Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s, George Russell, continued his streak of top five finishes with a fourth-place result at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Having started from eleventh place, Russell’s great start in the wet saw him move up to fifth within the race’s opening stages. With Charles Leclerc spinning off the track late in the race, he was promoted to fourth and defended the position against Valtteri Bottas until the checkered flag.

The British driver was pleased with the result, but felt that some luck was involved– likely related to the incidents and retirements that benefitted his position– and that there is still a lot of performance to be found.

“I’m relatively pleased to maximise the points available this weekend. Whether we’re getting the most out of the car is a different story and I do think things have fallen slightly in our favour with these first four races.

“I’m really happy with this P4, but if we want to sustain this position in the championship, we need to find more pace. We’ve got these overall limitations with the car with the bouncing, and we know that we are struggling with the tyre warm up and this is the coldest race weekend we’ve had by far this year.” 

A pattern Russell has noticed since the beginning of the season is the impact on temperature on the performance of Mercedes and their competitors. When it comes to Qualifying, the colder temperatures have hindered Mercedes’ abilities, while other mid-field contenders have fared better. 

Davey Hamilton Jr. will continue to have the radioactive warning symbol of Go Fast Take Chances adorned on his Stadium Super Truck for the rest of the 2022 season. The lifestyle apparel brand was one of his primary sponsors alongside Thin Energy Complete for the opening weekend at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in early April.

Hamilton posted on social media on Friday, “Happy to announce after a solid weekend at the Long Beach Grand Prix, Go Fast Take Chances decided to extend their partnership with me personally for the remainder of the 2022 season! I am super thankful to continue to represent the lifestyle brand on and off the track!”

The son of former IndyCar driver Davey Hamilton, the younger Hamilton has committed to the full 2022 SST season after making spot starts in 2017 and 2018. Returning to racing after pausing his career for two years to focus on personal matters, he finished eighth in both Long Beach races. After being involved in a spin following contact with Matt Brabham in Race #1, he took advantage of pole-sitter Ryan Arciero going around early in Race #2 to lead much of the first half. Hamilton livestreamed both races from his cockpit on Facebook.

Outside of SST, Hamilton also races in asphalt sprint car racing, winning his father’s King of the Wing championship in 2016 and currently driving in series like the USAC Silver Crown. He has aspirations of competing in the NTT IndyCar Series like his father, and made three Indy Lights starts in 2016 and 2018. Off the track, he runs various businesses and is a mental health advocate.

GFTC sells apparel such as t-shirts and hats intended to celebrate what the company calls a “passion for speed, sports, and irreverence towards mortality”.

Matt Hirschman won the Spring Sizzler at Stafford Motor Speedway on Sunday, which has earned him a chance to compete with the Superstar Racing Experience when the series heads to the Connecticut short track on 2 July.

Hirschman, who joins 2005 winner Tony Hirschman as the only father/son duo to win the modified race, held off NASCAR Cup Series regular and Whelen Modified Tour champion Ryan Preece for the win. The Sizzler, which serves as Stafford’s marquee event, was promoted by the speedway as offering an SRX ride to whomever wins.

The thirty-nine-year old is a Modified Tour veteran, finishing second in the 2008 standings and recording five wins across sixteen years. He also has two starts in what is now the ARCA Menards Series East in 2008. Although he has not climbed the stock car racing ladder beyond both levels, he is content in grassroots modifieds as a multi-time champion of the Tri-Track Open Modified Series. Nevertheless, the SRX entry will give him a larger platform to showcase his abilities in front of a national audience, as was the case for Modified Tour great Doug Coby who won the inaugural SRX race in 2021 at Stafford.

“The win and you’re in thing for the SRX is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I just couldn’t pass up this chance,” Hirschman said.

Other SRX tracks are also getting their local track stars involved through their own methods. Five Flags Speedway (18 June) will have a car for Bubba Pollard, who recorded the best average finish across the PepperJack Kennels Twins on 8/9 April, while the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway‘s (9 July) guest driver will be determined via fan vote.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix ended with mixed results for the McLaren F1 Team, as Lando Norris took third-place with an impressive performance from start to finish and Daniel Ricciardo saw his opportunity for points slip away after a first-lap incident with Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl, praised the efforts of both drivers for their performances on Sunday. 

“P3 for Lando today comes as the result of hard work and a well-managed strategy. He drove a great race today. After a good start, he worked very hard, looked after his tyres, managed the gap to the cars we were racing and put himself in the best position to take advantage of any opportunity that came his way.

“Unfortunately Daniel had a first lap collision with Carlos [Sainz] which damaged the car and his race was pretty much over, but he was able to provide useful information to the team to maximise our result.”

Seidl said that McLaren’s running in rainy Imola revealed MCL36’s capabilities further. Though optimistic about the team’s potential moving forward, he is aware of the work that still needs to be done to “close the gap”. 

“The performance we saw this weekend on a different track and in a variety of conditions confirms the potential of the MCL36 that we have been unlocking race by race. That said, we remain realistic about the work we have to do to close the gap to the front of the field. Also our pit-crew again delivered good pitstops.”

McLaren F1 Team’s, Lando Norris, achieved his first podium of the 2022 season at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Launched by an amazing start that placed him in podium contention, Norris had a consistent race that earned him a second consecutive third-place finish in Imola. 

“P3, what a result! We certainly didn’t expect that coming into this weekend, so I’m happy to be leaving with a podium. It’s been a tricky weekend, but the team recovered well to put me in a good position for today’s race.”

Norris spent much of the race in fourth-place with little traffic ahead or behind, holding on to the impressive position well. It was the misfortune of Charles Leclerc ahead, who spun-off on lap fifty-three, that allowed Norris to move up a position and take third. 

He praised his team’s hard work which allowed him to take advantage of the opportunities that were presented on the rainy Imola weekend. 

“I had a good start and was managing my tyres to the end. At that point we were on for a P4, which would still have been a great result. We got a bit lucky with the issues ahead, but we did what we needed to do to be in a position to take that opportunity. Great work by the team at track and back at the factory, great pit stops and a great result. On to Miami!” 

Most Talladega Superspeedway finishes can be boiled down to the following process: leaders run single file until the final few laps, if not the white flag, before everyone tries to make their move, only for hell to break loose in the tri-oval—often involving the leader—and someone else to seize the moment to win. Ross Chastain was that ‘someone else’ as he was running third on the last lap in Sunday’s GEICO 500 but wrecks involving leaders Erik Jones and Kyle Larson propelled him to the lead and his second win of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Christopher Bell won the pole while Saturday’s Xfinity Series race winner Noah Gragson was sent to the rear for unapproved adjustments. Bell and Chastain’s Trackhouse Racing Team partner Daniel Suárez saw early success before Larson and Bubba Wallace did so as they led laps throughout the first stage; conversely, the Fords of Cody Ware and Brad Keselowski suffered pit road misfortunes by spinning and getting penalised for speeding, respectively. Chastain also suffered a speeding penalty on his stop midway through the segment and fell a lap down while trying to regain momentum with Michael McDowell, while Tyler Reddick exited with an engine failure.

Stage #1 ended four laps early when Daniel Hemric spun up turn four and collected Chase Briscoe and Chris Buescher. As the leader, Wallace won the stage ahead of Larson, Bell, William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch, Jones, Alex Bowman, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“Just towards the end of the stage and we were trying to get stage points because at the end of this deal you never know what can happen,” Briscoe commented. “That is not normally the mentality I would go with. I normally try to ride around and wait until the end. It seems like we always get so desperate towards the end of the stages. I felt like if I could get to the bottom I could get to eighth or ninth if I was lucky. Looking back that obviously wasn’t the right decision. The #16 (Hemric), I don’t know what happened to him. I know I got into the back of somebody and then the #16, I saw him on the apron and he kind of landed in my lap when I came back across the race track. It was a hard hit but I feel a lot better than I thought I was going to when I saw the hit coming.”

Greg Biffle, whose #44 NY Racing Team car has struggled with reliability issues in its part-time schedule, retired with a fuel pump issue for the second time after stopping on the track for the first caution of Stage #2. On social media, Biffle explained it “[a]ppears sandlike debris is getting into the fuel cell somehow which is making the fuel pump fail…”

It was the perfect day to sum up a perfect weekend for Oracle Red Bull Racing, as Max Verstappen claimed his second victory of the season whilst Sergio Pérez made it the team’s first one-two finish since 2016, at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Verstappen having started from pole, dominated the race. The Dutchman was rarely seen during the Grand Prix whilst Pérez behind was in an intense battle with Charles Leclerc. The Mexican who overtook Leclerc on the opening lap, found himself having to re-overtake the Scuderia Ferrari driver after making a mistake on his out-lap. Pérez pitted for Medium tyres having been on the Intermediates a lap before Leclerc changed his, however lost the position after a messy out-lap.

The Mexican did well to get back past though after successfully heating up his tyres. Pérez was under immense pressure from Leclerc though in the closing stages, however the Monegasque driver got too greedy on the kerbs at Turns fourteen and fifteen, resulting in an unnecessary spin for the championship leader.

The one-two finish see’s both Red Bull drivers back in the hunt for the championship and see’s the team jump to second in the Constructors’.

Team Principal, Christian Horner, deemed the race as “one of our best ever results”.

Max Verstappen cruised to his second victory of 2022, after dominating the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from start to finish. Team-mate Sergio Pérez crossed the line in second to secure Oracle Red Bull Racing’s first one-two finish since 2016.

It was a perfect afternoon in the changing conditions for Verstappen, who after making an excellent start from pole never looked in doubt of taking his second win of the season. Victory at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit rounded off the ultimate weekend for the Dutchman, after taking pole, winning the race and the Sprint race and taking the fastest lap.

It was even sweeter for the reigning World Champion after title-rival Charles Leclerc span late on, dropping many places in the process.

Verstappen couldn’t believe how amazing the weekend was and is hopeful the team can keep pushing in the right direction.

“To have a weekend like this for both of us with a one-two for the Team is just incredible. It was a very lovely Sunday! Everything today was well executed, coming into the weekend I didn’t expect it to be like this. It was more or less a perfect weekend, everything went well for us and we’ll of course enjoy today. I scored the maximum amount of points this weekend and we can be really proud of that as a Team, it’s a great boost.

Max Verstappen led team-mate Sergio Pérez to a one-two finish at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola on Sunday afternoon after a faultless drive in changing weather conditions. The reigning World Champion continued his streak of winning every race he has finished in the first four rounds of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, and now finds himself trailing Scuderia Ferrari‘s Charles Leclerc by twenty-seven points in the Drivers Championship.

Pérez was able to overtake Leclerc on the run down to the first chicane, after the Monégasque suffered a slower getaway than that of his rivals as the lights when out. After resisting pressure from the Ferrari driver throughout the race, the Mexican joined his team-mate on the podium in what is Oracle Red Bull Racing‘s first one-two since 2016.

A Sunday to forget for Ferrari

The Italian-outfit suffered a bad day in the office at what is their first home race of the season, when unfortunate contact with Daniel Ricciardo at Turn 2 saw Carlos Sainz Jr beached in the gravel for his second consecutive race. Despite signing a contract extension in the build-up to the weekend, Sainz will be frustrated with another bad weekend after also crashing in Friday’s Qualifying session.

Leclerc also finished the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix feeling frustrated, as he was on form to finish third (but rapidly chasing Pérez) when an unnecessary spin at Turn Fifteen, saw the 24-year old hit the wall, damage his front wing and flat spot his tyres in the race’s closing stages. The incident happened shortly after pitting for a fresh set of Soft tyres to set the fastest lap; the extra pit-stop saw Leclerc drop to almost the bottom of the points places, however the Monegasque driver did well to recover to sixth.

McLaren take podium number one of 2022

The McLaren F1 Team had a taste of champagne for the first-time in the 2022 Formula 1 season, when Lando Norris crossed the line in third place, very much thanks to Leclerc’s spin. Having started fifth, Norris kept out of trouble all race and was in no-man’s land for most of it; but pounced on the opportunity for third when it arrived and scored some more points for the Woking-based team. Ricciardo was not quite as lucky, having dropped to the back after his contact with Sainz on the opening lap and then being unable to progress through the field.

Dino Beganovic was delighted with his weekend’s work at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, with the Swede claiming his maiden pole position, first victory and another podium to lead the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine standings.

The Ferrari Driver Academy driver had a very strong weekend at Monza.  Racing for Prema Racing, he took pole position for race one and controlled the race amid difficult wet conditions and through three safety car periods to claim the victory.

For Sunday’s second race, he was unfortunate that his group in Qualifying did not have the better of the track conditions, and as a result, he was forced to follow team-mate Paul Aron throughout the race, although he was rewarded with a second-place finish.

In what is his sophomore year in Formula Regional in 2022, Beganovic was pleased with the outcome of the opening round of the season, and it gives him confidence heading into the second round next month at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

“It was a great first weekend in the 2022 championship, we definitely got a lot of points, which was the main goal,” said Beganovic.  “I got my first pole for the season, my first victory, and a good Sunday result with P2.

Paul Aron recovered from a non-scoring opening race of the season on Saturday in perfect fashion as he took victory in race two at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Sunday.

The Prema Racing driver is one of the favourites to win the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine title, and he started his Sunday by taking pole position, although weather conditions favoured those in his group.

Mercedes-Benz junior Aron led from the start and survived two safety car interventions to take his first win of the season, with team-mate and Saturday race winner Dino Beganovic securing second place ahead of Gabriele Mini of ART Grand Prix.

Conditions at Monza were much better than they had been on Saturday, with a dry track throughout the race, and it was a clean opening few laps for the thirty-six drivers on show.  One driver was absent from proceedings, with Axel Gnos being forced out due to an injury, caused during his crash into the barriers exiting the second Lesmo bend during Saturday’s opening race.

It was a clean start heading into turn one, with Mini attacking Beganovic for second.  However, the Swede came out on top of that exchange, with Mari Boya also getting himself involved in the battle.

Jake Hill ended an up and down weekend with a lights-to-flag victory to conclude the opener for the 2022 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season at Donington Park.

Having taken pole position to begin the weekend, Hill finished on the podium in the opening race only to be excluded due to failing a post-race ride height check. But a battle back to ninth in the second race from the back of the grid saw the ROKiT MB Motorsport driver on pole position.

He surged home from pole with Ash Sutton managing to gain some solace from a poor opening weekend for NAPA Racing UK with a maiden podium as part of the outfit albeit not the weekend the defending champion will be happy with.

While Dan Lloyd held the final spot on the podium for most of the race but buckled under the pressure as a big group hunted him down allowing Hill and Sutton to get up the road and away. It was Rich Energy BTC Racing‘s Josh Cook who managed to capitalise making his move on the penultimate lap to seal third running side by side all the way down the Craner Curves before sealing it through the old hairpin.

Lloyd’s teammate, Tom Ingram continued his strong start to the season by hunting down Adam Morgan and Rory Butcher to finish fifth, with Colin Turkington, Gordon Shedden and Bobby Thompson rounding out the top ten.

Gordon Shedden backed up his opening BTCC podium of the season handed to the Halfords Racing with Cataclean driver after Jake Hill‘s disqualification by claiming a race win at Donington Park, where he sealed a double triumph towards the back end of last season.

‘Flash’ opened his hybrid win account showing the prowess of the Honda Civic Type R in a great battle with Tom Ingram who sealed the season opener earlier today.

But it was George Gamble who stole the headlines with the Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport driver producing a demon move to get off the line into second with Colin Turkington not making it off the line. Only for Shedden to utilise his hybrid to gain a place and go second on Lap Four but the rookie still finished with his maiden podium on his first weekend of BTCC action ahead of Adam Morgan as the Ciceley BMW’s continue to show the WSR effort how its done in Donington.

Ingram led until lap ten and again Shedden used his hybrid to great effect to gain the lead and a battle between the duo ensued from there all the way until the end of the race with ‘Flash’ unable to surge away.

Josh Cook managed to find his way past Ash Sutton into fifth place going down the order as the NAPA Racing UK effort unable to find top form as of yet with Dan Cammish once again going through woes also.

Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com‘s Tom Ingram has set down an early marker to begin the new season of British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) action at Donington Park but not without a frenetic start to proceedings.

The curtain raiser for the new BTCC Hybrid system saw Jake Hill and Colin Turkington look to continue the initial BMW dominance shown in qualifying but the squabbling allowed a five-car train.

With both drivers jostling for position, Ingram seized his moment to dart through and take the lead with the race also neutralised due to Ricky Collard stopping on the start finish straight.

It took four laps to clear but Ingram again moving clear on the restart maintaining a gap to Turkington. He managed to keep the chasing pack at bay as he went on to claim the 20th win of his BTCC career.

But for Hill, despite fighting back past defending champion Ash Sutton and George Gamble into the final podium place, his race was dented even further as he was not classified in the race results after failing post-race ride height checks which promoted Gordon Shedden up to third in the final race order.

Roman Stanek took his, and Trident‘s first FIA Formula 3 Championship win of the season at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Sunday morning.

He had started second alongside polesitting team-mate Zane Maloney, the pair exchanging first place on the run down to Tamburello.

The early part of the race was dominated by drivers who had gambled to start on wets on a drying track; Caio Collet moved up from ninth to lead, while Sprint Race winner Franco Colapinto shot up from 12th to second in just two laps.

Like Saturday’s Sprint Race before it, the Feature Race was fraught with incident, a collision between Francesco Pizzi, Reece Ushijima and Brad Benavides bringing out the safety car on Lap 3.

Collet and Colapinto used the neutralisation of the race to box for slicks, falling into the lower midfield.