Indholdsfortegnelse for 22/08/24 i Autosport

Much has been written, said and celebrated about Ayrton Senna’s career. Thirty years after the three-time world champion’s death at Imola, tributes and displays have been taking place around the world during 2024 and this weekend’s Silverstone Festival will feature what is believed to be the biggest collection of Senna cars ever assembled. As well as being your guide to the historic extravaganza (page 38), this week’s issue includes Autosport’s own 2024 Senna special. We were fortunate enough to join McLaren as it ran one of the Brazilian’s MP4/4s at Pembrey and talked to some of those that worked with him – and on the car that won 15 grands prix from 16 races in 1988 (p16). Senna first started making his mark in car racing in the UK, and…

WRC The commercial rights holder of the World Rally Championship could be investigating a potential sale of the business. WRC Promoter GmbH acquired the commercial rights to the WRC in 2013. Previously, the promotion was handled by North One Sports, but the 10-year (in force since 2010) contract with the FIA was cancelled before the 2012 season when North One Sports declared bankruptcy. The current promoter is owned by Red Bull and the KW25 entity, and since taking ownership of the WRC’s commercial rights the company has taken on the development of television and internet broadcasting. Firstly, WRC+ was set up, offering broadcasts of selected stages, and in 2018 the All Live platform was launched, which broadcasts every stage live. In 2021, WRC Promoter added World Rallycross to its portfolio,…

NASCAR It seemed like yet another race win was slipping away from Tyler Reddick after an untimely caution put William Byron out in front of the field in the delayed NASCAR Cup bout at Michigan on Monday. But he utilised a shove from fellow Toyota driver Ty Gibbs to surge back ahead, clearing Byron and capturing his second victory of the 2024 season in a two-lap dash to the chequered flag. Reddick had made his final pitstop with 38 laps to go, cycling out behind Byron, Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. He was able to make quick work of Truex with slightly fresher tyres, while another car joined the fray as Kyle Busch made a two-tyre call in a bold strategy to jump into the race lead. Before the…

5 RALLY AUSTRALIA Absent since bushfires forced officials to cancel the 2019 edition, Australia has given a lot to the WRC since it first joined the calendar in 1989. The side-by-side superspecial was introduced to the rally world at Langley Park, and who can forget the sight of Colin McRae attacking the red earth table-top jumps? Plans to resurrect the event, including taking the rally to Bathurst, have regrettably yet to materialise. 4 RALLY USA A rally in North America, last represented by Mexico in 2023, has been targeted as an important destination to grow the discipline. A return to the USA for the first time since the 1988 Olympus Rally would be an ideal way to do just that. This wait appears to be coming to an end, with…

“It’s incredible. To have the car here and to sit in it, to drive it – it’s a huge privilege. And you can’t help it when you’re sitting in it and you’re looking out of the cockpit to think, ‘This is his car, this is his view!’. You feel the goosebumps on the back of your arms standing up.” We’re at Pembrey with McLaren and its trusted Heritage driver Rob Garofall to watch and hear one of the key cars from Ayrton Senna’s career. There have been many celebrations of the three-time Formula 1 world champion in 2024, 30 years after he was killed during the San Marino Grand Prix, and the McLaren MP4/4 is a key part of his story. “We have many prized assets and this really is…

The Senna tribute at this weekend’s Silverstone Festival, which has been organised with the full support of the Senna family, won’t just be about his Formula 1 career. There will be other machines from his life, as well as memorabilia and art. The first kart that Senna drove in the Brazilian endurance championship on the streets of Brazil as a youngster will join two DAP karts to mark his early rise. Cars representing his junior single-seater titles in Formula Ford 1600 (Van Diemen RF81), FF2000 (RF82) and British F3 (Ralt RT3) will also be part of the display that Mark Constanduros and his team have meticulously put together. Senna famously impressed – after an early misdemeanour – on an outing in rally machinery in 1986 for a Cars and Car…

PORSCHE CLUB GB Of the huge number of various car clubs in attendance, one of the very largest dedicated to a single marque is Porsche Club GB. Members will be bringing a whole variety of Stuttgart’s finest to the circuit, with a particular focus on the 50th anniversary of the 911 Turbo and 25 years of the 911 GT3. NSX CLUB As covered elsewhere in this issue (see p16), Ayrton Senna is a major focus of this year’s Festival and one of the many ways he is being celebrated is via the NSX Club’s parade. The triple Formula 1 champion was involved in the development of Honda’s sportscar and that fact will be highlighted as the event pays tribute to the Brazilian legend 30 years after his death. TRIUMPH SPORTS…

There was a sense of relief for rookie Linus Lundqvist after a late surge resulted in a third-place finish in last Saturday night’s fierce IndyCar race in St Louis. The 25-year-old Swede, who pilots the #8 Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda, pulled off a daring last-lap pass on Andretti Global’s Colton Herta to secure the second podium of his rookie season, matching his finish at Barber Motorsports Park, which also happened to mark the last time he finished in the top 10. The rollercoaster results, combined with the looming charter system possibly impacting the downsizing of Chip Ganassi Racing, has led to speculation over the 2022 Indy Lights (now NXT) champion’s future with the team. “We’ve had a season with a lot of ups and downs, let’s put it that way,”…

WORLD RALLYCROSS METTET (BEL) 17-18 AUGUST ROUND 3/5 Timmy Hansen scored his first victory in two years during last weekend’s World Rallycross of Benelux event at Mettet, while reigning champion Johan Kristoffersson had a weekend of mixed fortunes. Despite suffering damage in his first heat, Hansen lined up alongside his brother Kevin on the front row for Saturday’s final. The two Peugeot 208 RX1e machines ran side by side through the first few turns, and Timmy prevailed in the squabble before pulling clear to win by more than two seconds. Behind him, Kevin backed up Volkswagen Polo duo Kristoffersson and Ole Christian Veiby, only to emerge in fourth after serving his ‘joker lap’. He snatched the final podium spot in a drag race to the finish after Kristoffersson suffered a…

EUROPEAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP ZLIN (CZE) 16-18 AUGUST ROUND 6/8 Hayden Paddon holds a slender lead in the defence of his European Rally Championship title after a dramatic Barum Czech Rally Zlin, won by Dominik Stritesky last weekend. The one-time World Rally Championship event winner came through the tricky asphalt stages in 12th overall after suffering a double puncture in stage seven when a rain shower caused havoc on Saturday afternoon. Paddon and co-driver John Kennard had carried two rain tyres, which they fitted to their Hyundai i20 N before the first puncture struck. The pair, sitting seventh overall, 13 seconds behind title rival Mathieu Franceschi, dropped four minutes to 18th, outside of the points, after ending the stage with a second puncture. However, the title race turned in Paddon’s favour…

BRSCC The British Racing & Sports Car Club is launching two new multi-class series to join its racing programme next year. Production Cup and ProSport Sprint will build on the success of other categories such as the Clubsport Trophy and Supersport Endurance Cup, and increase the proportion of BRSCC-owned series and championships that it oversees. Production Cup will cater for production-based cars using a multi-class structure based on power-to-weight ratios. Its technical regulations and classes will be similar to those used in Clubsport Trophy but the series will run 15-minute sprint races to complement Clubsport’s 45-minute mini-enduro format. Its calendar will predominantly comprise single-day, two-race events, with occasional two-day, three-race weekends. ProSport Sprint is aimed at more powerful and sophisticated models, including manufacturer-built GTs and saloons. It is being introduced…

MINI CHALLENGE Jamsport Racing, which runs cars in the Mini Challenge, Fiesta ST240 and Fiesta Junior championships, has teamed up with Mini Challenge organisers to run its annual scholarship in the category’s JCW Sport class. Jamsport’s scholarship has previously supported a Fiesta Junior driver each year, beginning in 2021 with Deagen Fairclough, who is currently setting the pace in British Formula 4. The winner of the Mini Challenge scheme will receive a fully-funded drive in next year’s championship. Team principal Jamie Going said: “The junior-level scholarship is perhaps a bit crowded now. We’ve got back into Minis, which I think is a really good championship and it’s in the British Touring Car paddock. The Sport is a much more accessible car – I think it’s a good stepping stone. “We’re…

HISTORICS McLaren CEO Zak Brown was back behind the wheel last weekend and took a victory at the Monterey Motorsport Reunion aboard Alan Jones’s 1980 Formula 1 championship-winning Williams FW07B. Brown won the second race for 1966-85 F1 cars at Laguna Seca in the machine that Jones claimed five F1 victories with on his way to the title. “Awesome weekend of racing at Monterey Reunion!” said Brown, whose car was run by his United Autosports team. “It’s always great to get racing at my home track, Laguna Seca – this event is one I look forward to each year and it’s nice to have some racing during the F1 break. “The last time I won here was in the Lola in 2015 – so to take P2 and a race…

SILVERSTONE NATIONAL BRSCC 17-18 AUGUST In an action-packed weekend of racing on Silverstone’s National layout, the Civic Cup’s exemplary driving standards shone in hard-fought, close-but-fair tussles that produced four different winners. Three were familiar victors but Saturday’s opener, rescheduled from Oulton Park in June, brought a maiden win for Harvey Caton. Off the front row of a reversed grid, Caton triumphed by 4.4 seconds over Will Redford, who held off championship challengers Josh Files and Max Edmundson. The latter pair had driven side-by-side for most of the first three laps, then continued their duel in race two, having each demoted polesitter Redford. Files edged it, and spoke for all when he said: “It was good fun but it was really respectful – everyone gave each other just the right amount…

DOCUSERIES MORE THAN MACHINE youtube.com/@wrc The World Rally Championship is the latest motorsport series to receive the Netflix-style behind-the-scenes documentary treatment with the launch of More than Machine. Since its inception in 1973, the WRC has produced some of motorsport’s finest drivers, wildest moments and most incredible survival stories, as teams and competitors tackle the world’s most extreme terrain – from Sweden’s perilous snow to Kenya’s brutal savannah – in pursuit of glory. This concoction has made the WRC a long-overdue target for a docuseries to showcase itself to a new audience, much like Formula 1 has achieved with the Drive to Survive Netflix series. Now the WRC has joined the conversation with More than Machine, a six-part series following the progress of the Cumbria-based M-Sport-Ford WRC team through the…

YOUNG DRIVER AWARD The final 10 candidates for the 2024 Silverstone Autosport BRDC Award, supported by Silverstone Circuits Ltd, have been selected. The Award, which started in 1989, aims to find and assist the best junior British racing drivers. The prize for this year’s winner includes £200,000 and a test with Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team. Finalists have to primarily compete in a category below Formula 3 or be an F3 rookie, and be 16 years old by the time of the Award assessments at Silverstone in October. They must be under 24 at the start of the year. F3 race winners and former finalists Arvid Lindblad and Callum Voisin, GB3 title contenders Louis Sharp, John Bennett and Will Macintyre, Italian F4 dominator Freddie Slater, runaway British F4 points…

Lamborghini has unveiled the road car around which it is developing its next-generation GT3 racer to replace the Huracan introduced in 2015. The covers came off the Temerario last week at Pebble Beach in California, while the race version will be shown next year ahead of its release to customers in 2026. The one-make Super Trofeo version will follow the year after that. The four-wheel-drive Temerario is powered by a twin-turbo V8 and three electric motors, but the racer will be rear-drive and non-hybrid as per the GT3 regulations.…

NASCAR Former NASCAR star Kurt Busch was arrested for speeding and drink driving last week in North Carolina. The 2004 NASCAR Cup champion was initially pulled over for speeding, having been reportedly travelling at 63mph in a 45mph zone. The 46-year-old was later arrested and charged with drink driving, careless driving, and reckless driving by the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office. Busch’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the arrest was 0.17%, while the legal limit in North Carolina is 0.08%. The 2017 Daytona 500 winner’s driver’s licence has been revoked for 30 days. He will appear in court on 19 September. Busch (below) hasn’t raced in NASCAR Cup since midway through the 2022 season, when a crash during qualifying at Pocono sidelined him with a concussion. The 34-time Cup race…

Six-time Formula 1 grand prix winner Ralf Schumacher made a successful return to racing last weekend at the Nurburgring, 12 years after his final DTM campaign. Now 49, Schumacher teamed up with his son David – an F3 race winner – to contest the two Prototype Cup Germany races in an LMP3 Ligier run by Ralf’s US Racing team. “The car was great and it was a lot of fun, especially when you are so successful,” said Schumacher Sr after they scored two poles and two wins. “It was very nice to go on track with David.”…

Zandvoort Length 2.646 miles Number of laps 72 UK START TIMES Friday 23 August FP1 1130 FP2 1500 Saturday 24 August FP3 1030 QUALIFYING 1400 Sunday 25 August RACE 1400 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC SPORT WEBSITE Highlights CHANNEL 4 1830 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors ZANDVOORT STATS Previous winners 2023 POLE POSITION Max Verstappen 1m10.567s POLE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m08.885s (2021) RACE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m11.097s (2021) Zandvoort podiums Jim Clark 6 Niki Lauda 6 Jackie Stewart 5 Jack Brabham 4 Clay Regazzoni 4 Max Verstappen 3 Alain Prost 3 James Hunt 3 Nelson Piquet 3 Graham Hill 3…

As well as an MP4/4, the Senna celebration at this weekend’s Silverstone Festival will include a number of the great Brazilian’s other Formula 1 cars. They will form part of what is believed to be the biggest collection of Senna machines ever assembled. TOLEMAN TG183B Senna’s first F1 drive came at Donington Park in a Williams FW08, which will also be at Silverstone, but he made his world championship debut with Toleman. The TG183 had proved a consistent points threat at the end of 1983 in the hands of Derek Warwick, and Senna scored two sixths in his first three races in 1984 before failing to qualify for the San Marino GP. Chassis 4, which Senna tested, and chassis 5, in which he scored his first F1 points, will be…

More than 100 car clubs catering for some of the most common cars all the way to far more bespoke racers are due to have a presence at this weekend’s event. Two representing major British manufacturers are the MG Car Club, which will be marking the 40th birthday of the famous rallying and rallycross Metro 6R4 machine, and the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club. Many of the clubs have special anniversaries to celebrate with their members and another such is the Stratos Enthusiasts Club (above), which is marking 50 years of the mighty Lancia creation. But a manufacturer that has a notable milestone as a whole is Maserati, with the Trident turning 110 this year and Maserati Club UK cars are due to be out in force this weekend. Two new clubs…

DTM NURBURGRING (DEU) 17-18 AUGUST ROUND 5/8 The van der Linde brothers dominated the DTM’s trip to the Nurburgring last weekend as older sibling Kelvin won the first one-hour race and Sheldon claimed victory in the second. Kelvin’s Abt Audi won from pole in the wet, while 2022 champion Sheldon took a surprise success from row four in his Schubert Motorsport BMW. The conditions caused race one to start with two laps behind the safety car and Kelvin van der Linde led Mirko Bortolotti out of Turn 1 when the green flag flew. Maro Engel overtook fellow Mercedes driver Lucas Auer on the inside of Turn 4 for third, Auer falling into a tight battle with Nicki Thiim’s Lamborghini, the Porsche of Ayhancan Guven and Jack Aitken’s Ferrari. Guven dropped…

MOTOGP RED BULL RING (AUT) 18 AUGUST ROUND 11/20 Francesco Bagnaia gained the upper hand over Jorge Martin in the 2024 MotoGP title battle with a dominant display in the Austrian Grand Prix. The factory Ducati rider was already the favourite for victory heading into the Spielberg event, having won the previous two editions of the race in 2022 and 2023, and did not disappoint. Martin did manage to outgun him in qualifying to take pole position with a new lap record, but Bagnaia was simply too good for the opposition when it counted the most. In the half-distance sprint race, Bagnaia made a better launch from second on the grid and sent his bike up the inside of Martin, but the Spaniard bounced back into Turn 3 to reclaim…

BRITISH HILLCLIMB With six run-off victories on the bounce and two new hill records, Matthew Ryder is starting to take the advantage at the head of the British Hillclimb Championship points table. Prescott last weekend delivered two more maximum scores, plus an important bonus point for a new hill record for Ryder in his Gould GR59, which has edged him ahead of Alex Summers once dropped scores are factored in. Ryder was in fine form from the start of practice, fresh from a double win at Shelsley Walsh a week earlier. He converted that early pace in style in the opening run-off with a 34.60s climb to shave five hundredths of a second off the outright record set by Wallace Menzies in 2021. Reigning champion Menzies led the chase with…

Anyone getting a sense of deja vu? Does the governing body launching a consultation on clumsy proposals without any proper explanation of the reasoning behind them sound familiar? But, no, I’m not talking about the controversial changes to track-limits rules launched at the start of last year. Instead, I’m referring to the suggested alterations to the regulations surrounding race series (see page 61). These plans stem from the perfectly sensible aim to clamp down on organisers abusing the system. Some series have foolishly published their own points table online or awarded an overall winner at their end of season prize-giving, all while circumnavigating the rules for championships that require certain standards to be in place. So far, so logical. But further tweaks that have gone out to consultation surround what…

Almost a decade after claiming his maiden 750 Formula championship, David Bartholomew returned to the top with a second title success having taken maximum points from Silverstone via a new lap record. The double Locost champion has embarked on a full-time campaign this term aboard the PRS 1b that he co-owns with Ed Pither and Richard Rothery having been given the chance to race his title-winning car from 2015 after “deciding who would drive by rock, paper, scissors”. Any thoughts of making just occasional outings soon turned into a full-on title tilt as he went on a run of six wins from the first eight races in 2024, his only dropped scores being at the opening round at Donington Park after a sluggish start demoted him down the order and…

Many budding racing drivers have grown up playing the Formula 1 video game series, but one British teenager has turned that dream into a reality. Meet Alisha Palmowski, who made an immediate impression in single-seaters by winning the GB4 season-opener at Oulton Park in March, and has added two more victories since to remain in title contention with two rounds remaining. “It sounds silly, but I’ve always driven the F1 game with no assists on, so in terms of feeding the throttle and bleeding off the brakes, I’ve been doing that for years on a sim,” the 17-year-old explains. “It’s obviously completely different, but when I jumped in a single-seater I felt at home.” Palmowski, a BRDC Rising Star, began karting in 2015 having become “hooked instantly” after a family…

The 1988 Pau Grand Prix unravelled on lap 54 for home squad GBDA Motorsport, when Olivier Grouillard (front) got together with stablemate Michel Trolle. Despite a reputation for being a mobile chicane in his later Formula 1 career, Grouillard was a frontrunner in F3000, which featured numerous teams and drivers that would become familiar F1 names in that post-turbo age of opportunity. Grouillard had opened the year with a fifth at Jerez and a podium at Vallelunga, but round three at Pau would be the first of a hat-trick of retirements that stalled his Lola campaign. He scored late wins at Le Mans and Zolder, but it couldn’t undo the damaging run that started right here. He landed up second in the points to Roberto Moreno. Trolle’s seat went to…

FORMULA 1 Yuki Tsunoda could still be in the running for a Red Bull Formula 1 team promotion if he consistently delivers, according to RB CEO Peter Bayer. In June, RB announced that Tsunoda would remain at the team for 2025 and he has recently been overlooked for a Red Bull spot despite Sergio Perez’s place being under threat as he underperformed. With the Red Bull organisation planning to keep both Perez and Tsunoda’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo at their respective teams for this season, next year’s line-ups will take focus, particularly if Perez is unable to improve his poor form. Bayer said: “Helmut [Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport advisor] said it himself, in German you say a swallow doesn’t make a summer. What it means is that if Yuki keeps racing…

INDYCAR David Malukas has signed a surprise multi-year deal with AJ Foyt Racing, beginning with the 2025 season. Chicago-born Malukas started the year with Arrow McLaren, having signed a multi-year deal last September. But he was left to watch the opening portion of this year’s IndyCar season from the sidelines after sustaining torn ligaments in his left wrist from a mountain bike accident. He was released by Arrow McLaren in late April, having never made a start with the team, and then signed with Meyer Shank Racing for his on-track return in June, with a best finish of sixth so far. Malukas, who turns 23 next month, will drive one of Foyt’s Chevrolet-powered entries, with no confirmation yet of his team-mate. Malukas joins a resurgent team, which has seen the…

CARRERA CUP Harry King scored the third win of his Porsche Carrera Cup Germany campaign at the Nurburgring last weekend, before the series celebrated its 400th race. The 23-year-old Briton lined up fourth for race one and ran there in the early laps as points leader Larry ten Voorde and Robert de Haan fought ferociously at the front. When third-placed Alexander Tauscher ran over a bollard and damaged the front splitter of his Proton Huber Competition 911, King moved in to third. On lap 15 of 19, the battle for the lead between the two Dutchmen gave King the opportunity to pass both. The Allied Racing driver went on to beat ten Voorde by 1.7 seconds, with de Haan third. Tauscher bounced back to take his first series victory in…

Max Verstappen has started 199 world championship grands prix, won three Formula 1 titles and taken 61 victories. He’s third on the wins list and seems on his way to a fourth world crown, so where does he sit in the pantheon of all-time greats? Verstappen’s victory strike rate is currently 31%, behind just Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari and Jim Clark, and similar to Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Jackie Stewart. Verstappen is thus very worthy of comparison with F1’s best. Statistics alone are notoriously fraught with pitfalls and comparing across eras is tricky, so a reasonable place to start is the era-defining drivers, those regarded by many as the best of their time. In world championship terms, that gives us Fangio, Stirling Moss, Clark, Stewart, Niki Lauda, Prost,…

Dick Bennetts casts his mind back to mid-1982: “Dennis Rushen said, ‘You need to meet this young lad’, because he was with him in Ford 2000. Dennis introduced me to him, and I knew ‘EJ’ was after him. Then Dennis came back and said, ‘Ayrton would like to do a test’. So we arranged it and it went very well, and he said he wanted to do the non-championship race in the Mansilla car. He just blitzed everyone. I thought, ‘This bloke’s not too bad’.” At the time, Bennetts was the fresh-faced engineer who had left Ron Dennis’s employment and struck out on his own when Dennis’s Project 4 team became the nucleus of the new-look McLaren in Formula 1. Rushen was the free-spirited maverick running the works Van Diemen…

SHRILL DFV MUSIC RULES Ever popular for their distinctive shapes and liveries, which made them instantly identifiable, three-litre F1 cars of the 1960s to mid-1980s remind racegoers of the age in which engines made by Cosworth in Northampton scored the lion’s share of wins against stout opposition from Ferrari, Matra, Alfa Romeo and BRM. Silverstone hosted the British GP with Brands Hatch in alternate years back then. Keith Duckwoth’s revolutionary Ford-badged DFV (double four valve) V8 powered Jim Clark’s Team Lotus 49 to victory here in July 1967 – a month after their debut gold at Zandvoort – and went on to notch a staggering 155 world championship GP race wins until 1985. With DFVs and Hewland gearboxes commercially available in the interim, dozens of marques created cars for future…

The sparks flew and tempers flared as intense racing delivered a wild IndyCar Series contest in the shadow of The Gateway Arch, but when the dust settled it was Josef Newgarden who kept his stranglehold on the 1.25-mile oval located just outside of St Louis, Missouri. Newgarden held off Penske team-mate and polesitter Scott McLaughlin on a late restart on lap 254 of 260 and crossed the finish line 1.7 seconds ahead to claim his fifth win at the track formerly known as Gateway. It was Newgarden’s 31st career victory and second this season after winning the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 back in May. “I think the team needed it,” said Newgarden, who led 17 laps on the night. “They’ve done a great job, on the #2 car,…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SYMMONS PLAINS (AUS) 17-18 AUGUST ROUND 8/12 The Supercars wins were shared between Nick Percat and Cam Waters – and Chevrolet and Ford – over a cold event at Symmons Plains last weekend. Percat backed up a superb strategy with clever race management to win on Saturday, when his Matt Stone Racing crew turned his Chevrolet Camaro around with the quickest pitstop, which allowed him to seize the lead mid-race. From there, Percat was able to hold off the charging Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford Mustang) to win, while Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney (Chevrolet) completed the podium. The same three drivers were in the news again on Sunday but not in the way, probably, any of them intended. Waters won the race after his polesitting Tickford Ford…

INDY NXT ST LOUIS (USA) 17 AUGUST ROUND 9/12 Louis Foster put on another masterclass to claim victory in the Indy NXT round at the 1.25-mile Gateway oval in Missouri last Saturday. After starting from pole position in his Andretti Global Dallara, Foster held firm amid three restarts, including one with 16 laps to go, en route to victory by 3.34 seconds over championship rival Jacob Abel. It was the sixth win of the season for the British driver, who has just turned 21, and extended his lead in the title race to 91 points over Abel (491-400) with three rounds remaining. Foster’s team-mate Jamie Chadwick started second and was fighting with HMD Motorsports rookie Caio Collet behind Foster when the two collided on lap eight of 75, prematurely ending…

MOTORSPORT UK Consultations are under way after numerous regulation changes have been proposed by Motorsport UK, including controversial plans to restrict the number of rounds a series can feature and barring certain words from appearing in their name. The raft of proposals followed a June meeting of the governing body’s race committee and two in particular have sparked a backlash, with proposed limitations on in-car devices also drawing criticism. The new rules surrounding series have been designed to create a greater distinction between series and points-scoring championships amid concerns that some series are abusing the system by publishing points and crowning an overall winner at the end of the year without being registered as a championship. Such practices will be clamped down upon, while it is planned that series would…

750MC The first two Swift Sport Challenge cars were put through their paces last weekend at Silverstone ahead of the new series launching fully in 2025. The 1.6-litre Suzuki Swifts had been driven to the circuit as they remain road legal – a unique selling point of the 750 Motor Club’s new category alongside other initiatives aimed at keeping costs as low as possible – before tackling the International layout in the hands of twin brothers Scott and Ryan Parkin. Entered in the Hot Hatch Championship, the two cars circulated not far off the pace of the Class C runners and ran trouble-free across all three races as the brothers were just tenths apart on lap time. “Being off the back it makes it looks worse than it actually is,…

TOCA The car forming the basis of the new TOCA Junior Championship that will feature on the British Touring Car package from 2025 was unveiled at a launch event last week. The Chevron B1417 has been designed specifically for use in the new category. Its spaceframe chassis was created to meet all the latest safety standards, as well being constructed in a way that should be straightforward for teams to run and repair. The rear-wheel-drive saloon will be powered by a 1.8-litre engine that has been developed in-house by the championship, and also features removable front and rear subframes. “Some of it has been designed because the kids are going to be side by side so there’s not going to be big wheel arches to knock off or anything like…

OULTON PARK MSVR US AUTOSHOW 17 AUGUST The sound of thunder permeated the air at Oulton Park last weekend at the US AutoShow event due to the multitude of predominantly American V8s within the infield. There was plenty of entertainment to be found with the action on track, though, for those able to tear themselves away from the kaleidoscopic collection of muscle cars and chrome-laden land yachts. It was the two categories at either end of the size scale that provided the most exciting racing: the diminutive Scottish Legends and Bernie’s V8s and Historic Outlaws. The Legends had three outings on their rare visit south of the border and arrived with Stewart Black defending a large lead. However, he did not top any of the contests. The inevitable bunching at…

SILVERSTONE INTERNATIONAL 750MC 17-18 AUGUST The F1000 title battle intensified last weekend at the Silverstone International Circuit as rivals Craig Pollard and Rob Welham secured a win apiece, despite colliding with each other at one point, while reigning champion Tom Gadd suffered a double non-score. Team Sellars Racing driver Gadd had led the opening bout from pole and was several seconds ahead having bested the lap record previously posted by Ben Hingeley in 2015 – setting a new benchmark of 1m02.617s (106.41mph). But Gadd suffered a second broken engine after his usual race unit let go in Friday testing and, with no other spare, it meant no further action in the afternoon’s sequel. Gadd’s demise in race one handed Welham the lead but he came under mounting pressure from Pollard,…

The news that Ginetta would depart the British Touring Car Championship bill for 2023 was a shock when it first emerged in September 2022. After all, the Yorkshire brand’s championships, especially the all-action Ginetta Junior, had been a popular fixture on the TOCA package for 14 years. But, as one chapter ends, another begins and straight away TOCA chief executive Alan Gow knew he wanted a fresh junior championship to fill the void. Unsurprisingly, he was inundated with enquiries, but one stood out in particular. Early on, Junior Saloons boss Dave Beecroft approached Gow with the idea of developing a bespoke rear-wheel drive, front-engined saloon – and that ticked all the boxes for Gow. He even rejected manufacturer-backed front-wheel-drive bids in favour of the versatility that training teenagers in a…

As someone who had several star team-mates, particularly during the British Touring Car Championship’s Super Touring heyday, double champion John Cleland finds it tough to select a favourite. The 72-year-old Scot immediately runs through the colleagues he had at Vauxhall between 1991 and 1999, during which time he took 17 wins and the 1995 crown. “Jeff Allam was my first real teammate. We were about the same age and we were both car dealers – we never had a bad word,” says Cleland of his 1991-94 colleague. “We got on brilliantly well.” The highlight for the duo was perhaps the 1992 manufacturers’ title, notwithstanding Cleland’s disappointment at losing the drivers’ crown in the controversial Silverstone finale. But his next team-mate, in 1995-96, was rather more tricky. “James Thompson as a…