Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

When the Mint 400 returns on 8–12 March, there will be some unique company on the card as Formula DRIFT will be heavily involved throughout the week. The drift championship will conduct exhibitions at the start/finish midway in Primm while also joining the parade of entries in Las Vegas.

Participating drivers and a specific schedule were not immediately announced.

“Ryan Sage and his team have built one of the most valuable cultures in modern motorsports,” said Mint 400 co-owner Matt Martelli. “Formula DRIFT has highly entertaining events coupled with unmatched digital reach and engagement with the youth market. We have watched them thrive while other forms of motorsports have audiences that are aging out. Their audience is exactly who we want to introduce off-road racing to. We are stoked to have them involved with the Mint 400 and plan on extending our relationship to our other events as well. Formula D drivers will be integrated into everything from the parade to the Off-Road Festival to the start/finish midway at Primm.”

Formula DRIFT, also known as Formula D, is the top drifting series in North America and one of the biggest globally. Some drivers from Formula D have also dabbled in the Mint 400 such as two-time series champion Tanner Foust and Rhys Millen, the latter of whom won the Mint’s UTV Unlimited class in 2018.

“We have watched the Martelli Brothers turn the Mint 400 into the biggest off-road event in North America,” commented Sage, who co-founded Formula DRIFT. “I see a lot of crossover of our audiences and believe we both mutually benefit from the new relationship. This is the perfect way to introduce our form of motorsport to people who already love motorsports.”

Cory Roper has been indefinitely suspended for violating NASCAR‘s substance abuse policy. Details of the infraction such as the offending substance were not publicly revealed nor has Roper commented on the matter.

NASCAR’s policy on substances is outlined in Section 4.1 of the rulebook, while violations also fall under Section 10.1.A for “general procedure”.

Roper oversees Craftsman Truck Series team Roper Racing alongside his family, and has raced for the operation since 2018. For 2023, Roper Racing will field the #04 Ford F-150 for Kaden Honeycutt in the first six races, though Honeycutt failed to qualify for the season opener at Daytona last week.

As a driver, Roper nearly won the 2021 Daytona race but was edged out by Ben Rhodes coming to the finish and placed third. It was his best finish to date and one of three career top tens alongside a ninth at Texas in 2019 and sixth at Talladega later in 2021. Roper’s lone start of 2022 at Talladega was aborted due to weather concerns.

NASCAR has conducted random drug testing since 2009 for all personnel including drivers and crew. The most recent suspension of a driver is Xfinity Series owner/driver Caesar Bacarella in late 2021.

Kenny Wallace, one of NASCAR‘s most colourful personalities during his near-three-decade career, will make his Superstar Racing Experience début in the 2023 finale at Lucas Oil Speedway on 17 August. The dirt track is his SRX home circuit in Missouri.

“I’ve always been a big fan of the SRX series because it’s good for racing in every way, and now that it’s on Thursday nights, it’s even better,” Wallace said. “I am truly honoured and humbled at the same time to race with these world-class drivers. When you see me at an SRX event, I will be smiling from ear to ear and giving it everything I got on and off the race track.”

Wallace has raced in all three NASCAR national series, especially in the second-tier Xfinity Series; he has 547 total starts in said division from 1988 to 2015 with nine victories and a runner-up championship finish in 1991. The younger brother of fellow drivers Rusty and Mike Wallace, he also boasts 366 starts in the Cup Series and was a regular in the late 1990s despite never winning a race.

Since retiring from NASCAR in 2015, he has continued racing on dirt tracks in modifieds while also covering NASCAR as a pit reporter for FOX Sports. For 2023, he has been scaling back his schedule from full-time competition but intends to keep racing from time to time.

“I’ve known Kenny for a really long time,” commented SRX CEO Don Hawk. “I like how he drives, how he rolls and the passion he brings regarding all forms of motorsports but particularly in this case as he’s been a huge fan of SRX since day one.”

Pierre Gasly is set to start his first season with BWT Alpine F1 Team and looks forward to getting acclimated to his new team and taking his first laps in testing with the newly revealed A523. 

Moving over to the French outfit after five full years in Formula 1 under the Red Bull umbrella, Gasly is excited to support the team in achieving its goals and vying for competitive results. 

“It’s fantastic to be officially unveiled as a BWT Alpine F1 Team Race Driver and I’m very much looking forward to this next stage of my career.

“I am eager to see the potential and capabilities of the A523 at pre-season testing and to continue getting more comfortable with the team.”

Having had the opportunity to run in last year’s Alpine at the post-season test, Gasly is optimistic about A523’s potential as well as what he hopes to accomplish with the team this upcoming season. 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon is ready to take on the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship and begin testing with the newly-launched A523. 

Alpine ended the 2022 season in fourth place, with Ocon slotting into eighth place in the drivers standings. Now partnered with Pierre Gasly for 2023,The French driver hopes to help the team reach its goals and keep moving forward. 

“I am very excited for the coming season with BWT Alpine F1 Team, my fourth year with the Enstone-Viry family. We showed some great progress in 2022 and everyone in France and the United Kingdom has been working hard on developing the car for 2023.”

Ocon will take to the track for Thursday’s afternoon testing session at Bahrain International Circuit, where he will have his first opportunity to see where A523 stands performance-wise and prepare for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. 

“I cannot wait to get the season underway to continue the upwards trajectory from last year, and I am looking forward to testing the car properly in the pre-season test.”

Florian Modlinger, Team Principal of the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team is aware that the Germans “must keep working hard” this weekend at the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix, after the side moved to the top of the Constructors’ Championship in Hyderabad.

Porsche’s weekend in India was somewhat remarkable, given that it started in the worst way possible after Pascal Wehrlein was sent to hospital following a huge crash, as a result of VCU failure. Following the crash, the manufacturer took no further part in the weekend until Free Practice Two, meaning they lost valuable time. Remarkably, they bounced back in fine fashion, with António Félix da Costa having claimed his first podium for the team, whilst Wehrlein finished fourth.

The result saw Wehrlein extend his lead in the standings, whilst Porsche moved to the top of the Constructors’ Championship. So, how did Porsche recover from a huge setback so well? Modlinger believes the side’s “sensational” effort played a huge part.

“It was possibly due to the sensational team effort. Starting with the mechanics who rebuilt the car overnight after Pascal’s accident during the practice session, to the engineers who analysed the data and fixed the problems. And let’s not forget the drivers.

“Missing the first free practice was a clear disadvantage compared to their rivals but they made the most out of it. Pascal in particular made a huge impression with his mental grit and incredible performance on race day. I’m extremely proud of the attitude and willpower of everyone on the team.”

Drivers’ Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein is “looking forward” to this weekend’s inaugural Cape Town E-Prix, an event which he expects to be a “highlight of the season”, as South Africa prepares to host the fifth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Wehrlein heads to South Africa on the back of an incredibly mixed weekend in Hyderabad, with the German having endured a trip to hospital following a huge crash at the start of the previous round. Thankfully, Wehrlein was able to compete in the remainder of the weekend and astonishingly finished fourth, despite having started the race in twelfth. It was a performance of a championship leader, a lead he actually extended to eighteen points following his excellent recovery.

Looking back on Hyderabad, Wehrlein is “very happy” with his performance given how the weekend started, with the German admitting himself that his crash was “not ideal for preparation”.

“It certainly wasn’t an easy weekend. We only get two practice sessions for each race and so it’s not ideal for preparation when you miss out on one because of an incident. Still, we made the best of it. Our mechanics worked through the night with only an hour’s sleep to put my car back on the track. I was in the hospital until late at night. So with this in mind, I’m very happy with the result. These points are crucial for the championship.”

With a month break taking place after this weekend, Wehrlein will be keen to keep his momentum going into the four week break. If he’s able to extend his title lead then it’d mark a superb first five rounds of the season, but the new circuit in Cape Town will present a number of challenges with everyone “starting from scratch”.

Last week saw the announcement that the former BTC Racing outfit would be rebranded to Starline Racing with One Motorsport with a top driver line-up announced featuring multiple race winners.

Those being Josh Cook who is a familiar face to those at the team and also Aidan Moffat who switches after Laser Tools brought their backing to MB Motorsport and ended their time as a team in the championship.

Switching from the Infiniti, he will now tackle the Honda Civic Type R alongside Cook who sealed five race wins last year and will look to make more of a concerted title charge.

“We’re thrilled to announce the rebranding and delighted to rejuvenate our BTCC line-up and welcome Aiden in, whilst re-signing Josh was an incredibly important step,” said Team Principal Danny Buxton. “Aiden is a class act and I feel he has yet to reach his potential. I’m confident with the support network we’ll provide, he’ll be a front-runner from day one. Josh is raring to go and we’re pushing extremely hard to ensure he has all the winning tools. Together with the exciting Starline LKQ Euro Car Parts partnership, we’re ideally positioned for all challenges in BTCC racing,”

“I’m really happy to be signed with Starline Racing by One Motorsport for the 2023 BTCC season,” proclaimed Moffat. “Seeing how competitive they were in the Honda Civic FK8 gives me a massive buzz that I just didn’t have last year. A massive thanks to Steve Dudman, Danny Buxton and Will Powell for making this all work.

NAPA Racing UK after a stellar opening season becoming Teams Champions and runner-up in the Drivers’ Championship despite a poor start initially from Ash Sutton have announced their new livery but also a four driver line-up for 2023.

Sutton is joined once more by Dan Cammish for another year, while the team ran by Motorbase will add Sam Osborne who will set his sights on Jack Sears honors. While in a major move, Dan Rowbottom who has been a forerunner during his time with Halfords Racing with Cataclean will bring his sponsorship with him and switch teams.

The striking blue and yellow livery returns alongside a range of new sponsors on the car and it is a move that sends a statement out to the rest of the grid.

“We’re absolutely delighted to announce the four-car line up with NAPA this year. I’m really looking forward to seeing all four cars line up on the grid for the first time. Since NAPA Racing UK started this journey with us, it has been non-stop excitement and evolution,” said Team Manager Oly Collins.

“Together, we have brought a new approach to the Championship and shown exactly how to maximise opportunities wherever possible. Every area of the team behind this have pushed boundaries both on and off track, so we’re really looking forward to our second season as NAPA Racing UK.

With World Rally-Raid Championship Rally2 points leader Romain Dumontier electing to sit out this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Michael Docherty had hoped to seize the opportunity after finishing third in class at the Dakar Rally. Unfortunately for Docherty, a lingering wrist injury from Dakar will force him to miss the race as well.

“It pains me to say but I won’t be racing Abu Dhabi Dessert challenge due to my wrist injury from Dakar, but will be getting it fixed and will be back to racing soon,” wrote Docherty on Tuesday. “Thank you again to everyone in my corner and all the supporters.”

Docherty hurt his wrist after crashing seventy kilometres into the Dakar Rally’s third stage, with which he continued to race despite not being able to push himself as hard as he would when healthy. Despite the hampered performance, he was still able to score three more Rally2 stage wins and ended his Dakar début with four (Stages #2, #8, #10, #13) total plus the Prologue. He finished third in class behind Dumontier and Paolo Lucci.

The second half of the Rally saw him step up his game to the point where he was competing alongside the top bikes in the premier RallyGP category. This was highlighted by a third-place overall in Stage #10 and a runner-up three legs later, the latter of which saw him briefly lead at the finish before eventual Dakar bike champion Kevin Benavides edged him out by twenty-seven seconds via time credit for helping his downed team-mate Matthias Walkner. Both runs were the best for a Rally2 rider since Mason Klein notched a third in Stage #3 of 2022.

Although Docherty and Dumontier are both unavailable for Abu Dhabi, they can drop their worst finish or a skipped round from their championship points total. Still, Lucci, Jean-Loup Lepan, and Toni Mulec hope to capitalise on their absences as will those who did not race Dakar like Konrad Dąbrowski. Dumontier left Dakar with thirty-eight points, an eight-point advantage over Lucci and fourteen on Docherty; Lepan has twenty points while Lepan, the next best rider racing Abu Dhabi, is seventh with fourteen. Andrei Cristian Danila and Ionuț Florea are also W2RC-eligible Rally2 riders making their débuts at Abu Dhabi, and there are thirty other entries in the class not competing for points.

When the 2023 FIM Bajas World Cup began with the Saudi Baja in early February, the Dubai International Baja was set as the final round but without a confirmed date. The last three races had their slots set in stone on Monday, with Dubai being bumped to the penultimate race while the Jordan Baja is now the finale.

The Jordan Baja was originally planned for 2–4 November but has been pushed back to 23–25 November. Dubai’s date was listed as TBA in December but will now be on 9–1 November. While the FIM’s top cross-country championship swaps Jordan and Dubai, the FIA’s World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas is still currently set to hit both rounds in that order to close out its season, with both sanctioning bodies’ Jordan Baja being together but the FIA’s Dubai International Baja on 1–3 December.

Also locked in with a date is the Baja do Oesta in Portugal, now set for 6–8 October. It is the second-to-last round of the Portugal All-Terrain Championship (Campeonato Portugal de Todo-o-terreno, CPTT). While the CPTT mainly competes in Portugal, it also has a round in Spain with the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura that the FIM Bajas World Cup will also run in April.

The FIA and FIM World Cups, which are not to be confused with the co-sanctioned World Rally-Raid Championship, has four rounds together: the Saudi Baja, the Qatar International Baja, the Baja España Aragón, and the Jordan Baja.

Of the eight rounds, six will count for the championship with a rider’s two worst results dropped. Mohammed Al-Balooshi won the FIM Bajas World Cup opener in Saudi Arabia.

Revised FIM Bajas World Cup schedule

While fifty-five entrants for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge compete for the World Rally-Raid Championship, there are plenty of others just there to fight for the race win.

Twenty-one of the non-championship entrants are competing in FIA classes while thirty-three are on bikes or quads.

Some previously entered the W2RC season opener in the Dakar Rally, most notably the T1 of Henk Lategan whose Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah won the overall.

GRallyTeam‘s owner Guillaume de Mevius will not race at Abu Dhabi, but his team will still be present with a pair of T3 entries for Lionel Baud and Yungang Zi. Baud competed at Dakar in T1 but will trade his Overdrive Hilux T1+ for an Overdrive OT3, while Zi’s entry is fielded in conjunction with the Chinese team BAIC ORV.

Anja van Loon is competing in T3 like she did at Dakar, but this time will get to race against her husabnd Erik van Loon, who ran Dakar in T1 but will switch to T3 for Abu Dhabi. Both van Loons will be part of South Racing, though Erik is eligible for the W2RC.

Thomas Biermaier, Team Principal of the ABT CUPRA Formula E Team has hailed this weekend’s inaugural Cape Town E-Prix as a “dream come true” for their driver Kelvin van der Linde, who is replacing Robin Frijns once again this weekend at the fifth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Van der Linde’s appearance at his home E-Prix will likely be his final weekend in the driving seat, with the expectation being that Frijns will return next month at round six in Brazil. The South African has performed well since stepping in for Frijns, with him having performed better than team-mate Nico Mueller in Diriyah, before suffering technical gremlins last time out in Hyderabad.

The recent round in India was actually Mueller’s best of the season, with the Swiss driver having come agonisingly close to scoring the team’s first points of the season, after finishing eleventh. Progress was definitely made by the backmarker side in India, with the hope being amongst the squad that they can make further “steps forward” this weekend.

Biermaier has shared how “huge” the anticipation is ahead of this weekend’s race, with it being the perfect place for ABT CUPRA to finally score their first points of the season.

“The anticipation for the debut of Formula E in Cape Town is huge, you can feel it throughout the paddock. It’s a bit of a dream come true for our local hero Kelvin, even if he would of course have wished the circumstances of his home race to be different. We recently made steps forward in India, and that’s exactly where we want to pick up: the goal in Cape Town must be to race for points again.”

Kelvin van der Linde‘s “dream is actually coming true”, with the South African preparing to compete in an FIA World Championship race in his home country, at the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix.

Van der Linde’s home nation are hosting the fifth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, with the expectation being that it will more likely than not be the South African’s final race before Robin Frijns returns. Frijns has recovered faster than anyone could’ve predicted, with the Dutchman having been in contention to return this weekend. It was ultimately decided that it was too soon for Frijns to return; however, with the sixth round not being until the end of March, he’ll presumably be back for that.

With that in mind, Van der Linde will be hoping to make the most of his home weekend, with the South African having had his weekend in Hyderabad ridiculed by technical issues. He’ll be hoping for a clean event in Cape Town so that he can put on an excellent display, with the interest in the E-Prix being “enormous”.

“Now this dream is actually coming true and I’m driving a World Championship race in South Africa. We all hoped that Robin would be fit in time. But of course, I will now give everything to represent him decently in Cape Town as well. The interest is enormous, my phone doesn’t stop ringing and buzzing. I’m really looking forward to the weekend.”

“The pictures from Cape Town will go around the world” – Nico Mueller

Nico Mueller enjoyed his best race of the season last time out in Hyderabad, with the Swiss driver having come incredibly close to scoring the ABT CUPRA Formula E Team‘s first points of the season, after finishing eleventh.

Maserati MSG Racing will be hoping that they’re finally blessed with some good luck at the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix this weekend, with the side having endured a season’s worth of bad luck just in the opening four rounds of the season.

The recent round in Hyderabad summed up their season so far, with both Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Günther having both looked strong and set for solid points, only for bad luck to rob the team in unfortunate fashion. Mortara ran deep into Turn Three at the start of the race and hit Nick Cassidy, resulting in a trip to the pits for a new front wing. However, he astonishingly still recovered from last to finish tenth, securing him a point.

Günther was looking good for a possible top six, only to then be caught up in Sam Bird‘s accident at Turn Three, which resulted in the German dropping several places after being blocked. When things do finally go Maserati’s way, it’s clear that points finishes will become the norm for the side, who have just three points so far this season. The Monte-Carlo-based team have gotten stronger at each round this season, suggesting that this weekend will perhaps be the one where they burst into the top five.

Given their bad luck, the team’s togetherness is commendable, with Team Principal James Rossiter having recognised that the sides’ “spirits” are “high right now”, given that they do have a solid package.

Maserati head into Cape Town with Rossiter knowing that if luck is finally on the team’s side, then they will finally be able to “show our true performance”, something which will reveal just how strong their car is this season.