Indholdsfortegnelse for 03/10/24 i Autosport

Winning the Formula 1 world championship and the Indianapolis 500 are two of the biggest achievements in motorsport and only a handful of teams and drivers have managed both. Just two constructors have taken those successes at the top of the single-seater ladder in the same season, and McLaren did so 50 years ago. The break in the F1 season therefore seemed like a great opportunity to look back at McLaren’s remarkable 1974 and talk to some of the key people involved (page 16). And, perhaps best of all, Autosport was able to join McLaren’s Heritage team for a special day at Pembrey with the M16 and M23 chassis involved in the triumphs of Emerson Fittipaldi and Johnny Rutherford. McLaren was a winner in IndyCar this year, too, though it…

British boy wonder Freddie Slater clinched the Italian Formula 4 title with the second of his two wins in the series’ ‘away’ round at Barcelona last weekend. The victories took his tally to 13 from 17 races, while he is also on two from six in the Euro 4 mini-series, which he also leads. The Prema Racing-run 16-year-old missed out in the finale of the Spanish triple-header – Slater was leading when a car problem struck and dropped him to fourth in a race where Australian Jack Beeton finally won, after seven second places! BROWNING: F2 AT HITECH Williams sporting director Sven Smeets has said that its protege Luke Browning will race in Formula 2 with Hitech GP in 2025. Browning, who has been with the Silverstone team since 2022,…

“You won’t believe who’s coming.” It’s the oddly petrol-fume-stinking pitlane of the Moulay El Hassan circuit ahead of the 2019 Marrakech E-Prix. The Atlas Mountains are twinkling to my right. These are the early days of Formula E’s Gen2 era. Amid the manufacturer influx party upon which the electric championship is guzzling, that means pretty much anyone could be coming. Wayne Rooney? Boris Johnson? Liz Hurley? Idris Elba has driven the Gen1 car at the previous Paris E-Prix, something Johnson had also done during a flying visit to the controversial Battersea round in 2015. Heady days. “…Max Verstappen – serving his community service for shoving Esteban Ocon.” Governing body the FIA has slapped Verstappen – then ‘just’ a five-time F1 race winner – with this punishment as a result of…

“For everybody in the team to be part of something – winning the Indy 500 in 1974, the world championship in 1974 – they have that legacy on a day-to-day basis. Legacy is one thing we cherish because not everyone has that.” McLaren chief operating officer Piers Thynne is a driving force at McLaren’s Technology Centre, but he also loves heading trackside with some of the marque’s famous past racers. More than that, he believes the team’s history can play an important role today as McLaren strives to add more titles to its F1 tally of 12 drivers’ and eight constructors’ crowns. “The legacy is hugely important to each and every one of the team, because we are forging forward in our 61st year of competing in motorsport,” he says.…

The odds entering the 2024 IndyCar season were never favourable for Alex Palou. For starters, the attrition of what is arguably the most competitive racing category in the world meant no driver had won the championship twice in succession in over a decade. If that weren’t enough, six of the final eight rounds all took place on ovals – a track discipline that had yet to yield a trip to Victory Lane for him. And then, too, was the unknown of the unprecedented mid-season debut of IndyCar’s hybrid engine. No matter, the Spaniard was his usual unflappable self. Although the performance wasn’t quite on par with his stout 2023 title run of five wins and a finish no lower than eighth, the precision Palou continued to demonstrate on a weekly…

ALEX PALOU 1 Another stunning display at the sharp end was ignited with an exhibition win at Thermal. Added two more triumphs at the Indianapolis road course and Laguna Seca, while also finishing 13 of 17 rounds in the top five. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN 2 A breakthrough performance with a maiden oval win in Iowa was joined by another at Milwaukee. If not for being disqualified for illegal overtake use in St Petersburg, he could have grabbed championship glory. COLTON HERTA 3 Established early consistency before briefly derailing in the Indy 500 and blundering in Detroit, but got back on track with a masterful drive in Toronto. Closed out with a dramatic late push to capture his first oval win in Nashville. WILL POWER 4 A return to form was established early with three runner-up…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES MUGELLO (ITA) 29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 5/6 When the chequered flag dropped at Mugello, it was greeted first by the same Iron Lynx-Proton ORECA-Gibson 07 that had taken the race start from pole position. But to say the 4 Hours of Mugello was a lights-to-flag affair for Jonas Ried, Maceo Capietto and Matteo Cairoli couldn’t be further from the truth. The 2024 European Le Mans Series had featured four different winners from four races before it arrived at the undulating Tuscany circuit for the first time, and on Sunday it got a fifth. Prior to the weekend, Iron Lynx-Proton hadn’t exactly enjoyed a stellar campaign, with a best finish of seventh and two retirements. But at Mugello, things clicked. The team was on the pace in practice…

TOCA JUNIOR The new TOCA Junior car completed a successful first test at Anglesey last week, with the category’s instigator Dave Beecroft getting behind the wheel. The Chevron B1417 was launched in August but had yet to be tested on track until Beecroft completed over 300 laps of the Welsh venue. Considering the car has been designed for the new series – which will support the British Touring Car Championship next year – featuring a range of bespoke parts, Beecroft was delighted with how the maiden test went. “It’s like any new car, you always have concerns but a lot of planning went into it and that really pre-empted anything going wrong,” explained Beecroft. “We didn’t have any issues, it ran cool, the brakes worked well and it handles well…

BRITISH GT World Endurance Championship driver Joshua Caygill is hoping to contest British GT full-time in 2025 after winning the 2024 season finale at Brands Hatch last weekend. The 35-year-old was making his series debut with Alex Buncombe in the RJN McLaren and they never lost position from pole to take victory. Caygill’s main campaign this year has been in the WEC’s new LMGT3 class, driving a United Autosports McLaren, but he is now planning to increase his presence on the national scene. “I would love to be in British GT,” said Caygill, who claimed a Pro-Am podium at this year’s Spa 24 Hours. “British GT is a championship that I’ve fancied having a pop at for the last two, three years, but the opportunity never came, so I jumped…

HISTORIC RALLYING Ben Friend and Cliff Simmons claimed a fine victory on last weekend’s ninth round of the British Historic Rally Championship, the Trackrod Historic Cup. On an event using the spectacularly fast Yorkshire forests, Friend took his Ford Escort Mk2 to the narrowest of victories after a fiercely competitive rally. Half a dozen crews could have won the event and the result was in doubt until the very end of the deciding Langdale stage, but Friend turned in a blistering performance through the deciding 10 miles to emerge victorious by six seconds. The top four crews finished the rally covered by less than 10s, and it was Seb Perez and Gary McElhinney who boosted their title bid with second place despite engine problems on their Porsche 911. Their service…

BRANDS HATCH BRSCC 28-29 SEPTEMBER Ethan Jeff-Hall, Linus Granfors, Mike Taylor and Julian Wantling all secured titles on the final day of the season among British GT’s support series at Brands Hatch. In Ginetta Junior, Jeff-Hall prevailed in his fierce championship fight with R Racing team-mate Chase Fernandez as Isaac Phelps took a lights-to-flag win in the opening bout, though he had to resist a number of lead challenges. Fernandez was the first to make a lunge into Stirling’s but slipped back to seventh after bouncing across the grass. Charlie Hart then tried a move on his Elite Motorsport team-mate but ended up sliding through the gravel, and a resulting pitstop ended his remote title hopes. Preptech’s Henry Joslyn was the next to apply pressure on Phelps but could not…

KIRKISTOWN 500MRCI 28 SEPTEMBER The seasoned spectator at Kirkistown’s Colonial section has viewed a lot of close racing during at least two decades of watching from his chosen vantage point. He’s a man of few words, and only rarely are they complimentary. But last Saturday’s Emerson Fittipaldi Trophy for Formula Vee forced him to admit that he had just watched the best race he had ever seen. And, just over an hour later, he had to make the same admission after observing a Formula Ford 1600 battle for the Martin Donnelly Trophy. The final meeting of the Northern Ireland season had delivered – in spades. The first of two Vee races produced a taster of what was to come with the top five deeply involved in a scrap that ended…

Ivan Capelli’s Ferrari F92A suffered a damaged undertray due to what Autosport described as bad bottoming problems in Friday morning practice for the 1992 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and the Italian’s general unhappiness with his car’s handling was reflected in his 14th-place qualifying position. He was fighting for seventh place with the Footwork of Michele Alboreto and Erik Comas’s Ligier – a battle in which he came off worst – when the trio were among the many cars still at racing speed when fans staged a track invasion in celebration of home hero Nigel Mansell’s victory. Capelli’s team-mate Jean Alesi retired after his fire extinguisher set itself off during what was another lacklustre race in a season to forget for Ferrari, summarised in our report as a team in…

Victory on the BMW V12 LMR’s debut at the 1999 Sebring 12 Hours was the ideal start for Jorg Muller’s partnership with JJ Lehto. Their breaking of a 29-year record for the closest finish in event history, together with Tom Kristensen and allaying concerns over gearbox durability, cemented the credentials of a collaboration that lasted three years with Muller’s favourite team-mate. “JJ was such a lovely, open-minded guy and a good person,” reflects Muller. “Immediately we had a good connection and the same sense of humour.” They paired up three times in 1999, with Sebring success followed by painful near-misses at the Le Mans 24 Hours and Petit Le Mans while in winning positions. Muller and Lehto spent the majority of the 2000 American Le Mans Series together in Schnitzer’s…

FORMULA 1 The RB Formula 1 team has replaced Daniel Ricciardo with reserve driver Liam Lawson for the six remaining rounds of the 2024 season. The 22-year-old New Zealander will take over starting at this month’s United States Grand Prix in what appears to be the end of the road for Ricciardo in F1. Lawson was set to walk as a free agent if Red Bull hadn’t offered him a seat by the end of September, and had shown enough potential in private testing and in the five grands prix in which he deputised for the injured Ricciardo last year. Last month’s Singapore GP looks set to have been the last for Ricciardo, who bows out of F1 after 257 starts, which yielded eight wins and three pole positions. As…

DAKAR RALLY Versatile Swedish tin-top hero Mattias Ekstrom is the latest ‘Hollywood’ recruit to Ford’s 2025 Dakar Rally line-up after ending his 24-year stint as an Audi works driver. The German marque last week confirmed the departure of the 46-year-old Ekstrom from its ranks, and paid tribute to a driver who won two titles and 23 races across a 17-season full-time stint in the DTM. He also diversified with Audi equipment into the World Rallycross Championship to win the 2016 crown, and was on the driver line-up for the manufacturer’s first Spa 24 Hours victory in 2011. Post-DTM, Ekstrom was champion in the inaugural Pure ETCR electric touring car series in 2021 with Audi sister marque Cupra, and gave Audi its first stage win on the Dakar Rally in 2022.…

IMSA The IMSA SportsCar Championship title hopes of Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet have taken a blow after their Porsche 963 LMDh was stripped of third place in last month’s Indianapolis 6 Hours. The points loss mean they go into the Petit Le Mans series finale at Road Atlanta next week 124 rather than 14 points behind Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron in the sister Porsche Penske Motorsport entry. Tandy and Jaminet were demoted to the rear of the results of the penultimate round of the IMSA series after the wiring loom on the #6 PPM entry was found to have been modified outside of the homologation. They took 10th-place points in the 11-car GTP field after the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 that finished fourth in the hands…

MOTOGP MotoGP will finally return to Hungary next year for the first time since 1992 at the new Balaton Park Circuit. Located on the edge of Lake Balaton, the 2.5-mile circuit opened in 2023 and is owned by Chanoch Nissany, the Israeli who took part in FP1 for the 2005 Formula 1 Grand Prix with Minardi and who is the father of long-time Formula 2 racer Roy. The announcement of the race, which will take place on 24 August, also came with news of modifications to the track to bring it up to standard for the top flight of motorcycle racing. The first sector – a fast straight into a right-hand corner and three left turns – will remain unchanged, while the long right-hander of Turn 7 will have some…

I’ve done nearly 20 races so far this year as a McLaren factory driver, so it’s been a lot. We started out finishing up the Asian Le Mans Series in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. That’s a great championship to keep you sharp over the winter. Then I went to do the Daytona 24 Hours. It was a real honour to be asked by the Inception team to do that race. It’s one of my favourites. It’s always good fun and we were on for a pretty good result there, but we had an unfortunate mechanical issue not too long from the end which cost us a chance of a podium. I’ve also raced in British GT and we’ve had a strong season. We’ve had a really fast car thanks to…

On a weekend where protests over freedom of speech and notional times grabbed the headlines, Kalle Rovanpera let his driving do the talking in Chile. The reigning and two-time world champion claimed a fourth win from his partial World Rally Championship campaign, offering a lifeline for Toyota as it reignited hopes of reeling in Hyundai for a fourth consecutive manufacturers’ crown. But this was not a straightforward 15th career win for Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen. Chile’s loose gravel roads initially seemed to unsettle the Finn. His driving style, which has conquered the toughest of WRC rallies, was unable to deliver its usual blistering speed. It appeared that Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans had the edge as the Welshman dared to clinch a maiden win from a difficult campaign. Then Mother…

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN BARCELONA (ESP) 28-29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 9/10 The Circuit de Catalunya provided a perfect weekend for Prema Racing in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, with James Wharton utterly dominant in both races and team-mate Rafael Camara wrapping up the title with one round still remaining at Monza. After a mid-season purple patch thrust him into a fight for the points lead with fellow Ferrari protege Camara, Tuukka Taponen and the R-ace GP team have gone off the boil on recent weekends. But the Finn bounced back to qualify third for Saturday’s race behind the Prema pair. Poleman Wharton got away well to lead by an ever-lengthening margin, the Australian winning by almost seven seconds. Part of that was down to Taponen getting the jump on Camara…

DTM RED BULL RING (AUT) 28-29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 7/8 Factory Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti scored a victory and a fourth-place finish in the penultimate round of the DTM season at the Red Bull Ring to take a 15-point lead into this month’s Hockenheim decider. Ahead of the Austrian weekend, Bortolotti had not yet registered a race win in 2024, a statistic that put him at a particular disadvantage over points leader Kelvin van der Linde. But in the first of the two races at the picturesque Spielberg venue, the Italian put that right with a commanding drive from fourth on the grid in his SSR Performance-run Huracan GT3 EVO2 to swing the championship fight in his favour. On a damp but drying track, Bortolotti passed the similar Lamborghini of Maximilian…

FORMULA FORD 1600 Ex-Formula Ford Festival winner Jan Magnussen will return to the junior single-seater category in the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone next month. The veteran of 24 Formula 1 starts and four Le Mans 24 Hours class wins will take part in the FF1600 extravaganza on 2-3 November at the wheel of a Van Diemen RF78 run by Mike Gardner’s GT Race & Trailers operation. Like the Foundation Racing RF92 in which Magnussen won the Festival at Brands Hatch 32 years ago, the older Van Diemen will be liveried in the colours of Duckhams, the British oil brand. The Walter Hayes will be Magnussen’s second FF1600 outing since his Festival victory, which was won from the back of his heat after he was excluded from qualifying. The Dane,…

BRITISH GT British GT is planning to introduce an Endurance Cup to encourage one-off entries at the larger tracks, Autosport understands. The series is capped at 36 full-season competitors, but in 2025 there is space for six additional cars at the venues that can cater for bigger grids. Those circuits are Silverstone, Spa and Donington Park, which is due to host two races, all sites where one-off entries are common. But they have previously been non-point-scoring cars, so the Endurance Cup is a way of formalising the extra crews by staging a separate four-round championship. The idea was discussed with team bosses last week ahead of the Brands Hatch finale. The Endurance Cup would be held alongside the overall GT3 and GT4 championships, which include rounds at smaller venues such…

TCR UK TCR UK will join forces with the British Automobile Racing Club next year as it seeks to strengthen its position as a feeder series to the British Touring Car Championship. The series, which will conclude its two-year contract with the British Racing & Sports Car Club at its title showdown on the Silverstone International circuit next weekend, has unveiled a seven-round calendar for 2025, beginning with a return to Donington Park on 22-23 March. Two events will run alongside the BARC-administered British Truck Racing Championship, at Snetterton in September and November’s Brands Hatch season finale. TCR UK will also reprise its British GT support slot at Donington’s Grand Prix circuit in April, before taking in rounds at Silverstone, Croft and Oulton Park. “To move forward, TCR UK needs…

MOTORSPORT UK Motorsport UK CEO Hugh Chambers hosted a fringe event at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool last month, to highlight how the sport can play a role in pioneering changes needed for the UK to become net carbon zero. One of the governing body’s central messages was for increased focus to be placed upon developing sustainable fuels. MPs, party members and key industry figures attended the event, which was designed to showcase the importance of motorsport in the wider transport sector. In an open letter to delegates, Chambers said: “We, in the motorsport industry, are aware of our responsibility in evolving the sport towards a zero-carbon future, and working with the new government to come up with practical solutions to make that goal a reality. “Electric vehicles are clearly…

BRANDS HATCH BRITISH GT 28-29 SEPTEMBER Father-and-son Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini pairing Rob and Ricky Collard clinched the 2024 British GT3 title after finishing fifth in last Sunday’s two-hour Brands Hatch season finale. With race winners Alex Buncombe and series debutant Josh Caygill ineligible for points in their RJN Motorsport McLaren, it left the Collard family five points ahead of Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin, who finished second on-track in an anticlimactic title decider but collected a maximum score in the sister Barwell Huracan GT3 Evo2. The Collards are the second father-son pairing to claim the GT3 crown, after Jim and Glynn Geddie in 2011, and Collard Sr is now a two-time series champion after winning the title with Mitchell in 2020. “It feels so unreal and it hasn’t sunk in…

BRANDS HATCH GB3 28-29 SEPTEMBER Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp clinched the 2024 GB3 Championship in last weekend’s deciding race at Brands Hatch. The British-born New Zealander, who is one of four finalists for this year’s Silverstone Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award, followed in the footsteps of Luke Browning by winning both the British Formula 4 and GB3 titles, but he is the first driver to achieve the feat back-to-back. Sharp headed into the final event with a 33-point lead over JHR Developments’ John Bennett, with Hitech GP duo Tymek Kucharczyk and Will Macintyre also in contention. But the quartet were upstaged early in the weekend by Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell, who qualified on pole for race one and duly converted it into his second victory of the campaign after resisting…

SNETTERTON CSCC 28-29 SEPTEMBER The Slicks Series race at Snetterton last weekend looked a foregone conclusion, but David Harrison and Nathan Luckey defied expectations in their Porsche 991. The similar 991 Cup car of Charlie and Zak Fulk had built up a huge lead before the pitstops and appeared to have it in the bag. The driver change put Luckey up against Charlie Fulk, and Luckey began taking chunks out of the leader before passing on the penultimate lap. Fulk was second, ahead of Dylan Popovic’s Ginetta G50. Although Tom Walpole was ahead of the Ginetta in his KTM GT4, a hefty penalty for a pitstop infringement dropped him to fifth, behind BMW driver Niall Bradley. Andy Southcott was a double winner in Special Saloons & Modsports in his Millington-engined…

BOOK REVIEW REMARKABLE MOTOR RACES Andrew Benson RRP: £25.00 Depending on the championships you follow, it’s likely that you have a differing viewpoint on which motor race ranks at the top of the pile as a standalone event. Full disclosure: this writer would place Australia’s Bathurst 1000 higher than most on his personal listing. But having a conversation and coming up with a definitive ranking among a group of colleagues or friends can be more than a little difficult, with compromises meaning that no one is ultimately happy with the outcome. Step forward Andrew Benson and Remarkable Motor Races, a guide to some of the top picks – or so it had been hoped. Starting with the positive, the Le Mans 24 Hours, Bathurst 1000, Monaco Grand Prix and Pikes…

FORMULA 1 Renault has decided to pull the plug on its long-time Formula 1 engine operations ahead of the new rules era for the 2026 season. Following months of speculation about the future of the French manufacturer, it announced on Monday that it would supply Alpine with engines for only one more season before an expected tie-up with Mercedes for the team as a customer. The company’s F1 engine factory at Viry-Chatillon near Paris will be transformed into an engineering centre to help contribute to cutting-edge technology of future Renault and Alpine cars. Alpine has insisted that all current staff at Viry would be guaranteed jobs under its new Hypertech Alpine guise. The alternative projects that have been marked out for Viry include the development of a future Alpine supercar,…

GT Three-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou might be yet to conquer the Indy 500, but he gets another chance to add to his two wins on the Indianapolis road course this weekend. The Spaniard will turn out in the Intercontinental GT Challenge finale at the Brickyard driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3. Palou’s two sportscar starts to date this season came with regular employer Chip Ganassi Racing aboard a Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh, at the Daytona and Le Mans 24-hour classics. His third, at the Indianapolis 8 Hours on Saturday, comes at the wheel of a factory-backed Merc fielded by the Lone Star Racing squad with works drivers Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller as his team-mates. His friendship with fellow countryman Daniel Juncadella, a member of the Mercedes GT3 roster, forged the links…

DTM The Abt team is leaving Audi after 25 years in the DTM to join forces with Lamborghini for its 2025 campaign in the series. It brings to an end a relationship that yielded no fewer than five drivers’ titles with Audi. Abt moves over to run a pair of Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s as Audi winds down its customer racing department with the R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. The team forged a relationship with the Italian marque, like Audi part of the Volkswagen group, this season with a programme centred on the Nurburgring 24 Hours. “The participation at the Nurburgring was the first step in this direction,” said Abt motorsport director Martin Tomczyk. “We enjoy working with Lamborghini, so it was a logical step for us.” Rouven Mohr, Lambo’s…

OBITUARY Rupert Keegan, who has died aged 69 after a long illness, was once hailed as the next James Hunt. The similarities were obvious: they both started out with a habit of crashing Formula Fords, rose rapidly through the single-seater ranks to Formula 1, and enjoyed the playboy lifestyle. The other parallel was that they both took their first steps in F1 with Hesketh, Hunt in 1973 and Keegan four years later. But whereas future world champion Hunt’s career kicked on, Keegan’s never did. Hesketh was now a shadow of its former self, though Keegan had a strong debut season, qualifying for all 12 of the grands prix he entered. His year aboard a Hesketh-Cosworth 308E would be the pinnacle of a stop-start grand prix career. It went downhill after…

Only Lotus and McLaren have managed to win the Formula 1 world championship and America’s greatest race, the Indianapolis 500, in the same season. After Lotus’s 1965 double with Jim Clark, McLaren managed the feat twice in the 1970s with two truly great single-seaters that followed soon after the death of team founder Bruce McLaren. We’re at Pembrey with McLaren’s Heritage team, the M16C/D in which Johnny Rutherford won the 1974 Indy 500, and one of the M23s that helped Emerson Fittipaldi to his second F1 crown a few months later. Both cars are the work of designer Gordon Coppuck, who joined McLaren when its total staff numbers had only just got into double figures, and follow the same basic concept. McLaren’s first Indycar, the M15 of 1970, was decent…

Among the many focal points from a frantic season was the unprecedented mid-season debut of IndyCar’s hybrid engine. A collaborative effort between Chevrolet, Honda and the series paired the stalwart 2.2-litre, twin-turbocharged V6 internal combustion engine with an electrical low-voltage (48V) motor generator unit (MGU) and a 320 kilojoules-per-lap supercapacitor energy storage system (ESS). The first-of-its-kind unit created another tool for drivers, with the ability to deploy and harvest energy for up to an additional 60bhp. Combined with push-to-pass on road courses and street circuits, the output exceeded 120bhp, bringing the grand total to more than 800bhp. The transition was far from smooth when it was dropped in at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with issues hindering Scott Dixon’s title hopes under pace laps. While Pato O’Ward fended off Alex…

The WRC2 championship battle is likely to go down to the wire after Yohan Rossel claimed victory and survived a post-event protest into a notional time that helped secure the win. Rossel came through a titanic four-way battle against fellow title contender Oliver Solberg, Nikolay Gryazin and Gus Greensmith to claim a second win of the season to boost his hopes. Rossel’s Citroen team-mate Gryazin set the pace on Friday to lead Solberg by 10.2 seconds, with Rossel in third a further 1.3s back. The battle came alive on Saturday as Rossel leapt to the lead with a stunning time on stage seven. But after stage nine Solberg found himself leading the pack, extending his advantage over Rossel to 14.5s before the Skoda driver’s victory hopes were dealt a blow…

NASCAR CUP KANSAS SPEEDWAY (USA) 29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 30/36 It was heartbreak for Kyle Busch and elation for Ross Chastain last Sunday at Kansas Speedway. The non-playoff drivers once again stole the show, and these two Chevrolet pilots battled back and forth late in the race. Both entered the race without a win this year and both were eager to change that. Busch appeared to have the upper hand, only to spin from the lead with 31 laps to go while trying to lap Chase Briscoe. He was put in an awkward aero spot exiting Turn 2, losing control while trying to make an outside pass. A despondent Busch later remarked that he was feeling “numb” in a bewildered interview. Martin Truex Jr then took control of the race on…

MOTOGP MANDALIKA (IDN) 28-29 SEPTEMBER ROUND 15/20 Jorge Martin returned to his Sunday best with victory in the Indonesian Grand Prix but, while the 2024 MotoGP world championship leader scooped the biggest prize of the weekend, it was Francesco Bagnaia who scored more points overall to chip away at the Spaniard’s advantage. If Bagnaia had the statistical upper hand in Indonesia – the first of five flyway events that will shape the outcome of this year’s title race – then Martin was comfortably superior in terms of outright speed around the Mandalika International Circuit. And yet, although he demolished the opposition en route to pole position and claimed an empathic lights-to-flag victory in the more lucrative full-length grand prix, Martin’s feats were negated by a clumsy crash and failure to…

GINETTA JUNIOR Ethan Jeff-Hall is aiming to move into single-seaters next year after clinching the Ginetta Junior championship last weekend at Brands Hatch. Despite struggling for pace at the finale, the R Racing driver took the title with a race to spare after a season-long fight with team-mate Chase Fernandez and Charlie Hart of Elite Motorsport. “It’s a great feeling,” said Jeff-Hall. “We’ve had an issue with the car all weekend but we managed to come back to fourth in race one ahead of our championship rivals and then it was sort of damage limitation really. “We only did 15 test days before the first round and throughout the season we have been learning as we’re going,” he added. The 16-year-old, who took six wins during his first year of…

BRITISH GT Newly crowned British GT champions Rob and Ricky Collard are unlikely to defend their title in 2025 due to the cost of racing. The Barwell Motorsport drivers clinched the title at last weekend’s Brands Hatch season finale, finishing five points ahead of Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin in the sister Lamborghini Huracan. But the emotions were bittersweet because the Collards’ plans for next year are uncertain. When asked if he and son Ricky will be co-drivers at Barwell again in 2025, Collard Sr said: “I think that’s probably unlikely. I can’t see – unless we get a massive sponsor – how that can happen.” It is actually common for the champions to not continue as co-drivers the following year, with Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston the last to…

CTCRC Lotus Cortina driver Ian Thompson clinched the Pre-’66 Touring Car Championship at Thruxton last month after assisting another driver to get back on track. Thompson, whose last title success was in European Endurance Karting in 1995, returned to racing 18 months ago after breaking his back in a Caterham crash. With three overall wins this year, he was in title contention at the final Pre-’66 round and two class wins would be enough, provided there were three starters in his class to avoid half-points being awarded. Three were present but Keith Wright suffered clutch failure in qualifying, so loaded up and left. “A car went past, which was the third Cortina, on a trailer,” said Thompson. “So I ran after him: ‘Where are you going to? You can’t go…

SPA SIX HOURS ROADBOOK 26-28 SEPTEMBER Scots Dario and Marino Franchitti and Belgo-German Andre Lotterer emerged new winners in an extraordinary climax to Saturday’s 31st Spa Six Hours. In a race from bright sunshine into darkness, peppered with safety car interludes in intermittent rain, Olivier Hart defended a 30-second advantage over Lotterer and looked assured of repeating the DHG Ford GT40 squad’s 2022 win with father David and Nicky Pastorelli. With 15 minutes remaining, however, the young Dutchman spun into the Pif-Paf gravel bed and Lotterer snarled past. Starting one of 19 GT40s, a quarter of the field, from ninth, IndyCar legend Dario had eased their Wolfe Manufacturing-run car past Belgians Nico Verdonck – who qualified Marcus Graf von Oeynhausen’s on pole – and Eric van de Poele in Ford…

Optimum Motorsport duo Zac Meakin and Jack Brown claimed a maiden British GT4 Championship title after winning the two-hour season finale at Brands Hatch. The McLaren Artura drivers finished a stunning 74.372s ahead of title rivals Jamie Day and Mikey Porter (Forsetti Aston Martin), while Race Lab McLaren pair Callum Davies and Sai Sanjay took their first podium. It comes a year after a flat battery at the Donington Park season finale lost Brown and former co-driver Charles Clark the 2023 title, despite leading for most of the season. “It feels unbelievable,” said Brown. “It’s what I’ve been working towards for the past 10 years. Last year was a massive letdown, but this year it’s all been made up for.” Four crews arrived still contending for the title. Day and…

SLICKS SERIES David Harrison/Nathan Luckey (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup) SPECIAL SALOONS & MODSPORTS Races 1 & 2 Andy Southcott (MG Lenham Midget) BMW CHAMPIONSHIP/OPEN SERIES Races 1 & 2 Nathan Wells (BMW M3 E46 GTR) MAGNIFICENT SEVENS John Cutmore (Spire RB7) MORGAN CHALLENGE Race 1 William Pratt (+4) Race 2 Ollie Pratt (+4) MG TROPHY/JAGUAR CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 2 Jack Robinson (Jaguar XK8) TIN TOPS & PUMA CUP Colin Simpson/Steve Simpson (Peugeot 206) NEW MILLENNIUM/TURBO TIN TOPS Luke Yeomans (BMW M3 E36, below) MIDGET & SPRITE CHALLENGE Races 1 & 2 Paul Sibley (MG Midget) SWINGING SIXTIES Stephen Pickering (Sunbeam Tiger) MODERN CLASSICS/FUTURE CLASSICS Tom Barley (BMW 328i E36) CLASSIC K Malcolm Johnson (Lotus Elan GTS) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

LOTON PARK BRITISH HILLCLIMB 28-29 SEPTEMBER Matthew Ryder secured this year’s British Hillclimb Championship with a resounding victory in the opening run-off at Loton Park on Sunday. Ryder went to the Shropshire hill with one hand on the title, since it would have taken a massive turnaround in fortune for his remaining rival, Alex Summers, to come through and steal the crown. At the very least, Summers needed two run-off times underneath the existing hill record and, when Sunday dawned cold with the prospect of rain, he knew any slender remaining chance was gone. Ryder, meanwhile, capped an incredible season to take his first BHC crown and join an illustrious list of previous champions. The Gould GR59 driver sealed his title in style with victory by 0.7 seconds in the…