and condensed into a tighter schedule. On Friday, race officials announced that due to the upcoming Spanish general election on 23 July, the rally will take place in full on 21/22 July.

The event was originally set for 21–23 July, starting with a Prologue stage for cars on Friday before linking up with bikes for the next two days. With the election now set for the final day, the race will begin on Friday with a Prologue for both classes before running the entire event on Saturday.

Officials came up with the new itinerary after negotiating with the FIA, Real Federación Española de Automovilismo, and Real Federación Motociclista Española, the latter two respectively overseeing automobile and motorcycle competition in Spain.

“After extensive discussions and reaching an agreement with the FIA, RFDEA, RFME, and other involved institutions, it has been decided that the two stages will now take place in their entirety on Friday, July 21st, and Saturday, July 22nd. This includes the prologue stage for motorbikes and cars, which will be held on the morning of Friday, July 21st,” reads a statement. “The organizers would like to express their gratitude to the regional and local institutions, as well as the State Security Forces, for their cooperation in minimizing any potential disruptions that could affect the national and international teams.

“The 39th edition of Baja España Aragón will kick off on Wednesday, July 19th, with the initial formalities taking place in the Service Park, once again situated at the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de Teruel.”

Despite the immense heat and humidity, over three-hundred volunteers from the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship joined together to clean a beach in Jakarta, ahead of this weekend’s Jakarta E-Prix, in recognition of World Environment Day.

With World Environment day falling on June 5 (Monday), several members of the paddock, including, many drivers, cleared one-hundred twenty refuse bags of plastic waste from a beach next to this weekend’s circuit. The specific beach was the Pantai Beach in Ancol resort, which is where the action is taking place in the Indonesian capital across the next couple of days.

The refuse bags were collected by Indonesian waste management service Waste4Change, who are the official waste management partner of this weekend’s double-header. To ensure that as little waste is produced this weekend as possible, there are set to be several Recycling Rangers in the Allianz Fan Village, to ensure that all plastic waste is recycled at the E-Prix.

Formula E Sustainability Director Julia Pallé explained why the all-electric series came together to clean the beach in Jakarta, with their incredible work having also been “aligned” to help the sport celebrate World Environment Day.

“Plastic pollution is a growing problem that affects everyone around the world and especially in Indonesia,” Pallé said, as per Formula E.

Oracle Red Bull Racing set the pace in the Spanish Grand Prix’s first practice session with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez well ahead of the rest. Verstappen will be going into the weekend hoping to extend his Championship lead with a second consecutive Spanish GP victory, and it’s been so far, so good for the Dutchman.

A number of drivers chose to begin the day by running on the prototype tires before going onto the medium compound tyres. Verstappen took the lead early on, surpassing his previous and current Red Bull teammates, Pierre Gasly and Perez setting the pace. The Red Bull duo quickly switched to the soft tire, and Perez managed to take the lead on the leaderboard. However, Verstappen promptly responded by posting a time of 1:14.606s, surpassing his teammate’s time by a remarkable 0.768s, just moments later.

It wasn’t all easy going for the drivers though, with many drivers including the Red Bull duo, complaining about bouncing coming out of the new look final sector. The intricate chicane in the last sector, which was added in 2007, has been replaced, restoring the circuit’s original layout from 1991 to 2006. The revised circuit now features two fast right-hand corners to conclude the lap, and it is causing some bouncing problems up and down the grid.

Esteban Ocon continued his impressive form following on from his podium in the Monaco Grand Prix and put himself behind the Red Bull pair. Nyck de Vries needs to put in a strong performance this weekend, with rumours circling of Red Bull looking to replace him in the AlphaTauri seat and he started well, putting in a storming lap to finish the session in fourth ahead of BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Pierre Gasly.

Home favourite Fernando Alonso secured the sixth-fastest time for Aston Martin after a slow start to the session, ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen. The Scuderia Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. followed in eighth and ninth place, with Sainz being the sole Ferrari driver testing their upgraded package during the first practice, but rather worryingly finishing behind his teammate.

Maximilian Günther made a great start to this weekend’s Jakarta E-Prix double-header, as the German topped Free Practice 1 at the tenth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in a Maserati MSG Racing 1-2.

As the most physically demanding weekend of the season got underway, the track temperature was thirty-eight degrees Celsius whilst the air temperature was thirty-two, highlighting how hot and humid the Indonesian capital is. It was Günther who led the field out onto the circuit, including, Roberto Merhi and David Beckmann, who are both making their debut this weekend.

Merhi is replacing Oliver Rowland at Mahindra Racing after the Briton agreed to leave the team, whilst Beckmann is replacing André Lotterer at Avalanche Andretti Formula E as a result of Lotterer having commitments at Le Mans.

As the opening ten minutes of the first free practice session ticked away, the times as usual continued to tumble, with the circuit having been very green. It was Günther though, who led after ten minutes, thanks to a 1:10.811. He was soon replaced at the top by reigning World Champion Stoffel Vandoorne, as the times began to move to the low 1:10s.

It was Vandoorne’s DS Penske team-mate Jean-Éric Vergne though, who led the opening session at the halfway stage, with the Frenchman having almost broken into the 1:09s. The Stellantis-powered cars were certainly looking strong, with all four having featured in the top-six after seventeen minutes. Former championship leader Pascal Wehrlein made his move to the front with twelve minutes remaining, with the German needing a big result this weekend to reclaim the lead of the standings.

Clay Greenfield will return to the world of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team ownership on his 39th birthday when he enters the World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway round on Saturday in the #95 Chevrolet Silverado RST for GK Racing.

The operation is co-owned by Greenfield, his wife Tandra Greenfield, and Theresa Kiss. Kiss is the owner of Backyard Blues Pools, which has sponsored Greenfield since 2020.

Greenfield has run his own team on various occasions, most notably entering all but three races in 2020 en route to a points finish of twenty-second. In 2022, he joined Bruce Cook’s Cook Racing Technologies for a part-time slate, and remained with Cook for the 2023 season opener at Daytona where he crashed out and was classified thirty-fourth.

A team statement released Monday says: “We are excited to announce Clay & Tandra Greenfield, and Jordan & Theresa Kiss, have partnered to form GK Racing as a new NASCAR Team! We are thrilled for GK Racing to have female ownership, as Theresa Kiss (Hispanic female) and former NFL cheerleader Tandra Greenfield have aligned to bring this epic team together! Jordan Kiss, owner of Backyard Blues Pools in Murfreesboro, TN, has sponsored Clay Greenfield in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series since 2020. Clay Greenfield Is excited to join forces as an owner and driver for GK Racing! This team is proud to be representing the #95. And, for great reason! Being a Nashville based team, we wanted to pay tribute to Sadler Brothers Racing and the many great drivers who have driven for them (Davey Allison, Bobby Hamilton Sr & Jr, Sterling Er Steadman Marlin Jeremy Mayfield, David Ragan, Chad Chaffin, Jeff Green and Eric Jones- plus many others). We hope to continue the legacy of the #95. The first race GK Racing will attempt will be at World Wide Technology Raceway on June 3rd, 2023 (coincidentally, Clay Greenfield’s birthday). We plan to compete in several races in the remainder of 2023 with an expanded schedule in 2024!”

With thirty-six trucks entered, Greenfield is locked into the field for Gateway. Had there been more entrants, he would have needed to qualify on time unless he acquired enough owner points to be safe.