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Ryan Beat will return to his native Southern California to compete in off-road trucks, but on pavement instead of what he’s used to. On Saturday, Beat confirmed his entry for the Stadium Super Trucks‘ season opener at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on 14–16 April.

Beat made his SST début in 2019 at Circuit of the Americas as the Continental Tire flagship truck’s inaugural driver, where he scored a podium in the first race followed by a sixth in the second. He did not race in the series again over the next three years as he focused on developing his short course off-road programme Ryan Beat Motorsports which has competed in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series and Championship Off-Road. In 2022, R/BM driver Gray Leadbetter won the COR Pro SPEC title to become the first female champion in series history. Beat helped design the Pro SPEC trucks for two-wheel-drive trucks with certain parts frozen from modification.

During a bye week for COR in August 2022, Beat returned to SST for the Music City Grand Prix at Nashville. After finishing fourth in the first race, he duelled with the leaders in Race #2 before being caught in a wreck that caused Cleetus McFarland to roll onto his side. A broken axle knocked him out of the race and he as classified eighth.

“It’s one of the most wild things i have ever done,” Beat described SST in an Instagram comment. “The trucks are crazy to drive.”

Besides running a team, Beat races for R/BM in the Pro 2 class and finished ninth in the 2022 COR standings. He won the 2018 and 2019 LOORRS Pro Lite championships before moving up to Pro 2. Fellow Pro 2 colleagues Jerett Brooks and Cory Winner also raced in SST in 2022, with Brooks winning at Long Beach the year before.

It was a lap time of 1:16.732 that allowed Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen to secure his first ever Australian Grand Prix pole position and further extend his streak of starting from the front row for every round of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season so far. 

Verstappen reported some issues shifting gears during the final section of qualifying, but this didn’t hold him back from taking the top slot, finishing ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. 

It was a qualifying of narrow margins, and the reigning World Champion said that it was difficult for him to find the right tyre temperature throughout the weekend, though he said he was able to make it work when it truly counted. 

“Overall, it was a pretty good qualifying. It’s been tough this weekend to get the tyres in a good window to push straight away, but it all worked out in Q3 and the last run was good. I’m very happy with the lap and to be on pole position here in Australia.”

His next objective will be to convert pole into his first win at Albert Park Circuit, with his career best finish at the venue  being third place. Verstappen expects an exciting race, but hopes that he can cement his lead with a solid start and go from there. 

Carlos Sainz has enjoyed a legendary career in off-road racing, having won two World Rally Championships and three Dakar Rallies, among many other accomplishments. Now sixty years old, he has just one final item on his checklist that he wishes to achieve before he considers hanging up his helmet: a fourth Dakar Rally victory with as many manufacturers.

“My last big goal is to win the Dakar with a different brand,” said Sainz while speaking at last weekend’s MARCA Sport Weekend. “The challenge is of winning the Dakar for the first time with an electric hybrid car.”

Sainz won the Dakar Rally in 2010, 2018, and 2020 with Volkswagen, Peugeot, and Mini, respectively. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Volkswagen, Mini, Toyota) and Stéphane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Mini) are the only other drivers to win the Rally with three different makes, while no other driver has achieved it racing for four; Peterhansel also won six Dakar crowns with Yamaha, though in Bikes.

Besides both threatening to be the first to complete the feat, Peterhansel and Sainz are team-mates at Audi Sport. Their 2023 Rally was spoiled by wrecks, oddly in the same area at the same time in Stage #6 before a second crash three legs later took Sainz out with two fractured vertebrae. Sainz added he is “much better, but I still have to wait a couple of months (before driving again). I can do everything except get into the car.”

While he has not required surgery to treat the injury, instead opting for INDIBA radiofrequency therapy, it sidelined him for the 2023 Extreme E season. Mattias Ekström, another Audi driver, replaced him in the ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team car; joined by fellow Dakar driver Laia Sanz, the team won the second race of the season opener, coincidentally in Saudi Arabia like the Dakar Rally.

ParaBaja Step by Step will have an expanded series in 2023 to provide racing opportunities for those with reduced mobility, appearing as a separate category for such drivers at four of the next five Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship rounds.

The programme was created in 2014 to compete at the Baja España Aragón, which is the fourth race of the 2023 CERTT calendar. The most recent Baja Aragón in 2022 saw twelve ParaBaja competitors compete in a variety of vehicles ranging from Polaris RZR and Can-Am Maverick SSVs to the Mercedes-Benz ML320 and Toyota 4Runner.

Also in 2022, ParaBaja began appearing at the CERTT’s Rally TT Villa de Zuera and Rally TT Cuenca. At the end of the year, it was nominated for the FIA President’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Award.

For 2023, the programme will support nearly the entire CERTT calendar beginning with the upcoming Baja TT Dehesa de Extremadura on 25/26 April. ParaBaja will also appear at the Baja Lorca Ciudad del Sol (27/28 May), Baja Aragón (22/23 July), and Cierzo Rally Zaragoza (2/3 September). The season began with the Rally TT Jaén Mar de Olivos in March, while organisers did not confirm if they will show up to the finale at the Rally TT Guadalajara on 29/30 September.

According to RFEDA (Real Federación Española de Automovilismo, Spain’s motoring federation) Manuel Avinyó, ParaBaja’s goal is to “eliminate barriers and promote inclusive motoring as a model of social integration, assuming a revolution at international level.”

Max Verstappen secured yet another pole position for Oracle Red Bull Racing in an action-packed qualifying session that saw constant running and the threat of rain in Q3. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton both put in impressive laps and will start second and third respectively.

Q1 – Shock for Perez, Piastri Exit at Home Grand Prix

The session started with drama and following the trend of the weekend so far, we saw the red flag come out and it was one of the Red Bull cars. Sergio Pérez was complaining about an issue, and his car was being worked on before the session. The Mexican driver went straight on into the gravel and he will now start at the back of the grid on Sunday.

There wasn’t just disappointment for Red Bull in the first session, Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake lost both drivers in the first session in qualifying, which is a big blow as they search for their second top ten finish of the season. Valtteri Bottas, who will start nineteenth struggled for pace and his team-mate Zhou Guanyu couldn’t do much better and will start in seventeenth on tomorrow’s grid.

Despite his teammate comfortably getting through to Q2, Logan Sargeant was unable to follow suit and exited qualifying in Q1, for the second consecutive time. Piastri was unable to make an impression at his first home grand prix and he will start in a disappointing sixteenth on the grid.

One of the most impressive runners from Q1 was Alex Albon, who was able to put his car inside the top ten as he looks to put himself in a great starting position to score points at back-to-back Australian Grand Prix. Nyck de Vries was able to make his first Q2 appearance of the season for Scuderia AlphaTauri, while Verstappen topped the session ahead of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team pair of Hamilton and Russell.

Esteban Ocon insists it was a tricky Friday for everyone at Albert Park after multiple interruptions and disruptions across both free practice sessions.

The BWT Alpine F1 Team driver was only sixteenth fastest in the opening hour of practice, but time was lost thanks to red flags for GPS system issues and Logan Sargeant stopping on track.  However, he placed an encouraging sixth in the second session, although there was only around fifteen minutes of meaningful running before rain hit the track.

Ocon says it will be important to use what they learned during their time on track on Friday and build on it during Saturday’s final hour of running in order to be in a good position going into Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.

“It’s always nice to be back driving in Melbourne although it’s fair to say that it was a tricky Friday for everyone today,” said Ocon.  “After some decent laps on Hards, Free Practice 1 was interrupted by a GPS issue, which impacted the whole grid and made running on the Soft compound very tricky.

“We saw heavy traffic and the session was red flagged very quickly. Thereafter, the afternoon session saw us completing one good run before rain hit the track, making it impossible to run dry tyres ahead of what looks to be a dry Qualifying and Race.

George Russell believed it was not a bad day for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team at Albert Park on Friday, and he felt they were making good steps with the W14 throughout the day.

Russell ended ninth fastest in the opening session and fourth in the second, although both sessions were full of interruptions – red flags flew twice in the first session while rain hit the track in the second.

With the car feeling better than it has earlier in the season, Russell admits it feels ‘quite satisfying’ that he is able to push harder in Australia, although he hopes the rain that hit Melbourne on Friday comes back again on Saturday so they can fight closer to the front of the pack in Qualifying.

“Overall, it wasn’t too bad a day,” said Russell.  “We’ve been making good steps with the car on Fridays. We’ve been changing a few things and getting the car in a nice window as the weekend progresses.

“That’s quite satisfying from the driver’s seat, knowing that the car feels better and as a team we have contributed towards that.

Max Verstappen was frustrated with the interruptions throughout both free practice sessions for the Australian Grand Prix on Friday, with red flags in the first session being followed by rain showers in the second.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver topped the first session in the dry despite complaining of low grip and slippery surfaces, while he was third behind Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc in the second session that saw only fifteen minutes or so of meaningful running before the rain hit Albert Park.

Verstappen hopes to get on top of understanding the Pirelli tyres on Saturday and begin his fight for a second victory in three races, and his first ever in Australia.

“The conditions weren’t great out there today, we had low grip and the tarmac seemed to be slippery,” said Verstappen.  “It was quite tough to switch the tyres on, so that was difficult when you want to push immediately.

“There were also quite a few interruptions with the red flags, so we never really got into a rhythm. It was difficult to tell how the car felt as we never got a window where I thought we were on top of the tyres.

The Sonora Rally‘s route has been modified from the initial reveal last week (pictured below) due to unspecified developments, race officials have announced.

“Due to circumstances beyond the organization’s control we have had to change the route from previously released,” reads a statement from organisers. “We have tried to mitigate any hotel issues by contacting the suggested hotels to change all Sonora Rally reservations with the specialists assigned to the event.”

While the three main hub cities of Hermosillo, Puerto Peñasco, and San Luis Río Colorado remain the same as will the order that competitors visit each, they will now have different stage routes. Hermosillo is still the host of the Prologue, but its role for Stage #1 on 24 April is upgraded from being the start location to also being the end as part of a loop format. Hermosillo’s elevated responsibility means teams will leave the city a day later on Tuesday, 25 April.

Stage #2 will head from Hermosillo to Puerto Peñasco like what was previously planned for the first leg. However, Puerto Peñasco now hosts two loops for Stages #3 and #4.

The fifth and final stage will see racers depart Puerto Peñasco for San Luis Río Colorado. The latter was originally going to host a pair of loops for Stages #4 and #5. San Luis Río Colorado will still host the awards ceremony on 28 April.

The Dakar Rally is often celebrated as the first major race of the year, quite literally as the rally raid just days after or even on New Year’s Day itself. For 2024, however, there is a possibility that competitors will get to spend the new year with friends and family before getting to work.

The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), who oversees the rally, sent out a survey to competitors inviting them to answer two yes-or-no questions about the 2024 edition. Both pertain to the date that the race will be held, with particular interest in 6–19 January.

“In the context of the reflections that the organization is carrying out for the next edition of the Dakar, thank you for taking the time to answer the two following questions,” begins the opening page.

“If the starting date of the Dakar was pushed back to January 6 to 19, 2024: Would this make your participation easier? Would you be able to make yourself available to participate?”

Since the Dakar Rally’s move to Saudi Arabia in 2020, the latest that it has begun was the first year when it ran from 5–17 January. Over the next three years, the start day was gradually pushed forward before culminating in the 2023 race beginning on 31 December 2022. It was the first time since 2006, when the route ran from Portugal to Senegal as part of the original “Paris–Dakar Rally” era, that the race kicked off in the previous calendar year.

The Mini Summit was a highly anticipated feature of the 2023 San Felipe 250 route, but it might have been a bit too daunting for competitors. SCORE International announced Friday that an alternate route will be available for Four-Wheeles, though it is much longer as it goes around the area.

Situated between Miles 138 through 153.79 (15.79 miles total), the Mini Summit is a rock-filled path between mountains that many have compared to rockcrawling events like King of the Hammers. While traversable, it is an obvious test of tyre and vehicle durability as competitors on both two and four wheels have to navigate slowly to ensure they get through without a hitch. The summit’s tight confines also increase the risk of a bottleneck should a driver leading a caravan of others gets stuck or crashes while inside.

The summit was last used for the San Felipe 250 in the 1990s, while later action has been with domestic championships.

The bypass is nicknamed the “Long Way” as it is 34.80 miles long and requires competitors to go around the mountain range in which the summit is located. This extends the race’s overall route by 19.01 miles for a total of 281.81 miles should one decide to use it.

Due to the unknowns of the bypass, it is perhaps imperative for drivers practicing on Friday to run through it and gauge whether it would be the ideal path on race day. Its longer length but likely safer and faster terrain also adds a layer of strategy as teams must decide between going the long way around or going through the summit and hoping a snag would not occur.

The Rally Greece Offroad has been pushed back by approximately a month. On Friday, race officials announced the event is tentatively set to take place on 14–18 June for National Baja competitors and 15–18 June for Raid Regularity, while the FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas will race on 15–17 June. The latter date must require approval from the World Motor Sport Council.

The rally was originally scheduled for on 17–21 May (with the 20th being the final da for the European Cup) but was postponed after Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced Tuesday nationwide legislative elections would take place on 21 May. Further complicating matters was the possibility of a second round of voting as the introduction of a proportional representative election system decreased the likelihood of a party receiving enough votes for a majority in just one go. Reports have suggested such a round could be held in July, though a date will likely not be confirmed until necessary.

“Organizers apologize for this inconvenient situation and are looking forward to welcome you in June at Argos Orestiko for the 10th anniversary Rally Greece Offroad,” concludes the race announcement.

Despite the rescheduling, the race remains the second round of the European Cup as the third leg, the Hungarian Baja, is in August.

A revised rulebook for all three races will be published on 15 April, while FIA registration closes on 31 May and 9 June for domestic competitors.

The 2022 British Rallycross Championship awarded titles in nine different categories. Each of the winning drivers had a season full of ups and downs. After speaking to each of them see how they reviewed their season’s in their own words. Each driver was posed six questions. How does it feel to be champion? Anything can happen in Rallycross, what’s an example of that for you? What’s been your best moment while racing? What are some issues you’ve had to overcome? How much effort has it taken to get you racing? And what are your plans for next season?

Patrick O’Donovan – Supercar – Ford Fiesta

On being champion – “It feels amazing. It’s a dream come true. It’s something I’ve been dreaming of since I was five or six, running around the paddock terrorising everyone on my scooter. Ever since then, it’s been something I’ve been imagining one day that would be insane if I could. To be actually be able to achieve something like that, something I’ve been dreaming of for so long it’s really really special to me. To be able to bring home a title my dad once had is even more special”

Anything can happen – “In our last outing in Pembrey in heat two my gear shifter snapped in the tunnel and it came off into my hand. So I had a tiny bit of metal sticking out of the tunnel and had to finish the heat like that. Managed to win it with Julian [Godfrey] breathing down my neck. We didn’t manage to fix it for the semi-final. Eventually we managed to fix it but I did another few heats with some rebar sticking out of the tunnel so I didn’t have reverse, didn’t have neutral. It was quite fun turning up to the line knowing if I stall it, that’s it you’re parking up.”

Best moment – “I’ve got two. For British, it was yesterday’s Semi-Final [round ten]. I stalled it on the line. When I put my foot down it was building revs but not boost pressure so when I went the car cut off. I was five seconds off everyone going into turn one. I couldn’t see a thing coming out of turn one, everything was smearing mud over the windscreen, somehow we managed to get back up and win the race by a few seconds. In Riga my first RX2e win. I did a switch back and around the outside so I was quite happy with that.”

Charles Leclerc feels Scuderia Ferrari are working in the right direction when it comes to getting their SF23 in a better set-up window, although so far this weekend at Albert Park, their rivals seem to have the advantage.

Leclerc ended fifth fastest in the opening session of the Australian Grand Prix weekend and was an encouraging second fastest in the rain disrupted second session, although times in that session were less representative due to the weather changing less than a quarter of the way through.

Nevertheless, the Monegasque driver believes it was a productive day in Melbourne, and all signs are good that they can begin to fight back against their closest rivals after a relatively underwhelming start to the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

“We explored quite a few set-up variations today, which was interesting as it felt like we were going in a right direction,” said Leclerc.  “That doesn’t mean that we have the same pace as our competitors, as they still seem to have the upper hand for now.

“There is still a lot of work to do before we can get back in a proper fight but we will put all our energy in making further steps forward.”

Fernando Alonso continued his strong start to the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship on the opening day of the Australian Grand Prix, after topping Free Practice Two.

Alonso is certainly rolling back the years so far this season, with the double World Champion having certainly proved that he still has what it takes to be a frontrunner. The Spaniard enjoyed a solid opening day at the Albert Park Circuit and ended the morning session in fourth, before topping the final session on the opening day before rain disrupted the afternoon session.

Whilst he topped FP2, Alonso’s fastest time of the day was the second quickest on the opening day, with Max Verstappen‘s time in Free Practice One having been the best on Friday. Alonso can certainly take plenty of confidence from the opening day, though, as he attempts to qualify on the front row for a second consecutive round.

Reflecting on the opening day in Australia, Alonso believes “there is still some work to do” mainly due to FP2 having been disrupted by rain.

“It was a good Friday for us and nice to be back in Australia. In FP1 we concentrated on some test items and ran through our programme smoothly. The afternoon was obviously impacted by the rain, so there is still some work to do tomorrow. We need to learn more about the tyres and the long run pace of the car because there was not much time for that today.