Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Herrador Factory Team has formally unveiled the HFT T3 2023, a side-by-side vehicle based on the Can-Am Maverick X3 that is capable of FIA T3 competition. It was originally revealed by team CEO Javier Herrador in March before the official presentation on Tuesday.

The HFT T3 uses the Maverick’s platform but has been heavily modified to meet T3 regulation, which is for Light Prototype SSVs specifically designed for racing versus the production models that race in T4.

Perhaps its most notable feature is the closed body, though much of its anatomy is shared with the Maverick. The overlap is intended to make swapping out parts between the HFT and Maverick easier as customers who already own the latter can simply buy the HFT chassis for €15,000 and assemble the remaining components themselves.

The Maverick was described by Herrador as “a brand and a model that has won absolutely everything in recent years in the Dakar Rally and one that we want to maintain its identity and reliability. This is an advantage as the owner and teams have it easier to obtain spare parts through their BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products, owner of Can-Am) dealer for any race.”

Overall, the car weighs 900 kilograms. Although its main focus is as a T3 challenger, the chassis can also be used for T4 racing. The base vehicle, up to €105,000 comes with BRAID Wheels rims, Fox shocks, J.Juan brakes, an aluminum fuel tank and dashboard, among other stock parts.

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team will make the switch from Mercedes-Benz power to Honda power for the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season and beyond.

The Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) were one of the manufacturers to throw their name into the hat for the next generation of power units within Formula 1, but up until now, they did not have a team to race with, thanks to the decision of Oracle Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri opting to switch to Ford power.

However, the Japanese marque have now found a new host for their engines, with Aston Martin opting to end their lengthy partnership with Mercedes-Benz that began back in 2009 when the Silverstone-based team were known as the Force India Formula One Team.

“I would like to welcome Honda and HRC to the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula OneTeam,” said Lawrence Stroll, the Executive Chairman of Aston Martin.  “We share a mutual drive, determination, and relentless ambition to succeed on track.

“Honda is a global titan and its success in motorsport is longstanding and incredibly impressive. I would like to thank Mr. Mibe and Mr. Watanabe, and the whole team at HRC as we embark on this exciting future together from 2026.”

Max Verstappen says the decision to cancel last weekends Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was the right decision, and he says there are more important things than racing and the floods and bad weather in Italy was one of those occasions.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver has won three of the opening five races of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season and heads the World Drivers’ Championship by fourteen points, but cancelling the race last weekend was correct due to the pressures the local authorities were under due to the flooding.

“I am excited to get back to racing this week,” said Verstappen. “Not racing in Imola was the right decision and I know it was not taken lightly but some things are obviously more important than racing and this was one of those occasions.”

Verstappen knows that Saturdays Qualifying session during this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix will be extremely important, with track position on Sunday key to a strong result, and the Dutchman knows he will have to do a perfect lap if he is to grab pole position.

“Looking ahead to Monaco, qualifying is so important there so we need to make sure we are as strong as we can be in that session,” he added.  “The circuit in Monaco is super tight, even more than other street circuits.

TRICON Garage co-owner David Gilliland will step into his truck for Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway as he pilots the #1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.

Gilliland last made a Truck start at Darlington in 2021, where he crashed out and finished twenty-eighth. He ran three races that year, coming after another two-year absence.

In twenty career Truck starts, he has six top tens and a best finish of third at Talladega in 2018 as part of Kyle Busch Motorsports. Save for the 2018 superspeedway races, which he ran for KBM alongside his son Todd Gilliland, all of his Truck races since 2018 have been as an owner/driver for TRICON, formerly known as DGR-Crosley and David Gilliland Racing.

He is a veteran of the Cup Series, having raced full-time there between 2007 and 2015 before focusing on Todd’s development and running his team. In 2020, he won the ARCA Menards Series West season finale at Phoenix.

Wallace has raced twice at Charlotte in the Trucks, finishing sixth in 2009 and twenty-seventh in 2015.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen feels that driving in Monaco Grand Prix is a stand-out experience, assigning Monte Carlo the “best place” to put in laps in a Formula 1 car. 

Monaco comes on the heels of the cancellation of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, a decision made due to extreme flooding in the region. Magnussen keeps those impacted in his thoughts as he enters the next round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship

“First, we’re hoping for the best for the region and people of Emilia Romagna and neighboring areas. Of course, it’s sad to cancel a grand prix but I completely agree with the decision. 

“Monaco is a special event for me, one of the most special of the season. Monaco is the best place to drive a Formula 1 car. Of course, it’s very narrow and it’s a small track, but it’s fast so you really feel the speed.”

Qualifying in Monaco tends to be one of the season’s most unpredictable sessions, with great importance placed on putting in the perfect lap to secure the best possible starting position at a track that offers little to no opportunity for on-track passing. Between this added pressure, limited space and the high probability of stoppage, Magnussen describes the challenging conditions of Saturday’s shootout. 

Whilst it’s been unofficially known for a little while, Avalanche Andretti Formula E have finally confirmed that TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team reserve driver David Beckmann will replace André Lotterer at next weekend’s Jakarta E-Prix double-header.

The young German will make his Formula E debut due to Lotterer testing with the Porsche LMDh team, in preparation for the upcoming Le Mans 24 Hours. It’s been known for a while that Lotterer wouldn’t be competing in Jakarta, with Andretti having been aware of where Lotterer’s “priorities lay” this year.

Beckmann is a former Formula 2 podium finisher but became Andretti’s reserve driver in Formula E last season, with him having remained close to the American side this year with Andretti being Porsche’s customer outfit. With Lotterer expected to focus purely on sport cars next year, Beckmann’s Formula E debut will be somewhat of an audition to presumably partner Jake Dennis in Season Ten.

“I’m super grateful for the opportunity to step in for André and represent the Avalanche Andretti Formula E Team in Jakarta,” said Beckmann.

“Formula E is an incredibly competitive championship, and I’m excited to showcase my capabilities in this unique racing series. I would like to thank Michael Andretti and the team for trusting me with this responsibility. I’m going to give my best to achieve a successful outcome for everyone involved.”

After the cancellation of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix due to excessive flooding, Pirelli Motorsport Director Mario Isola outlines his expectations for this year’s Monaco Grand Prix. 

“We’re heading to a Monaco Grand Prix that’s somewhat different to what we expected. It should have been the second race of a European triple-header but instead it’s going to be the first due to the cancellation of Imola.”

Isola shared that those affected by the extreme weather in the Emilia Romagna region remain at the front of mind for Pirelli. 

“Those images of devastation are still fresh in our minds and we want to express our solidarity once more with the families of the victims, as well as all those who have suffered such huge losses.” 

As F1 moves onto the next round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, Isola said that the unusual features of the historic Monte Carlo circuit often lead to shock results and unexpected incidents– making it a “one-off” fixture of the season.

Rookie Sacha Fenestraz has thankfully escaped injury following a nasty crash last Tuesday, whilst completing a test for the Nissan Formula E Team at the Circuit de Calafat.

It was reported by The Race that Fenestraz had crashed the Japanese manufacturer’s E-4orce 04 test and development car into a barrier at the Spanish venue last Tuesday evening, as a result of having lost control. Due to having complained about back pain, the Frenchman was sent to a local hospital for precautionary checks; however, he was later released having escaped the crash unhurt.

Nissan had planned to complete several days worth of testing but were forced to cancel further running, with the crash having occurred following a technical fault but reportedly not to do with a supplied spec part. Some engineers from customer outfit the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team were also present.

It’s not the first time this season where a technical issue has resulted in the cancellation of a test for Nissan, who were forced to curtail a test a few weeks before the Berlin E-Prix double-header following an unrevealed technical failure.

Fenestraz’s accident happened just a few days after he claimed his and Nissan’s best result of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, with the rookie having finished fourth at the Monaco E-Prix. He enjoyed an excellent weekend at the Circuit de Monaco and would’ve claimed pole had it not been for an overuse of power, something which saw his laptime from the Final of the duels deleted.

The Indianapolis 500, also known as the Indy 500, is an iconic annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States. Here are some key details about the Indy 500:

1. History: The first Indianapolis 500 race took place in 1911 and has been held annually ever since, except for the years during World War I and World War II.

2. Track: The race takes place on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) oval-shaped track. It is known as "The Brickyard" due to the original track surface being made of bricks.

3. Distance: The Indy 500 is a 500-mile (805 km) race, hence the name. Drivers complete 200 laps around the track to reach the total distance.

4. Cars: The race features open-wheel, single-seat cars known as Indy cars or Indy race cars. These cars are purpose-built for racing and reach high speeds on the oval track.

Kyle Larson seems to have a knack for winning the NASCAR All-Star Race in odd-numbered years. After winning in 2019 and 2021, he scored his third triumph on Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway in complete fashion as he started sixteenth but went on to lead 145 of 200 laps including the last for the victory.

Larson took the lead from pole-sitter and Heat #1 winner Daniel Suárez on lap 55 and held it through the halfway point, leading a Drive for Diversity alumni 1–2–3 with Bubba Wallace and Suárez in tow. Had the race stayed green instead of throwing a caution flag for the midway point, Larson probably would have developed a much bigger gap than the already astounding advantage of nearly thirteen seconds on Wallace by the break.

“Friday, we were really bad,” Larson recounted in his post-race press conference. “Yes, I ran the fast lap in practice, but if you look at the thirty-lap average, I was like second to last; we were really bad on Friday. Saturday, we were really bad in the heat race as well: I was super loose in the heat race, like loose everywhere, no grip. So I had not great expectations for tonight. I just didn’t think there was enough that they could do to make me better. I thought we’d run around fifteenth tonight.

“Being a short race, starting where we did, I was like, ‘You can’t pass here.’ But then we fired off, I dropped anchor, I got stuck in the outside lane, kind of settled into second to last or whatever, and just trying to feel my car out, and I’m like, ‘I think I’m alright here,’ like I’m not bad. I just can’t pass, but I was like, ‘My entry is more stable, I can get through the middle all right, my drive-off seems better than yesterday.’ Never did I think we would drive to the lead.

“[…] Once I was picking people off, I was like, ‘Is my car this good or is the tyre disparity the reason why I’m driving through the field?’ So I asked, ‘Is anybody else passing like I am that were on new tyres?’ And they didn’t really say that anybody was. I was like, ‘Wow, shoot, our car is really good here.’

Despite battling illness all weekend, Tom Ingram has still produced when it matters most to cut the lead of Ash Sutton to six points heading out of Snetterton with Race Three honors heading the way of the defending BTCC champion.

It was a BMW heavy contingent that started the race up the front, but will be ruing their tire strategy somewhat with all running together just inside the top 10 by the end of the race. But it was the displays of Dan Cammish and Josh Cook that caught the eye.

Cammish after his qualifying crash finished in second to salvage a poor weekend which saw him enter as the championship leader and end in third place.

Similar to the opener, a lap or two was needed for Cammish to pass Ingram in the end with the latter just having enough after initially passing the NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus of Rowbottom who finished in fourth place behind Rory Butcher. Josh Cook came from 26th to sixth in an absolute demon display after poor start to the season.

Ash Sutton also kept his car in fifth place despite being on the hard tyre ahead of the BMW’s who offered no resistance allowing the former to ease home despite being on the inferior rubber.

It’s a bit ironic that heat races were inundated with rain.

The two heats for the NASCAR All-Star Race brought some wet racing to North Wilkesboro Speedway, but weather did not rain on the parade for Daniel Suárez and Chris Buescher as they won both to make up the front row for Sunday’s All-Star.

While the weather did not hit the Craftsman Truck Series race earlier in the day, it did so for the first heat and forced the entire sixty-lap event to be run using the wet tyre package. Rain racing is difficult to impossible to achieve on larger ovals due to their high banking, but shorter tracks like the .625-mile North Wilkesboro Speedway—which has thirteen degrees of banking in the turns—are more viable options. The Trucks at Martinsville in April marked the first time they were used in a points race.

Save for a break for rain at the midway point, the first race ran completely green. Chase Elliott led the first third before Suárez, the fastest qualifier in the Pit Crew Challenge on Friday of those already locked into the All-Star, did so the rest of the way (winner Ty Gibbs must run the All-Star Open on Sunday to qualify).

Multiple drivers observed that the wet tyres helped them set faster times than the usual dry set.

Ash Sutton continues to dominate this year’s British Touring Car Championship since his poor start at Donington Park with a fourth race win of the season for the three-time BTCC champion with a lights to flag victory for the NAPA Racing UK driver at Snetterton.

Sutton sealed Race One honours with Jake Hill offering some resolve. But with the slick shot soft tyres on his car, the win was almost Sutton’s when his car hit the grid for Race Two as he had a nearly five-second gap throughout the race to the BMW pack in second and third as Colin Turkington finished on the podium.

Albeit, with pressure from Dan Rowbottom in fourth who gained three places also on the soft rubber, as Tom Ingram finished seventh spot with many factors in having the hard tyre and being really under the weather hampering the defending champion.

Adam Morgan and Stephen Jelley finished in between, with the likes of Dan Cammish and from further back, Ricky Collard and Tom Chilton unable to make masses of progress

It is now a 16-point gap to Ingram in second and 22 to Turkington in third, with Cammish 24 points back from his teammate after heading into the weekend leading the pack. The dominance continues for Sutton.

After a poor start to the season at Donington Park, Ash Sutton is firmly back in business and now leads the Drivers Championship after his third win of the 2023 BTCC season and his 30th overall at Snetterton on Sunday afternoon.

Sutton started on pole and despite being on a perceived lesser tyre compared to the quick softs as well as a finite hybrid allocation, he surged into a three second gap to Colin Turkington who was the best of the rest for most of the race ahead of fellow contenders in Jake Hill and Tom Ingram.

The latter fell away to start the race but managed to tag back onto the leading quartet with an entertaining battle pursuing in particular with Hill.

On Lap 9, Hill made the move on Turkington using the grass and the hybrid to find his way through and continued to carve the gap to Sutton ending only +0.270secs in the end in favour of the NAPA Racing UK driver.

It was very much what could’ve been with Hill passing Turkington a lap or two earlier likely providing an opportunity to attack Sutton. But it is the three-time champion that proves his brilliance again.

The Cachanillazo, a meetup and adventure ride for UTVs from Ensenada to San Felipe, was ambushed by a band of armed gunmen on Saturday while on the Mexican Federal Highway 1 (Transpeninsular Highway) near San Vicente. Eleven were reportedly killed with nine wounded.

According to Baja California State Attorney General Ricardo Iván Carpio Sánchez, the attack happened on Saturday at 2:15 PM local time. While Cachanillazo drivers were parked at a gas station in San Vicente, multiple gunmen, hooded and dressed in black, drove a silver van to their spot before getting out and opening fire. Ten men and one woman were reported to have died.

Footage of the shooting surfaced on social media, which showed the gunmen moving in and firing. Passerby videos revealed some of the victims were killed while inside or next to their UTVs. Police at the local, state, and federal levels as well as the fire department and Red Cross assisted in managing the scene.

The AG did not immediately confirm the identities of the attackers, though local news reported they were members of a drug cartel while some of the UTV tour’s participants were part of a rival group. Specifically, the attack stemmed from the ongoing conflict between the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS) and Tijuana Cartel (Arellano Félix Cartel, or CAF); the CDS is one of the largest drug syndicates in the world, whereas the CAF was regarded as a major power in the underworld in the 2000s before diminishing in strength, though they maintain a presence in Baja California and Tijuana.

“The Cachanillazo family joins in this unfortunate tragedy,” reads a statement from organisers. “Unfortunately, what happened during the tour was not in our hands. We are wholeheartedly sorry for those lost and their families. Our sincere condolences. We are as baffled as all of you since we have nothing to do with what happened.”