Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Max Verstappen maintains his stance that the clash with Lewis Hamilton during the Italian Grand Prix was nothing but a racing incident, but he goes into the Russian Grand Prix weekend knowing he will take a three-place grid penalty for being deemed responsible for it by the stewards.

The Red Bull Racing driver was battling with his championship rival into the first chicane at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza only for the two to tangle, with the Dutchman’s RB16B ending up on top of Hamilton’s W12.

Verstappen says the penalty for the race at the Sochi Autodrom is far from ideal, but he still believes he can have a strong weekend in Russia as he continues his bid for his maiden World Drivers’ Championship.

“I think you can reflect all you like but it’s important to look forward and keep pushing,” said Verstappen.  “I still believe it was a racing incident, but we have been given a three-place grid penalty and we just have to work with it now. The race in Monza definitely wasn’t our day for many reasons, but now I just plan to look forward to Sochi.

“The penalty is of course not ideal but nothing is lost, that’s how I look at it. As for the Drivers’ Championship, we still have a lot of races ahead of us and it’s a very tiny margin. We will try and make the most from the weekend and work with the package we have.”

Despite Lewis Hamilton ending his Italian Grand Prix in a turn two clash with title rival Max Verstappen, and Valtteri Bottas finishing only third, Toto Wolff says there were plenty of positives to take away from the Autodromo Nazionale Monza for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

Hamilton’s amazing run of consecutive points finishes was ended by his incident with Red Bull Racing’s Verstappen, while Bottas was forced to battle from the back of the grid after a grid penalty for an engine change denied him pole position. 

Heading into the Sochi Autodrom this weekend, Wolff, the Team Principal at Mercedes, says the pace of the W12 has been competitive in recent races, and he hopes that continues into the Russian Grand Prix weekend as they battle to win both World Championships in 2021.

“After a demanding and intense triple-header, we are reenergised and ready to go,” said Wolff.  “Last time out in Monza was bittersweet – a commanding performance and strong result for Valtteri but a feeling of missed points for Lewis, who had the potential to fight for the win.

“The pleasing thing is that the W12 looks competitive and with just eight races to go, now is the time to use our experience and focus on the details and processes which will get us over the line.”

For the second straight round, thirteen drivers will make up a Stadium Super Trucks field (though there would have been more if additional trucks were available) as they head to the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach for the eighth season and the first time since 2019 after the 2020 edition was cancelled due to COVID-19. The thirteen-person entry list is the second largest at Long Beach behind the fourteen in 2018, which itself is the most for an SST street circuit event.

Matt Brabham, Bill Hynes, Max and Robby Gordon, and Robert Stout continue their full-time campaigns. Brabham enters Long Beach as the points leader with thirty-two points over Robby Gordon, and both drivers are three-time winners at Long Beach including claiming the most recent races in 2019. Hynes’ best finish at Long Beach is sixth in Race #1 in 2019 while this will be Max’s first time competing at the street course. Stout, coming off his maiden SST win at Nashville, has Long Beach experience via sports cars.

After fielding five trucks at Nashville, Crosley Brands will have five: CEO Bo LeMastus, Jacob Abel, Brandon Parrish, Mads Siljehaug, and Jeff Ward. Abel surprised in his series début when he finished runner-up in Race #2 at Nashville. LeMastus is an SST newbie at Long Beach, while Ward finished eighth in the inaugural edition in 2013. Parrish and Siljehaug are new faces to SST; the former is an ex-Superbike rider who founded and operates RiderSurance and the latter is a sports car regular who mainly competes in Pirelli GT4 America.

Another series newcomer will be Christian Sourapas in the #9 VP Racing Fuels truck. Sourapas and twin brother Brett, the sons of former SCORE International great Steve Sourapas, have enjoyed success in SCORE and Best in the Desert off-road competition, winning the 2015 Class 6100 (Trophy Truck Spec) championship. On his own, Christian won the Laughlin Desert Classic in 2018.

“I’m STOKED to announce that I’ll be making my official @stadiumsupertrucks debut this weekend at the Long Beach Grand Prix!! I can’t thank Eric, Will, and Chris from @bajajerky enough for the opportunity. Make sure to come out and stop by the @bajajerky tent for some product and other miscellaneous items. I can’t wait to see how I stack up,” posted Sourapas on Instagram.

Throughout the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, Stefan Parsons caught the cryptocurrency world’s eye by driving a car sporting sponsorship from Dogecoin. For 2022, he will see the race track more frequently as he has joined B.J. McLeod Motorsports for the full schedule. His number was not revealed.

“I’m extremely grateful to have the opportunity to drive for B.J. McLeod Motorsports again next year, and full-time,” Parsons stated. “We have built a ton of momentum over the last few years working together as a team and there’s a really good foundation for a strong season next year off that alone.”

The son of former team owner and driver Phil Parsons and nephew of NASCAR Hall of Famer Benny Parsons, he has raced in the Xfinity Series for BJMM since 2019. In twenty-four career starts, he has eight top-twenty finishes with a best run of twelfth in his début at Daytona in 2019. Parsons has run nine races in 2021 so far, notching a thirteenth in the Daytona season opener.

At Las Vegas in March, he and BJMM, with support from Parsons’ sponsor Springrates, began sporting a Dogecoin livery in the wake of the cryptocurrency boom. Springrates and Sokal Digital, both of whom have served as primary sponsors for Parsons in 2021, will join him for 2022.

The 23-year-old, who has never raced full-time in NASCAR, also made five Camping World Truck Series starts from 2018 to 2020. His best finish is seventeenth in his maiden series race at Bristol.

For the fourth straight year, a NASCAR national series will undergo a rebrand. Unlike the previous three instances, all of which were confined to the Camping World Truck Series repeatedly changing its title sponsor and the Cup Series switching to a new sponsorship model, the Xfinity Series will just be turning purple. On Tuesday, the series confirmed it will align with naming rights holder Xfinity‘s own image redesign, changing its main colour from red to purple, for the 2022 season.

Xfinity, a telecommunications service owned by Comcast, replaced Nationwide Insurance as title sponsor of NASCAR’s second-tier national series in 2015. In changing sponsorship, the series also replaced its primary colour with red from Nationwide’s blue, a change that is reflected in advertisements and imagery such as red windshield banners, splitters, and rear spoilers for playoff drivers. The lone “image change” to come out of the Xfinity Series since then came in 2018 when the oval logo was replaced by a rectangular one to align with the other series.

In late August, Xfinity began its redesign by unveiling a new logo designed in collaboration with branding agency venturethree. The logo features just the company’s first letter “X”; according to venturethree, the X represents “the ultimate symbol of connection [as] it brings fresh meaning and vitality to the brand. We built the new Xfinity around inclusion, creating a less masculine look and championing accessibility.” Despite the change, the revised Xfinity Series logo continues to feature the full name, though a rectangular emblem with a single letter would likely not be aesthetically impressive.

Besides the new colour, the logo also tweaks its graphics by switching from the round wave-like corners to a set of four lines next to the NASCAR logo and “Series”.

The redesign means 2022 will be the first season in which no national series uses red as a primary colour since the expansion to three divisions in 1995. The Cup Series, which currently uses white and silver, sported red during its four-decade run as the Winston Cup Series until 2003, followed by yellow under Sprint Nextel until 2016 and Monster Energy’s green to 2019. From its inception in 1995 to 2008 under Craftsman sponsorship, the Trucks were red before switching to blue as Camping World and its subsidiaries took over.

It is now confirmed that the Italian ACI Rally Monza will take place in the WRC calendar, for the second year in a row, the competition will be hosting the FIA World Rally Championship season finale. The Italian organiser with the base for the competition in the legendary Monza area has been ready to help; when Rally Japan was forced to cancel following the local authorities’ decision, then they took the chance.

No major reflection time was ever needed when the WRC promoter contacted them, the organizer builds on last year’s concept. Then they were increasingly connected to host the stages around the track area as spectators were not allowed in Italy, now the situation is different.

Both the organizer and the drivers want more stages outside of the track area, where the drivers were met by exciting mountain roads that were sometimes drowned in snow, were rain-soaked or even dry for a few meters, just like Monte-Carlo. More of this awaits as, among other things, parts of the Monza track area cannot be used due to re-constructions.

The Italian competition will be the 17th attempt to host in this year’s calendar, five organizers have been forced to cancel which gave only 12 competitions. The ACI Rally Monza will be held on 19-21 November.

For the third time this season the young Norwegian Oliver Solberg, son of the 2003 FIA World Rally Champion Petter Solberg, will be getting a WRC drive in the Hyundai Motorsport’s 2C Competition team at the tarmac rally of Spain in a couple of weeks.

Solberg who is turning 20-years-old next week won on his asphalt rally debut in the Italian Rally di Alba earlier in June. Now the level of difficulty will increase significantly for Solberg when the asphalt roads in the area around Salou, southwest of Barcelona, will be conquered in a Hyundai i20 Coupé WRC.

“It’s fantastic to be back in a WRC car. When I drove the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC in Alba earlier this year, the experience was just amazing. For sure I’m really, really looking forward to it. It’ll be an awesome challenge.” Solberg said.

“And to be going in the car to Spain is really special as well. There’s something so spectacular about the stages there and, of course, we all know about the huge numbers of fans. To go to Catalunya with the proper, proper car will be something very special.”

“As well as that, like we know, this generation of cars is nearly at an end, this will be one of the last races with these cars – so it’s a real privilege to be in it and competing again. I know I talk a lot about my dreams and having them come true, but this is the same – it’s another dream come true and I have to say a big thank you to Andrea and the team.”

Christian Mansell has perhaps been the understated, quiet presence in this season’s GB3 Championship title race.

While retirements saw early challenger Reece Ushijima‘s push fall by the wayside a little after two DNFs at Donington Park, Zak O’Sullivan has been able to extend his lead in the standings with steady points gains and five wins to date.

But it’s O’Sullivan’s Australian Carlin team-mate we will focus on here.

Like O’Sullivan, he graduated from the F4 British Championship after a seventh-place finish, one win and five podiums in total.

Having shown a strong hand in pre-season testing at Brands Hatch, Mansell’s qualifying performance for the first round in Kent left plenty to be desired and gave him work to do from 13th on the grid.

Ayrton Simmons is one of the most successful drivers in recent GB3 Championship history.

After a debut 2019 season which yielded three wins (more than eventual champion Clément Novalak) and a third-place finish with Chris Dittmann Racing, he stepped up to Euroformula Open in 2020 with Double R Racing.

He took a best finish of fifth place in the first half of the season, before taking two wins at Brands Hatch in a wildcard appearance with JHR Developments, also returning with two podiums at Silverstone at the end of the campaign.

His 2021 season kicked off in the best possible way, with pole position and a win in the first race at Brands, before retiring after a collision with Bart Horsten in Race 2.

That incident caused chassis damage which endured into the trip to Silverstone in June, but Simmons still took the win in the reverse-grid Race 3, having qualified 14th, perhaps initially struggling with that damage but learning to drive around it as the weekend went on.

At the same time as Oliver Solberg was announed to take the step from WRC2 to WRC class for Rally RACC – Rally de España, it also became clear that former M-Sport Ford World Rally Team driver Teemu Suninen will join Hyundai Motorsport’s WRC2 team for Spain in October.

Hyundai Motorsport are known for many drivers getting the chance to test and when the team is now out of the WRC2 battle, they take the chance to assess new drivers before the upcoming 2022 season.

Finnish native Suninen chosed to leave M-Sport in the middle of this season, he would have competed for M-Sport in the Acropolis Rally but chose a time before terminating the contract after his final appearance with the team in Ypres Rally. Instead, he started to invest in his own direction towards a “comeback” in the WRC class, during the season with M-Sport he and Adrien Fourmaux have shared the car.

“Hyundai Motorsport is known as a great team with strong team morale, professional and motivating mentality. The whole team has always been oriented on good results in WRC and also in WRC2. It is great to be part of this big team, and I’m looking forward to the whole experience and delivering results in WRC2 with the new Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car at Rally de España in a couple of weeks.” Suninen said in the announcememt.

Suninen will be entering at home in Rally Finland in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, but in Spain he will go under Hyundai Motorsport’s banner and drives the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 as Solberg would have driven, his fellow countryman Jari Huttunen will also start in Spain with a Hyundai i20 N Rally2.

Nine-time GB3 Championship race-winner Ayrton Simmons has been announced as the third driver for Charouz Racing System ahead of the final round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship in Sochi this weekend (25/26 September).

The 20-year-old will partner Logan Sargeant and Zdenek Chovanec, as 2020 US Formula 4 champion Hunter Yeany faced schedule clashes and chose to race in Formula Regional Americas.

Yeany competed against Simmons in GB3 earlier this season at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, standing in for Oliver Bearman at Fortec Motorsport. The American took two top-ten finishes in Belgium, including a podium in Race 3.

Simmons was a pre-season title favourite from the day he was announced at Chris Dittmann Racing, having taken three wins across a 2019 campaign which saw him finish third in the standings, and a double-race-winning wildcard entry at Brands Hatch with JHR Developments last season.

This season, he’s taken four wins at Brands Hatch and Silverstone, placing him second going into the final round at Donington Park, keeping him narrowly in the title hunt with three races to go.

The Herta family seems to own WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, as Colton Herta wins the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, now tying his father Bryan with two wins at the circuit. Herta started on the pole and dominated the race from start to finish, leading 91 of 95 laps.

“I enjoy racing here so much,” Herta said post-race. “It’s an amazing track for me and my family, it’s been so good to us. To two for two so far is great.”

“This place is so awesome, it’s my favorite track in North America by far, and to win here means so much.”

Championship leader Alex Palou finished second, extending his championship lead to 35 points over Patricio O’Ward who finished fifth. The championship now comes down to the final race next weekend between the young duo as well as Josef Newgarden, with Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson mathematically eliminated from championship contention.

Herta led the field to green alongside teammate Alexander Rossi, as Dixon did exactly what he needed to do to assist his teammate Palou by putting himself between the Spaniard and O’Ward from third to fifth. Rossi’s miserable stretch of luck continued with a wreck on lap two, making contact with Herta going for the lead in turn four and sending him spinning into the gravel and bringing out the caution.

The NTT IndyCar Series has released the schedule for the 2022 season, including 17 races with 12 on road and street courses and five ovals.

The season kicks off on 27 February as the Streets of St. Petersburg return as the starting venue for the first time since 2019. Texas Motor Speedway hosts the second round of the season on 20 March, reduced to one race instead of a doubleheader.

The Streets of Long Beach also return back to the beginning of the season set to be the third race of the season on 10 April.

The season kicks into high gear for the always exciting month of May, starting on the first day of the month with Barber Motorsports Park before heading to Indianapolis for a race on the Indy Road Course on 14 May before the 106th Indianapolis 500 on 29 May.

Next up is the Streets of Belle Isle on 5 June, where now the famed Dual in Detroit is is down to one race, before heading to Road America on 12 June.

Colin Turkington has continued his mantle as the ‘King of Croft’ by claiming a 13th career win around the circuit in a masterful drive by the Team BMW driver who has got back on track somewhat this weekend.

Turkington took it from start to finish with the real battle happening behind him as Gordon Shedden and Ash Sutton squabbled throughout for the final podium spots. It is the Laser Tools Racing driver who leaves once more ahead in the Driver’s Championship holding a 29 point lead to Jake Hill and 35 and 36 to Turkington and Josh Cook.

Turkington got off the line well alongside Shedden but he had to restart his charge after a safety car period with Lloyd off into the gravel, Oliphant off the track and Goff and Mitchell also caught up in the incident. Further drivers were in strife with Edwards and Jackson into the pit as their woes continued.

But the Team BMW driver was masterful off the restart and got away from Shedden while further down, it was an important race for Hill who was looking to take more points away from Sutton but he had Proctor, Morgan and Jelley among others queuing behind him.

Plato was off further down after a high-speed off where the Vauxhall Astra was lucky not to hit anything but he went to the pitlane successfully.

Jake Hill has returned to the top step of the podium and also firmly into the BTCC (British Touring Car Championship) Drivers’ Championship hunt after claiming Race Two at Croft on Sunday afternoon.

Hill started second behind Aiden Moffat who claimed the opening race of the day but made the most of his opportunity behind the maximum success ballast laden Infiniti Q50 with Complex being the turning point as the MB Motorsport driver produced a fantastic move to surge into the lead.

He went off into the distance from there leaving Moffat to fight it out with Josh Cook for second and third and despite a mid-race hit from the BTC Racing Honda and the success ballast, he finished second.

A domino effect saw Colin Turkington come out worse off as an incident then occurred with Gordon Shedden but the duo were pulled out first and second in the reverse grid with Ash Sutton who gained from that sat fifth at the end after battling with Tom Ingram.

Behind the aforementioned drivers were BTC Racing’s Senna Proctor, Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan and Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley who rounded out the top ten.