Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

James Vowles says he has seen a ‘spark’ within the Williams Racing team since he joined the Grove-based team as Team Principal as he begins to settle into his new role.

Vowles left the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team during the off-season to replace Jost Capito as Team Principal at Williams, and he is beginning to implement different ways of working in a bid to improve the teams’ position on the grid.

After the opening two races of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, Williams currently sits eighth in the Constructors’ Championship with one point to their name, courtesy of Alexander Albon’s tenth place finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

And Vowles has said he has felt the team come alive since he joined and he believes everyone can see the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ after many years racing towards the back of the pack in Formula 1.

“The best word I could use is ‘spark’,” Vowles is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “There’s a spark and it’s fascinating to see. There are shoulders lifted, there’s heads held high now, there is really direction that they can see where we’re going and how we’re moving forward.

After nearly two months of waiting, FRS Racing will finally get a shot to make their NASCAR Xfinity Series début at Richmond Raceway on Saturday. The team has enlisted Kyle Weatherman for the race, where he will drive the #96 Chevrolet Camaro.

FRS is run by Collin Fern, who previously worked as technical director for Brandonbilt Motorsports. While Brandonbilt’s future has been murky due to funding troubles, meaning the team has been absent all season, they have given their blessings to FRS in their maiden campaign.

The team plans to run eight races in 2023 beginning at Richmond with Weatherman, while additional starts are planned for Charlotte in May, Pocono in July, Michigan and Watkins Glen in August, Bristol in September, and the Charlotte Roval and Martinsville in October. Max McLaughlin was hired by the team for Watkins Glen earlier in March.

Weatherman has experience in all three NASCAR national series but has mainly competed in the Xfinity Series including the full 2021 schedule for what is now CHK Racing. He ran the four most recent Xfinity races for Our Motorsports in the #02 with a best finish of sixteenth in his first start at Las Vegas.

In eighty-six career Xfinity races, he has three top tens, all of which were eighth-place finishes. Two came in 2022 with one apiece for DGM Racing and Jesse Iwuji Motorsports. Despite not running the full season, his final points position was two spots higher than his full 2021 calendar in twenty-second. Across four career starts at Richmond, Weatherman’s best run is fifteenth in 2021.

Chris Hacker will compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the first time on Saturday when he enters the Richmond Raceway event in the #38 Ford Mustang for RSS Racing. Injury law firm Morgan & Morgan will sponsor the car.

Hacker posted on social media Monday, “Proud to announce that I’m making my Xfinity debut this weekend at Richmond with RSS Racing in the 38 Ford Mustang! This is an incredible opportunity and a dream come true. Huge thanks to the Sieg family, Graf family, @forthepeople and everyone else that made this happen!”

He has made eleven Craftsman Truck Series starts since 2021, with a best finish of sixteenth at Martinsville later that year. He joined On Point Motorsports for a five-race schedule in 2023 beginning with the opener at Daytona, where he placed twenty-fifth. Although his next start was scheduled for Atlanta in mid-March, he backed out shortly before the race after having “the biggest opportunity yet put in front of me,” which was revealed to be the Xfinity entry two weeks later.

The 23-year-old has never raced at Richmond in NASCAR’s national tiers.

Prior to entering the Trucks, he finished fifteenth in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series West finale at Phoenix followed by a tenth in the ARCA Menards national event at Charlotte a year later.

There have been many famous and successful Formula One (F1) drivers throughout the history of the sport. Here are a few of the most notable:

1. Michael Schumacher - Considered by many to be the greatest F1 driver of all time, Schumacher won seven world championships and holds many records, including the most wins in F1 history.

2. Ayrton Senna - Another legendary F1 driver, Senna won three world championships before his tragic death in a racing accident in 1994.

3. Juan Manuel Fangio - Fangio won five world championships in the 1950s, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers in F1 history.

4. Lewis Hamilton - Still active in the sport, Hamilton has won seven world championships, tying Schumacher's record. He also holds many records, including the most pole positions in F1 history.

Lucas di Grassi was “very happy” to see the end of his first-ever home race in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, with the Brazilian having been the busiest driver all week at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix.

The first Brazilian Formula E race has been a long time in the making for the sport’s longest-serving driver, making it no surprise that last week was “the busiest week of my life”. Unfortunately for Di Grassi, there was little to celebrate on-track, with Mahindra Racing having struggled in Brazil. Di Grassi actually started the race from last following a disastrous qualifying, due to having clipped the wall at Turn Eight. The former Formula E Champion openly admitted it was his “mistake”, with the error having really ended any hope of a points finish.

Di Grassi went on to enjoy a better race than he did qualifying, after working his way through the field from twenty-second to thirteenth. The result meant that Di Grassi’s only points this season are still from his podium in Mexico City, resulting in the Brazilian having slipped to twelfth in the Drivers’ Championship.

Reflecting on his home race, Di Grassi believes his error in qualifying didn’t change his chances of finishing in the points, with Mahindra struggling for “efficiency compared to our competitors”.

“I did a mistake in qualifying, and I take responsibility for that, but I feel I extracted the most out of the car that I could in the race. I don’t think we would have finished much higher in the race than I did, as the efficiency compared to our competitors isn’t there. We need to go back home and analyse what happened. I’m very happy the week is over! It’s been the busiest week of my life.

Kimi Räikkönen‘s second NASCAR Cup Series start followed a similar pattern to his début: qualify in the twenties, work up into the top ten, be involved in a crash and fall back down the order.

Unlike the first time, Sunday’s race at Circuit of the Americas took place at a track he is more than familiar with, having won the Formula One United States Grand Prix in 2018. Coupled with him already having Cup experience under his belt, he and his #91 Trackhouse Racing Team Chevrolet ran as high as fourth in a significant improvement over his maiden series start at Watkins Glen, where he peaked at eighth before being taken out in a crash.

Much like the race itself, Räikkönen’s day was eventually upended as multiple wrecks in the closing laps extended the event beyond its scheduled distance courtesy of three overtime restarts. Räikkönen was especially hampered as his team’s five sets of tyres ran out, meaning he was on older Goodyear Eagles by the end. On the final restart, he was spun exiting the opening corner, ruining his shot at a good finish.

“We got unlucky with the incidents that happened. It was one of those things, unfortunately,” he explained. “There were no tyres left. They kept coming, getting more restarts and more restarts, so I think after the spin I had, the tyres were just done. It’s a shame because when we were there, but then we restart, and just wrong place, wrong time.”

After crossing the line in twenty-seventh, a thirty-second time penalty for cutting the esses relegated him to twenty-ninth.

Maserati MSG Racing are the side who just can’t catch a break in the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, after another agonising race at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix.

With everything that has gone wrong for Maserati this season, it’s easy to forget that they were the fastest team in pre-season, something which appears to have been a bad omen. The side once again were unable to score points in Brazil, despite Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Günther having started in the top ten. Mortara qualified fourth whilst Günther started the race in ninth, given the Monte-Carlo-based team a great chance to add to their three World Championship points.

Mortara’s hopes for points were effectively over at the first corner of the race, after hitting the back of Mitch Evans and breaking his front wing in the process. Following a pit-stop for a new front wing, the Swiss driver tumbled to last. In his defence, he did go on to make great progress through the field, before being hit into a barrier carelessly by Nico Mueller, ending his race.

Günther on the other hand enjoyed a clean race and was amongst the top ten for the vast majority of the E-Prix; however, he was overtaken by Sébastian Buemi late on and finished eleventh.

As a result of another point-less race, Maserati remain tenth in the Constructors’ Championship. Team Principal James Rossiter is “incredibly proud” of the team given that they did present strong pace in Brazil, although, the team boss did admit that “some significant changes” need to be made ahead of the Berlin double-header.

Jenson Button was probably as relieved as anyone to reach the finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas. The 2009 Formula One World Champion described his stock car début as “an emotional roller coaster” that ranged from contact with fellow F1 alumnus Kimi Räikkönen to three overtime restarts that dragged the race longer than usual. By the end of the seventy-five-lap scramble, however, Button could at least walk away as the highest finishing non-Cup regular in eighteenth.

“First, it was terrible. I mean, I must’ve been last by the end of it, and I was just like, ‘Everyone, go. I just need to drive and find a rhythm,'” Button remarked. “I’ve never gone through a corner too wide so often, and trying to place my car in the right place, I just got it wrong every time. Normally, if you’re a little bit slow through a corner, nobody tries to overtake you from the outside. Because they’re not going to make it all the way on the next one. But here they do, because they get a wheel inside for the next one, and if you turn in, you turn around.”

The race marked Button’s first foray in a Cup car in a competitive environment, providing him with some track time before piloting one at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. While the Le Mans car is a Chevrolet, he piloted a Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing at COTA in partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing, who has a relationship with Button’s personal sponsor Mobil 1.

His Le Mans team-mate Jimmie Johnson retired after being caught up in a first-lap crash, while late contact dropped their Le Mans driver coach Jordan Taylor out of the top twenty after being tenth for the final restart.

“The first stint was really bad, it was embarrassing for me,” Button recalled. “I was like, ‘‘’Alright guys, we need to pit, freshen the tyres and I need some air, I need some fresh air.’ I got that. The pace was good, consistency was good. I was really happy and passed a few cars which was nice. We got a little bit unlucky with the safety car because it was just two laps before our window. Pitted, then the next stint was mayhem. We also made a couple of changes that just didn’t work. Big oversteer, went from the car feeling great to really difficult to drive. I also had a massive whack from Kimi, and it fell off after that. The car wasn’t quite right. Every time I turned in, the rear tyres would chatter then immediately to oversteer. It was really difficult, but towards the end, we made some good calls stopping and putting on fresh tyres.”

Sunday was an emotional afternoon for Kurt Busch as he watched the NASCAR Cup Series‘ EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas from the FOX booth. Unable to continue his driving career on a regular basis due to concussions, he still got to visit Victory Lane as Tyler Reddick, his successor in the #45 23XI Racing Toyota, dominated for his first win with the outfit.

“It’s amazing—23XI—how fast we’re growing and how much we’re doing together. It’s forward together on this programe,” said Busch on the broadcast during the final lap. “It brings me a little too choked up. I was hoping to be back in that car but it’s in good hands.”

Reddick and William Byron respectively qualified second and first and established themselves as the top names for the day as they combined to lead all but four of the seventy-five laps run. Still, it was not just cruising for either of them especially Reddick, who led forty-one laps, as he found himself having to hold on to first place amid three overtime restarts.

The race had been a rather clean affair early on with just two cautions across the first forty-one laps, but debris from crashes—especially in the esses following the turn one hairpin—strewn across various points of the track prompted NASCAR to pause six more times, a process that was exacerbated by the track’s 5.51-kilometre length. As a result, the race lasted over three and a half hours, the longest Cup race since the 1976 Winston Western 500 at Riverside, which was naturally 502 kilometres long versus COTA’s 374.92 km without overtime.

As the cautions bunched the field back up, Reddick faced multiple challenges from defending winner Ross Chastain, Busch’s brother Kyle Busch, and perennial COTA frontrunner Alex Bowman. When the third overtime finally stayed green, Reddick found an opportunity to put distance between him and Busch to secure his fourth career win. All but one of his victories have come on road courses.

Maximilian Günther came agonisingly close to his first points finish of the season at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix, after finishing eleventh in the sixth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Luck continues to be against Maserati MSG Racing, as Günther was unable to convert his ninth-place start into a points finish. The German had qualified sixth but started ninth due to a three-place grid penalty. Despite this, he made a good start to the race and ran in eighth during the opening phase of the E-Prix, proving that Maserati do have a car capable of running towards the leading group.

Günther remained on-track for a first top ten of the season until Lap Twenty-Eight, where he was overtaken by Sébastian Buemi. It was an agonising way for Günther’s race to end, with the German being the only driver other than the ABT CUPRA Formula E Team drivers to have not scored a point this year.

Reflecting on the race, the Maserati driver admitted that it was “frustrating” to once again leave a race empty-handed, especially as “the car was feeling great”.

“A disappointing race today, and it’s frustrating to miss out on points with P11. The car was feeling great as soon as the weekend got underway and qualifying put us in a strong position, despite the grid penalty. The race wasn’t easy for us right from the beginning. Some good areas, but over the whole stint we didn’t achieve our target. We will regroup from this and try to make a better race next time.

Ian James, Team Principal of the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team is confident that the Woking-based team will put in “all the work needed to close this gap”, after the side fell behind their rivals at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix.

The sixth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship was a challenging one for the British side, as for the first time this season they really struggled for outright pace. McLaren are typically one of the strongest sides in qualifying, yet Jake Hughes was the only driver to make it into the duels. He started the race from sixth whilst René Rast was down in eleventh, making for a challenging race.

Both drivers did well in the race to claim a points finish, although, Hughes did slip from sixth to eighth, whilst Rast rose from eleventh to ninth. Eighth and ninth certainly isn’t what McLaren would’ve been hoping for ahead of the weekend; however, any points are better than no points. Formula E’s newest team did slip from fourth to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship following their difficult weekend in Brazil, with James recognising that “our competitors have clearly made a step in performance”.

“We’re leaving our inaugural race here in São Paulo with a handful of points – although our goal is to leave every race with more than just a handful. Having said that, I’m incredibly proud of how the team performed; both the drivers and the team behind them dealt with a chaotic race with a calm efficiency which maximised the potential we had in the package.   
 
“Our competitors have clearly made a step in performance, so we will be putting in all the work needed to close this gap. We’ve got around a month until the next race weekend in Berlin, so the focus between now and then is to find the improvements necessary to get us back towards the front. 
 
“I’m confident we will be coming back stronger.”

Jake Hughes put on a solid performance at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix, with the Briton having claimed eighth place at the sixth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The rookie was once again stellar in qualifying, with Hughes having been the only Nissan-powered driver to make it into the duels. The NEOM McLaren Formula E Team driver ultimately started the race from sixth and did lose a couple of places in the race, after struggling for performance. He was nevertheless pleased to have claimed another points finish, although, he did slip from ninth to tenth in the Drivers’ Championship.

Hughes praised his team after the race for a well executed E-Prix but admitted that the new side do still have some areas to work on.

“It’s nice to have finished with some points in São Paulo this weekend. I’ve scored points in five out of six races so far, so it’s been a good start to the year – and  it’s continued today. I think we had a strong race, however the start was difficult. From that point onwards we managed to deliver a good race. We were really good with our energy management, something that has improved throughout the season.

“We just didn’t have the performance, balance or rear tyres to really do much more. We still have some areas to improve in, but for what we have right now, I think myself and the team managed a good race. We’re executing our races very well at the moment and hopefully we can bring some more points at our next race in Berlin in a few weeks.”

DS Penske Team Principal Jay Penske praised his drivers for a solid performance at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix on Saturday, after Jean-Éric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne claimed fifth and sixth respectively.

The Americans enjoyed a good weekend in Brazil, with the reigning World Champion having claimed the team’s first pole position of the season after an exceptional qualifying performance. Vandoorne’s race strategy ultimately let him down unfortunately, with the Belgian having led too much of the race, whilst those behind were preserving their energy thanks to the slipstream.

It meant Vandoorne was forced to manage his energy more than his rivals, something which saw him slip to sixth by the end of the race. It was nevertheless his best result of the season so far, giving him something to be pleased about. Vergne recovered well in the race to finish fifth after making up two places from where he started. The Frenchman was unable to make further progress, though, after labelling his car as “undriveable”. Vergne suffered from oversteer throughout the race and is wanting an investigation to take place into the issue, given that it prevented him from pushing for a podium.

It was nevertheless a double-points finish for the team, which saw them rise from fifth to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. The team boss was pleased with the result and is keen for the team to continue building their “momentum”, with DS Penske having claimed three consecutive double-points finishes now.

“Bringing home a double-points result after our two podiums is brilliant for the team, and a momentum we aim to build on as we move forward in the season. The lap Stoffel put in to secure pole position was very impressive. We’re on the right track, well done and a big thank you to the team for all their hard work.

Trey Hernquist might be known for his yellow Baja Bug that he races in deserts, but will trade them in for a significantly different machine and surface in April when he drives a Stadium Super Truck on the streets of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. He will drive the #50 with sponsorship from Gravel Kings and Continental Tire.

Hernquist wrote on social media, “I’m super excited to share that I will be driving the @continental_tire / @gravel_kings @stadiumsupertrucks kicking off at the Long Beach Grand Prix, April 15th-16th! Such an incredible opportunity for me and everyone involved so THANK YOU! Stoked to see a bunch of friends and family out there so let’s go have some fun in a truck around the streets of @gplongbeach!”

Hernquist races in Class 5, a category present in various desert series like SCORE International for Volkswagen Beetles modified for off-road competition nicknamed “Baja Bugs”. He won SCORE’s Class 5 championship in 2020 with a victory at the Baja 500, and has mainly focused on the premier Baja 1000 since; his latest 1000 excursion in November ended with a transmission failure after ninety miles. His SCORE début came in the SCORE Lites class in 2018.

In March, he finished twenty-fifth overall in the Mint 400‘s Limited Race to win the Class 5 Unlimited division despite late contact leaving him without power steering.

His father Bill Hernquist is also a driver, and the two have raced together in Best In The Desert, among other series.

SCORE International is set to kick off its golden anniversary with the thirty-sixth running of the San Felipe 250. Reigning champion Luke McMillin enters as the defending overall Four-Wheeler winner after battling with Bryce Menzies, while Juan Carlos Salvatierra is gunning for his second in a row on two wheels.

Qualifying will take place for Trophy Truck, Trophy Truck Legends, and Trophy Truck Spec on Wednesday, 29 March. Racing is on Saturday, 1 April.

The Course

The 262.8-mile course is a counter-clockwise loop that starts and ends in San Felipe. Much of the course is a break from recent editions by adding features that have not been used in years; perhaps the most notable and daunting feature is the Mini Summit, last used for the 250 in the 1990s but has seen action since with domestic desert championships. Located between Route Miles 220 and 225, the Summit contains a vast field of rocks that racers must navigate through akin to rockcrawling seen at King of the Hammers, which is a stark contrast to the sea of sand that it is sandwiched between. A boulder had caused the Summit to be blocked during pre-running before it was removed shortly after.

Two sections of the route are split off for Bikes and Quads to ensure rider safety: they deviate at RM 52.67 and rejoin shortly before RM 110 for the Four-Wheelers, followed by another break at the southernmost section of the track. The second alternate route is the longest as it ensures riders would not encounter cars for much of the remainder before meeting up again for the final twelve miles. Class 7SX, Class 11, and the Sportsman classes also have their own bypass between RMs 211.80 and 242.01.

Teams will have roughly fourteen hours to complete the race.