Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Greg Van Alst‘s breakout start to the 2023 ARCA Menards Series season has earned him a NASCAR Xfinity Series ride as he joins Alpha Prime Racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway on 8 July. The news was announced Saturday between the ARCA and Xfinity races at Talladega.

Van Alst has raced for his family team in ARCA since 2021 before going full-time the following year and finishing fifth in points. His 2023 began with a bang as he won the season opener at Daytona, a victory that he dedicated to “all the short track racers out there that don’t think you can get to this level.”

He followed up the win with a tenth at Phoenix to maintain the points lead entering Talladega. However, he was caught in a crash on lap fifteen and was classified thirty-second, dropping him to third in the standings.

“Today sucked. No way around that. I’m OK. Thanks for the messages,” tweeted Van Alst after the race. “On the flip side, I’m excited word is out about my #NASCAR Xfinity Series debut @ATLMotorSpdwy in July with @TeamAlphaPrime. Atlanta would not be possible without Chris Barkdull & CB Fabricating!”

Atlanta will be a new stop for the 41-year-old as ARCA does not race there, but the track’s superspeedway-like nature means his success at Daytona will come in handy.

Blaine Perkins has returned home after being hospitalised over the weekend for a violent wreck in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

The crash began on lap 49 when Perkins was clipped by a spinning Dexter Stacey exiting turn two. Perkins went around in front of Jade Buford before his #02 car went airbourne and landed on its roof, followed by barrel rolling multiple times before landing back on his wheels.

He got out of the car on his own before being taken to the UAB Hospital in nearby Birmingham, Alabama, for further evaluation. According to his family, he was “alert” and “in good spirits” during his stay before being discharged on Sunday evening.

“I’m back home in North Carolina and recovering nicely,” began a statement from Perkins released Monday. “I wanted to express my gratitude to everyone for their support. To my team at Our Motorsports, thank you for building safe race cars.

“To NASCAR and the AMR Safety Crew, thank you for being on it so quickly. To the staff at UAB University Hospital, thank you for taking such good care of me and being so hospitable to my family during my stay. And most importantly, to the NASCAR fans, you are the greatest fans in the world. Your thoughts and prayers were very much appreciated!

Tosha Schareina is a new face to the Honda camp, having switched over from KTM between the Dakar and Sonora Rallies. Despite Sonora being his first time racing with the Japanese brand, it did not take long for him to find success as he won the RallyGP class for Stage #1 on Monday.

While technically racing as a privateer unlike those at Monster Energy Honda Rally Team, he is receiving factory support from Honda Racing Corporation akin to Joan Barreda at the Dakar Rally. Schareina rode alongside Monster Honda team member Pablo Quintanilla in the early portion of the stage before taking the lead seventy-nine kilometres in.

Schareina ultimately eged out Daniel Sanders for the stage win by just six seconds. He is the second rider not competing for the World Rally-Raid Championship to win a RallyGP stage in 2023 after Barreda claimed Stage #4 at Dakar.

“What a start! My first stage victory in the world championship,” wrote Schareina. “I’m super happy and focus to open stage tomorrow. Thanks Honda team for the amazing work.”

Rally2’s Bradley Cox, who had an impressive Prologue when he beat the RallyGP class to be the fastest bike overall, lost signal on his ERTF GPS system after fifty-four kilometres. Forced to fifgure out his path by following the one put down by those in front, he finished sixth in class and eighteen minutes behind winner Romain Dumontier.

BWT Alpine F1 Team launched a new initiative, the Girls Mentoring Scheme, that seeks to connect girls interested in pursuing a career in motorsport with mentors that can provide support, knowledge and guidance. 

Through this program, Alpine hosted thirty secondary school-aged girls for a tour of their Enstone factory and the opportunity to meet with their individual mentor for specialised guidance regarding their path to securing a role in the world of motorsport. 

Alpine VP of Human Resources Claire Mesnier felt that the event was a “huge success” and hopes that the girls involved come away with valuable learnings. 

“The objective of the Girls Mentoring Scheme is to provide young girls with a positive role model, someone they can look up to and learn from. From what I saw today, I think it was a huge success and we hope the girls can really benefit from it.”

Created in collaboration with Motorsport UK and Girls on Track UK, The Girls Mentoring Scheme is one piece of Alpine’s Rac(H)er Programme, which aims to bridge the gap for women who look to participate in the many facets of racing, and drive diversity in the team. 

There have been many thrilling and memorable Formula 1 races throughout the history of the sport. Here are a few of the greatest F1 races:

1. 1979 French Grand Prix: This race is widely regarded as one of the greatest in F1 history, with a battle for the lead that lasted the entire race between Rene Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve. The two drivers exchanged the lead multiple times, with Arnoux eventually winning by just 0.24 seconds.

2. 1982 Monaco Grand Prix: This race is often cited as one of the most unpredictable in F1 history, with numerous crashes and retirements leading to an unexpected winner in Riccardo Patrese. The race also saw a remarkable drive from Andrea de Cesaris, who led for much of the race in a car that was not expected to be competitive.

3. 1996 Spanish Grand Prix: This race saw an incredible battle between two of the greatest drivers in F1 history, Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill. The two drivers were separated by less than a second for much of the race, with Schumacher eventually winning by just 0.348 seconds.

4. 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix: This race saw an intense battle for the championship between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa. Hamilton needed to finish in fifth place or better to secure the championship, and he managed to do so by passing Timo Glock on the final corner of the final lap.

DS Penske Team Principal Jay Penske was left feeling “very proud” of the American team following the Berlin E-Prix double-header, after the weekend started on a disappointing note for the side.

The side were certainly pushed to their limits at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit for rounds seven and eight of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, after Stoffel Vandoorne had a nasty crash in the opening race. Vandoorne qualified third for Saturday’s race whilst Jean-Éric Vergne could only manage tenth, meaning it was the reigning World Champion who was expected to fight for a rostrum.

Vandoorne certainly had the pace to do so; however, he was forced into the wall on the exit of Turn Three by Dan Ticktum, after the Briton was seemingly unaware that the Belgian driver was on his outside. The collision with the wall did significant damage to his car, meaning the mechanics had a tough task at hand to get the car repaired for Sunday. DS Penske did claim some points on Saturday despite Vandoorne’s woes, with Vergne having finished seventh.

Vergne built on from his seventh-place finish in Saturday’s race to qualify fourth for Sunday’s race, after performing well in what was a wet qualifying. Vandoorne on the other hand, could only manage ninth, with his target having been staying out of trouble. That’s exactly what he did during the race to secure eighth, meaning he at least scored some points in Berlin.

Vergne, though, produced a really smart race to finish third, handing the team some crucial World Championship points. Following his positive weekend in Berlin, Vergne remained third in the standings but now only nineteen points behind Pascal Wehrlein, whilst Vandoorne remains well down the order in eleventh. In the Constructors’ Championship, DS Penske remained in fourth but did gain a point on the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, putting them sixty-one points behind.

Two-time Formula E Champion Jean-Éric Vergne is very much in the title hunt after an impressive showing at the Berlin E-Prix double-header, with the highlight of his weekend having been a podium in the second race.

After entering Berlin twenty-six points behind Pascal Wehrlein in the Drivers’ Championship, Vergne is now just nineteen points behind the German driver, after back-to-back points finishes at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit. Vergne finished Saturday’s race in seventh after making up some places from tenth on the grid, in what was one of the most chaotic races in the history of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Sunday went much better for the DS Penske driver right from qualifying, with Vergne having made it to the Semi-Finals of the duels, where he was unfortunately beaten. Despite this, fourth on the grid was still an excellent place to be starting from, especially as it was predicted to be another mad race. The race was again crazy; however, Vergne showed his experience by putting in a really smart drive, to claim the final spot on the rostrum.

Vergne can certainly take plenty of positives away from the German capital and can enter the second half of the season feeling happy with his year so far, although, he recognises that he must “keep pushing hard”.

“Overall, it’s been a good weekend. We’ve had a very good day today. A very good qualifying, good race, and good execution. The car I had was great and we managed the best results that we could. I’m very happy with this result and this podium but I’m going to keep pushing hard because we need more wins. Overall, it’s been a good weekend and I’m happy. Let’s keep pushing.”

It was confirmed during last weekend’s Berlin E-Prix double-header that fast-charging pit-stops wouldn’t be getting introduced during the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship as originally planned, with them set to be delayed until next season.

The idea behind fast-charging pit-stops is to make the racing more tactical, given that the mandatory stop would see drivers receive four kilowatt hours of energy within thirty seconds, through a mighty 600kW “booster”.

Some of the teams and drivers were sceptical of the thought of it being introduced mid-season given that it would likely have a direct impact on the Drivers’ Championship, something which is hotting up nicely after Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy won the races at the Tempelhof Street Circuit.

Evans actually told The Checkered Flag towards the end of last year that “if it was me making the call”, the fast-charging pit-stops wouldn’t be introduced until Season Ten (2024), meaning the Kiwi will likely be pleased by the news.

“I would have expected them to wait [until Season Ten],” Evans revealed to The Checkered Flag at Jaguar TCS Racing‘s I-TYPE 6 launch last November.

Reigning Formula 2 World Champion and Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team reserve driver Felipe Drugovich ended Monday as the fastest driver at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit, in the first ABB FIA Formula E World Championship Rookie Test since 2020.

It was certainly an exciting day of action in the German capital, as twenty-two Formula E rookies got to try a Gen3 car for the very first time. Some of the big names taking part in the test were Drugovich, Scuderia Ferrari reserve driver Robert Shwartzman, ex-F1 drivers Jack Aitken and Daniil Kvyat, and reigning DTM Champion Sheldon van der Linde.

The Rookie Test was split into two three-hour sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with Drugovich’s rapid lap having came later on in the day.

Morning Session

Unlike Sunday morning at the Berlin E-Prix, Monday morning was beautifully dry for the rookies, meaning they had ideal conditions to get up to speed. It was van der Linde who topped the morning session whilst driving for Jaguar TCS Racing, with the South African being the brother of Kelvin van der Linde, who replaced Robin Frijns for a few rounds this season at the ABT CUPRA Formula E Team.

Van der Linde’s pacesetting time in the morning session was a 1:05.814, just half a second off the best time from the Berlin double-header. 1,035 laps were completed in the morning between all the drivers, with van der Linde’s sixty-seven having been the most by one driver. Former F2 driver Luca Ghiotto was second for the Nissan Formula E Team, with current F2 driver and Mahindra Racing reserve Jehan Daruvala completing the top three.

Jaguar TCS Racing created history last weekend at the Berlin E-Prix double-header, after the British team claimed their first 1-2 in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship and their first in motorsport since 1991.

It was a weekend that the team will never forget, with Mitch Evans having won the first race of the weekend at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit, to claim a second consecutive win. Sam Bird finished second to claim a second consecutive rostrum, and his fourth of the 2022/23 season. Both drivers timed their overtakes to perfection, with nobody having wanted to lead in Berlin due to how much energy leading the race used.

By working together, they got to the front in the closing laps and stayed there, to not only claim a huge haul of points but to also claim a result the team “will ever forget”.

“What a race! Our first 1-2 in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship,” said Jaguar Team Principal James Barclay after Saturday’s 1-2. “With Sam on the front row and Mitch back in P9 we knew the race would be all about a clever strategy. We needed to keep calm, work together and progress and that’s exactly what we achieved. Everyone put in a fantastic performance and these results don’t come without incredible effort from the whole team.

“It was a very challenging race with the amount of overtakes so it was about making the right decisions at the right time, avoiding any issues and having a car that could achieve the result that we did today. I am so proud of all of the team, our first ever 1-2, some big points towards our championship campaign and we hope to score more solid points tomorrow. A 1-2 finish is something none of us will ever forget.”

Mitch Evans has thrown himself right into title contention after a seriously impressive performance at the Berlin E-Prix double-header, with the Kiwi having claimed victory in the first race.

His win on Saturday at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit was his second consecutive win, after also being victorious in Brazil. Qualifying for race one was actually far from ideal for the Jaguar TCS Racing driver, after he failed to make the duels. Despite this, it was clear during the race that he boasted strong pace, which helped him work his way through the field from ninth to first.

Evans kept it clean and timed every move perfectly, with it having been an action-packed race with one-hundred and ninety overtakes. He was stoked to win in Berlin and labelled his back-to-back wins as “an incredible feeling”, with him having also recognised that he’s definitely “back in the hunt” after recovering from a bad start to the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

“It’s an incredible feeling to get back-to-back wins, particularly in Formula E where it’s so challenging,” Evans said after winning on Saturday. “I needed a couple of good races and this is exactly what the team delivered today in Berlin. There is still a long way to go this season but the main thing is we’re back in the hunt. Both Sam and I are up there in the fight and we need to keep building on what we’ve achieved so far.”

Sunday was a tougher day for Evans but still incredibly positive, with the New Zealander having just missed out on the podium. He did make it into the duels in what was the first wet qualifying of the season, only to be eliminated in the Quarter-Finals. He was the fastest loser, though, which saw him start from fifth. He again remained amongst the leaders the entire race, only to narrowly miss out on a podium after finishing fourth.

Carlin Rodin continued their strong showing in Saturday’s Race One, after claiming first, second, and third positions for the Race One and Three grids with Noah Lisle, Louis Sharp, and Dion Gowda, respectively.

Despite an accident between Aqil Alibhai and Gustav Jonsson that caused a red flag three laps into proceedings, Sharp would steal the lead from Lisle off the line and held it until the end, after a strong challenge from the Australian driver behind him.

The even-numbered grid slots on the outside proved to be a great place to start as Chris Dittman Racing‘s Daniel Guinchard followed Sharp’s lead and quickly passed Gowda to take third place. The former British and German karting champion couldn’t hold on to the Australasian leaders, but would successfully fend off his Singaporean-licensed rival to ensure that Carlin would not lock out the podium.

Daegan Fairclough also made a rapid start, jumping from seventh to fifth, which he held until the end to lead JHR Developments‘ charge. He would narrowly finish behind Gowda and Guinchard, with the trio separated by only 1.6 seconds after a 15-minute-long duel.

The chasing midfield pack would put on the best show of the day, but their frantic squabbling left them over 10 seconds adrift of the battle for the podium. Kanato Le and Aiden Neate broke away from the pack initially, although their advantage would be quashed as both received a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits.

The Silk Way Rally is the premier rally raid in Russia, having been featured on the calendar of the Cross-Country Rally World Cup (predecessor to the World Rally-Raid Championship) and had expanded beyond its borders prior to COVID-19 before serving as a “refuge” for Russian (and Belarusian) racers barred from competing internationally in response to their nation’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, as many of the exiled decried the FIA’s “emergency measures”—which entailed condemning the invasion, agreeing to not use Russian or Belarusian emblems, and racing under a different nationality (the FIM instituted a hard ban regardless of views)—as injecting politics into sports, SWR director Bulat Yanborisov reportedly used his position and the race to further Russia’s political agendas. A joint investigation between Bellingcat, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and The Insider published its findings on Saturday, uncovering internal documents and Yanborisov’s activities directly related to the Russian military and foreign affairs.

The investigation described the Silk Way Rally as actually a cover for Yanborisov, used to foster positive relations between Russia and neighbouring countries in the name of motorsport. While it is to be expected for countries co-hosting an international rally to be friendly with one another, a 9 December 2021 document titled “The Silk Way Communication Platform” stressed more geopolitical goals such as “influencing” Saudi Arabia and Turkey, assisting in construction of the China-Russia Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, and even helping the Taliban develop legitimacy in global affairs provided they recognise Crimea as Russian land as the previous Afghan government did in 2014. Another “top secret” document from Yanborisov to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed more jingoistic ambitions like growing the Russian military’s presence in Asia and selling Russian military equipment to countries interested in supporting the SWR.

Foreign figures specifically name-dropped by the document as SWR investors who could receive Russian arms included the Crown Prince of Qatar, multiple positions in the Chinese government, and even a Turkish Ministry of National Defense official who holds franchise rights for Formula One in their country.

The Communication Platform envisioned a massive route for 2022 that went through nine different countries, interestingly none in Russia. While perhaps extremely unlikely to occur in the first place, it would have started in Qatar before going through Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Syria, and Turkey. The race would then end in Damascus, the capital of Syria. Virtually all of the countries listed maintain friendly relations with Russia while Turkey has done so due to commerce but is otherwise at odds regarding the war in Ukraine as a NATO member. The final route, officially revealed in November 2021, ultimately remained exclusively in Russia, running from Astrakhan to Moscow.

A McLaren car has technically won a race in 2023.

In his maiden race with sponsorship from McLaren Custom Grills (no relation to that McLaren), Kyle Busch secured his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway and on such tracks since 2008. He battled with Bubba Wallace for much of the overtime restart and Wallace seemed to have the momentum on the outside as he received a push from his friend Ryan Blaney, only for Wallace to make too aggressive of a block and trigger a five-car wreck that collected himself.

Busch inched ahead of Blaney on the inside to assume the lead when the caution came out to end the race. Interestingly, all three of Busch’s superspeedway wins in the Cup Series came after the races ended under yellow.

“Last time I won here, fifteen years ago, my first year with JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing). Here we are with my first year in RCR (Richard Childress Racing) being able to get back into Victory Lane at Talladega,” commented Busch. “It’s been a little bit.

“We were obviously short on fuel, kind of stretching it. I don’t think we would have taken that chance, I probably wouldn’t have taken that chance of staying out but for the win in Fontana. That opened up our playbook, gave us a chance to be up front, restart up front and go for a win today.

The 2023 Sonora Rally kicked off Sunday with a ten-kilometre Prologue stage just outside Hermosillo at the Autódromo Cerro Colorado, where competitors took off on the drag strip before hitting what many described as a slick desert littered with loose gravel. Such a short leg is usually not indicative of what to expect in the main race, but a strong performance is always a good way to enter the five main stages with momentum.

This was perhaps best evidenced in the FIM categories as the Rally2 of Bradley Cox set the fastest overall time of all bikes with five minutes and twenty-six seconds, even beating out everyone in the premier RallyGP class. World Rally-Raid Championship bikes points leader Toby Price barely lost out to Cox by just two seconds with Luciano Benavides seven seconds back of Cox.

Privateer Tosha Schareina, in his first race with Honda, tied with new factory-backed ally and Abu Dhabi winner Adrien Van Beveren for fourth. The Prologue’s quick nature meant draws were not uncommon throughout the field on both two and four wheels, such as in FIA T3 as Mitch Guthrie and João Ferreira set identical times of 5:45 but the former beat him by a tenth of a second.

Abu Dhabi FIA winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi led a Toyota Hilux 1–2 in T1 ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah, the latter in a newly repaired truck after his Abu Dhabi Hilux got totalled in a wreck, with one second between them. Guerlain Chicherit beat his fellow Prodrive Hunter and W2RC FIA points leader Sébastien Loeb.

The furthest gap between the top two came in the two-man Quad battle as Laisvydas Kancius set a time of 6:55 ahead of Rodolfo Guillioli‘s 7:51. Guillioli was the first person to begin the Prologue.