Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

A pair of South African rally raid teams finally had the chance to showcase their T1+ machines when The Inland Off Road Championship season began with the Stella 300 on Saturday. Both programmes immediately saw success as they finished 1–2 with TreasuryONE Motorsport’s Toyota Hilux T1+, driven by Hennie de Klerk, ahead of the Red-Lined Motorsport REVO T1+ with Chris Visser behind the wheel.

De Klerk plans to bring his Hilux to the 2024 Dakar Rally, which will be his third attempt at the race. Developed by WCT Engineering and unveiled in February, it shares many similarities with the Hallspeed Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ that won the 2022 and 2023 Dakar Rally with Nasser Al-Attiyah, but is more durable with rather rudimentary parts by comparison as it is intended for privateers who cannot afford the Hallspeed model.

“The new car was fantastic to drive and there were some really big guns in a big field, but we pulled off a dream result,” said de Klerk. “We promised ourselves that we were going to take it easy, but it was flat out racing from the word ‘Go!’. Adriaan (Roets, co-driver) and I are delighted to top a great team effort with an unforgettable début victory. Adriaan was faultless in the hot seat, WCT designed a brilliant package and Tjaart van der Walt (lead technician) built us a winning car that allowed us to win on our first outing.”

Visser finished runner-up in the T1+, which he assisted in developing and testing prior to its racing début at the Stella 300. His team also fielded a REVO T1 for Johan de Bruyn and a Red-Lined VK50 for Pim Klaassen in the race, whose father Dave Klaasen competed at the 2023 Dakar Rally in a VK56.

“A great weekend of testing for us to start off the year, a 100% finishing ratio at the Stella 300 race where the actual event finishing ratio was just 51%, and this with 5 race cars where two were brand new and out for the first time, one had been totally rebuilt and another with a 18 year old Dutch driver on début,” wrote Red-Lined CEO Terence Marsh on social media.

BlackHawk’s next flight is a return to the Persian Gulf. With Nasser Al-Attiyah‘s Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ severely damaged after wrecking in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, fellow Hilux driver Benediktas Vanagas decided to offre his own T1+ to the Dakar Rally champion for this weekend’s Qatar International Baja.

Vanagas crashed out of the 2023 Dakar Rally while Al-Attiyah went on to win the event for the second straight year. Al-Attiyah, the reigning World Rally-Raid Champion, was poised to continue his string of success at the next round in Abu Dhabi as he won the first three days including the Prologue, but flipped his Hilux three times upon hitting a kicker dune in Stage #3. While he reached the finish and won the stage anyway, the truck suffered severe damage that included the rear and windshield being torn off, which was too substantial for him to continue.

Al-Attiyah’s Hilux will return to action at the Sonora Rally in April, but that left him without a working car for Qatar, a round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas. Indeed, Vanagas and Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics, an ally of Al-Attiyah’s flagship Toyota Gazoo Racing, were more than happy to help out.

Nicknamed “BlackHawk”, the Hilux T1+ became Vanagas’ vehicle of choice beginning 2023. In late February, he lent the truck to João Ramos for the Portugal All-Terrain Championship’s season-opening Baja TT Montes Alentejanos; Ramos, who normally raced a Hilux T1, won the overall in the rechristened “Dama Negra”. While Vanagas is not racing for the W2RC, he will return to the driver’s seat for the FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas when it begins with the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura in Spain on 14–16 April.

Vanagas and Al-Attiyah are good friends via their Toyota connections. During the Dakar Rally, Al-Attiyah agreed to autograph merchandise for Vanagas to auction off for relief efforts for the war in Ukraine, with a signed Red Bull cap going for €1,000. Body panels from BlackHawk like the front fender also went on auction to support Ukraine.

The Canadian Grand Prix, which is part of the Formula One World Championship, takes place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The circuit is named after Canadian racing driver Gilles Villeneuve, who achieved success in Formula One in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a temporary street circuit that is set up each year on the Île Notre-Dame, a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River. Here are some key facts about the track:

• Length: The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is 4.361 kilometers (2.71 miles) long.
• Turns: The circuit has 14 turns, including several chicanes and a hairpin turn.
• Top speed: Drivers can reach speeds of up to 335 kph (208 mph) on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, particularly on the long straightaways.
• History: The Canadian Grand Prix has been held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve since 1978, with the exception of a few years when the race was held at other locations in Canada.
• Challenge: The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is known for being a challenging track, with a mix of high-speed sections and tight corners. The walls are also very close to the track, which can make mistakes particularly costly.
• Atmosphere: The Canadian Grand Prix is known for having a lively and enthusiastic atmosphere, with fans from around the world coming to Montreal to watch the race and enjoy the city's nightlife.

Overall, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a popular and well-regarded track on the Formula One circuit, with its mix of high-speed sections, challenging corners, and unique location on a temporary street circuit.

With the dust of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix having well and truly settled, it’s time for the second round of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the staggeringly fast Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is so much more than a “typical street circuit”, with it being the fastest street circuit on the Formula 1 calendar due to the drivers wrestling the Jeddah streets at an average speed in excess of 160mph (250km/h). It’s a monster of a circuit and without a doubt a car killer, with Mick Schumacher having found out the hard way last season just how punishing the circuit can be. Pushing beyond the limit will result in a crash, with there being absolute no room for error.

This weekend’s Saudi Arabian GP is the third in the sport’s history, with the first two having delivered exceptional races. The first, of course, saw a dangerous duel between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, with the duo having been unwilling to give one another a centimetre of space. It resulted in a collision between the pair, with Hamilton ultimately coming out victorious.

Last season’s instalment saw another titanic battle, but this time between Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. The duo somewhat famously almost came to a complete stop in a bid to catch the other one out at the final corner, in a bid to get DRS. Unlike in 2021, Verstappen’s fight with Leclerc last season was clean and sublime, with fans presumably hoping for more of the same this weekend.

Pirelli Motorsport have opted for the same tyres to be used this weekend that were used at the event last season, meaning the Italians second-softest range of tyres will be in use. This weekend’s hardest compound will be the C2, whilst the medium will be the C3, and the soft the C4. Just like last season, further track changes have been made to improve driver safety, with rumble strips now being present on the escape roads, whilst several kerbs have also been smoothed to reduce their severity.

New Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake Team Representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi spoke on his delight with a points finish in the season-opener of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season in Bahrain.

Despite reaching Qualifying Two and starting in a fairly good position, Zhou Guanyu was unable to build on the evident pace in the car after a combination of a poor start and getting stuck in a DRS train. However, despite the disappointing result, Zhou was able to take the fastest lap of the race away from the team’s rival BWT Alpine F1 Team on the final lap.

Valtteri Bottas had a highly impressive race recording a points finish for the tenth consecutive time at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Bottas had a great opening lap pushing himself into the top ten, and after defending from Pierre Gasly on his Alpine debut, he was able to finish eighth pushing Alfa Romeo up to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.

“The team did a really good job tonight and we can be satisfied with the final result, which shows our continuous progress and the value of the work we did during pre-season testing: we were in the top five teams for the whole of the race, and we finished ahead of McLaren and Alpine, which is as much as we could have hoped to get tonight,“ Bravi said.

“It was a good collective effort: the drivers did well in the car, with the added team-work contribution of Zhou setting the fastest time at the very end; the strategic choices and the pit-stops were really good, and all together we contributed to the four points we bring home. This result is in line with what we were expecting following last week’s testing and the data we got in practice.

Valtteri Bottas and Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake returned for the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit, as the Finn targeted a strong start to the campaign.

Round One saw the Bahrain Grand Prix and it was a fairly successful weekend for Bottas and the Hinwil-based team. Despite not making Qualifying Three, the Finnish driver had a fairly successful qualifying starting in twelfth on the grid, and points in the race were certainly an achievable outcome.

A really good opening few laps saw Bottas move up to eighth, and despite having a quiet race the ex-Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver was able to hold his position and bring home valuable points to move Alfa Romeo up to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.

“I am really pleased with our race tonight: four points are a good reward for the team and show that all the work everyone back at base did during the winter is paying off. We showed we have a good race car and that we can fight with all the teams around us.

“It was a solid start to our season, but the work is not finished, of course: we have to keep improving, keep pushing – I know everyone in Hinwil is working to bring upgrades to our car. My race was good, a bit quiet at times: the start was really important, making those places on the opening lap was crucial as the cars around us are very well matched and overtaking is not easy.

In recent times, the Rallye du Maroc‘s route mainly consisted of a loop that started and ended in the same location. For 2023, however, the rally will opt for a linear path from Agadir along Morocco’s coast before heading eastwards to finish in Merzouga. The route was revealed on Friday, though specifics such as a breakdown of each stage and their lengths were not immediately disclosed.

Agadir is the capital of the Agadir-Ida Ou Tanane prefecture and a major tourist resort. It was the site of the 2022 bivouac and henceforth opened and closed that year’s rally.

The first two days on 12/13 October will be spent in Agadir before heading to Zagora, where the race will spend three days followed by 17/18 October in Merzouga. Merzouga, a village close to Morocco’s border with Algeria, is also a popular hub for tourism thanks to its proximity to Erg Chigaga, a large sea of dunes that will be included in the race.

The bivouac will be located in Zagora, approximately a midpoint for the rally in the Draa River valley.

Previously, the Rallye du Maroc had opted for the aforementioned loop format, with the 2022 edition running along the Moroccan coast. Prior to that, the route was multiple loops with the bivouac as the central start/finish location.

The FIM Bajas World Cup‘s revisions to its 2023 calendar in February meant the FIA would inevitably do the same to its World and Middle East Cups for Cross-Country Bajas to ensure they take place at the same time. Indeed, roughly a fortnight after the FIM’s changes, the FIA’s Cross-Country Rally Commission followed suit during a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Bahrain.

While the World Cup’s calendar remains at eight rounds, the final two rounds in Jordan and Dubai trade places. The Jordan Baja, originally 2–4 November, is now the finale on 23–25 November. Conversely, the Dubai International Baja moves from 1–3 December to 9–11 November.

Both rounds are also on the Middle East Cup schedule. However, the Middle Eastern championship’s Baja Kuwait originally planned for 23–25 November does not have a new date as of this article’s publishing.

The Baja Troia Türkiye was originally included on the Middle East Cup slate but was subsequently dropped, though it is still part of the European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas as the final round on 20–22 October.

The World and Middle East Cups began their seasons at the Saudi Baja in early February, which was won by Dakar Rally victor Nasser Al-Attiyah. Al-Attiyah, who is also competing for the World Rally-Raid Championship, leads the Bajas World Cup entering this weekend’s next round in Qatar while Yasir Seaidan is the Middle East Cup points leader but is not entered for Qatar.

Twins Aliyyah and Yasmeen Koloc had hoped to run the 2023 Dakar Rally together, but a hand injury sustained by the latter forced her to back out shortly before it was set to begin and Aliyyah raced on her own. With Yasmeen’s wrist improving, she is hoping to make her Dakar début in 2024 alongside her sister.

Yasmeen hurt her wrist in a crash while racing in the 24H Series at Spa-Francorchamps in April 2022, which sidelined her for much of the year and prompted plans like competing in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series to be dropped. She hoped to recover in time for Dakar but was not fully ready to take part, resulting in two-time winner Josef Macháček taking over her T3 with which he finished eleventh in class.

For 2023, she intends to compete part-time in the FIA Middle East Cup for Cross-Country Bajas to ease herself back into racing form. While not entered for this weekend’s Qatar International Baja, the Cup has two more rounds including her hometown Dubai International Baja in November.

“I had to pause for a long time due to my injury, so I can’t wait to finally return to racing. This year, I will focus on off-road racing as my target remains to finally compete in the Dakar Rally,” said Yasmeen. “It wasn’t meant to be this year, so I will use this season as an additional training ground to be prepared as much as possible for the 2024 event.”

Aliyyah’s first Dakar Rally ended with a thirty-third in T3, which she improved upon at the next World Rally-Raid Championship round in Abu Dhabi when she placed third in class among points-eligible drivers. While her rally raid experience has mainly been in an SSV, notably winning the 2022 Middle East Bajas championship, she also intends to dabble in top-level T1 vehicles in 2023.

In 2022, William Byron recorded his first multi-win season in the NASCAR Cup Series after eight races. In 2023, he only needed four races to achieve that.

After winning at Las Vegas last week in an overtime finish, déjà vu probably washed over Byron in Sunday’s United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway as he scored yet another victory in overtime.

Byron dominated the first stage by leading every lap but the first, which was by his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Kyle Larson, to win the segment. He fell back in Stage #2 due to a poor pit stop and had to work back through the order.

At the front, Larson dominated the second stage to win before Kevin Harvick took the lead on lap 269. Unfortunately for Harvick, he could not put much distance on the field as Harrison Burton spun on lap 303 due to a shredded right-front tyre, and Harvick would lose seven spots on pit road. This shuffled Larson back into first for the ensuing restart, only for A.J. Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, and Noah Gragson to wreck together after just one lap and trigger overtime.

Larson and Byron comprised the front row for overtime and raced side by side until Ryan Blaney tried to get involved. Riding along the outside, Byron cleared the two then drove off to the win while Blaney was left trying to fend off Tyler Reddick for second.

Last year, The Checkered Flag called the 2022 Mint 400 a “test of reliability” as every leader was knocked out by mechanical trouble until Kyle Jergensen held on for the win. Fast forward to 2023, and the carnage continued with Jergensen as one of the victims.

Saturday’s Mint 400 Unlimited race saw multiple frontrunners eliminated by mechanical trouble, which Rob MacCachren suggested was a byproduct of pushing the vehicle too hard in the first two laps. MacCachren was among those knocked out during said stretch with a transmission failure.

Every driver in the top five overall in qualifying—Justin Lofton, Jergensen, Dale Dondel, Ryan Arciero, and Tim Herbst—failed to finish, with Dondel being taken out almost immediately due to a hard landing off the very first jump. Said jump had also presented problems during the Limited race on Friday that resulted in officials urging competitors to bypass it when they start the next lap. Arciero, who was leading the 2022 Mint when truck problems struck, exited with a broken U-joint in his transmission.

Amid the chaos, Eric Hardin inherited the lead after Kevin Thompson‘s truck broke down on lap three and, despite fears of his transmission coming apart in the last twenty miles, held on to beat Christian Sourapas with a time of 6:46:37, over twelve minutes and forty-two seconds ahead. Sourapas was filling in for his father Steve, who had a medical situation prior to the weekend, and walked away with a runner-up despite having last raced a fully-fledged Trophy Truck in 2020 (he mainly competed in Spec truck models)

“I couldn’t be more humbled to able to honour my dad yesterday with a podium finish,” said Sourapas on Sunday. “I know he wanted to race so bad, so doing well for him meant the world to me.

The 2022 Extreme E season saw four teams win a Final. While the 2023 season is twice as long thanks to the new doubleheader format, it already has two different victors in as many races.

Carlos Sainz‘s ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team is the newest team to add their name to the all-time win list when Mattias Ekström and Laia Sanz held off Saturday winner Veloce Racing in the Grand Final. The victory finally got the team over the hump after coming close with a pair of runner-up finishes in 2022, while Ekström notched his maiden victory in just his second race with the outfit, having replaced Sainz for 2023 due to injuries his Audi rally raid team-mate sustained at the Dakar Rally in January.

“What a great weekend at Extreme E. Driving for Carlos’ team already felt special, but bringing home P2 and team’s first ever WIN was just amazing,” tweeted Ekström. “Laia drove incredibly and the whole #AccionaSainz team did a great job. Let’s continue like this.”

The win came after a very close call in qualifying as ACCIONA | Sainz barely made the Grand Final on a tiebreaker. The team had tied with X44 for fifth in the classification after two rounds of heats at twelve points apiece, aided by X44 receiving a 3.7-second penalty in their second heat for Cristina Gutiérrez speeding in the switch bay that relegated them from third to fourth.

Veloce had dominated Sunday’s qualifying by winning both of their heats. With Veloce and ACCIONA | Sainz trading firsts and seconds in both days’ Grand Finals, they are tied atop the standings. Rosberg X Racing sits third after taking the last step of the podium for both Finals.

It was the first race weekend for newly appointed McLaren F1 Team boss Andrea Stella in Bahrain, after he was promoted to the role due to the departure of Andreas Seidl to the Sauber Group.

It didn’t go to plan at all for the new man in charge around the Bahrain International Circuit, with Lando Norris having a pneumatic pressure leak, that affected his race due to the high amount of pit stops he made. The British driver finished last of the drivers that finished the race and would have been disappointed with the lack of reliability that cost him a potential points finish.

McLaren didn’t just have problems with Norris though, Oscar Piastri failed to finish his Formula 1 debut after an electrical issue during his first stint. The Australian driver was showing good pace in the first few laps and was climbing positions, but another reliability issue from McLaren cost them another opportunity to score points.

“It’s not the start of the season for which we were hoping,” admitted Stella.

“Points were certainly possible today, the cars had competitive pace in race stints, and Lando particularly was in a strong position. Unfortunately, we were hit by two reliability issues.

Lando Norris reflected on “a very tough race” for the McLaren F1 Team in Bahrain, for the first round of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Norris had a few issues throughout the race that cost him a lot of time, meaning his race was over before it really started. The main issue that Norris was suffering was a pneumatic leak, that forced him to pit six times throughout the race. He, unsurprisingly, finished last in front of the other retired drivers. 

McLaren have a lot of work to do to get back into a point-scoring position, and they need to ensure that reliability is improved before Formula 1 heads to Saudi Arabia next weekend.

“A very tough race,” said Norris.

“We had a few issues we had to manage, which really took us out of the race but we tried to stay in it for as long as possible, just in case there was a Safety Car or something and we might have had a chance at the end.

Moneygram Haas F1 Team’s boss Guenther Steiner left Bahrain rather disappointed, after the team missed out on points in the first race of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Steiner admitted that Kevin Magnussen’s race was made even more difficult after the team started him on the wrong tyre, with the Danish driver being the only driver to start on the hard and not the soft compound tyre. Magnussen started low down on the grid after a poor qualifying session on Saturday, but showed good race pace to move up to thirteenth.

Nico Hulkenberg had an unlucky race on his return to Formula 1 at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Despite having a really good qualifying session, which ensured he started tenth, the German driver picked up damage on the first lap, causing him to lose a lot of pace in his first stint, which put a points finish out of reach after he switched his damaged front wing.

“The result wasn’t what we expected – Nico didn’t have a great start losing a front wing endplate and Kevin was, in hindsight, on the wrong tire at the start. I think race pace was better than we expected and that’s what we take away from here – there is good potential in the car,” said Steiner.

Steiner believes that the team can improve ahead of the next race and thinks that “points are possible” in the second race of the season, as F1 returns to Saudi Arabia for the third consecutive season.