Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Trackhouse Racing Team owner Justin Marks is certainly proud of his NASCAR Cup Series operation’s success, having won thrice in just its second season, and the growing relationship with Camping World Truck Series outfit Niece Motorsports. On 9 July, Marks himself will pilot a Niece truck at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in his first NASCAR start since retiring in 2018. Worldwide Express will sponsor his #41 Chevrolet Silverado RST; the company already supports Trackhouse in the same capacity.

“The partnerships Niece Motorsports has formed with Worldwide Express and Trackhouse Racing have allowed us to explore new opportunities this year and we are excited to have Justin in our Worldwide Express Chevrolet at Mid-Ohio,” said Niece general manager Cody Efaw, who teased Marks’ entry in an interview on Davey Segal’s podcast Victory Lane in late June. “Worldwide Express’ commitment to our race teams and NASCAR as a whole makes this all possible and we look forward to continuing to strengthen our relationship.”

Prior to forming Trackhouse, Marks competed in NASCAR’s three national series from 2007 to 2018. His Cup starts were limited to the superspeedways and Sonoma with a best finish of twelfth in the 2018 Daytona 500, while he notched four top tens and two poles in thirty-eight career Truck starts.

Owing to his experience in road racing, having also raced and won in IMSA, he was mainly a road course specialist in the Xfinity Series save for an expanded schedule that included ovals with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2016. That year, he scored his lone NASCAR national win in the rain at Mid-Ohio, where he led forty-three laps. He purchased Ganassi’s Cup assets in 2021 to expand Trackhouse into a two-car stable.

Despite declaring he would not return to driving in NASCAR after his departure, even going as far as to proclaim that “ship has sailed!” in a May Reddit AMA, he has continued racing in series like Trans-Am and late models. He will also run the Superstar Racing Experience at Stafford Speedway on Saturday.

Carlos Sainz topped the second practice session at the 2022 British Grand Prix. After the restricted running in the first practice session, this was a dry session.

Lewis Hamilton finished second with a good lap which was only 0.163 seconds slower than the fastest lap. Lando Norris with a good lap early in the session finished in third position.

The second free practice session at the Silverstone Circuit started with air temperatures at 18 degrees C and track temperatures at 29 degrees C. The track was dry and the drivers were on the track immediately after the curtailed running in the first session.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C1), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C2), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C3), the hardest range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range. The dry weather tyres were in action after the intermediate tyres in the morning session.

Yuki Tsunoda set the first timed lap of 1m34.205s. Fernando Alonso on the soft compound tyres comfortably eclipsed that time with a lap time of 1m33.066s.

For the second straight round, JBXE has a new female driver announced less than a week before racing. After Molly Taylor ran the season opener in NEOM on a one-race deal, the team turns to Hedda Hosås to team up with Kevin Hansen for the Island X Prix doubleheader.

A Norwegian rallycross racer who doubles as Veloce Racing‘s reserve driver, Hosås was initially a guest Championship Driver for the Desert X Prix in February, serving as an advisor and backup for any team that might need the latter. Sure enough, Veloce turned to her after Christine GZ broke her foot in a qualifying crash. She and Lance Woolridge placed fourth in the Crazy Race and tenth in the classification.

Hosås continued working with Veloce as the team resumed testing in Southern France. With GZ now recovered from her injury but a seat now open at JBXE, Hosås took up the opportunity.

Veloce posted on social media, “We are pleased to be able to support @Heddahosaas and provide JBXE with our reserve and development driver in Sardinia, to encourage her development with us as we strive to push more female participation in our sport!”

The 21-year-old Hosås and Hansen, who is three years older, make up the youngest duo in the Extreme E field by a wide margin at an average age of 22.5. The second closest is Andretti United XE, where Hansen’s older brother Timmy and Catie Munnings combine to average 27 years of age.

Zak O’Sullivan took his and Carlin‘s first-ever pole position in the FIA Formula 3 Championship at Silverstone on Friday afternoon.

As in Free Practice earlier in the day, most of the field went out, set banker laps and boxed again in unison, making it difficult for the 29-car field to find clear track.

Martins improved on his early benchmark time but Maini, Bearman, Leclerc led with just under 20 minutes to go, before Bearman went less than a second ahead, but Maini took it straight back again.

Zane Maloney showed his hand to sit third just past the halfway stage, just ahead of Jonny Edgar, Arthur Leclerc and Caio Collet.

As they did in Free Practice earlier in the day, much of the field spent quite a while in the pits, before all heading out at the same time to try to secure clean air and pole position.

After over four months of waiting, Extreme E resumes its season with the second and third rounds in Sardinia, now dubbed the NEOM Island X Prix to reflect the Saudi megaproject’s increasing investment into the series. NEOM’s energy supplier ENOWA, now an official partner of Extreme E, is also chipping in by sponsoring the ENOWA Hyperdrive, one of two rule changes for the event alongside a revised Continental Traction Challenge.

The ENOWA Hyperdrive is a push-to-pass mechanism that provides a limited boost for each driver by pressing a button on the steering wheel. Extreme E’s cousin Formula E has a similar setup with Attack Mode, although Hyperdrive appears to be freely available unlike Attack Mode which requires drivers to drive across a designated area in a suboptimal line to accumulate boost. Other series like IndyCar and Formula One also utilise overtaking encouragement systems such as the latter’s KERS and DRS.

The Continental Traction Challenge is now a team effort as both male and female drivers will contribute. Like in past races, whoever sets the fastest time in a defined “super sector” earns five bonus points, though the Island X Prix will determine the Traction Challenge winner as the team with the fastest combined time between its drivers rather than just one person.

In the event of a tie in qualifying, the team with the better super sector time has the advantage. The Traction Challenge is also used to classify the sixth-place finisher between those who finished third in the two Semi-Finals.

“We are really excited for the upcoming Island X Prix double-header and are looking forward to once again proving the outstanding performance of our tires under the toughest and most challenging conditions,” commented Continental Tire EMEAS marketing head Enno Straten.

Zak O’Sullivan has stepped up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship for 2022 with Carlin, and is enjoying the prospect of his home race at Silverstone this weekend.

The reigning GB3 champion ended Free Practice in seventh place, an impressive showing considering the team’s struggles in the Championship so far this year.

“It wasn’t too bad, not what we were expecting! I think we expected a bit worse than that but we’ll wait and see how Qualifying goes.

“A lot of cars, especially the red cars [Prema Racing] seem to go a lot faster come Qualifying, but at the moment it looks like it could be wet so the standard British weather’s come into play last-minute.”

Around half of the grid is experiencing Silverstone for the first time, but Zak won there on his way to the GB3 title last August.

Valtteri Bottas led the first free practice session of the 2022 British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit.

Lewis Hamilton finished in second position, 0.532 seconds slower than the Finn. Carlos Sainz finished in third position at the end of the session.

The first free practice session of the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit started with air temperatures at 16 degrees C and track temperatures at 26 degrees C. The track was wet and the drivers went out on the intermediate tyres.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C1), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C2), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C3), the hardest range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

The teams have arrived for the tenth race of the season with a slew of new updates and the practice sessions will be used to test the performance of the new parts. The damp conditions at the start of the session made it difficult for the teams to execute their planned programs.

The MP Motorsport pairing of Kush Maini and Caio Collet topped Practice for the fourth round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship at Silverstone on Friday morning.

The drivers had spent over a month out of action since the last round in Barcelona, but wasted no time in getting back on the pace during the 45-minute session.

There was a fairly even split of drivers who had never experienced any of Silverstone’s layouts before, and Filip Ugran made the first mistake of the session by running off-track between Abbey and Farm, as he deputises for Alexander Smolyar at MP Motorsport this weekend.

Nazim Azman set the first representative lap for Hitech GP, having raced here during his 2020 GB3 Championship (then BRDC British Formula 3) campaign.

The Malaysian driver’s lap was deleted, though, which saw David Vidales and Francesco Pizzi take to the front for Campos Racing and Charouz Racing System respectively.

Molly Taylor will not defend her Island X Prix win in the upcoming doubleheader, she confirmed via social media on Thursday. She ran the 2022 Extreme E Championship opener with JBXE on a one-race deal, which the team did not renew for the next rounds in Sardinia.

Despite winning the inaugural championship in 2021 with Rosberg X Racing, Taylor was replaced by Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky for 2022. She lingered in free agency before being picked up by JBXE days before the season-opening Desert X Prix for that race only. Taylor and Kevin Hansen finished ninth after a dramatic run by the latter in the Crazy Race ended with him being hospitalised for a vertebra fracture.

In the four months between races, JBXE remained quiet on its plans for Sardinia and whether it would the partnership with Taylor before she formally verified her absence.

“Some amazing memories from Sardinia last year and whilst there are mixed emotions to not be competing there next week, I have made the decision to temporarily step back to work on a number of future projects which I’m very excited and passionate about,” reads an Instagram post by Taylor. “I had a great time standing in for round one at the last minute with JBXE, who really went above and beyond to make it happen! I wish them a fantastic remainder of the season and will be cheering them on.

“As for what’s next, there’s a lot that I can’t share yet, but your continued support & faith means the world to me. The pathway isn’t always easy to navigate and sometimes you’ve just got to take a leap. So here we go…”

After a three-week break, we are finally at the midpoint of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 calendar with round seven of the championship taking place at the home of British motorsport, the Silverstone Circuit.

The track is one of the few on the calendar which has featured in every season since Formula 2’s new era began in 2017.

The Story So Far

The championship leader, Felipe Drugovich, extended his lead at the top of the standings with another strong showing in Azerbaijan on the streets of Baku. The MP Motorsport man finished fifth in the Sprint Race and scored a third place podium finish in Sunday’s Feature Race.

However, it was the two rookies of ART Grand Prix’s Frederik Vesti and PREMA Racing’s Dennis Hauger who took the two victories of the weekend.

The Danish driver treated himself to his maiden F2 win after taking the lead from Jehan Daruvala in the late stages of Saturday’s Feature Race. He followed up his best ever result with a seventh place finish in the Feature.

Victor Martins arrives at Silverstone with a six-point lead in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, though four drivers celebrate their home race this weekend.

Three of those are Formula 1 junior drivers, Trident‘s returning Jonny Edgar at Red Bull, Oliver Bearman at Prema Racing is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy and GB3 champion Zak O’Sullivan is a Williams Academy Driver.

Japanese-American Reece Ushijima is racing under the British flag in F3 this season, and took his first points with Van Amersfoort Racing in Barcelona.

Bearman, O’Sullivan and Ushijima all went wheel-to-wheel in GB3 at Silverstone last August, with O’Sullivan winning Race 3 ahead of Bearman, while Ushijima took his first two GB3 wins at Hitech GP‘s home circuit in the earlier round in June.

O’Sullivan has been the standout performer at Carlin so far this year, taking all 13 of the team’s points to date.

Williams Racing is bringing a new upgrade package to the team’s home British Grand Prix, an event which Williams Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson considers to be a “highlight” of the season. Robson said that Silverstone Circuit will be a demanding event due to the track’s unique layout and the variable conditions. 

“The British Grand Prix is one of the highlights on the Formula One calendar, as well as being a traditional part of the British sporting summer. The Silverstone track is largely unchanged from last year and still presents a huge challenge for the cars, tyres and drivers. 

“The track is characterised by its high-speed corners and regular short straights, and the exposed Silverstone site means that the wind can have a dramatic and often unpredictable effect on the cars.”

Robson said that the team are set to run an aerodynamics upgrade on Alex Albon’s car, which will modify its bodywork and floor in order to provide more downforce. 

“We have an updated aero package for this weekend, which will run on Alex’s car only as we look to check its behaviour and confirm that it is working as intended. The bodywork and floor form the basis of the upgrade and are intended to efficiently increase the downforce of the car.”

Alex Albon is excited to return to the British Grand Prix, a race weekend that is particularly special to both him and Williams Racing as their home event. Silverstone Circuit is a track that holds many memories for the Thai-British driver, and is also a favourite from a driving stand-point.

Albon finished thirteenth at the recent Canadian Grand Prix, and will likely want to work his way into the points as he competes at home in this year’s new regulation cars. 

“Silverstone is a home race for the team and half for me too! It’s a special circuit made better by all the fans who come out to show their support.

“Silverstone is also where I first got my karting licence at 8 years old, so it’s really where it all began for me. It has to be one of the most enjoyable circuits for a driver and I think it’ll be pretty fun in these cars.”

“It’s always been one of my favourite tracks on the F1 calendar” – Nicholas Latifi

Team-mate Nicholas Latifi looks forward to the atmosphere of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, from the passionate fans to the exciting driving experience Silverstone creates. 

A new driver pairing will pilot the XITE Energy Racing ODYSSEY 21 in the upcoming Island X Prix doubleheader in Sardinia as Timo Scheider and Tamara Molinaro take over from Oliver Bennett and Klara Andersson. Both drivers were previously Championship Drivers for the series, meaning they worked as advisors and reserves in the event that a regular driver is unable to compete.

Scheider has enjoyed a versatile career that includes winning the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters championship in 2008 and 2009, competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2010, claiming victories in the Spa 24 Hours and Nürburgring 24 Hours, scoring a podium in A1 Grand Prix and two podiums in the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

He raced in World RX, a series that shares plenty of overlap with Extreme E despite being different disciplines, from 2015 to 2020 with a runner-up finish at Barcelona in 2017 and a third in Sweden in 2020. Scheider also made a start in the now defunct Americas Rallycross Championship in 2018.

When Extreme E began its inaugural season in 2021, Scheider was entrusted with the Championship Driver role. While he did not have to substitute for any drivers in races, he carried out his advisory position by assisting in course design.

The German takes over for team owner Bennett, who ran the Desert X Prix season opener in Saudi Arabia in February but has since committed to Nitro Rallycross as the series débuts its FC1-X car and Group E class.

Max Verstappen goes into this weekend’s British Grand Prix in full control of the championship, after yet another victory last time out at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman heads into the Silverstone International Circuit with a forty-six point lead over his team-mate, meaning another win this weekend would see him well out of reach. Silverstone possesses some rather unfortunate recent memories for the 2021 World Champion, after crashing extremely heavily on the opening lap last season. Verstappen collided with Lewis Hamilton with the pair battling wheel-to-wheel, it resulted in a 50G+ impact for the Dutchman who luckily walked away.

Despite this, Verstappen is looking forward to the weekend, especially with the venue being so close to the team’s factory.

“I’m looking forward to going back to Silverstone as it’s a real classic and historic race on the calendar. There are so many amazing fans there and it’s nice to know that we are just down the road from the Team at the factory in Milton Keynes.

“It’s also good to be heading back to a traditional racetrack after quite a few street circuits. The performance this weekend will depend on whether we find a good balance and we also need a decent tyre strategy as degradation will be high there. So there’s plenty of things that we need to get right this weekend, it won’t be smooth sailing.”