Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

George Russell felt the pace shown by the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was positive, but there is still a lot of work to do to bring them closer to Oracle Red Bull Racing.

The British driver finished fourth last Sunday at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit behind the two Red Bull’s and Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team’s Fernando Alonso, but ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton and the two Scuderia Ferrari drivers.

For a moment, it appeared that Russell would be promoted to the podium after stewards handed Alonso a time penalty, but when the penalty was overturned, he returned back to fourth.

But Russell was pleased with the improvements from Mercedes over what they were able to show two weeks previously in Bahrain, and it gives him a confidence boost heading into the rest of the season.

“When you put the hard work in and it pays dividends, you come away feeling satisfied,” said Russell.  “We finished ahead of both Ferraris on merit today and we know we’ve got a lot of performance to come soon.

Ben Maier is one of the youngest drivers to race in the Stadium Super Trucks, being just thirteen years old when he made his début in 2022. He hopes to get back into the series in 2023, but is seeking sponsorship to confirm his entry.

Maier ran nearly the entire 2022 season with the only absence being the season opener at Long Beach. Despite his youth, he has proven to be quick with top-five finishes in all but the final race at Bristol where he placed sixth, with his best run being a third in Nashville Race #2. His maiden SST round at Mid-Ohio saw him spin in both races but overcame them with a pair of fourths to finish third for the weekend. Maier ended the year seventh in points.

“I really want to get back in a @stadiumsupertrucks for 2023. The first race is @gplongbeach with @indycar,” wrote Maier on social media. “I need a primary sponsor to be on the side of the truck. Who wants to help get me there? 2 podiums last year in SST!”

A Maryland native, Maier is somewhat of a protégé of action sports star Travis Pastrana. He competed in the SxS support category to Pastrana’s Nitro Rallycross during the 2022/23 season, notching three podiums and finishing runner-up to Gregoire Michaud for the class championship.

Outside of off-road vehicles, Maier has won eleven national karting championships and competed in Spec Miatas. For the rest of 2023, his primary focus is on the Trans-Am Series‘ TA2 class, where he pilots a Chevrolet Camaro for Silver Hare Racing; after two rounds, he is fourteenth in points. Various TA2 colleagues also boast SST experience such as Adam Andretti and Barry Boes, while current TA points leader Matt Brabham is a three-time SST champion.

Joshua Thomas looks to be the 130th different driver to compete in the Stadium Super Trucks while bringing some Australian flair to the 2023 season opener at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. On Thursday, he visited series headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, to test a truck ahead of the first round.

“Thanks @stadiumsupertucks that was absolutely insane looking forward to the series,” Thomas posted on Instagram.

Hailing from Brisbane, Thomas has experience in Australia’s Junior Sedan Track Championship, which competes as a sedan-only support class at dirt tracks. His father Brett Thomas has raced in sprint cars, winning the 2014 POWRi Lucas Oil Australian Speedcar Super Series championship, before racing in SST the following year at the Gold Coast 600 round. Although the trucks next visited Valvoline Raceway, where Thomas has raced on sprint cars, he did not take part due to injury; Bill Hynes, who scored a podium at the Valvoline round, described him as “a great driver.”

The Thomas family runs TFH Hire Services, which provides temporary fencing for events and businesses. Brett Thomas serves as its managing director while Joshua has worked as a sales executive and site security operations manager. TFH appeared on Brett’s stadium truck as well as his sprint car, while also having sponsored National Rugby League teams Gold Coast Titans and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.

The younger Thomas will be the twenty-seventh Australian to compete in SST. While most like his father mainly took part in the series’ Australian excursions including the now defunct Boost Mobile Super Trucks, others like champions Matt Brabham (who holds dual citizenship with the United States) and Paul Morris have also competed on the American side. Shaun Richardson is the most recent fully Australian racer to race in the U.S. when he ran the 2022 Long Beach weekend.

Robert Parker, a GNCC Racing veteran and the best finishing rookie at King of the Hammers in January, died last Wednesday after an accident while riding his ATV. He was 38.

Parker competed in the GNCC (Grand National Cross Country) series on an ATV in the 4×4 Pro category from 2016 through 2022. He was the 2019 4×4 A championship runner-up.

While much of his success came as a four-wheeled rider, he also boasted experience as a four-wheeled driver in a UTV, competing in the Southern Bounty Series. In January, he finished ninth overall and sixth in the Pro Mod UTV class at the King of the Hammers‘ Can-Am Hammers Championship, the best newcomer to KOTH.

“To countless fans a spectacular competitor, to the King of the Hammers Rookies a brother, and to many before that, @robertparker4x4 was a friend,” KOH posted on social media.

His funeral took place on Tuesday at Overflow Church in Angier, North Carolina. He was survived by his wife Casey and children Carleigh, Nathan, and Sawyer. Carleigh and Nathan, respectively eighteen and thirteen years old, are also involved in off-road racing and have raced in GNCC, while Nathan also rode shotgun whenever his father competed in UTVs.

Tommaso Volpe, Team Principal of the Nissan Formula E Team has warned that this weekend’s inaugural São Paulo E-Prix could be the first wet race of the Gen3 era, throwing a massive “factor” into this weekend’s sixth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Nissan claimed their first pole position of the season last time in Cape Town thanks to rookie Sacha Fenestraz, who set the fastest lap in the history of the all-electric series. The Frenchman almost converted his pole position into a podium, until he was sent into a wall on the final lap following contact with Nick Cassidy. Norman Nato was on hand to finish eighth for the Japanese manufacturer and claim some points; however, the team will have felt like they lost a massive opportunity to move up the standings.

After five races, Nissan are currently ninth in the Constructors’ Championship but have been showing significant progress in recent rounds, suggesting that it won’t be too long until they move up the leaderboard.

Following a four week break, Nissan are targeting a big-haul of points this weekend in Brazil, where the weather could really spice up the order given everybody’s lack of experience in driving the Gen3 cars in the wet. Volpe has revealed that Nissan have identified “where we stand in relation to our competitors” during the recent break, with the side now feeling confident that they “can continue to make progress round-by-round”.

“This weekend we’ll face a brand-new circuit that looks set to pose a different challenge to the other venues so far this season. It seems to be extremely bumpy and features long straights and large braking zones, but there is also the threat of rain to keep in mind. We haven’t had a wet race since Gen3 was introduced, so that may be another factor to consider.

Rookie Sacha Fenestraz is “feeling strong” ahead of this weekend’s inaugural São Paulo E-Prix, four weeks on from setting the fastest lap in the history of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in Cape Town.

The Frenchman claimed a sensational maiden pole position in South Africa four weeks ago, before being set for a podium finish in the race. Unfortunately, contact with Nick Cassidy on the final lap saw the Nissan Formula E Team driver’s weekend end in the barrier, breaking several hearts in the process. He was truly exceptional in Cape Town, with the aim being to “carry that momentum” from South Africa into this weekend.

For Fenestraz, this weekend is “like a homecoming”, with the venue being the closest the Frenchman gets to racing where he grew up. Fenestraz grew up in Córdoba in Argentina, meaning some of his friends have crossed the border for the weekend.

With that in mind, he’s looking forward to “another new venue” given that nobody has any experience of the track, something which could once again play into the rookie’s favour.

“Heading to another new venue, it once again evens the playing field between myself and the more experienced drivers. This weekend almost feels like a homecoming as it’s the closest race to where I grew up, in Córdoba in Argentina and I’ve got some friends coming over to watch which is really exciting.

The Chevrolet Camaro is one of the most iconic pony cars in the American automotive world since its introduction in 1966. Nearly six decades later, the curtain will close on it for a final time as the line will be retired at the end of the 2024 model year.

Besides the obvious ramifications for consumers, the discontinuation will also affect Chevrolet’s NASCAR and Supercars Championship divisions as both field the Camaro. NASCAR stipulates a manufacturer must run a production vehicle model that is being sold during that season, meaning Chevrolet will have the rest of 2023 and all of 2024 to find a replacement. The Camaro was introduced for NASCAR in 2018 under the ZL1 1LE name, replacing the SS, with Austin Dillon winning the Daytona 500 in its début points race. Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson also scored the 2020 and 2021 Cup Series championships in Camaros.

Since 2018, the Camaro has won sixty-two Cup races including four in a row to begin the 2023 season. Chevrolet claimed the manufacturer’s titles in 2021 and 2022. A modified Next Gen Camaro will race the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

The Camaro SS is also utilised in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2013 and has won five driver’s titles.

In Australia, the Camaro replaced the legendary Holden Commodore for 2023 as the Supercars Championship begins its own “next-gen” era of cars. Reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen scored the Camaro’s maiden win in the second race of the season opener in Newcastle earlier in March.

The Sonora Rally in Mexico marks the first time that the World Rally-Raid Championship travels to the Western Hemisphere. Scheduled for 23–28 April, it is the third round of the 2023 season and kicks off a two-race stretch in the Americas followed by the Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina.

The stage for the 2023 edition is set with a caravan on 21 April from Heroica Nogales to Hermosillo, intended as a mass transit of vehicles from the United States as Nogales is situated along the border. After a days of technical inspection and final shakedowns, the Prologue will take place in Hermosillo on 23 April; Hermosillo is the capital and largest city of the eponymous municipality in the state of Sonora.

Stage #1 will take the field from Hermosillo to Puerto Peñasco, whose Hotel Playa Bonita Resort will be one of two bivouacs for the rally. The city is located in the Gran Desierto de Altar, one of the hottest areas of the greater Sonoran Desert due to the nearby Gulf of Mexico bringing in warmer temperatures inland. Puerto Peñasco will host a loop for Stage #2 before teams head northward to San Luis Río Colorado.

Also a bivouac city with the hub being at a baseball stadium, San Luis Río Colorado sits on the border with Baja California, the latter a popular off-road hotspot with events like SCORE International’s Baja 1000; many competitors from the U.S. and Mexico have competed in both the 1000 and Sonora Rally. San Luis Río Colorado will oversee the final two stages, both loops. The city has been involved with the Sonora Rally since the race’s inception.

Registration will close on 14 April. Like at other rounds, the rally will be a mixture of W2RC-eligible entries and those not competing for points, the latter classified under the “National” label. The Adventure Raid category, a navigation-based event that travels at a slower pace, is also available and will follow the same route as the main rally under the guidance of Chris Collard.

While the Russian invasion of Ukraine has drawn global condemnation with ramifications that extend to all aspects of society including motorsport, it is unsurprising that the invaders would have a chunk of their own countrymen on their side. Some drivers even went beyond making statements and directly donated to the military.

In a blog post for Moment of Truth, a pro-Russian news and opinion website that was formerly the name of a television programme, Anton Melkinov detailed a February trip he took into parts of Kherson Oblast occupied by Russian forces to help provide goods for troops. He was not the only figure from the off-road racing world present as Dmitry Pavlov and Anton Nikolaev also joined in.

Melkinov is the reigning T2 class winner of the Russian Rally-Raid Championship, driving a Toyota LC 200 and placing eighth overall among all competitors. Besides supporting the so-called “special military operation”, he pens columns expressing nostalgia for the Soviet Union and “great respect” for Joseph Stalin interspersed with coverage of the domestic rally raid series.

“I have repeatedly written that civil society is not when you go out to the squares and criticise the authorities with the money of Western sponsors, and especially not when they pour mud over the history of their country,” Melkinov began, a jingoistic introduction that called out protests at home against the invasion. “Civil society is when your country is in a difficult situation, and instead of joining the scooter troops (soldiers on bicycles), you start thinking about how you can help it. Not with beautiful speeches, but with simple and concrete deeds.”

He describes the story as “simple and uncomplicated” but also important as it “emphasises that, if there is a desire, everyone can help.” Joined by Pavlov and Nikolaev, Melkinov helped donate spare parts for KAMAZ and UAZ trucks, as well as clothing like socks. According to Melkinov, five tonnes of goods were shipped by 23 February, the day before the one-year anniversary of the invasion’s launch.

Maserati MSG Racing Team Principal James Rossiter is “confident” that the Monte-Carlo-based team can “compete at the front” this weekend at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix, which hosts round six of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The start of the Gen3 era certainly hasn’t been kind to Maserati, with the side having endured a season’s worth of bad luck in just the opening five races. The outfit have endured four retirements already this season between Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Günther, with both having failed to finish at the most recent race in Cape Town. The Cape Town E-Prix was arguably Maserati’s best weekend of the season pace wise; however, driver errors ultimately saw the team leave South Africa without any points.

After a tough start to the season, Maserati have been making strong progress, with the side starting to exploit more performance from their car. Should they continue in this direction and finally receive some good luck, then there is no reason why the team can’t be podium contenders, something they were in Cape Town.

Ahead of this weekend in Brazil, Rossiter has revealed that the side have spent the four week break going over where they “can improve”, with the hope being that they’re now in a better position “moving forwards”. If everything finally comes together for the team this weekend, then there is no reason why they can’t move up the order from tenth in the Constructors’ Championship.

“After Cape Town we examined our performance closely to establish the areas in which we can improve and the team has worked hard to implement some solutions that should enhance our pace and performance moving forwards. There’s no denying that this season hasn’t started how we hoped, and although fortune hasn’t always been on our side, we’ve known at every stage that we have a competitive package at our disposal.

Michele Bini hopes to make his Dakar Rally début in 2024, and will do so with his hometown of Vicopisano in mind. On Tuesday, he formally announced a programme in which he would run the race while also fundraising for four public institutions in the area: the Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence, the Misericordia Vicopisano ambulance service, and the Red Cross branches of San Giovanni alla Vena and Uliveto Terme villages.

The project is dubbed “Sport e Solidarietà“, or “Sport and Solidarity”, as Bini hopes to support his home that helped him advance his career in racing. As such, the crowdfunding effort he launched is strictly intended to go towards the aforementioned services while his own sponsors will cover costs for him to race at Dakar.

“I’m happy for Michele Bini, the merit of the evening belongs entirely to him, he deserves it because he is very meticulous and when he does things he always does them right,” said Vicopisano Mayor Matteo Ferrucci. “Combining sport and solidarity is a way to continue making our Municipality of Vicopisano known around the world.”

Bini is an amateur off-road who began competing in cross-country rally in 2014. His Dakar entry will be supported by R Team, whose founder Renato Rickler is a former endurance racing champion. R Team is affiliated with Ralliart, the rally division of Mitsubishi and former Dakar victor, and fielded five cars at the 2023 Dakar Rally and Dakar Classic. Rickler’s son Cesare, an ex-footballer, raced a truck in the most recent edition.

“It’s an ambitious project, it’s a difficult project to carry out because it’s a physical commitment but also, above all, an economic and logistical commitment,” said Bini. “I’ve been working on this for a year, putting together an online fundraising campaign of crowdfunding a week ago through which private individuals can make their donations. Initially, I had thought of feeding the solidarity chapter, allocating 10% of every donation so even the private individual can make their own donation in an autonomous way. All of this goes to compensate for the fundraising in its entirety.”

After a frustrating weekend in Cape Town four weeks ago, Edoardo Mortara enters this weekend’s inaugural São Paulo E-Prix hoping for a strong result, in order to really kickstart his 2022/23 season.

The first season of Gen3 hasn’t been a good one so far for Mortara, with the experienced Swiss driver having only claimed three points from the opening five races of this year’s ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Mortara’s weekend in Cape Town arguably summed up his season, with the Maserati MSG Racing driver having retired on the opening lap of the race.

Mortara was a huge doubt for the race after having a huge crash during qualifying. His crash in qualifying ruined what could’ve been a very strong weekend, with Mortara having demonstrated excellent pace.

With himself and the team having had four weeks to reset and rest, the hope will be that the results will start coming, beginning this weekend in Brazil. Mortara is massively excited for the weekend ahead and has “always wanted to race” in Brazil, with the South American nation boasting “a massive motorsport heritage”.

“Since joining Formula E, Brazil is a country that I’ve always wanted to race in, so I’m looking forward to finally do that this weekend. With lots of local motorsport legends like [Ayrton] Senna and [Emerson] Fittipaldi, São Paulo has a massive motorsport heritage, so turning the city’s streets into a race track will be a very special experience and I’m sure the fans are going to enjoy the action.

Alan Permane, the Sporting Director at the BWT Alpine F1 Team, believes the penalties being handed out for being out of position of the grid so far in 2023 have been ‘draconian’, and he hopes conversations can be had with officials to be a little more lenient going forward.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon fell foul of the regulation during the Bahrain Grand Prix by being out to the side of his grid box at the start, with the Frenchman being handed a five-second time penalty for the offence.  The same penalty was then handed out to Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team’s Fernando Alonso in Saudi Arabia for the same offence.

With Formula 1 cars being the widest they’ve ever been, visibility at close distance is extremely poor, and Permane believes a little bit of common sense would be worthwhile when it comes to determining penalties for being a little bit too left or too right to the optimum grid position.

“I think what seems a little bit draconian is this new regulation of where the car has got to stop on the grid box,” Permane is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.  “No one is getting an advantage from being 10 centimetres over on one side or the other side. I don’t quite really see why.

“And they’re free to paint the grid boxes as wide as they want, there doesn’t seem to be regulation for that.

Mike Krack, the Team Principal at the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team, was delighted to see Fernando Alonso secure a second consecutive third place finish in Sunday’s Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, but he rued the mechanical issue that ended Lance Stroll’s evening.

Alonso started on the front row and even led the opening lap after jumping Sergio Pérez at the start, but he was handed a five-second time penalty for being out of position on the grid.  Later on, he was handed another ten-second penalty after stewards initially believed his AMR23 was worked on before the five-seconds elapsed, but a right of review from the team saw this overturned.

Stroll started strongly but began to struggle with his power deployment in the second Aston Martin, with the Canadian unfortunately causing a safety car after stopping on track, with Krack still unsure to why an issue affected him at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Krack says it has been a great start to the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship for Aston Martin, but it could have been even better but for Stroll’s early retirement.

“It is very satisfying to score our second podium of the year with Fernando here in Jeddah,” said Krack.  “It is Fernando’s 100th career podium, which is a very impressive milestone.

Fernando Alonso was pleased to leave the Jeddah Corniche Circuit with a second consecutive podium finish – the one hundredth of his amazing career – on Sunday, even though he was made to wait for it by the stewards following a post-race penalty that ended up being overturned.

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team driver took the lead at the start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from pole sitter Sergio Pérez but was deemed to be out of position on the grid, the stewards handing him a five-second penalty that he took during his pit stop.

However, a late investigation from the stewards saw him handed another penalty after the rear jack man appeared to touch the car before the end of his penalty, which relegated him to fourth behind Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s George Russell.

A right of review from Aston Martin, however, saw this penalty overturned, and Alonso was able to celebrate another top three finish in a car he feels can regularly compete at the front of the field.

“I am happy in the end with the result tonight and our second podium,” said Alonso.  “We showed that we can be the second fastest team and we had good pace throughout the race.