Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

With the exception of sharing an Extreme E car with Klara Andersson and Tamara Molinaro, Oliver Bennett has typically been a one-man show at his XITE Energy Racing team. This will change in 2022 as the outfit’s Nitro Rallycross programme plans to expand to two cars. A team-mate was not immediately announced.

The news comes as NRX prepares to introduce the FC1-X electric car for the 2022/23 season. The FC1-X is regarded as the most powerful rallycross car ever built, and will race in a separate class from the traditional ICE-powered Supercars called Group E. NRX’s upcoming calendar will also be the first with events outside the United States as it visits six different countries beginning with a return to Bennett’s native England on 18/19 June.

“After racing in NRX last year and seeing the electric ambitions, I knew this was the place for me,” said Bennett. “We spent time understanding the new FC1 car concept, the series’ marketing ability and its global expansion plans that align with XITE Energy and (team partner) myenergi’s own marketing ambitions. For me, it was an easy decision and a perfect way to increase my involvement as a team owner and driver in EV racing.

“For XITE Energy Racing powered by myenergi, this year is a hugely important one in becoming the leading global sports team in off-road EV racing. With the crazy format, the cars and the stars that Nitro provides, it lends itself perfectly to both my racing goals and the team’s brand partners ambitions on the global stage. We want to win, and we want people to watch.

“I’m really looking forward to building a killer team and racing brand this year. We have some huge plans on and off the track and the XITE Energy Racing powered by myenergi team will have the performance to compete for wins.”

Sam Bird feels the mid-season break has been useful for the Jaguar TCS Racing squad as they look to kickstart their season after a under par start to the 2021-22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season.

The British racer started the year with a fourth-place finish in race one of the Diriyah E-Prix, but it has been slim pickings since, with fifteenth place finishes in race two in Saudi Arabia as well as in the Mexico City E-Prix.

Bird says everyone has been working hard to solve the issues that have cost them in the opening three races as Formula E arrives in Italy for the Rome E-Prix for two more races, and he believes the team can produce ‘incredible results’ this weekend.

“I am very excited to be back in the Jaguar I-TYPE 5 this weekend,” said Bird.  “The mid-season break has been useful for the team to come together and work out where we can improve and what we need to do to deliver a strong performance – now it comes down to putting this into practice this weekend.

“Qualifying well is going to be important. We know we can produce incredible results in Rome so I’m hoping we can do the same again this weekend.”

Oliver Rasmussen will re-join the FIA Formula 3 Championship grid for the rest of the 2022 season with Teams’ Champions Trident, as Red Bull junior Jonny Edgar has withdrawn for health reasons.

Edgar won the 2020 ADAC Formula 4 Championship, and competed in his first FIA F3 season with Carlin last year.

The 18-year-old from Cumbria has withdrawn with the support of his family, management, Red Bull and Trident.

Team Manager Giacomo Ricci said: “It is with great regret that we say goodbye to Jonny Edgar, and we wish him the quickest possible recovery.

“Since the start of the season, he was weakened by physical issues, but he fought like a lion. He did not back down and continued to race.

Hamda Al Qubaisi will race in Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in 2022 with Prema Racing, with the Emirati driver stepping up from Formula 4.

Al Qubaisi made her single seater car debut back in 2019 and has shown her competitiveness throughout her time in racing, with multiple wins coming in the F4 UAE Championship, a record for any female racing in Formula 4 across the globe, as well as a podium finish in the competitive Italian Formula 4 championship last year.

She entered the Formula Regional Asian Championship to prepare for her main campaign in FRECA this year, and she is delighted to be remaining with Prema for another year.

“I’m very excited to be working with PREMA Racing for my first season in FRECA,” said Al Qubaisi.  “I’m looking forward to building on what I learned in the Formula Regional Asian Championship and continuing to progress and improve.”

Al Qubaisi becomes Prema’s fourth driver for the 2022 season, with teams allowed to run four cars if the fourth driver is female.  She joins Paul Aron, Dino Beganovic and Sebastian Montoya, all of which have been confirmed for the upcoming season.

Nick Cassidy faced a conundrum for the 2022 racing season: he was due to race for AlphaTauri AF Corse in Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters as well as Envision Racing in Formula E; however, some DTM dates clash with FE. To remedy this problem, AF Corse turned to someone with more than enough experience on off-road and touring cars but is new to DTM: Sébastien Loeb.

Loeb needs no introduction for rally fans as a nine-time World Rally Champion with eighty rally victories including Monte Carlo in January. While off-road is his forté, Loeb is no stranger pavement circuit racing as the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans runner-up. In 2014 and 2015, he finished third in the FIA World Touring Car Championship with six race wins.

The Frenchman had tested an AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 in Belgium last Tuesday.

“Throughout my career, I have always liked to change between disciplines,” said Loeb. “DTM is a famous championship and as the opportunity came up for me to compete in it, I took it, of course. It is an exciting challenge because the driving style is entirely different.

“Now, it is time to work. I will be up against specialists in such racers and my last proper GT3 race already is a long time ago. My goal will be to find my rhythm as well as I can and I will try to use my experience to give the team good feedback about the set-up of the car. I know that it will be difficult but the cars really are fun to drive. Really fast, nice cars. Therefore, I am looking forward to it.”

For Thursday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway, Reaume Brothers Racing will task Blake Lothian with piloting the #43 truck. It will be his first career start in the Truck Series.

“I’m so grateful to Josh Reaume (team owner) and everyone at Reaume Brothers Racing for this opportunity,” stated Lothian. “Looking forward to learning and growing with this team. I remember first watching Todd Bodine race trucks when I was little and ever since then, racing a truck has been a dream of mine. Now I am going to get that opportunity thanks to Reaume Brothers Racing. Coming off of a successful 2021 season, I’m beyond thankful for the opportunity to race at such a historic venue as Martinsville in a NASCAR Camping World Truck. The opportunities that everyone at Reaume Brothers Racing gives to numerous drivers is more generous than I could ever ask for, and I am looking forward to being a piece of the puzzle on the Paperclip.”

Lothian currently competes in late models, a discipline he joined from karting. Last year, he won at Hickory Motor Speedway in just his fourth late model start, and went on to score top tens in all eight such races. The 19-year-old was a member of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Youth Driver Development Program in 2019 and 2020.

In January, Lothian moved up to the big track at Daytona International Speedway when he participated in ARCA Menards Series testing for Mullins Racing; he set the thirty-first best overall time in a group of sixty-four.

“Giving drivers the opportunity to make their name is part of the reason I have continued in NASCAR for many years,” commented Reaume. “I see the same passion and drive in Blake that I have in myself, and I am excited to give Blake the opportunity he deserves.”

The 2022 SCORE International World Desert Championship began in dramatic fashion as the opening San Felipe 250 came down to a matter of minutes. The Trophy Truck class’ Luke McMillin and defending winner Bryce Menzies arrived at the finish together, and McMillin officially took the overall victory by just two minutes.

McMillin, who finished runner-up to Menzies in the 2021 edition and qualified third for Saturday’s race, completed the 277-mile course in four hours, twenty-five minutes, and 20.573 seconds with Jason Duncan at his side. Pole winner Menzies battled with second-fastest qualifier Justin Lofton in the early stages until McMillin passed Lofton and the latter’s engine expired after eighty-eight miles. A downed tyre from hitting a rock and questionable engine performance for Menzies allowed McMillin to close the gap, and the two traded the lead for the rest of the event in what McMillin described as “cat and mouse.” McMillin kept Menzies at bay in the dash to the finish to defeat his time of 4:27:29.269.

Despite the narrow defeat, Menzies described the run as a “solid day. Me and Luke just went back and forth, but he’s on top of his game. We tried everything we could do to track him down, but we also knew that this is qualifying for the Baja 500. Just stoked to back down here in the Malecón.”

The overall win is the 100th in Baja for McMillin’s tyre supplier BFGoodrich, continuing a legacy that began with Bob Gordon winning the company’s first in the early 1970s. McMillin is now on a three-race streak of podium finishes that includes winning the Baja 1000 as a co-driver to Rob MacCachren last November. MacCachren overcame a sixteenth-place starting spot, which topped off a difficult qualifying day in which his Trophy Truck got beached in very fine silt, to finish fourth.

“We ran clean today. We had no issues, no close calls. We just kept moving all day,” McMillin told the SCORE broadcast. “We picked off Lofton going up north, caught him on some lines, passed him moving which was really cool, and then worked our way right up to Menzies. Got up behind him on the lake bed and they were changing the tyre at the end and we got out front. We were out front for a while and then got to our pit, we had a little hiccup and Menzies got back by us. We were heading to Matomi (close to Route Mile 220) and we got on the high road, and I was probably thirty-eight seconds behind Bryce. I know the game on the high road, so I took it easy and he pulled over right before we got to Matomi, and from there we just drove it in. Amazing.”

The FIA World Endurance Championship 2022 grid will be boosted to 37 cars for the second round of the championship. After missing the first round due to the safety of staff and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, GR Racing will be back on track at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, adding another entry to the LM GTE Am class.

Most classes see little to no changes on the grid as only a few teams trading out singular drivers for the Belgium round. In Hypercar, Toyota Gazoo Racing and the 1,000 Miles of Sebring-winning Alpine Elf Team retain their opening round line-ups. Only the sole Glickenhaus Racing sees a driver change with Pipo Derani replacing Ryan Briscoe to race alongside Olivier Pla and Romain Dumas.

Most changes to the second race’s line-ups come in LMP2, where three of the 45 drivers will be different from Sebring.

Alex Lynn, who had signed with United Autosports ahead of the season starting, will take his seat in the Sebring winning #23, replacing Paul di Resta alongside Oliver Jarvis and WEC’s youngest class winner/entrant Joshua Pierson. Changes also come in the #10 VECTOR Sport with 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona overall winner and 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGTE Pro class winner Sebastien Bourdais taking over from Mike Rockenfeller to race with Nico Muller and Ryan Cullen.

The final change to the LMP2 entry list sees the return of Alex Brundle who was forced to miss the Sebring race after testing positive for COVID. He returns to the Inter Europol Competition after Fabio Scherer subbed in for him in America to race with Jakub Smiechowski and Esteban Gutierrez.

Denny Hamlin‘s hometown of Chesterfield, Virginia is approximately twenty miles away from Richmond Raceway, making it his NASCAR Cup Series home circuit. A little pit strategy earned him his fifth career win at the track as his fresher tyres allowed him to pass William Byron with five laps remaining and pull away for his first win of 2022.

Hamlin started thirteenth while Ryan Blaney was on the pole. The former’s 23XI Racing ally Kurt Busch was responsible for the first caution when his fuel pressure died ten laps in. Blaney would led every lap of the opening stage to win ahead of Byron, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, and Kevin Harvick.

While Stage #2 was incident-free, pit stops dominated the segment as each team tested out various methods to maximise their track time on each setup. Hamlin and Toyota’s alternative strategy allowed Joe Gibbs Racing team-mates Bell and Truex to lead laps, as did Blaney’s Team Penske compatriot Logano. Bell led much of the stage before being passed by Truex for the eventual stage victory. Chastain, Logano, Blaney, Elliott, Harvick, Busch, Kyle Larson, and Keselowski followed.

Six laps into the third stage, Cody Ware hit Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after he was turned by Erik Jones, prompting Ware to tweet about “[n]o respect (being) given back to me when I try to give it to everyone.” Another wreck came five laps following the ensuing restart when Ty Dillon and Cole Custer made contact and Austin Cindric was caught in the crossfire.

The race resumed on lap 264 with Byron leading. Like in the previous segment, pit stops were a critical factor as Hamlin elected to pit twice in Stage #3, while others like Byron opted to do one. Although Byron led much of the final stage, it slowly grew clear that Hamlin and his newer tyres had the advantage as he chased him down. Hamlin caught the leader and passed him with five laps remaining.

2022 marks the twenty-fifth year since Team Parker Racing turned its first wheels as a race team, during that time they have amassed an impressive thirty-seven separate drivers’ and teams’ championship titles in series ranging from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB to GT World Challenge (previously known as the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup), and Caterham Superlight European Challenge to the British GT Championship.

This year the team will be renewing a previous partnership with SACRED Coffee, having previously worked together in 2010. As part of the renewed relationship, SACRED will create a limited run of Team Parker Racing coffee during the 2022 motorsport season, with further plans yet to be announced later in the year.

SACRED have close links to Porsche motorsport as the official supplier to the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E team, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, Porsche Carrera Cup GB, and Porsche Motorsport GT team.

Stuart and Andy Parker, owners, Team Parker Racing talked of the deal, “We are really happy to have our own special Team Parker Racing blend of coffee to mark our 25th anniversary in 2022 and power us through the season, especially with SACRED as Tubbs has long been a supporter of the team and Porsche motorsport as a whole for many years.

“It’s going to be great to have our own blend of coffee to celebrate our 25th anniversary. All of us at the team are excited to work with SACRED to offer the blend to guests at the race track, as well as to customers visiting our Parker Classic Works road car business, and to work on other plans which we can’t wait to announce.”

The Superstar Racing Experience‘s 25 June round at South Boston Speedway will feature six-time track champion Peyton Sellers as a guest driver. SRX confirmed his entry on Saturday.

Sellers is one of the top regional drivers in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. Mainly competing at Dominion Speedway and South Boston Speedway in his native Virginia, he won the 2005 and 2021 Weekly Series national championships. The 2021 title came with track titles at the aforementioned circuits, and his six SoBo championships are the second most in track history behind David Blankenship‘s seven. His Sellers Racing also enjoyed much success with others like Dustin Rumley winning Ace Speedway’s late model track championship. Sellers’ hometown of Danville celebrated his accomplishments by declaring 17 March “Peyton Sellers Day”.

A former Richard Childress Racing development driver, Sellers has also competed sporadically in NASCAR’s national divisions. He ran eight Camping World Truck Series events between 2007 and 2014 with a pair of top twenties at Martinsville in his two final starts. In 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2015, he contested twenty-eight Xfinity Series races including a bulk of the 2015 schedule for Obaika Racing. His best Xfinity finish is fifteenth at Milwaukee in 2009.

While he has not seen much success in the higher ranks, Sellers is content with the grassroots environment of the Weekly Series. Speaking with NASCAR.com in late 2021, Sellers acknowledged how “fortunate I have been able to race as long as I have and still be competitive. A lot of guys my age changed directions and just lost that confidence to do it week after week, and I’m still able to do it.”

Sellers posted on social media regarding the SRX news, “Couldn’t be more grateful for this opportunity! Looking forward to a new experience at South Boston Speedway!”

Besides being perhaps the hottest young prospect in NASCAR today, Ty Gibbs has developed a reputation for his rather aggressive driving. Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Richmond Raceway did little to dispel that notion as he pushed Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate John Hunter Nemechek aside in the final corner to win his third race of the season.

The 19-year-old Gibbs, already a six-time race winner entering Richmond, won the pole while Nemechek, a Camping World Truck Series regular, joined him on the front row. The two JGR drivers battled for the lead throughout the entire race and traded the position seven times. By the checkered flag, JR Motorsports‘ Josh Berry was the only driver besides the two to lead a lap as he had a single circuit led under caution between the first and second stages. Nemechek won Stage #1 while Gibbs claimed the second.

Gibbs dominated Stage #3 before Nemechek passed him with four laps remaining. However, Gibbs was not going to relent for his team-mate, especially a part-timer who is not eligible for Xfinity points. After taking the white flag, Gibbs caught Nemechek and gave him multiple bumps from behind in the first two corners. Approaching turns three and four, Gibbs dove to the inside and made contact with Nemechek that sent him wide. Gibbs cleared Nemechek as they exited the last turn for the victory.

“We are racing for wins and they are hard to come by, so I had to take it,” said Gibbs. “We were fighting tight all day. We just couldn’t hold the bottom. John Hunter was a little faster and we had a great race. Good for Toyota to finish 1–2. I just got in there deep and had to bump him out of the way up the track. We are short track racing.”

Nemechek was understandably less than pleased with Gibbs’ move, commenting that “he and I will settle it on Monday. I don’t want to say too much and get myself in trouble, but just got drove through. He didn’t even try to make the corner there. Racers never forget, that is for sure.”

Esteban Ocon says the development of the Renault power unit has begun to prove its worth and his BWT Alpine F1 Team can go into any weekend knowing they are at least on par with their rivals in the power department.

Alpine are the only users of the Renault power unit, and Ocon has scored points in both of the opening two races of the year, while team-mate Fernando Alonso also scored in the Bahrain Grand Prix before unfortunately retiring in Saudi Arabia.

Ocon believes the power unit is much better in 2022 than it has been in recent years, and as a result he was able to battle on track with other cars more confidently than he would not have been able to previously.

“We didn’t have to be shy of anybody,” Ocon said to Motorsport.com. “As soon as I had the DRS open I could pass, I could overtake easily the Aston of Nico [Hülkenberg], Lando [Norris] in the McLaren.

“Who else? I mean Fernando of course was there. I could compare to many different cars, and it was working well for us.”

Last Wednesday, Oracle Red Bull Racing announced premium bike brand, BMC Switzerland, as a new Official Partner of the team in what is a multi-year agreement.

The multi-year deal see’s Red Bull’s partnership with BMC deepen, the pair have worked together since 2018 where they initially explored how Formula 1 expertise could improve high performance competition-spec cycles.

BMC are one of the most famous and successful premium bike brands. Since they were founded in 1994, the brand have gone on to win various World Championships and even the Tour de France.

As part of the pair’s deepened relationship, BMC will supply bikes for the team to use trackside by the entire Red Bull team and by staff at the Red Bull Technology Centre. World Champion Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez will both play a role in the advertisement of the partnership.

Oracle Red Bull Racing CEO and Team Principal, Christian Horner, is incredibly excited to build-upon their already successful partnership with BMC, with one of the future goals being to connect fans of Formula 1 and cycling.

Prior to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the McLaren F1 Team announced an extension and expansion with networking enterprise Cisco, the team’s Official Technology Partner.

Cisco is a leader in a number of fields, including: enterprise networking, video collaboration and security technology. The company will provide McLaren with access to its portfolio of solutions across enterprise networking, Wi-Fi, digital signage, collaboration and more.

The extension builds on the existing relationship with Webex by Cisco as the McLaren F1 team’s Official Collaboration Partner. As part of the extension, Webex branding will feature on both Daniel Ricciardo’s and Lando Norris’ cars and suits for the current season.

Claire Cronin, Chief Marketing Officer, McLaren Racing, is very pleased that the pairs partnership has been extended, Cronin is excited for the partnerships next step.

“Cisco has been an incredible partner to McLaren Racing, and we are delighted to extend and grow this relationship long-term. Webex technology is embedded throughout our team’s operations, helping us be connected and agile with our people who operate at race pace around the globe. As we enter a new chapter of our partnership, we will continue to drive innovation with an expansion of Cisco’s capabilities available to us.”