Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Nick Cassidy is very much in the fight to win the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, after the New Zealander timed his move to the front to absolute perfection, to claim victory in the eighth round of the season in Berlin.

The Berlin E-Prix double-header is likely one that Cassidy will never forget, given how drastically different his two days in the German capital were. The first race day at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit was a complete disaster for the Envision Racing driver, after he ruled himself out of podium contention after breaking his front wing early on. Cassidy pitted for a new wing and rejoined the circuit at the back of the field; however, a Safety Car brought him back to the pack.

He remarkably fought his way through to fifth on Saturday; however, he knew that he lost a huge chance to put a significant dent in Pascal Wehrlein‘s championship lead. With that in mind, Cassidy was a man on a mission Sunday, with the Kiwi having taken a different strategy into the second race in Berlin. Whilst on Saturday he was ultra-aggressive, on Sunday he implemented a more controlled approach. This saw him make key moves at exactly the right moments, ensuring he was always in touch the leaders whilst also reserving energy.

He did this so well in fact, that with a handful of laps remaining he worked his way into the lead, where he had the pace and enough energy to post some quick lap times. Due to his excellent energy saving, nobody was really able to challenge him for the win in the final laps, meaning Cassidy crossed the line to claim his second Formula E win.

His victory saw the twenty-eight year-old close to within just four points of Wehrlein with eight rounds remaining, with Cassidy very much being a driver on the move. His consistency in recent races has been phenomenal, with him having claimed a podium in four of the last five races. Should he keep that form up in Monaco, then he could very possibly move into the lead of the Drivers’ Championship.

It was Dan Cammish at the double during the opening weekend of the 2023 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season at Donington Park taking reversed Race Three honours after also winning Race One on Sunday afternoon.

Cammish sealed it lights-to-flag in a race of good fortune from the beginning as Ronan Pearson being disqualified from Race Two saw the order jumbled again and Cammish was moved onto pole. Dan Rowbottom was on the front row alongside him but again had a poor start and fell down the pack, as did Bobby Thompson after showing early resolve.

But in a true embodiment of the title challengers likely spending this season neck and neck, it was just that as with Cammish off in the distance, Tom Ingram, Colin Turkington, Ash Sutton and Jake Hill squabbled for the other podium finishes in captivating racing.

It was Ingram that managed to hold on ahead of Sutton who ended the weekend strongly after a poor Race One and being one of those caught in the wrong decision not to change tires in Race Two.

He eventually got past Turkington in the closing stages and as ever, there was a teammate talking point as Hill tapped the back of Turkington in moving through the final chicane and the Team BMW driver fell away from there albeit not in immediate danger from Thompson.

Oscar Piastri says he has already learned a lot from McLaren F1 Team team-mate Lando Norris in the opening three races of his FIA Formula 1 World Championship career in 2023.

The Australian joined McLaren in place of countryman Daniel Ricciardo ahead of the 2023 campaign and has been responsible for the teams’ only top ten start of the season so far after making it into Q3 for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Both drivers scored their first points of the season last time out in Australia, Norris in sixth and Piastri in eighth, and the young Australian says being team-mates to the British has benefited him as he adapts to life as a Formula 1 driver.

“I’ve definitely been learning a lot from Lando,” Piastri is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “Not just how to drive this car specifically, but also just the way we do debriefs and attention to detail and stuff like that.

“I think there’s always areas to try and improve. So it’s been good to have him as a benchmark, definitely.  I think Lando is very much established himself in his career so far as a high quality driver, so even just working alongside him definitely I can see that.”

Frédéric Vasseur says Scuderia Ferrari need to focus on themselves during the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix rather than worrying about the pace of the teams around them.

Ferrari have started the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season poorly, scoring only twenty-six points across the opening three races. Charles Leclerc has scored only six points in the first three events after two retirements, while both he and team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. failed to score points last time out in Australia.

Oracle Red Bull Racing, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team are all sitting ahead of Ferrari heading into the fourth round of the season in Azerbaijan.

However, Vasseur, the Team Principal at Ferrari, says the Maranello-based squad will only be focusing on themselves as they bring updates to their SF-23 and ensuring they extract everything they can from the weekend, something they failed to do in Australia.

“To be focused on Red Bull or Mercedes or Aston Martin, I think it would be a mistake,” Vasseur is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.

Yuki Tsunoda believes the atmosphere within Scuderia AlphaTauri remains good despite a poor start to the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season and an outburst from Team Principal Franz Tost.

Tost was heavily critical of his engineers and design team having been told that the AT04 was a much better car than it’s AT03 from 2022 only for the performance to be well adrift of what they were hoping for.

Tsunoda has scored AlphaTauri’s only point by finishing tenth in the Australian Grand Prix, whilst team-mate Nyck de Vries has yet to break into the top ten, his best finishes coming in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia where he finished fourteenth.

And despite the underwhelming start to the season and the relatively poor performances, Tsunoda says everyone remains positive and they are all working towards the same goal in improving their place on the grid across the remainder of the season, starting with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“Inside the team obviously, we’re not happy about performance, but at least we are staying always positive,” said Tsunoda to Motorsport.com.

Tom Chilton mastered the wet conditions at Donington Park with the Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 racer sealing a first BTCC win since Croft in 2019 after a race which saw most off the grid gamble wrongly with slicks.

Those who put wet tyres on as a result surged through the field meaning some interesting names inside the top ten.

Adam Morgan looked potentially the one to benefit the most but it was Chilton who won that battle surging up the road and wasn’t caught as the Team BMW driver finished alongside rookie, Ronan Pearson for his maiden podium in his first weekend. Showing initial promise in qualifying yesterday, he reversed a poor start earlier today.

While down the grid, it was a feel good story as Nicolas Hamilton, with his father Anthony watching on in the garage finished seventh and ran up in the top five until he was caught for sixth spot in the final part of the race by rookie Mikey Doble.

There were also career bests for Sam Osborne in fourth as well as a debut weekend eight for Nick Halstead but all eyes will be on the likes of Ash Sutton, Jake Hill and Tom Ingram to see if they can carve their way through the field.

Nick Cassidy finished the Berlin E-Prix double-header in the best way possible, by claiming a sensational victory in the German capital, with Jake Dennis and Jean-Éric Vergne completing the podium in the eighth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein could only manage seventh, meaning his championship lead took a huge hit.

Müller Sticks With Leading Group

With the sun having come out at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit, it looked set to be another thrilling race, especially with one-hundred and ninety overtakes having taken place in race one on Saturday. The big question, though, was whether polesitter Robin Frijns and Nico Müller could hold on to first and second, after locking-out the front row on the grid for ABT CUPRA Formula E Team, following a dramatic wet qualifying.

After a brief delay to the start due to protesters on the circuit, the red lights finally came on, as the entire grid got ready for the eighth round of the championship. As the lights went out it was Frijns and Müller who remained first and second after making a sublime start, whilst several championship contenders battled behind. Similar to Saturday, the vast majority of the drivers activated their first Attack Mode early on, with the two ABT CUPRA drivers having activated their first on Lap Four.

By the time all the leading drivers had activated their first, Frijns remained in the lead but from Saturday’s winner Mitch Evans, who was yet to activate his first. Behind Evans was Vergne and Müller, who had activated theirs. Frijns fell back to fifth on Lap Seven, though, after deciding to take his second Attack Mode. Fifth soon became eighth on Lap Nine, with the faster drivers having made their way towards the front. The Dutch driver was outside the top ten by Lap Ten.

ABT CUPRA still had hope, though, as Müller found himself in the lead after all the frontrunners had take both of their Attack Modes. He soon fell behind Wehrlein, as the championship leader moved to the front on Lap Twelve. André Lotterer became the first driver to hit the wall on Lap Thirteen, with his broken front wing from his incident having been scattered across the circuit, causing mayhem behind.

As the third round of the World Rally-Raid Championship looms, Sonora Rally competitors spent Saturday performing final shakedowns of their vehicles as part of private testing.

A stretch roughly twenty-two kilometres in length was set aside for teams to test on, which was crucial for those unfamiliar with Mexico. Twenty-seven entries including current T1 points leader Sébastien Loeb and rival Nasser Al-Attiyah have never raced at Sonora.

“Today’s shakedown was only five km, but it was enough for us to get the setup right.” said T4 driver Rokas Baciuška. “Tomorrow is Prologue Day and it’s going to be full attack mode. It’s probably 38 degrees (Celcius) right now, and the rally will definitely be hot.”

The shakedowns marked the first time out for some new teams like Rebecca Busi‘s Can-Am T4 at FN Speed Team; her co-driver Sébastien Delaunay described the test as boasting “surprising” scenery due to the abundance of cacti that were “larger than trees, which must be carefully avoided…” The practice also came in handy at Kove Moto, where new factory rider Neels Theric noted the team’s usual rally bike suspension components got lost at customs with the team luggage and they will have to start the race on stock parts in the meantime.

“I am super happy to be back at a local event, especially for us American riders,” said three-time winner and RallyGP rider Ricky Brabec. “Our training week has been good, a little bit rocky, but good. Now we hope all the best for the Sonora Rally.”

NAPA Racing UK had mixed fortunes in the opening race of the 2023 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season as Dan Cammish sealed the opening win at Donington Park but there was strife for his team-mate and championship favourite, Ash Sutton off the line.

Sutton, Colin Turkington and Josh Cook all were handicapped by different incidents with the former seeing Jake Hill go in between both Sutton and his team-mate and pole sitter, Dan Rowbottom and with slight contact as Sutton went across, he went off into the grass.

He went into the pit lane but it was terminal as water was pouring out of the engine and car and this allowed the Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport BMW to fire ahead of Cammish, Tom Ingram and Dan Rowbottom.

Turkington was another that was caught up in the initial melee and finished just outside the top 10. Cammish bided his time at the front with a front three developing and took his chance towards the end of the race surging side-by-side into the Craner Curves with Hill on Lap 19.

Hill remained behind with Ingram in his own battle as the story of qualifying became the story of the race with rookie, Andrew Watson on his very first BTCC outing making his way up to sixth then disposing of Ricky Collard and Dan Rowbottom to grab fourth and pushed the reigning champion towards the end.

Pablo Copetti will make his next World Rally-Raid Championship start on home soil as he plans to enter the Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina.

Despite not winning any stages, Copetti finished third in the Quad category at the season-opening Dakar Rally and exited as the points leader as the top two Alexandre Giroud and Francisco Moreno Flores were not competing for the championship. It was Copetti’s eleventh try at Dakar, with the third tying his previous best set in 2017 and 2021. He made his Dakar début in 2010 when the Rally was held in South America and ran through Argentina.

Copetti raced in the Desafío Ruta 40 through the most recent edition in 2018. He finished third in class at the 2017 race.

“I love this race, it is the most beautiful next to the Dakar,” said Copetti about the DR40. “We will be there in August!”

While he currently competes under the United States flag, he was born in Argentina before becoming an American citizen in 2019.

Jeb Burton last scored a NASCAR Xfinity Series top ten forty-seven races ago at Talladega Superspeedway in 2021, so it is fitting he snapped the drought there when he edged out Sheldon Creed to win Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300. The victory also marked the first triumph for Jordan Anderson Racing, fulfilling their namesake owner’s goal of making the playoffs in just their first year as a multi-car operation.

Burton and Creed traded the lead throughout the final ten laps, which were overshadowed by multiple wrecks. One crash came with three laps to go and caused Daniel Hemric to flip onto his roof in turn four. Oddly, he was not the only car to go over as Blaine Perkins went around on lap 49, resulting in his car barrel rolling multiple times down the backstretch. It was the first NASCAR race with multiple flips since the Cup Series’ 2016 Talladega spring race, while the most recent case in Xfinity was the 2000 Daytona opener.

Amid the carnage, Burton held off Creed to score his second Xfinity win, the first also coming at Talladega two years prior. His JAR team-mate Parker Retzlaff finished seventh to wrap up a strong day for the team.

Interestingly, Burton’s victory came in the #27, with which his father Ward Burton scored his maiden Xfinity victory at Rockingham in 1992. His uncle Jeff Burton even has twenty-seven career Xfinity wins.

“The only thing I’m disappointed about is I didn’t get to do a burnout—blew the transmission out of it,” quipped Burton. “I’m pumped up. I’m out of breath from yelling. Went through some stuff in the offseason and I’m more focused now than ever. These guys have made racing fun again for me.

Mitch Evans remains the man to beat at the Berlin E-Prix, as yesterday’s winner made the perfect start to Day Two ahead of the second race in Berlin, by topping Free Practice 3.

Following what was a chaotic Saturday at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit, Sunday looked set to be just as eventful, partly due to overnight rain. It meant the circuit was damp for Free Practice 3, marking the first wet session of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The vast majority of the drivers tentatively made their way out onto track; however, there was instantly an issue for René Rast. The German came to a halt seconds after leaving the pits, resulting in him doing a full car reset on the side of the circuit. The reset, though, failed, meaning a red flag was flown five minutes into the morning session to recover the German’s car.

The red flag stoppage was incredibly brief, with twenty-one minutes having remained on the clock once the Sunday morning session resumed. Ten minutes into the session and it was astonishingly a ABT CUPRA Formula E Team 1-2, with Robin Frijns having topped the session from Nico Müller. Frijns’ time of a 1:17.649 was around twelve seconds slower than was done in the dry, highlighting how much the track conditions had changed.

The conditions were clearly working in Frijns’ favour, with the Dutchman having become the first driver in the morning practice session to dip into the 1:16s, something he did with twelve minutes remaining in the session. As the session entered its final ten minutes, Frijns remained on top from André Lotterer and Jake Dennis, with the latter needing a big performance after his nightmare yesterday.

Kristen Strout is eyeing her Stadium Super Trucks début in 2023, provided she can find the funding. She had attended the season opener at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, where she was a guest of the series and pitched herself to potential sponsors.

A professional model and real estate investor by trade, she grew up around cars before began pursuing racing as a hobby as her career took off, especially on social media as an Instagram influencer; her R1 Vette Babe account has over one million followers. The Nashville resident’s interest in SST was piqued after attending the Music City Grand Prix weekend in 2022.

After working as a model to connect with motorsport industry, she acquired her National Auto Sport Association (NASA) licence in March 2021. The following year, she began racing competitively in the ChampCar Endurance Series. While Strout has backing from OMP Racing and Bell Racing Helmets, she also launched a GoFundMe to help further support her career.

Her trip to Long Beach came a day after testing a Trophy Lite truck in Phoenix ahead of competing in the Legacy Racing Association‘s Baja Nevada in May.

“I appreciate all of the support and gifts over the years, but this year I have an opportunity to race in the Stadium Super Truck Series,” wrote Strout on 12 April to celebrate her thirty-fifth birthday. “It has been a dream of mine to race in this series since I first saw them at Music City Grand Prix in 2019! Unfortunately, I still don’t have enough money/sponsonship to make it happen yet! I would love if for my Birthday, you guys could help me make this dream a reality!! Every little bit adds up!”

David López Tomico has died after a fatal crash in Saturday’s inaugural Rallysprint San Bartolomé de Pinares, a round of the Castilla and León Rallysprint Championship, in Ávila, Spain.

He was competing in the second special stage, which ran from the port of El Boquerón back to San Bartolomé, when his Fiat Abarth Grande Punto went off the course along the first downhill section before rolling. He and his co-driver Natalia Ríos Díaz were trapped inside the car before being extracted by the Ávila Fire Department, though Tomico succumbed to his injuries.

Race officials cancelled the rest of the stage for the day.

Tomico had been both a driver and co-driver in his career, primarily focusing on domestic gravel and historic championships.

In 2022, he joined Spanish Rally Champion Sergio Vallejo‘s crew ahead of Vallejo making his Dakar Rally début the following year. Tomico served as lead engineer of the rally raid programme in partnership with Astara Team, who fielded the entry for Vallejo.

Dan Rowbottom will start Sunday’s Race One of the 2023 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season on pole edging out team-mate Ash Sutton into second in a NAPA Racing UK one-two during Saturday’s Top 10 showdown at Donington Park.

As ever, the normal 30-minute qualifying session took place with the top ten then having their times erased and would fight for pole position over a last 10 minutes. It was an even better time for NAPA Racing UK during the opening gambit as Sutton led Rowbottom and Dan Cammish as a 1-2-3.

The likes of Colin Turkington, Jake Hill, Josh Cook and reigning champion Tom Ingram also made it through, but it was actually Sutton’s misfortune as regards to track limits that benefited his teammate.

Sutton was languishing down the order after his initial lap time was expunged and with the clock running down, he needed to get a lap in and despite posting purple (absolute best) sectors going into the final chicane, there was a sluggish run through to the line and allowed Rowbottom to celebrate a third career pole position.

Hill and Turkington anchor Team BMW‘s hopes in third and fourth, while Cammish completes the top five aiming to join the leading duo. Ingram was left visibly frustrated as he finished only sixth as his Hyundai was off the pace throughout. While Josh Cook and Adam Morgan finished seventh and eighth.