Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Tyler Reddick missed the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs’ Round of 12 by just two points. Had he made up those points, he would already be locked into the Round of 8 after winning at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Reddick led the final fifty laps to secure his third career win and extend the streak of non-playoff drivers winning in the postseason to four. He is the first Richard Childress Racing driver to win thrice in a season since Kevin Harvick won four times in 2013.

However, Reddick’s win was overshadowed by a plethora of Goodyear tyre failures. By the end, excluding the two stage breaks, fourteen cautions were called, nearly all of which were for single-car accidents stemming from blown tyres. While Goodyear has regularly warned teams against running lower air pressures than recommended, they faced a barrage of criticism from fans and drivers alike for the situation.

“If your thinking that maybe NASCAR will look into someone else for tires, keep dreaming. GY pays them a fat check so they are allowed to gouge the teams each week,” tweeted Denny Hamlin.

“Goodyear is working with the teams on their setups and everything else to try to mitigate the problems that we’re certainly seeing,” commented NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller. “We’re all learning about the setups, the tyres. Goodyear is learning about the construction, the new wheel. It’s an unfortunate part of a learning process.

After two weeks off, this weekend sees the return of the incredibly demanding Singapore Grand Prix; however, Pirelli Motorsports Director Mario Isola has warned that fans are instore for a “totally new race” due to the Marina Bay Circuit having been laid with “new asphalt”.

The Singapore night race is profoundly known as arguably the most demanding and physical event on the calendar, due to the high temperatures and unbearable humidity that reigns long into the Asian night. The race also typically goes close to the two-hour limit, with drivers having lost an astounding amount of weight before during the Grand Prix.

This weekend will be Formula 1‘s first time racing around the streets of Singapore since 2019, following a two-year absence due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The previous race at the venue was won by Sebastian Vettel, with Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen completing the podium.

With this weekend presenting somewhat of an unknown factor, given how long its been since any teams have gathered data at the venue, Pirelli have opted to bring the three softest compounds in their range, the C3, C4 and C5. Whether these will even be used remains to be seen, with heavy downpours and thunderstorms forecast for the entire weekend.

The new asphalt, which has been laid by Italian company Dirmo, isn’t as smooth as usually seen given the fact it is a street circuit, where a number of road lines and bumps will remain.

FIA Formula 3 post-season testing began on Wednesday 21 September ar Jerez, Spain; making up one-third of the PREMA racing lineup for the three-day test was rising Ferrari Driver Academy starlet Dino Beganovic. 

Beganovic, who currently leads the Formula Regional European Championship by fifty-four points, entered the weekend keen to gather some valuable data for the PREMA team in his first ever outing in a Formula 3 car.

The test started slowly for the Swede, however, as he recorded a 1:31.660 to end the morning session of day one all the way down in fifteenth place.

However, the afternoon session would prove to be much more positive for Beganovic as an extremely impressive 1:31.358 meant he finished the session second, four places ahead of next best PREMA finisher Zak O’Sullivan.

Beganovic once again struggled to reach full potential in day two’s morning session, as a 1:30.383 left him twelfth, however, the impetus of PREMA’s morning session looked to be focused on gathering data, and Beganovic’s forty-four laps haul in the morning session alone certainly would have contributed to that.

Shane van Gisbergen is on the verge of winning his third Supercars Championship, and is eager to bring his strong résumé to America in 2023. In an interview with Nine’s Wide World of Sports, he revealed he has talked with Trackhouse Racing Team owner Justin Marks about making his NASCAR Cup Series début.

In the decade since his Supercars career was seemingly at a standstill, he has become one of the series’ top drivers. After joining Triple Eight Engineering in 2016, he has won fifty-two times along with a pair of championships that year and in 2021. His title defence has only further established his dominance with nineteen victories and a very comfortable points lead with three rounds remaining.

While van Gisbergen intends to continue his time in Supercars after 2022, he has started to express interest in other racing opportunities. This weekend will see his début in the World Rally Championship at Rally New Zealand, consummating his increasing participation in the discipline in domestic competition. He has also invariably competed in America in the past, most notably attempting the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona from 2014 to 2017 with a runner-up class finish in 2015.

“[I]t’s all dependent on our calendar and what races I can do and if there’s time to get over there and back without upsetting Supercars,” said van Gisbergen. “I’d love to do a road course and have a go, for sure, it’s just getting the right opportunity.”

NASCAR will be a new foray for the Kiwi, but one that became more viable with the introduction of the Next Gen car, which shares numerous characteristics with the Supercars. The new vehicle’s rollout also coincided with NASCAR’s growing embrace of road courses, with the 2023 Cup schedule set to feature six including Circuit of the Americas and Watkins Glen International: COTA was on the Supercars calendar in 2013, where van Gisbergen finished twenty-sixth, fifth, and third in three races, while he placed fourth in class at WGI’s 2017 IMSA round. Van Gisbergen also showed intrigue in the new Chicago Street Race scheduled for 2 July.

For the first time ever, Rosberg X Racing failed to reach an Extreme E Final, though of no fault of the drivers as a technical issue ended their day despite topping qualifying and winning Semi-Final #1. With the points leader out of the picture, X44 Vida Carbon Racing found new life in the championship battle as Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez scored their first win of the season.

“We were surprised to see that Rosberg X Racing weren’t competing in the Final, but we didn’t have a lot of time to think about it as we were racing straight away,” said Loeb.

X44, winner of Semi-Final #2, faced significant pressure from McLaren XE until the latter’s Emma Gilmour received two time penalties totalling fifteen seconds for knocking down waypoint flags. Although Chip Ganassi Racing was moved up to second in McLaren’s stead, they suffered the same fate for Sara Price missing a checkpoint, with the resulting five-second infraction knocking them off the podium and promoting ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team and ABT CUPRA XE up a spot.

The win is X44’s second after claiming the 2021 season-ending Jurassic X Prix. It also concludes a strong first round under the X44 Vida Carbon Racing name after the company became the team’s title sponsor weeks before the Copper X Prix.

“Today was amazing, we are so happy to have won the Copper X Prix and to still be in the fight for the championship,” commented Gutiérrez. “Rosberg X Racing are a really strong team so for them to not be able to drive in the Final was not good for them, but hopefully it is more interesting to have more than one team fighting for the championship in Uruguay.”

Tom Ingram cruised to victory in Race Three at Silverstone to set up a mouth-watering conclusion to this year’s British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season in two weeks at Brands Hatch.

The top three drivers are only separated by just seven points with Ash Sutton as reigning champion leaving the Northamptonshire circuit with a slender lead after outscoring Jake Hill in second compared to fourth but the RoKIT MB Motorsport driver is next followed by Ingram, whilst a poor weekend for Colin Turkington leaves him 27 points behind.

To begin the race, Josh Cook was on pole but made contact off the line with Dan Cammish with Adam Morgan also caught up with the frenetic opener which left the door ajar for Ingram, Sutton and Rory Butcher to ease through. Hill nearly saw his race up in smoke after contact with Shedden at Brooklands but recovered to carve his way through to fourth, while Cammish and Cook recovered to round out the top six.

Another top display from Tom Chilton saw the EXCELR8 driver sit seventh ahead of Shedden, Ollie Jackson and Aron Taylor-Smith with Turkington as mentioned down in 12th and needing a miracle seemingly to seal the title once more.

2022 British Touring Car Championship – Race 3 – Silverstone

Jake Hill is within only two points of Ash Sutton atop the Drivers Championship heading into the final race of the day at Silverstone after the RoKIT MB Motorsport driver ignited the title fight with victory in Round 26.

With only four races to go, there is only a blanket of 14 points between the top four making it one of the closest battles in years but a move from Hill could stand out if he wins the Drivers’ Championship at Brands Hatch.

Losing out to Gordon Shedden in the opening laps, he reversed the positions around the quarter distance mark making an undercut through Luffield and Woodcote completing the move before Copse and he sealed the win from there albeit through a safety car period after Ricky Collard’s Toyota set on fire.

His teammate, Rory Butcher had better luck as he held off the charge of brother-in-law, Gordon Shedden to finish second with new championship leader, Ash Sutton fending off Tom Ingram in fourth and fifth.

Josh Cook who finished sixth behind Adam Morgan and Dan Cammish will head onto reverse grid pole as all eyes will be on the title fight, one that the Rich Energy BTC Racing driver was involved in for most of the season. Colin Turkington himself just missed out on the top 12 finishing 13th as he aims to bank vital points going into the final meeting.

Rory Butcher‘s love affair with Silverstone continued on Sunday afternoon as the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK driver followed up his pole position by sealing the opening BTCC race of the day around the Northamptonshire circuit.

Butcher sealed his first win of the season after claiming two victories last season at Silverstone and could do the same today. Starting the race, he stormed clear before being hounded down by the two BMW’s in tandem in Jake Hill and Adam Morgan for RoKIT MB Motorsport and Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport with a safety car putting his lead into doubt.

But he safely navigated the latter portion of the race surviving intense pressure to eventually cross the line for his tenth BTCC career victory and take a confidence booster into Race Two.

While the leading pack were battling out front which also included title contenders Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton who finished fifth and sixth, it was Colin Turkington who took the headlines as the championship leader was bumped down to the rear of the field.

Ingram initially lost out in an opening melee but finished fifth, for Turkington though he was the victim of further contact and his hopes of scoring championship points were quashed in a rebuild job likely towards Race Three now at a vital point of the season.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series winner at Darlington? Noah Gragson.

The Xfinity winner a week later at Kansas? Noah Gragson.

The Xfinity winner the week after that at Bristol? Noah Gragson.

The Xfinity winner in the following race at Texas Motor Speedway? Noah Gragson.

After taking the lead with twelve laps remaining in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300, Gragson drove off to win for the fourth straight race. He is the second driver in Xfinity Series history to achieve such a feat after Sam Ard won at South Boston, Martinsville, Rougemont, and Charlotte in four straight races in 1983 (although Kyle Busch won all five of his Xfinity starts in 2021, they were not consecutive races).

Rosberg X Racing entered the Copper X Prix needing thirty-one points to secure their second straight Extreme E championship. While this was not possible to attain from qualifying alone, a strong Saturday gives them momentum entering race day after being the fastest team in single-car qualifying for the fourth straight round.

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky and Johan Kristoffersson continued their Round #1 domination by beating X44 Vida Carbon Racing by over five seconds.

“We started off really well this morning. The car felt great and we had a good run,” said Kristoffersson. “In the second session I reacted too slow and had a bit of contact on turn one, which limited my visibility. The session was difficult, but I am happy that we got out in P1.”

Despite leading qualifying for ten points towards the intermediate classification, RXR’s Heat #1 win streak was snapped as Andretti United XE scored their second heat win of 2022. RXR still settled for second to record eighteen total points and still top Saturday’s activities.

Conversely, XITE Energy Racing and Veloce Racing crashed out of their heats, with the latter’s Lance Woolridge describing it as a “pretty frustrating end to our qualifying after we had a consistent and high improvement of pace through our sessions.

While certainly not how she would have wanted to do it, Klara Andersson will finally make her Extreme E début this weekend at the Copper X Prix. A Free Practice #2 crash on Friday resulted in Jutta Kleinschmidt being hospitalised for evaluation, throwing Andersson into the ABT CUPRA XE car in her stead as Nasser Al-Attiyah‘s team-mate.

While Kleinschmidt was not seriously injured in her FP2 incident, which entailed an especially rough landing that tore off her car’s nose, she was not cleared to take part in qualifying or any races over the weekend.

“After her accident in Free Practice 2 Jutta stayed in hospital overnight for further observation,” said the team. “The entire ABT CUPRA XE team is in close contact with Jutta and wishes her the very best.”

Andersson serves as Extreme E’s female Championship Driver, placing her in an advisory role to the series and first in line for a substitute position if any of the regular drivers are injured or otherwise unable to race. She initially began the 2022 season as a member of XITE Energy Racing, but a positive COVID-19 test ahead of the season opener in February sidelined her as the team elected to permanently roster reserve Tamara Molinaro.

In the meantime, she has focused on rallycross by competing in the FIA World Rallycross Championship‘s RX1e division for CE Dealer Team. She became the first woman to stand on a World RX podium when she finished third in Race #2 at Portugal, and is currently sixth in points.

Daniel Ricciardo is currently without a Formula 1 seat for 2023, after his deal with the McLaren F1 Team was ended early due to his poor performances and lack of pace compared to Lando Norris.

The Australian driver has been linked with the recently vacant BWT Alpine F1 Team seat, which was left open by Fernando Alonso‘s departure to the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team. Despite a difficult time at McLaren, Ricciardo has shown his quality over his F1 career, picking up eight wins and a number of impressive podiums.

His time at Oracle Red Bull Racing was particularly successful, he won seven races in his time with the Austrian outfit, an impressive number considering he raced against the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team in the peak of their dominance. He moved onto Renault in search of a Championship winning car, he performed well but ultimately the car fell short of the Australian’s expectations.

He moved onto McLaren in 2021 and struggled to adapt to the car, but won the team’s first race since 2012 at the Italian Grand Prix last year. Despite a win in his time at McLaren, it has failed to meet everyone’s expectations and McLaren announced that Oscar Piastri would drive for the team from 2023 onwards.

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner, still remains a big fan of the Australian after the pair worked with each other for many years at Red Bull. He thinks that there is still a quality driver in the Aussie and he deserves a seat. He spoke to the ‘Beyond The Grid‘ podcast recently and explained his thoughts on the Ricciardo saga.

For the first time in his NASCAR career, Parker Retzlaff will drive a Chevrolet as he joins Our Motorsports for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. He will pilot the #02 Chevrolet Camaro with sponsorship from FunkAway.

Retzlaff entered 2022 with plans of débuting in the Xfinity Series on a ten-race deal with RSS Racing. While he enjoyed solid pace with a tenth-place finish at Richmond and top twenties in his next three starts, he departed RSS in mid-September after attempting just five races.

“We took notice to the success that Parker was having this season,” said team owner Chris Our. “We’re excited to see what he can do in one of our Chevrolets.”

The 19-year-old Wisconsinite finished fourth in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series East standings for Cook-Finley Racing. All of his NASCAR regional series starts came with Toyota, which included three runs in the national ARCA Menards Series.

Retzlaff also competes in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for RFK Racing. He is thirty-first in points.

When the World Rally-Raid Championship resumes with the Rallye du Maroc on 1–10 October, Isidre Esteve will race in the highest level of the T1 class for the first time. On Thursday, Repsol Rally Team announced Esteve will drive a Toyota Hilux T1+, which enjoyed tremendous success at the 2022 Dakar Rally with Nasser Al-Attiyah.

“We are joining the T1+ category, the most competitive of the Dakar, with one of the fifth cars of the highest level that the event will have,” said Esteve.

“The cars in this division represent an important leap forward at a technical level. If we wanted to continue growing and being competitive, we had to get one of these units, and we have achieved it. The first test kilometres with the Toyota Hilux T1+ confirm that the leap forward is impressive. Now we can run much more taking half the risks than last year.”

Esteve and co-driver Txema Villalobos are no strangers to the Hilux, though they ran the Toyota Hilux Overdrive model prepared by Overdrive Racing for the T1.1 level. While the Overdrive has also been a viable vehicle, the T1+ presents upgrades such as larger wheels (43.18 cm instead of 15.24 cm) and more suspension travel (350 mm versus 275). Other differences include a more centralised engine and a wider base at 24 cm.

With the Hilux Overdrive, Esteve finished twenty-seventh overall at the 2022 Dakar Rally. Esteve has competed at Dakar since 2001, though originally on a bike before switching to four wheels in 2009. He and Villalobos first joined forces for the 2017 race, which marked Esteve’s first start since 2009, while 2021 saw his maiden race in the Hilux.

The ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team enjoyed a solid Friday as Carlos Sainz and Laia Sanz led the two Free Practice sessions ahead of the Copper X Prix.

The team beat points leader Rosberg X Racing by just two-tenths of a second in FP1, though the margin was actually much greater had Sanz not received a ten-second penalty for hitting a waypoint marker. The same infraction was also handed to Chip Ganassi Racing‘s Kyle LeDuc.

“The race in Chile will be important for ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team as an individual event but also in the bigger picture for the final stages of the championship because there are only two events to go in the calendar,” commented Sainz.

“We are traveling to a different continent and we visit South America for the very first time. I have fond memories of my time there with the World Rally Championship and the Rally Dakar and I am sure that Extreme E will also receive a warm welcome. It will be an excellent race. I am already looking forward to discovering the terrain where we will be racing and I want to see what challenges the track entails.”

ACCIONA | Sainz’s run comes just days after the team resumed rebuilding their Spark ODYSSEY 21, which suffered severe damage in a wreck at the first Island X Prix and forced them to run the second in the Extreme E test car. The team was also permitted to shake down the reconstructed car ahead of the weekend.