Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

BTC Racing ace Josh Cook has continued his love affair with Thruxton claiming a seventh career BTCC win at the Hampshire circuit to begin proceedings on Sunday.

Starting from third on the grid, he immediately got past Jake Hill‘s MB Motorsport Ford and pole-sitter Dan Rowbottom‘s Honda on the run down to Campbell Corner and he eased to the victory from there as he held off Hill until the finish.

Rowbottom couldn’t do the same as he fell down the order with Tom Oliphant and Rory Butcher taking advantage as a result. Championship leader, Ash Sutton finished fifth as he showed frightening pace as usual despite full success ballast with an ominous feel ahead of Race Two.

As usual, he went after Butcher but settled for championship points ahead of his rivals while further down a battle between Tom Ingram, Jason Plato and Colin Turkington thrilled with the Vauxhall Astra producing a brilliant move on Ingram which also allowed the latter through. But Ingram responded to get back at Turkington as up front it stayed the same.

2021 British Touring Car Championship – Race 1 – Thruxton
1 Josh COOK (GBR) BTC Racing 16 laps
2 Jake HILL (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +1.360s
3 Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Team BMW +3.740s
4 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +5.847s
5 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +6.506s
6 Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +9.260s
7 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +10.617s
8 Senna PROCTOR(GBR) BTC Racing +12.144s
9 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +14.511s
10 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +15.970s
11 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +16.635s
12 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +16.667s
13 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +17.480s
14 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +17.845s
15 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team BMW +18.535s
16 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +21.375s
17 Chris SMILEY (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +21.659s
18 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +22.165s
19 Jack BUTEL (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +23.507s
20 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +23.983s
21 Jade EDWARDS (GBR) PHSC with BTC Racing +24.259s
22 Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +31.014s
23 Jack MITCHELL (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +33.060s
24 Carl BOARDLEY (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +35.373s
25 Rick PARFITT (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +35.696s
26 Sam SMELT (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +1 lap
27 Árón TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions +1 lap
28 Nicolas HAMILTON (GBR) ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading +1 lap
29 Paul RIVETT (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +1 lap

Having a superspeedway like Daytona International Speedway as the final race before the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was always bound to create chaos as drivers sought to secure the final spots. Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 was no different as large wrecks in the final stage impacted numerous playoff hopefuls, though it was an already-locked-in face who celebrated as Ryan Blaney was the leader at the time of a last-lap crash to claim his third win of the season.

Kyle Larson would have started on the pole had he not failed pre-race inspection multiple times. Joey Gase, Kaz Grala, and Corey LaJoie suffered the same fate and also started at the rear, while Front Row Motorsports‘ Michael McDowell and Anthony Alfredo did so for deck lid extensions violations. Alfredo also had to serve a pass-through penalty after his team made illegal body adjustments to his car on the grid.

Stage #1

Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports team-mate William Byron began the race on the front row and led the first six laps before being passed by Kevin Harvick. Byron and Denny Hamlin traded the lead before Chase Elliott took the position shortly before the competition caution on lap 21. During the pause, Quin Houff exited the race with a roof flap issue and was twenty-seven laps down upon returning with the problem solved. McDowell’s day ended when his engine failed under caution, making him the first Daytona 500 winner to finish last in the Daytona summer race since Cale Yarborough—also an engine victim—in 1983.

Elliott continued to lead on the lap 26 restart and only briefly surrendered the position to Joey Logano to remove debris from his grille before retaking it. He would take the stage victory ahead of Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Austin Dillon, LaJoie, Logano, Ryan Preece, and Chris Buescher.

Stage #2

Logano was slapped with an equipment removal penalty between stages and started Stage #2 at the rear. Elliott led two laps followed by LaJoie, Truex, and Christopher Bell.

It was like a formation finish at Le Mans. Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway was dominated by the Kaulig Racing trio of A.J. Allmendinger, Jeb Burton, and Justin Haley as they swept the top three spots in each of the first two stages. On the final lap, the trio ran side-by-side and Haley edged out his partners in a three-wide finish to win his fourth superspeedway event and first of the year.

Coming off his third win of the season, Allmendinger started on the pole and traded the lead with Noah Gragson for nineteen laps before rain hit. Unable to resume, NASCAR pushed the race to Saturday hours before the Cup Series event. Allmendinger continued to lead on the restart with nine laps before the end of the stage as Haley and Burton followed. Five laps after the green, Austin Cindric was clipped by Myatt Snider and hit the outside wall on the frontstretch, and the ensuing ricochet forced Snider to check down and send Michael Annett and Sam Mayer spinning through the infield; Daniel Hemric also suffered damage in the accident as the stage ended under yellow. Haley took the lead before the crash and thus won the segment ahead of Allmendinger, Burton, Christopher Bell, Justin Allgaier, Brett Moffitt, Gragson, Caesar Bacarella, Brandon Brown, and Harrison Burton.

Riley Herbst and Brown opened Stage #2 in the lead, though debris from Annett’s car resulted in a caution after three laps. Herbert continued to hold the top position ahead of *de facto* Stewart-Haas Racing team-mate Chase Briscoe on the restart. Brown passed him with Allmendinger in tow on lap 44, though he went to the outside and surrendered the spot a lap later. Bacarella’s car lost a left rear body part on lap 48 to warrant another debris yellow. Brown fell back after running out of fuel, while Kaulig once again finished 1–2–3 in the stage as Burton led Allmendinger, Haley, Herbst, Bell, Gragson, Hemric, Allgaier, Briscoe, and Mayer.

The final stage commenced with Bell and Gragson battling for the lead, and the latter would clear him on lap 66 as the field organised into single file. Colin Garrett spun off turn four on lap 71 and became beached in the wet infield grass for the next caution. Another Gragson/Bell front row paced the field to the restart with 23 laps left, and a good push allowed Bell to hold the lead. On lap 82, Bacarella was clipped on the backstretch by Jordan Anderson and hit the outside wall with Matt Mills and Jade Buford also going around. Joe Gibbs Racing team-mates Bell and Harrison Burton led another restart with 14 to go and the former won out.

The race ran single file until Allmendinger and the Kaulig camp surged to the front with three laps remaining. Burton and Haley caught their ally and sandwiched him with drafting help from Bell and Hemric, respectively, while Allgaier pushed Allmendinger. Riding the high line, Haley beat Allmendinger and Burton to the line by .023 of a second.

Max Verstappen clinched pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix in the twelfth race of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. In wet and treacherous conditions, the Dutchman grabbed the ninth pole of his career in the dying minutes of the session.

George Russell with a sensational lap took second position ahead of Lewis Hamilton in third position. It was a stellar result for the young Briton to start on the first row.

The qualifying session at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium took place under wet and cold conditions with air temperatures at 14 degree C and track temperatures at 16 degree C.

The three compounds for this race are from the middle range of the Pirelli tyres – the white-striped hard tyres (C2), the yellow-striped medium tyres (C3) and the red-striped soft tyres (C4).

The start of the qualification was delayed by twelve minutes due to standing water on the track.

Max Verstappen was fastest ahead of team-mate Sergio Pérez in the final free practice session at a wet Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday morning.

Track conditions were difficult all session long, with pre-session rain making it very definitely intermediate tyre weather, while another shower midway through the session meant the track was never truly dry enough to switch to the dry weather tyres.

The Red Bull Racing duo of Verstappen and Pérez appeared to get the best out of the conditions by taking first and second, although there was 0.947 seconds between them, and if they can replicate this in Qualifying later on Saturday, the team will be delighted.

Lewis Hamilton ended third fastest for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, but behind him it was a more jumbled up order as drivers attempted to get a good lap around the longest lap on the calendar in very difficult conditions.

Lando Norris ended fourth fastest for the McLaren F1 Team, with the Briton having the honour of being the only driver to attempt a lap on the dry tyres in the final two minutes of the session.  However, after a tricky out-lap, he made an immediate return to the pit lane.

The FIA have announced an updated calendar for the remainder of the 2021 Formula 1 season, and it sees a reduction in events from twenty-three to twenty-two races.

The cancellation of the Japanese Grand Prix due to an increase in coronavirus cases in the country has meant the remaining events were subject to change, and the FIA have decided not to replace the Suzuka International Racing Course on the calendar.

There still is one race yet to be announced, possibly in Qatar, but a few of the other remaining races have found new dates as the FIA attempt to minimise disruption and avoid any unnecessary quarantining.

The triple-header to start the second half of the season remains unchanged, with this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix being followed by the return of the Dutch Grand Prix and then the Italian Grand Prix, while the Russian Grand Prix also maintain its September 26 date.

However, after Russia there is now a week gap before the Turkish Grand Prix on October 10, while there is a further week’s gap between Turkey and the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas on October 24.

After multiple delays due to conditions being simply not raceable Lorenzo Colombo was in a league of his own compared to the other drivers dominating the race and after his last race win was taken away from him by the Stewards will celebrate this one as his first in FIA Formula 3 and will no doubt be hoping that this won’t be his last trip to the top of the podium.

In a shortened fifteen lap race of which three of those were under the safety car it is not often you see a driver win by 13.4 seconds but this was the case for Lorenzo Colombo who’s win was never in doubt ahead of Jack Crawford who dealt well with the pressure he was put under by Roman Stanek who himself finished on the final step of the podium.

After several attempts at getting the race started which included a suspended race start before setting out again for a few laps to assess the conditions, even under Safety Car conditions Colombo was ready to go almost ‘tailgating’ the Safety Car and once under Green Flag conditions the Italian driver got a brilliant restart and managed to find the places on the track where the most grip could be found.

In a race that perhaps surprisingly had a small number of incidents it was the MP Motorsport Duo of Caio Collet and Victor Martins who were making all the moves, Collet being immensely brave at one point going round cars on the grass on the Kemmel Straight but unfortunately for the Brazilian had passed these cars off the track and was duly handed a five second penalty plunging the Alpine junior from fourth to fifth.

HWA RACELAB’s Rafael Villagomez found out the hard way how tricky these conditions can be running into the wall at Les Combes and briefly bringing out the yellow flag but thankfully managed to get the car going.

Lance Stroll admitted he felt comfortable behind the steering wheel on the opening day of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, with the Canadian ending the day with the sixth fastest time.

The Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team driver began the day at Spa-Francorchamps with the eleventh best time in free practice one, but his second practice saw him end sixth, just seven-tenths of a second behind pacesetter Max Verstappen.

Stroll says he is excited to get back into the car on Saturday and build on the potential Aston Martin showed on Friday, regardless of the weather conditions that they will face in Belgium.

“It is great to be back at Spa,” said Stroll.  “I love coming here because it is such a special track. We got through our programme today to complete a good number of laps and I was comfortable in the car.

“It has been a strong start for us, but the damp conditions out there show it could be quite unpredictable on Saturday and Sunday. The weather being a bit of an unknown is challenging, but that makes it more exciting for us drivers.

Pierre Gasly was delighted with his performance on the opening day of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend on Friday, with the Frenchman placing inside the top five in both free practice sessions.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver was third fastest in the morning’s running before ending the day with the fifth fastest time, under half a second down on the pace setting time of Max Verstappen in the sister Red Bull Racing team.

Gasly says the team have made a good start to the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps and the baseline set-up is there, but there is always time to find and there will be lots to do overnight to prepare for the rest of the weekend.

“I’m really happy to be back racing again after the summer break, particularly at such a great track like Spa,” said Gasly.  “It was important for us to have the best start possible this weekend and I think that’s what we’ve done today, finishing P3 and P5.

“We know the areas we need to focus on going into tomorrow, as of course there’s always some extra speed to find. The weather is very interchangeable here in Spa, we’ve seen it today with different conditions, and we may have rain tomorrow, so we need to be prepared for that as well.

Fernando Alonso is hoping for a dry Qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday, with the Spaniard believing he can have a strong result if the rain holds off.

The Alpine F1 Team driver, who was recently confirmed to remain with the team for the 2022 Formula 1 season, ended tenth fastest in the first practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix on Friday morning but moved up to an excellent fourth in the afternoon.

Alonso feels the team have a good baseline with the set-up of their car and there is a believe they can qualify high up the grid on Saturday afternoon, providing it stays dry!

“It was an interesting Friday for sure,” said Alonso.  “We were looking at the sky all morning and afternoon as it wasn’t a completely dry circuit to start both of the sessions.

“This impacted our day a little bit, but I think we have a good baseline for tomorrow. The weather will be the thing for us all to watch as it’s looking slightly unknown heading into qualifying. If it’s dry, I’m quite confident of a strong result.”

Valtteri Bottas was happy with how his Friday sessions went at Spa-Francorchamps, with the Finn ending inside the top two in both the morning and afternoon.

Bottas ended fastest in the morning session at Spa-Francorchamps, but fell to second in the afternoon session, although he was only 0.041 seconds away from pacesetter Max Verstappen.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver goes into this weekend knowing he will drop five places on the grid after the penalty from the Hungarian Grand Prix is applied, and as a result, the Finn was trying to work out the best set-up so he can overtake on Sunday afternoon.

Bottas feels it will be important to be fast in a straight line so he was experimenting with a lower downforce set-up, but he knows that set-up will not work if its wet.

“Everything felt pretty good out there today,” said Bottas.  “As we saw from the timesheets, it’s going to be very close with Red Bull once again so we’ll look into the detail tonight and see what marginal gains we can find.

Max Verstappen felt it was a positive start to the Belgian Grand Prix weekend even if he ended up in the wall at the end of the second practice session on Friday afternoon.

The Red Bull Racing driver was second fastest in the morning session at Spa-Francorchamps behind only Valtteri Bottas, but it was the other way around in the afternoon, with Verstappen edging the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver by 0.041 seconds.

Verstappen caused the session to be red flagged in the closing moments as the Dutchman ran wide and into the barrier at the exit of turn seven, leaving his mechanics work to do overnight to ready his car for the rest of the weekend.  However, he feels positive about his chances this weekend, regardless of the weather.

“I think we definitely had a positive start today but unfortunately I just lost the rear at the end of the second session, there was a bit too much oversteer to correct and I hit the wall,” said Verstappen.

“As a Team we were quite happy with how everything was going and we did some fine tuning between FP1 and FP2.

For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Kurt Busch will drive a Toyota. On Friday, 23XI Racing announced Busch will join the team in a new #45 Toyota Camry for the 2022 Cup season, where he will partner with Bubba Wallace‘s #23. Monster Energy, who has supported Busch since 2015, will follow him to his new home. Details such as additional sponsors and a charter were not immediately revealed.

Busch moves to 23XI after spending the last three years with Chip Ganassi Racing, for whom he has three wins and playoff berths in each season. He currently sits fourteenth in points entering the regular season finale with a victory at Atlanta in June. He was courted by 23XI throughout the season, and his departure from CGR was confirmed when the team was sold to Trackhouse Racing who signed his team-mate Ross Chastain. Incidentally, Trackhouse and 23XI are both new teams for 2021 who began as one-car operations before expanding to two for their sophomore campaigns.

While Busch has never piloted a Camry at the Cup level, he drove one for his younger brother Kyle Busch in the now-Xfinity Series in 2012. Running ten races that year with Kyle Busch Motorsports, he won once at Richmond. With the move, he will have raced for all three current NASCAR manufacturers and Dodge, who departed the sport after 2012.

“I cannot begin to express my gratitude for this opportunity,” Busch stated in a team release. “Racing to win is what I live for. Helping to continue developing a new team, alongside Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin, and Toyota is exactly what I want to be part of. Winning is important to 23XI, it’s important to Monster Energy, and it’s important to me. That is our goal.”

23XI is in its first season of competition with Wallace, who is twenty-first in the standings. It will be his first time having a Cup team-mate after spending his entire premier series career with single-car programmes.

Jack Doohan continued his good form shown in the practice session, qualifying on pole position in a session where many drivers found themselves compromised by a red flag caused by Tijmen van der Helm hitting the wall.

Behind Jack Doohan it was the Alpine junior driver Victor Martins who just about edged out Alex Smolyar, with less than a tenth of a second covering second to fourth positions showing once again how close FIA Formula 3 is.

It was Doohan who was setting the early benchmarks and ultimately the first lap time he set was the one that stood throughout the session atop the timing screens. For Doohan, this is the best chance he has of regaining ground in the championship to leader Dennis Hauger with the Norwegian qualifying outside the top ten in twelfth position and therefore will not be able to benefit from the reverse grid rules that occur in race one and two.

In the tricky conditions Frederik Vesti had to abandon a hot-lap after running wide and would therefore have to settle for seventh place, despite the drivers finding the conditions difficult the experience of Logan Sargeant shone through who managed to put in an improved lap which put him second before he would drop down to fifth by the end of the session.

With the track drying out and lap times improving it was crucial that all the drivers got a perfect lap in and MP Motorsport duo of Caio Collet and Victor Martins benefitted from good strategy their lap times shooting them up the timing screens to third and second respectively.

Max Verstappen topped the second practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix on Friday, but the Dutchman ended the session in the barriers after running wide at turn seven.

The Red Bull Racing driver caused the second red flag of the session after Charles Leclerc also crashed his Scuderia Ferrari SF21 earlier on in the session between turns six and seven.  Both cars were left with damage and the mechanics will have work to do ahead of Saturday’s running at Spa-Francorchamps.

Leclerc lost control of his car as he exited turn six, with the rear of the car getting away from him enough for him to clip the barriers on the outside of turn seven as he attempted to correct the slide, with the front-left tyre taking the biggest damage.

Verstappen’s crash was at higher speed, with the Dutchman spinning on the exit of turn seven after running wide and putting two wheels on the gravel.  The left-hand side of the car again took the brunt of the impact, but the red flag brought a premature end to the session.

Verstappen had earlier set the best time of the day with a lap of 1:44.472 on the red-walled soft tyres, but he will be wary of the pace of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team this weekend, with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton both within a tenth of a second of the Dutchman but on the supposedly slower, yellow-walled medium tyre.