Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

After medical problems forced Kirsten Landman to sit out the 2024 Dakar Rally, she hopes to make her third start in 2025. Like in her first two races, she will compete solo in the Original by Motul category.

Landman was sidelined for January’s Dakar after contracting COVID-19 during the 2023 edition, followed by being diagnosed with pulmonary embolism that prevented her from riding for much of the winter. She was later cleared for enduro events like Red Bull Romaniacs and the Tennessee Knockout Enduro, winning the Women’s Pro category at the latter. This was encouraging enough to plan a Dakar return in 2024, but she ultimately called it off in November as she felt her body was not yet fully prepared for such a challenging race.

A positive COVID-19 test had prevented her from racing the Dakar in 2022.

“Last year presented me with some of the toughest mental and physical challenges I’ve ever faced,” said Landman. “It was heartbreaking not to stand on the start line in 2024 knowing how much I want to be there and achieve an even stronger result.

“The Dakar Rally isn’t just a race for me. It’s where I feel most alive, where I challenge myself beyond limits, and where I continue to chase my dreams. As one of the few women in this sport, I’m not just racing for myself—I’m racing for every girl out there who dreams of defying expectations.”

Following an internal review of the penalties assessed to Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power after improper usage of the push-to-pass system during the opening race of the season at St. Petersburg in March, Team Penske has announced multi-race suspensions for four senior officials in a press release Tuesday morning.

Penske will be without team president Tim Cindric and IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski for this week’s Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS Road Course and the Indianapolis 500 later this month. In a statement from the team, Cindric is being suspended because he has “accountability for all of Team Penske’s operations.” Cindric has been President at Penske since 2006 and has won 26 races as Newgarden’s strategist since 2017, including the 2023 Indianapolis 500.

The North Carolina-based team also suspended Newgarden’s race engineer Luke Mason, who has been on the No. 2 stand since 2023, and senior data engineer Robbie Atkinson. Atkinson has been part of the No. 12 crew with Will Power since 2010, winning two championships and the 2018 Indianapolis 500 on the way.

The suspensions come following an IndyCar investigation that found Team Penske to be illegally using the push-to-pass system on race starts and restarts, which is explicitly not allowed under series rules. The issue was revealed to series officials during the morning warmup before last month’s race at Long Beach. An investigation found that Newgarden, who crossed the finish line first at St. Pete, used push-to-pass three times illegally, and gained a significant competitive advantage. As a result, IndyCar disqualified Newgarden and McLaughlin, giving Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward the win over a month after the checkered flag flew. Power did not use push-to-pass at the same time as his teammates, and was subsequently only given a 10-point penalty.

“I recognize the magnitude of what occurred and the impact it continues to have on the sport to which I’ve dedicated so many decades. Everyone at Team Penske, along with our fans and business partners should know that I apologize for the errors that were made and I deeply regret them.”

Michael Schumacher‘s 2002 Formula One World Championship celebratory cap raised over USD$40,000 (€37,158.60, or roughly ₴1.5 million) in a raffle, the proceeds of which will be used to buy a “GOR” drone for the Second International Legion of Defence of Ukraine.

The campaign was launched in September by Olexandr Petrenko, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Karting Committee, with the goal of raising seven million hryvnia (€165,558.64) for an Elf drone. Various snags eventually prompted him to switch to the cheaper GOR.

Each ₴200 donation entered the contributor into the raffle to win the cap, which was ultimately won by Gennadiy Lobas of Volnovakha. His relative Irynia, who also donated, picked it up on his behalf in early April from Petrenko and Second International Legion spokeswoman Valeriia Chokurashvili. While anyone could increase their chances of winning with more donations, Lobas had only done so once.

“I am grateful for this project. I believe that today, the situation rests on our patriotism, on the patriotism of the people,” said Iryna. “All Ukrainians, I urge you: do not stop, continue the good work, continue to donate, continue to help our defenders because without us, without our social work, we will not win.”

Although the cap has been handed over to the winner, Petrenko stressed that crowdfunding for the drone will continue. GOR’s manufacturer Airlogix maintains a waitlist for orders and Petrenko expects his to not be processed until late summer, during which he hopes to drum up more money for any required down payments. Lobas has also expressed interest in auctioning the cap himself to add to the donations.

Viktor Chytka will swap his navigator’s seat for the saddle of a Suzuki LT-R450 when he enters this weekend’s Riverside Baja, racing in the Quad category for Garilla Racing.

Chytka last rode a Quad in 2018, primarily competing and winning in the FIA Central European Zone (CEZ) Cross-Country Rally Championships as well as domestic series across the region in Hungary, Slovakia, and his native Czech Republic. He won the 2004 Czech national title followed by the Slovakian championship in 2007.

In tandem with this, he has also doubled as a navigator at the Dakar Rally since 2009. After originally working alongside fellow Czech Jiří Janeček in 2009 and 2010, he linked up with Marek Spáčil’s truck for 2013. Chytka then put his riding career on hold to call the shots for WRC veteran Martin Prokop in 2019, and he has been by Prokop’s side in the Ford Raptor RS since.

Prokop and Chytka finished sixth in the 2023 edition, then improved to a career-best fifth at the latest Dakar in January. Their most recent race together, the World Rally-Raid Championship’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in March, was cut short by an accident in Stage #3. With Prokop focusing on rallying for now, Chytka is free to do what he wants.

“Cross-country racing has been my whole life, and during that time, I have occupied all possible positions in all possible categories. Therefore, I am returning to the quad after six years,” said Chytka. Besides racing, he has also dabbled as a cross-country rally photographer like his brother Marian. “During this time, I was committed to Martin Prokop’s MP Sports, and it was essentially out of the question for me to risk injury and then not be able to navigate in the car. At the moment, Martin and I have not agreed on further cooperation, so I’m going to have fun. I know the Hungarian terrain very well from the past. I have participated in the Riverside race several times before, and it is my favourite despite suffering a broken collarbone here in the past after an accident, but that is part of racing.

After forty-eight years and a plethora of victories ranging from the Baja 1000 to the Mint 400, “Lightning” Larry Ragland is calling it a career.

He announced his retirement from driving shortly after securing the NORRA Mexican 1000‘s Historic Truck victory, driving the “Arnold” 1995 Trophy Truck with which he won the Baja 1000 four times; his son Chad also raced Arnold during the 2000s. With Preston Schmid as co-driver, Ragland took both the class and overall lead on the first day, and although he quickly lost the former to modern Evolution vehicles like eventual winner Steve Menzies, he reinforced the latter following rival Mark Post‘s retirement. Despite losing the V-drive early in the penultimate day, he beat Pedro Perezpliego by over four and a half hours for the class win. His final time of 20:47:08 ranked twenty-second among all Pro Cars.

“I got it started every once in a while and fired it up and drive around the neighborhood, then parked it again. I wanted to do one more race with it, and I wanted to do it on my eightieth birthday, which was last year. Now it’s 81,” said Ragland during NORRA’s awards banquet. “We did a complete prep. Preston here got all the prep on it, got it ready, and then navigated with me down here this week. We’ve never been together doing it. Arnold was absolutely perfect other than the V-drive and myself getting a few flags, but I love the truck. It really made all of my memories down here. The locals down here come up all the time for years, they say, ‘When are you going to bring Arnold back to Baja?’ I always told them it will come, I just don’t know when.

“But anyway, it’s happened. We both have had our last race, that’s it. It was a great, great thing to do. I’ll take it back home and I will restore it back the way it was and then just keep it. I had a great time.

“My goal originally was to come down here and make a good showing with it and show them what a thirty-year old truck was really like in those days and why we could accomplish what we did. I was blown away. First day, we won the day, and I thought, ‘Mission accomplished.’ I said, ‘We can go put it on the trailer and go home. We don’t need to carry on.’ That was our day in the sun and we enjoyed it, and I had a great time, and Arnold will be around for a long time.

Lando Norris became the 21st British driver to win in Formula 1 after he took his maiden victory at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix.

Norris qualified in fifth on Saturday but took advantage of McLaren F1 Team’s new upgrades that they brought to Florida and a safety car during the race when Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant came together. Norris’ pace was strong in the second half of the race though, as he built a gap of almost 10 seconds over current championship leader, Max Verstappen.

He holds the F1 record for the most amount of podiums without winning but he crossed the line at Miami to finally become a race winner, and the first Englishman since George Russell won at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. 

When speaking to SkySportsF1 after the race, Norris said: “I don’t know what I’m feeling! I’m just happy, proud. It feels like it’s been a long time coming, I feel like we’ve had many opportunities. We’ve been getting closer and closer.

“As much as we had some setbacks – Friday Qualifying, the Sprint, not the best Qualifying on Saturday, I stayed positive. It all just came together. We were quick all day. I had a good strategy, a good plan. I stayed out of the way of trouble in Turn One because it was very close. I just focused on our race and we were quick.”

After narrowly missing out on the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid win in April, João Ferreira began the 2024 FIA European Baja Cup strong as he survived a brutal Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura that eliminated much of the field.

Only twenty-seven of the forty-one FIA cars finished the race, including just half of the fourteen in Ultimate alongside Ferreira, as the rest were eliminated by mechanical failures brought upon by the punishing Spanish terrain. This was particularly evident during the Prologue, where the final thirty kilometres ran through a training range on Base General Menacho de Bótoa that is used by the Spanish Army for tanks. Increased rainfall in recent days added to the conditions, creating a bumpy course riddled with holes that caked everyone in mud and basically doubled as a suspension test. Benediktas Vanagas, a member of the Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces, quipped it was the “most interesting speed section” he had ever raced and that while “Abrams and Leopards feel good (driving this), off-road vehicles have a hard time though this is not the case for the Toyota GR DKR Hilux.”

Vanagas may have had high praise for the tank polygon, but his Hilux did not make it through unscathed either as his right-front wheel rim broke after hitting a rock three kilometres from the finish; he ended up as one of the seven Ultimate retirements when his engine expired in the final stage. João Ramos, another favourite in the class, bowed out after going off course and losing too much time in the overall, while Edgar Canet was the top bike in the Prologue but a mechanical failure knocked him out. Eduard Pons did not start the race due to health reasons.

Ramos’ retirement propelled Ferreira into the overall lead ahead of Francisco Barreto, and the 2022 European Baja champion kept Barreto at bay for the victory. Maria Luís Gameiro finished third to secure two podium spots for Mini.

“The first stage was really demanding for ourselves and for the car. The terrain was very hard,” said Ferreira. “This last stage was fast and very enjoyable to drive, some tricky in some parts, very narrow and twisty.”

The 2024 edition of NORRA’s Mexican 1000 was marred by the deaths of competitors Brent Yeadon and Johnny Kaiser, casting a shadow over Steve Menzies and Matt Sutherland‘s overall victories.

Yeadon, the co-driver for Larry Trim‘s 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee (Vintage Short Wheelbase 4×4, driven by Curt Leduc to a Stock Mini class win at the 1993 Baja 1000), suffered a fatal heart attack during the opening stage; although he pulled over to receive medical attention, he died shortly after. The creative director for Visual Metals outside of racing, Yeadon was 61 years old. Trim immediately withdrew from the race.

Kaiser lost his life during the penultimate day when the #507 Jake’s 5U Vintage Class 5 buggy (with Rick Paquette) rolled over. Due to the dust kicked up, the #86 Raceco Vintage Open Buggy led by Jay Culbertson was unable to avoid impact. The accident, along with a nearby teacher’s strike, caused a lengthy delay for cars in the area such that NORRA removed the timed section from the final results.

One of the top fabricators in off-road racing, Kaiser built trucks and buggies and even those in between—known as truggies—for a litany of customers including Robbie Pierce and Robby Gordon. He was responsible for many of Gordon’s vehicles including his Trophy Truck, Dakar Rally Hummer, and Stadium Super Truck. After finishing the race twenty-fourth in the Evolution Pro Turbo UTV class, Gordon said he had “very, very mixed feelings” in the wake of Kaiser’s passing.

“That took a lot out of the success we’ve had with SPEED UTV,” he continued. “It’s a major setback. That’s one of my best friends. I have no idea how many all-nighters he did in the shop to make the cars faster. Very good guy, very creative, and definitely going to be missed by us.”

Daniel Ricciardo has admitted it’s nice to keep a few people quiet after finishing fourth in the 2024 Miami Grand Prix Sprint race.

The Australian secured his best result since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, and his first points of the 2024 season. When speaking to Sky Sports F1, Ricciardo couldn’t hide his delight at being back towards the front of the grid.

“Fighting towards the front just feels so much nicer. You see a Ferrari in your mirrors and it’s like, challenge accepted.”

Ricciardo secured fourth on the grid in Sprint Qualifying on Friday afternoon in Florida, but he was pleased to back that result up in the Sprint. The 34-year-old thinks his result in the Sprint will keep a few people quiet after he’s received some criticism after a tough opening few weeks to the season.

“Every big result always feel like needed one. It’s a happy feeling. It’s a powerful feeling. Also to back up yesterday. Qualifying was obviously great, but to back it up over the course of a sprint race, that’s even more satisfying.

Max Verstappen took victory in the 2024 Miami Grand Prix Sprint race, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Sérgio Perez, despite complaining about issues with his car throughout.

Leclerc got the better start but with such a short run down to Turn One, Verstappen was able to keep first place after he secured pole in Sprint Qualifying on Friday afternoon. 

Behind the front runners, they was plenty of drama going into Turn One. Lewis Hamilton went down the inside of Fernando Alonso, causing the Spaniard to hit Lance Stroll. The Canadian tapped Lando Norris, leaving both of them out the race. George Russell was also caught up in an incident at Turn One, dropping down to fourteenth. All of this saw the Safety Car come out and the race neutralised.

Daniel Ricciardo took advantage of Pérez going deep into Turn One to move himself up into third. The Mexican didn’t take long to get past the RB Visa Cash App Driver after the safety car, moving back up into the podium positions with a brilliant late lunge in sector two. 

Most of the action from the sprint involved Kevin Magnussen and Hamilton. The Haas F1 Team driver picked up twenty-five seconds worth of penalties for multiple incidents, including going off the track, and hitting Hamilton. A move from Hamilton saw Magnussen leave it late to break, pushing both of them off track, allowing Yuki Tsunoda to move up into ninth. 

Best In The Desert is not the only series planning a 1000-mile race through the Nevada desert in 2025. On Monday, the Legacy Racing Association and Valley Off Road Racing Association announced they will co-host the Battle Born 1000 on 26–28 June 2025. The Nevada Off Road Association, the state’s off-road recreational authority, has also pitched their support.

The race will start and finish in Pahrump, located at the southernmost tip of Nye County near the border with California. Pahrump will also be the site of Legacy’s season-ending 4WP Desert Showdown in December.

“This extraordinary event, spanning through the majestic landscapes of Nevada, promises to redefine the boundaries of off-road racing and set a new benchmark for the sport,” reads a statement. “In a historic display of sportsmanship and collaboration, multiple race organizations have come together to organize this inaugural event, with the full support and cooperation of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land managers. The planning for this epic race commenced in January 2024, culminating in the submission of a comprehensive BLM application in February. The meticulous planning and coordination between Legacy Racing Association, Valley Off-Road Racing Association (VORRA), & Nevada Off Road Association have laid the foundation for an event that will captivate off-road enthusiasts.

“The Battle Born 1000 is not just a one-time event; it is the dawn of a new era in off-road racing. The organizers are committed to making this an annual multi-series event, inviting all race organizations to join hands and be part of this movement towards positive change in the sport. By fostering a spirit of collaboration and camaraderie, this event aims to elevate the standards of off-road racing and create a platform for unity and progression within the off-road community.”

As the top desert series in the state, Legacy and VORRA often collaborate on events together under the Nevada Championship banner. Joint races in 2024 include the Frontier 500 in April and the Gold Rush in October.

Antoine Detourbet will make his World Rally-Raid Championship début at the season-ending Rallye du Maroc on 5–11 October, with the goal of bolstering his qualifications if not earning a spot in the 2025 Dakar Rally or a later edition.

“Registrations for the Rallye du Maroc go live in less than a week. Well, it seems I’ve secured my place,” wrote Detourbet. “On 4 October, I’m heading to Marrakech for my first laps in the World Rally-Raid Championship. A rally on the ‘Road to Dakar’… Let’s see what happens!”

A lifelong Dakar Rally fan who started racing when he got his first motorcycle at the age of eleven, Detourbet mainly competes in motocross. When his budget allows him, he takes part in amateur rallies like the Tuareg Rallye in Morocco; at the 2023 edition, a poor start as navigation errors and penalties bogged him down in the opening leg, though he rebounded by winning every stage onwards and would have claimed the overall had it not been for the first day.

In January, Detourbet entered the Africa Eco Race on his Husqvarna 450 Rally, competing as a Motul Xtreme Rider (solo without a crew, equivalent to the Dakar’s Malle Moto/Original by Motul subcategory). He placed fifteenth overall and tenth among bikes under 450cc

Outside of racing, he works for toolmaker Gillet Tools after graduating from the University of Technology of Troyes in 2020 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Max Verstappen topped Free Practice One in Miami after an early spin from Charles Leclerc, ahead of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz Jr. 

It was an action packed session, with the teams only having a single hour of practice ahead qualifying for the sprint, catch up on all the action if you missed it with our report!

What Happened in the Session?

McLaren F1 Team were the team everyone was watching in the buildup to the session with a vast range of upgrades being brought to Florida. It wasn’t a perfect start though, both Norris and Oscar Piastri reported steering issues early on.

The red flag came out after just ten minutes. Scuderia Ferrari’s Leclerc spun on the exit of Turn 16 leaving him in the middle of the track. The former Alfa Romeo driver attempted to turn his car around, but he wasn’t able to do so leaving the stewards with no choice but to suspend the session temporarily.

Verstappen had the fastest time as the red flag came out, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Pérez. Once things got going again, the Dutchman had a bit of a scare during a long run – locking up at the final corner. 

Before becoming NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers, Sheldon Creed and Riley Herbst were tearing it up in short course off-road racing and deserts to great success. As part of NASCAR’s annual throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway on 11/12 May, the two will sport liveries paying tribute to desert legends.

Creed’s #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra will be adorned in the colours of Ivan Stewart‘s Toyota Trophy Truck. A Toyota factory racer since 1983, Stewart turned the white, yellow, orange, and red PPI Motorsports truck into arguably the most famous off-road racing vehicle of all time. He enjoyed success almost immediately with back-to-back SCORE International championships, adding to a legendary résumé that includes four SCORE titles, three Baja 1000 victories, and the most wins in the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group.

His achievements at the height of off-road racing’s popularity and factory support, as well as lending his name to the Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Super Off Road arcade game, further etched the truck into motorsport lore. He was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006.

“This year’s theme being grassroots, feel like people are going to throw back to maybe their old late model heroes. (But) Ivan Stewart came up, he was an old Toyota Trophy Truck, Baja 1000 racer, desert racer in general before I was a kid, back when Robby Gordon was a kid racing off-road,” said Creed. “They had a a car that was ahead of its time, essentially a really lightweight single-seater and just a really cool truck that I haven’t had to be able to go old school Toyota colors and throw it back to something that I grew up doing.

“I grew up racing off-road and in a little bit of desert racing. We see a lot of throwbacks in NASCAR, late models, old modifieds. I think it’s fun to to be a little different and yeah, try to bring some off-road grassroots back into NASCAR a little bit.”

Despite being the highest category in rally raid, Ultimate does not have its own trophy like the side-by-side Challenger and SSV divisions. Instead, Ultimate drivers competed against each other and everyone else in other classes for a single overall title.

That will change for the rest of the 2024 FIA Baja Cup season. With the FIA European Baja Cup-opening Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura beginning this weekend, the World Motor Sport Council approved adding trophies for drivers and co-drivers in each of the four sanctioned categories (Ultimate, Challenger, SSV, Stock). The all-encompassing trophies for drivers, navigators, and teams will also continue to be awarded, making eleven championships total across the three series.

“I am very pleased to confirm that the World Motor Sport Council has today approved the proposal to add Group titles for the 2024 World and Regional Baja Cups,” said rally raid category manager Jérôme Roussel. “In other words, in addition to the main titles mixing all competitors, we will award separate trophies for drivers and co-drivers in Ultimate, Challenger, SSV and Stock. This was a request from the competitors and we’re happy to respond positively. Changing the regulations during a season is never easy, and I must thank all those who approved this proposal: first of all, all the competitors involved, and then the members of the Cross-Country Rally Commission, the Road Sport Committee and the World Motor Sport Council.”

The World Baja Cup previously awarded trophies for just Challenger and SSV drivers and SSV teams in addition to the all-class driver, co-driver, and team ones. The European and Middle East Cups had a slightly broader scope by including Stock drivers. Navigator trophies were introduced for 2024.

The change does not apply to the World Rally-Raid Championship, which continues without Ultimate-only trophies.