Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

When Hélio Castroneves won the 2022 Superstar Racing Experience season opener last Saturday at Five Flags Speedway, he was promised by SRX CEO Don Hawk a chance to race in the NASCAR Cup Series. While a team has not been revealed, let alone a deal finalised, many have suggested Trackhouse Racing Team‘s #91 car, which hopes to give international racing stars a chance to compete in stock car racing’s highest level. Although it does not mean much in the immediate future, one might perceive Trackhouse owner Justin Marks replacing Castroneves for 2 July’s SRX race at Stafford Speedway as a step in that direction.

The SRX opening arose due to what the series simply described as a “scheduling conflict”, though it is obviously in reference to the NTT IndyCar Series‘ race weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Although the Honda Indy 200 takes place on Sunday 3 July, the previous day is used for other activities like qualifying and practice. Castroneves, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, is running the full IndyCar schedule with Meyer Shank Racing, whose co-owner Michael Shank has fielded IMSA GTD cars for Marks.

Marks retired as a driver in 2018 to focus on entrepreneurial opportunities, with the highlight easily being Trackhouse Racing Team. After débuting in 2021, the team has blossomed into one of the Cup Series’ finest young organisations with three wins courtesy of Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez.

While he has not returned to a NASCAR cockpit since his retirement (he quipped in a Reddit AMA that his “ship has sailed!”), Marks occasionally dabbled in series like Trans-Am and late models.

Although SRX driver swaps typically mean the replacement would earn points on the original racer’s behalf, Marks will not impact the standings as Castroneves is not racing for the SRX championship.

Luke Browning took second place in Race 1 on Saturday as the GB3 Championship visited Snetterton 300.

Callum Voisin took his second win of the season ahead, having started from pole, with Joel Granfors third.

Granfors squeezed the Hitech GP driver towards the pit wall from the start, hindering both’s efforts in trying to fight Voisin early on.

Browning gave The Checkered Flag a view into the cockpit podium celebrations.

“Very tight, there was a car width and a car width only, to say the least,“ he said.

Callum Voisin took his second GB3 Championship win of the season at Snetterton 300 on Saturday afternoon.

Nick Gilkes was unable to take the start for Hillspeed, while James Hedley had to start from the pits after encountering an issue on the way to the grid.

Voisin started from pole, ahead of Joel Granfors, Luke Browning and Matthew Rees.

Branden Oxley was squeezed half onto the grass on the run down to Riches, with team-mate McKenzy Cresswell sending it down the inside of him at Hamilton later in the lap.

Rees slipped back a couple of places by the end of Lap 2, running wide at Nelson.

Callum Voisin set the pace in qualifying to take pole for the first GB3 Championship race of the weekend at Snetterton.

Roberto Faria and Javier Sagrera were the first to set timed laps, joined by Branden Oxley and Voisin in the early stages.

Those efforts weren’t representative though, running several seconds off the pace set in testing during the week.

Those drivers were the quickest once the competitive laps came in, though, the Carlin trio holding the top three positions after eight minutes.

Faria led Voisin by two thousandths, with Sagrera eight hundredths further back.

Of the thirty-six drivers in Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, only two knew how it felt to win there: Ryan Preece and Todd Bodine. That remained the same as Preece led every lap in the final stage to win at Nashville for the second time to remain the lone person to win the event since its revival last year.

Momentum swung between the Fords of Zane Smith and Preece as the former led flag to flag in Stage #1 before battling with Preece in the second, a duel that Preece ultimately won. Preece assumed the top position to begin the final segment and never relinquished the spot en route to his second career Truck win.

“We’ve got a second guitar, I may have to start a band,” Preece quipped.

It was not all cruising for Preece as multiple cautions broke the final stage up, including a lap 128 wreck in which Corey Heim, Grant Enfinger, Matt DiBenedetto, and Ty Majeski ran four-wide, a move that resulted in all but Majeski wrecking. Preece’s David Gilliland Racing team-mate Hailie Deegan got spun on the ensuing restart with ten laps remaining set up the final restart, and his team elected to stay out on older tyres. Despite the tyre disadvantage, his truck proved to be too dominant as he led the final ten circuits to victory.

“I think it just showed that the #38 (Smith) and myself had such good race trucks tonight,” Preece continued. “Even with old tyres, we were able to compete there, so just super proud of everybody here at DGR. I really appreciate the hours that they put in with the body and the finesse, every little detail it takes to make speed, so it’s awesome to race fast trucks.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., currently in his third year with the team, will remain the driver for JTG Daugherty Racing beyond the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. On Friday, the team announced Stenhouse has reached a multi-year contract extension to stay in the #47 Chevrolet.

The 2013 Cup Rookie of the Year joined JTG in 2020 after winning two races in eight seasons with what is now RFK Racing. In his maiden start, Stenhouse won the pole for the 2020 Daytona 500. After placing twenty-fourth and twenty-second in points across his first two campaigns as a JTG driver with four and two top-ten finishes each, he has already recorded more top tens in 2022 with five. Sixteen races into 2022, he is twenty-fourth in the standings with five top tens and a runner-up finish at Dover.

“I’m ready to continue our progress together as a team,” commented Stenhouse. “We’ve made some strides with this new car at some tracks and we know there’s some work to do on others. I look forward to that process with the good group of people we have in place at JTG Daugherty Racing. I’m grateful to our partners for giving us an opportunity to continue to make our program better. I’m really happy with the first three years here at JTG Daugherty Racing.”

JTG, which has raced in the Cup Series since 2007, contracted to one car for 2022 after a lack of funding forced the #37 to shutter. Meanwhile, the #47 has served as the team’s flagship since its début, and Stenhouse is the seventh different driver to pilot it after Ken Schrader and Jon Wood (2007), Marcos Ambrose (2008 to 2010), Bobby Labonte (2011 to 2013), A.J. Allmendinger (2013 to 2018), and Ryan Preece (2019). Preece was Stenhouse’s partner in the #37 until its closure.

“We’re pleased to announce Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is returning to the company,” commented JTG Tad Geschickter. Wife Jodi Geschickter, Gordon Smith, and Brad Daugherty co-own the operation. “Ricky has done a solid job on the racetrack and off the track during Kroger Racing in-store activations for our esteemed partners. We’re continuing to learn the new car and we’re making progress. We’ve led laps, earned stage points and been close to winning this year.”

I experienced the strangest race weekend of my near 20-year racing career in the latest rounds of the GT Cup Championship at Brands Hatch at the beginning of May.

Having been deprived of a likely second-place at the wheel of the Brabham BT62 Competition in the closing stages of Saturday’s fifty minute race, my co-driver Paul Bailey and I scored a commanding and totally unexpected GTO category victory in Paul’s McLaren MP4-12C Can Am just 24 hours later!

We tested the Brabham on the Friday for the first time with a new engine installed after power issues in its previous race last summer. Paul finished eighth in the Brabham, second in the GTO class, in Race 1, but I pitted from second place with a matter of minutes remaining in the fifty minute Race 2 later that day with no power.

The SB Race Engineering team then made a 250-mile round trip overnight to collect the McLaren we used in the second half of last year’s GT Cup GTO title winning season, a car we placed second twice in the opening two rounds at Donington Park in April while awaiting delivery of engine components for the Brabham.

Paul started Race 4’s pit-stop race on wet tyres, the track wet/damp after light rain and handed over to me during the pit stop phase with twenty minutes to go. I resumed seventeenth but took the chequered flag fourteenth and importantly first in class to complete a bizarre weekend on a high.

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team scored only a solitary point in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix thanks to Lance Stroll finishing tenth, but Team Principal Mike Krack says that does not tell the whole story.

Stroll started down in seventeenth at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, just behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel after both drivers struggled in the wet conditions on Saturday, but the pace of the AMR22 in drier conditions was much stronger.

Vettel may have got the raw deal when it came to strategy – he pitted not long before a virtual safety car gave others a cheaper stop – but Stroll performed well to climb through the order and bring the team home a point.  He was helped in the closing stages by Vettel, who let the Canadian through to attack Daniel Ricciardo for the final point.

Krack says the team had good pace in Canada, and despite only scoring one point, they can leave North America with their heads held high and with confidence for the next few races.

“On paper, tenth position for Lance feels like scant reward for a long, hard weekend and a race that was tricky to manage from start to finish,” said Krack.  

In January, Toyota Gazoo Racing‘s GR DKR Hilux T1+ showed out as it won the overall Cars category in its début Dakar Rally with Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel. This weekend, the duo and their truck will be performing a rare “triple duty” at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The Hilux is part of a four-vehicle effort by TGR that also includes the GR86, GR Supra, and GR Yaris. While the Yaris will focus on the Forest Rally Stage and the Hillclimb features the GR86 and Supra, the Hilux will do both in addition to participating in the Britpart Off-Road Arena. It is already rare for a participant to run the Forest Stage and Hillclimb, but the inclusion of the Off-Road Arena makes for a triple that had never been done in the event’s history.

Modelled after the production pickup truck with changes to accommodate off-road racing, the GR DKR Hilux T1+ features a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 engine from the street Toyota Land Cruiser 300 GR Sport, along with four-wheel drive. It is capable of 400 bhp/298 kW and carries 600 Nm of torque. The Hilux is also the vehicle of choice for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa, who is fielding four in the upcoming TGRSA 1000 Desert Race. The previous Hilux won the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies in 2016, 2017, and 2021 with Al-Attiyah and Baumel, as well as the 2019 Dakar Rally; prepared by Imperial, this version appeared at Goodwood in 2014 though exclusively on the Forest Stage.

Compared to its predecessor, the current truck is heavier at 2,000 kg, has more suspension travel (350 mm versus 280 mm), larger BFGoodrich tyres (37 inches versus 32, and a width increase from 245 mm to 320 mm) with aluminum Method Race Wheels; other changes come to comply with FIA World Rally-Raid Championship regulations like two spare tyres rather than three. Otherwise, the two Hiluxes have the same mid-engine configuration and cockpit design.

The Hilux is not the only off-road vehicle participating at Goodwood outside of the Off-Road Arena. Extreme E teams Andretti United and Veloce Racing are conducting head-to-head time trials with their Spark ODYSSEY 21s, which Al-Attiyah also races for ABT CUPRA, while XITE Energy Racing has two Nitro Rallycross FC1-X cars.

Lance Stroll recovered from a poor grid spot to secure a point in last Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, his first event in his homeland since 2019.

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team started down in seventeenth after struggling in the wet conditions of Qualifying at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but he was much better on race day and was able to make a one-stop strategy work in his favour to break into the top ten.

By going long with his first stop, Stroll was able to move ahead of a number of drivers, and after his pit stop, he used his fresher tyres to good use to pass Daniel Ricciardo for what ended up being tenth position.

“We had a great strategy for this race and I am super-pleased to have been able to score a point,” said Stroll.  “We did a great job deciding to go long on the first set of tyres to make a one-stop race work, managing to keep a string of cars behind me.

“The overtake on Daniel [Ricciardo] was a nice bonus – we were on fresher tyres so it was a pretty easy move.

Lola Cars has been acquired by US-based British IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver Till Bechtolsheimer, who aims to bring the car brand back to the international racing scene.

The Lola brand has not been active since 2012 when it went into administration despite their cars racing in historic competitions across the globe. Although their cars were being raced in historic competition, there was no interest for new Lolas on a top tier racing scale. Bechtolsheimer acquired the marque at the end of 2021, taking the first six months of 2022 to put in place the people and programs needed to return Lola to racing disciplines in these senior categories.

Having produced nearly 5,000 race cars across 400 different model types, the back catalogue of Lola is lucrative, providing a great base plate for the new generation of race cars to emerge from.

“I have had a lifelong passion for motorsport and, like most motorsport fans, have always loved the Lola brand,” said Bechtolsheimer. “What both Eric Broadley and Martin Birrane achieved with Lola is awe inspiring. It is a daunting but exciting prospect to try and rebuild Lola in their footsteps and do justice to their legacy.”

Amanda Birrane, Chairman of Peer Group plc, the Birrane family Property Company based in London, said “My family is very pleased that the Lola brand is in the ownership of a businessman and racer who will write the next chapter for this long-established British motor racing icon. My father would be delighted to see Lola back in competitive motorsport and especially back at Le Mans. We wish Till every success.”

Stephen Mallozzi was originally an employee for NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team Reaume Brothers Racing, but the organisation has now decided to give him a shot in the driver’s seat. On Thursday, RBR announced Mallozzi will enter the Truck race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on 9 July in what will be his inaugural NASCAR start. He will drive the #43 Toyota Tundra TRD.

Mallozzi initially made his name in karting, which included finishing second in the 2017 Senior Rotax National Championship and being named a Team USA Rotax Karting Representative, but ended his career to be with his father as he fought stage four lung cancer. Mallozzi eventually resumed driving with RBR, who inducted him and fellow employee Jonathan Cuevas into its inaugural driver development programme in 2021 and began their transitions into stock car racing.

“Breaking into motorsports in general is impossible, and I am so grateful for people in racing like Josh (Reaume, team owner) who continuously give drivers opportunities,” said Mallozzi. “For me, I’ve been pushing so hard to make this happen for my dad. He has his own impossible fight after being given just six months to live, and since that initial diagnosis, he’s been going for almost six years. My old man has been my inspiration to keep going and try so hard to make this happen. He gave so much so I could race, and now it’s my turn to make him proud.”

Besides racing and working with RBR, Mallozzi also dabbles as the esports reporter for NASCAR website TobyChristie.com, covering Monday Night Racing and Podium Esports’ MPI Cup Series. He quipped on Twitter, “God finally, after writing all these stories for Toby, Toby has to write one about me!”

“Growing up in karting and wanting to be a race car driver, your dad is very much your best friend, driver coach, agent, and sponsor,” commented Reaume. “To be able to help Malozz achieve this goal in light of the circumstances will most likely be the highlight of my year. Mid-Ohio will be a weekend in which I will be so proud to be Stephen’s owner.”

If you were to get a nickel for every unconventional case of “Double Duty” in Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, you would have two nickels. It is not a lot, but it is weird that it is happening twice.

Camden Murphy has an interesting weekend schedule planned as he pilots the #30 On Point Motorsports truck followed by competing in Monster Jam at nearby Nissan Stadium the next day, but Max Gutiérrez‘s weekend itinerary has him crossing borders. After racing the Truck Series event in the #22 Chevrolet Silverado RST for AM Racing, he will return to his native Mexico to compete in the NASCAR Mexico Series at Trióvalo Internacional de Cajititlán on Sunday.

“This weekend is probably one of the most important race weekends of my life,” said Gutiérrez. “A lot of traveling, a lot of racing but a prime opportunity to compete for strong finishes in both races and I’m incredibly grateful.

“I’m excited about competing at a new venue at Nashville Superspeedway with AM Racing and building on what we started at Charlotte Motor Speedway and keep progressing forward during my limited schedule as we build a platform for the future.”

Gutiérrez made his Truck début in May at Charlotte, where he drove the #37 for AM Racing to a finish of twenty-sixth. While owner and #22 driver Austin Wayne Self continues to focus on being a father after his daughter’s birth, he will skip his third straight race.

Despite not running the first two NASCAR Cup Series road races at Circuit of the Americas and Sonoma Raceway, Kyle Tilley has once again been tasked with navigating the road course of Road America by Live Fast Motorsports, where he will drive the #78 Ford Mustang with sponsorship from the Patriot Military Foundation. The race will be Tilley’s first with the new seventh-generation Next Gen car.

Tilley mainly races in sports cars and historic motorsport, winning the Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 Am championship and the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona LMP2 class in 2021. That year also saw him make his stock car début by racing at COTA, Road America, and Watkins Glen International for Live Fast, respectively finishing thirty-first, thirty-fifth, and thirtieth. He also drove for team owner B.J. McLeod‘s NASCAR Xfinity Series team at Watkins Glen but placed last due to early damage.

“Very excited to be returning to the NASCAR Cup Series with my friends B.J. McLeod, (co-owner) Matt Tifft, and Team Live Fast,” said Tilley. “The opportunity to drive the Next Gen car is one that I’m relishing, and I’m hopeful that it will suit my driving style. I love Road America so the two combined is going to make for a great weekend.”

Live Fast elected to have Andy Lally and Scott Heckert drive at COTA and Sonoma. Lally had replaced Tilley at the 2021 Indianapolis Cup event after the latter suffered a shoulder injury.

Although it took four months for Tilley to return to the cockpit of a stock car, he continued his sports car participation with his Era Motorsport LMP2 team. After retiring from the 2022 Rolex 24, he and his team finished third in the 12 Hours of Sebring.

After retiring from motorsport following his Formula One World Championship in 2016, Nico Rosberg has not exactly been keen on racing again. However, he was happy to do it even for a little bit in an Extreme E Spark ODYSSEY 21.

While his Rosberg X Racing team was testing at the Nürburgring Offroad Park in Germany, Rosberg decided to don a firesuit and helmet once more for a test drive. It was his first time driving a race vehicle in a more-than-casual environment after his F1 exit, let alone an off-road car; although the now-F1 analyst frequently tests tracks on his simulator, he has turned down other racing opportunities since his retirement. Instead, besides working in punditry, he became an entrepreneur with an interest in eco-friendly ventures like electric and self-driving vehicles, including being a backer of Extreme E’s older cousin Formula E.

He joined XE for its inaugural season in 2021 with Rosberg X Racing, who went on to win the championship and currently leads the standings after claiming the 2022 season opener.

RXR team principal Kimmo Liimatainen, along with drivers Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky and Johan Kristoffersson served as his mentors for the exercise.

Rosberg described the run as “simply a phenomenal experience. I cannot believe the power of this car. Off-road driving is so much fun.