Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

John Hunter Nemechek might not be moving up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2022, but that is not stopping the Camping World Truck Series points leader from winning in the second tier. Nemechek led the final twenty laps to win Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 335 at Texas Motor Speedway, throwing many playoff contenders’ hopes of advancing to the final round into flux.

Championship rivals A.J. Allmendinger and Austin Cindric started on the front row, and the former led the first thirteen laps before being passed by the latter. Cindric would lead to the stage win ahead of Noah Gragson, Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, Justin Haley, Harrison Burton, Jeremy Clements, Brett Moffitt, and Brandon Brown. Three yellow flags were waved for a competition caution (lap 20), Landon Cassill suffering damage in contact with Sam Mayer (25), and J.J. Yeley‘s car stopping due to a broken crankshaft (39). Cassill would rejoin and re-exit the race multiple times as mechanical issues from the damage interfered with his day.

Daniel Hemric assumed the lead to start Stage #2. Ryan Sieg brought out the lone caution of the segment when he spun on lap 63. Hemric and Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Nemechek trade the lead but the latter would secure the lead and stage victory. Hemric, Mayer, Jeb Burton, Haley, Riley Herbst, Annett, Allgaier, Gragson, and Allmendinger rounded out the top ten.

Nemechek continued to lead to start the final stage. On lap 100, Dylan Lupton and Tanner Berryhill slammed into the turn two wall and collected Jade Buford. C.J. McLaughlin spun on lap 141 for another caution, and Hemric took the top spot for the restart. Harrison Burton, also a JGR driver, became the new leader following Brown’s wreck on lap 172, but was passed by Nemechek on lap 181.

Despite being penalised after the McLaughlin caution for having a crewman over the pit wall too soon, Nemechek was able to complete his drive from the back and hold off Hemric to win his second career Xfinity race and first since 2018 at Kansas.

The Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO of Michael Igoe and Phil Keen has claimed the final pole position of the 2021 Intelligent Money British GT Championship season. The WPI Motorsport crew put in a combined 2:53.808 in two laps of the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit to take the top spot by over 0.350 seconds over their nearest rivals. The qualifying session went perfectly for the pair who start tomorrow’s race in a potential championship winning position.

In GT4 most of the titles have already been decided but that didn’t stop a hotly contested battle for the front row of the grid. The winners in this fight? Steller Motorsport and the Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding whose 3:09.568 puts them almost 6 tenths clear of second place. It puts them five places ahead of the first of the championship protagonists and three places clear of the Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 which tied up the titles Steller were contesting at the last meeting at Oulton Park.

GT3: Igoe and Keen Claim Pole as Title Leader Shows Strain

WPI Motorsport are doing everything right to break Phill Keen’s curse at the final round of the championship. 2021 is the sixth consecutive year that Keen has entered the final round with a shot at the title and at least this year, he starts in a winning position.

Assuming championship leaders Leo Machitski and Dennis Lind only make up a single place in the race, the title could go to the perennial bridesmaid. Second and third places are filled by cars that are out of the title fight and given that the #6 machine, which is only two points ahead of the WPI Lamborghini, starts in 4th place things are looking hopeful for the #18.

On the downside, both the championship contenders ahead of the leader took podium spots in the second race at Oulton Park they come to the final round with success seconds to serve in the pit lane. Igoe and Keen must stay stationary for 20 seconds longer than the #63 from Barwell whilst Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman stay put for five additional seconds over the leaders.

Roman Bilinski took advantage of a strong start to get his seventh podium of the season in Race 1 as the GB3 Championship visited Donington Park for the season finale.

Reece Ushijima took second for Hitech GP, with Bilinski third.

The Checkered Flag spoke to the Arden Motorsport driver in parc fermé after a race which saw Zak O’Sullivan take the title.

“Getting podiums is a habit I’d like to keep!” he said.

“It was a tough race but I did it all at the start.

Reece Ushijima took his fifth podium of the season at Donington Park on Saturday, coming home second behind Zak O’Sullivan, who was confirmed as the champion.

The Checkered Flag caught up with the Hitech GP driver in parc fermé, and he was pleased with his performance.

“I’m still satisfied with second but Zak drove really well today. If it went a couple of laps longer, maybe I could have done something but I’m still happy with second.”

Ushijima went for a move around the outside at Redgate on Lap 1, but O’Sullivan was able to hold him off into the Old Hairpin and stay ahead.

“Trust me, there wasn’t a big space! But I thought I could squeeze through, I had a good start and saw the opportunity.

Zak O’Sullivan has officially taken the 2021 GB3 Championship title with a win in Race 1 at Donington Park on Saturday.

It’s the 16-year-old’s first title in car racing, having finished as runner-up in the 2019 Ginetta Junior Championship to GB3 debutant James Hedley, and falling just four points short of the 2020 F4 British Championship title to Luke Browning.

He only needed to finish Race 1 to officially be crowned, as an element of sporting competition has to have taken place that weekend for a driver to claim the title.

In what’s been a stellar season for the Gloucestershire driver, O’Sullivan topped every stat table going into the final weekend.

After 21 races, he had taken 12 podiums, led 56 laps, six races, gained the most points for positions gained in Race 3, six fastest laps, four poles and five wins.

Zak O’Sullivan took the Race 1 spoils in the GB3 Championship‘s second visit to Donington Park this season, in a race which saw the Carlin driver officially crowned as champion.

O’Sullivan started on pole, with the Hitech GP cars of Bart Horsten and Reece Ushijima in second and third.

The then-championship leader led from Ushijima and Roman Bilinski, with Ayrton Simmons, Christian Mansell, Sebastian Alvarez and Roberto Faria involved in an incident at McLeans.

Mansell hit Alvarez, before being collected by Simmons, with Faria going through the gravel trying to avoid the stricken cars.

The two Douglas Motorsport cars were in strife at the Melbourne Hairpin, as Tommy Smith collided with Reema Juffali, apparently owing to a gearbox issue.

Marcus Clutton has topped the time sheets, in the Enduro Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 he shares with Morgan Tillbrook, during first practice for the final round of the 2021 Intelligent Money British GT Championship. The margin of superiority? 0.007 seconds, how very James Bond.

Annoyingly for fans of the least secret government agent in history, it wasn’t even an Aston Martin which claimed second place! That honour went to the championship leaders Leo Machitski and Dennis Lind in the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO from Barwell Motorsport.

GT4 was topped by the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK entry, the #15 Toyota GR Supra GT4 of John Ferguson and pace setter Jamie Caroline. 4th in the title fight for the GT4 Pro/Am, the Toyota bested 3rd place Assetto Motorsport to claim the top spot by a more suitable margin of 0.508 seconds.

GT3: Enduro Atop Times as Title Leaders Show Pace

The championship leading Lamborghini of Dennis Lind and Leo Machitski had an almost perfect start to the weekend when, if all goes well, they will claim the GT3 Pro/Am and Overall titles. A 1:26.480 is faster than the qualifying lap record at Donington Park but one car blotted the copybook for the Barwell run machine, Enduro Motorsport’s McLaren on a 1:26.473.

Also spoiling a great Barwell session was the solitary Porsche 911 GT3 at the meeting. The time was set by F3 legend and British GT veteran Scott Malvern in the machine he shares with Nick Jones, and was less than 2 tenths off the McLaren at the head of the pack in a session where the top ten were covered by less than a second. Fifth quickest in the session, behind the fourth placed Barwell pairing of Sandy Mitchell and Adam Balon were returning round by round GT4 graduates, Mia Flewitt and Euan Hankey in their Team Rocket RJN McLaren 720S GT3.

Conditions at Donington Park continued to improve as Free Practice Two saw top honours ultimately taken by Barwell Motorsport‘s GT3 title contenders Leo Machitski and Dennis Lind in their #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo. In GT4, Toyota Gazoo Racing UK‘s #15 Toyota Supra GT4 duo made it a double header across both free practices sessions as they were again quickest, in spite of a few challenges.

GT3: Barwell dominate the top of the tables.

Sandy Mitchell was the first of the Barwell Motorsport cars to go quickest, though the #1 Lamborghini didn’t immediately rise through the rankings, as the top spot was shared between a number of teams before this. Phil Keen’s #18 WPI Motorsport Lamborghini, the McLaren 720s round by round GT3 entry of Team Rocket RJN driven by Euan Hankey as well as Enduro Motorsport‘s Marcus Clutton all topped the table before Mitchell became top dog.

That didn’t last too long though, as teammate Dennis Lind was hot on his heels, and after a couple of laps of reducing the lead held by the #1, Lind comfortably surpassed the time of his sister car, extending the lead to 0.3s with the only other real competition for the pair of Barwell cars coming from the Mia Flewitt/Euan Hankey combo, who finished third.

This may have been different, however, had the Team ABBA Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 had the whole of the session, but the #8 car driven by father/son duo Richard Neary and son Sam were forced to start the session late as a consequence of Track Limits violations in the previous session. The 5 minute penalty didn’t stop Sam Neary though as he wasted no time in getting the mean green Mercedes machine up to fourth quickest overall.

Phil Keen and Michael Igoe, in spite of their early pace were unable to capitalise further on this, leaving them fifth quickest through the session, ahead of the Ram Racing duo of Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman.

Zak O’Sullivan is on the brink of taking the GB3 Championship title with two races remaining. All he has to do is finish Race 1 on Saturday afternoon.

The Carlin man took pole for Race 1, and might have had Race 2 pole but for traffic. He was feeling positive when TCF caught up with him at Donington Park on Saturday.

“Getting pole doesn’t really change too much, I think we had the Championship celebrations before Quali, because mathematically I’m champion, unless I get any penalty points in Race 1,” the 16-year-old said.

“It’s a bit of an underwhelming end to the championship, I guess, but qualifying was good. I wasn’t really expecting it, I improved my driving from testing as I’d picked up some bad habits between Oulton Park and Donington.”

Those “bad habits” related to “simply over-reaching with the brake pedal. I was struggling with braking and thought there was an issue with the car yesterday, but there turned out not to be.

Chris Dittmann Racing are in a tight Teams Championship fight with Elite Motorsport going into the final round of the GB3 Championship season.

The Checkered Flag caught up with Team Manager, Chris Dittmann ahead of qualifying on Saturday morning.

“We’re feeling good. Testing’s been going well, it’s obviously going to be very tight around here.

“Testing always proves to be tight round here, but we’re looking forward to trying to get it all right in qualifying.”

Ayrton Simmons has brought four wins and six podiums this season to date, and Chris was impressed with the team’s most successful driver’s efforts since returning to the series full-time.

Zak O’Sullivan and Reece Ushijima took pole for Race 1 and Race 2 on Saturday as the GB3 Championship visited Donington Park for the second time this season.

The title was effectively secured by the time the circus rolled out of Oulton Park

Bryce Aron set the early pace ahead of James Hedley, but the pair were quickly shuffled back by the Chris Dittmann Racing pair of Alex Fores and Branden Oxley.

The third CDR entry of Ayrton Simmons then went quickest ahead of Reema Juffali (Douglas Motorsport), before Reece Ushijima and Hedley shared the top spot between them over about 15 seconds.

Fores and Oxley dropped down the order as others set their first representative laps, but quickly moved back up to 11th and 12th.

Mario Isola felt the Turkish Grand Prix showed that the intermediate tyre was ‘well-suited’ to a wide range of changeable conditions, with the green-walled tyre the predominantly used tyre throughout the fifty-eight-lap race.

One driver – Alpine F1 Team‘s Esteban Ocon – went against the guidance from Pirelli Motorsport and went through the whole event without making a pit stop, the first time since the Monaco Grand Prix of 1997 that a driver has been able to complete a full-race distance without taking to the pit lane at least once.

However, the one-stop option was the best choice for the race, although the timing of the stop was critical, with conditions giving the drivers headaches as the tyres began to grain on the still-wet track.

Isola, the Head of F1 and Car Racing at Pirelli, felt Valtteri Bottas and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team called the strategy right by stopping on lap thirty-seven, with the Finn having the pace advantage to take his first victory of the season at Intercity Istanbul Park.

“Following wet conditions in Saturday’s free practice, we had wet weather from start to finish of the grand prix today,” said Isola.  “However, this was never heavy rain that required the full wets: instead it was perfect territory for the intermediates, which showed themselves to be very well-suited to a wide range of changing wet conditions.

Mick Schumacher says there is no reason to be sad even though he finished a lowly nineteenth on Sunday after a positive weekend at Intercity Istanbul Park.

The Uralkali Haas F1 Team driver had started an encouraging fourteenth on the grid after a superb display during the tricky Qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. But being amid the midfield had its perils for the German on Sunday as he was spun around by Fernando Alonso at turn four to fall to be back of the pack.

Nevertheless, Schumacher did not let it affect him and he was able to bring the car home, learning a lot about driving in difficult conditions.  But he knew he was out of position on the grid and felt the race result was reflective on where the pace of the VF-21 is in 2021.

“We knew it was going to be tough and I think because there was no real chaos, the result that we drove today was realistic anyway,” said Schumacher.  “Again, we learned a lot, we learned how to be competitive at the race start and we just have to analyze how we do it even better.

“Overall, it’s been a very positive weekend. There’s no reason for me to be sad because I’m not in the championship fight, so anything good from this weekend – I’ll take it – and anything bad I will leave it behind and learn from it.”

The latest draft calendar for the 2022 Formula 1 calendar has been released following a meeting of FIA’s World Motor Sport Council on Friday, and it sees twenty-three races but no Chinese Grand Prix.

The season is set to begin at the Bahrain International Circuit on 20 March and end with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit on 20 November, earlier than the 2021 season is set to conclude as Formula 1 looks for a more settled calendar after two years of uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix moves from December in 2021 to the second race of the season in March 2022, while the Australian Grand Prix returns to the calendar after two consecutive seasons of being cancelled due to COVID-19.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix remains on the calendar on 24 April at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in place of the Chinese Grand Prix, which has found itself dropped from the calendar for 2022.  However, the race will be back ‘as soon as conditions allow’, according to a statement from Formula 1.

The race at Imola will be followed two weeks later by the first Miami Grand Prix in the United States (8 May), before races in Spain and Monaco in consecutive weekends conclude the month of May.

Williams Racing suffered a challenging Turkish Grand Prix at the Intercity Istanbul Park Circuit, after George Russell finished fifteenth and Nicholas Latifi seventeenth, as the team failed to continue their points scoring run.

Both drivers were caught out in the opening stages of the wet Grand Prix, Russell lost places after avoiding a spinning Fernando Alonso on the opening corner and then later on after battling with Esteban Ocon. Latifi on the other hand wasn’t caught out by someone else’s error, it was in fact his own error which lost him ground. The Canadian span on the opening lap leaving him with too much ground to recover.

Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson highlighted the significance the track’s condition had on the race, with the surface refusing to dry during the Grand Prix.

“Today’s race was dominated by the track condition, which stayed damp for the duration. Like everyone else, we tried to make the intermediate tyre last until the track was ready for slicks, however, once it became apparent that this wasn’t going to happen, we were all faced with the decision of whether or not to fit a new intermediate. As Ocon and Ricciardo demonstrated, pitting early or not at all made little difference to finishing position, with only the fast cars that started out of position really making progress.

“George and Nicholas both lost ground in the opening laps, with George losing positions after fighting with Ocon and having Alonso spin in front of him, and Nicholas himself spinning. Both recovered well and showed reasonable pace at times whilst also managing the tyres. The season continues in two weeks in Austin and we are looking forward to getting back to Texas for the first time since 2019.”