Indholdsfortegnelse for 24/06/21 i Autosport

Was Mercedes wrong to stick to a one-stop strategy in last weekend’s French Grand Prix? Given the straightline speed of the Red Bull-Honda (a remarkable thing to see given where Honda was not so very long ago), it made sense to leave Lewis Hamilton out. Time and again Hamilton has shown his ability to eke out tyre life, and the fact that Max Verstappen only retook the lead on the penultimate lap proved it was worth a try. What was strange was that the team also left Valtteri Bottas on old rubber. Quite apart from the argument that splitting your strategies makes sense, one of the Finn’s consistent weaknesses against Hamilton has been that Bottas burns through tyres much faster. He also stopped earlier than Hamilton at Paul Ricard and…

LE MANS 24 HOURS A pair of Porsche stars, both winners of the Le Mans 24 Hours, have been drafted into the WeatherTech Racing GTE Pro line-up for this year’s edition of the French classic in August. Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor have been loaned out by the German manufacturer to the US entrant to drive the Proton-run 911 RSR. Two-time overall winner Bamber and Vanthoor, GTE Pro victor in 2018, will join Cooper MacNeil in the Proton Competition-run entry for the World Endurance Championship blue riband on 21-22 August. The duo know each other well: they were team-mates in the Porsche factory team in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2018-20, winning the GT Le Mans title in 2019. MacNeil described the driver roster assembled by the team as “a…

MOTOGP Gresini Racing will field Ducati machinery for the 2022 MotoGP season after agreeing a two-year deal with the Italian marque to become one of its satellite squads. Gresini, which has run Aprilia’s official factory entry since 2015, formerly fielded Honda machinery between 1997 and 2014. The team announced late last year that it would be parting ways with Aprilia, which will enter MotoGP in 2022 as a standalone factory squad. Ducati had already been in discussions with Gresini leader Fausto Gresini before his death in February from COVID-19. Gresini will field Moto2 race winner Fabio Di Giannantonio, who currently races for its Moto2 team, and current Avintia Ducati MotoGP rider Enea Bastianini, who competed with Gresini in Moto3 from 2014-16. Both will have 2021-spec bikes. Ducati will expand to…

“This circuit, it’s been such a stronghold for Mercedes over recent years. If we can beat them here, then really we can beat them anywhere.” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was pretty bullish ahead of the 2021 French Grand Prix. And he had every right to be. Max Verstappen had just inflicted a first qualifying defeat on the Black Arrows at a track where Mercedes had taken two poles, won both races and led 105 of the 106 racing laps since Paul Ricard returned to the Formula 1 calendar in 2018. The first two French GPs since 2008 were awful. But the race just gone was very good. Not an all-time classic, but compared to what had come before it was a thriller. And this time it was Horner’s…

Formula 1 qualifying and red-flag interruptions seem impossible to separate of late. But at the French Grand Prix, the suspensions came at the opposite end of qualifying compared to Monaco and did not spoil all three, as in Baku. But they still proved costly to some drivers. Yuki Tsunoda lost his AlphaTauri’s rear going too tight over the kerbs at the first corner and went backwards into the tyre barrier behind Turn 2. That led to a 10-minute delay and, with 22 seconds of the restarted Q1 remaining, it was then stopped early after Mick Schumacher also went off backwards into the wall – this time at the long, ever-tightening Turn 6 right that was being policed for track-limits violations. His crash preserved his first F1 career Q2 progression, although…

FIA FORMULA 3 PAUL RICARD (FRA) 19-20 JUNE ROUND 2/7 It was another thrilling weekend of FIA Formula 3 action at Paul Ricard, with three races producing three different winners, including two drivers who took their maiden victories in the category. While Alexander Smolyar and Arthur Leclerc took wins in the reversed-grid races, Jack Doohan took the top step of the podium after a stunning drive in Sunday’s feature race. Mercedes F1 junior Frederik Vesti topped qualifying in his ART Grand Prix car, beating Prema Racing’s Dennis Hauger to the top spot. Vesti went quickest on the second runs, almost 0.2 seconds clear of Hauger, who made a minor error on his last lap while attempting to take back pole. With the top 12 qualifiers reversed for the first race,…

PURE ETCR VALLELUNGA (ITA) 18-20 JUNE ROUND ⅕ Mikel Azcona surged to an historic victory in the world’s first all-electric, multi-brand touring car series as Pure ETCR kicked off at Vallelunga. Azcona and Zengo Motorsport X Cupra team-mate Mattias Ekstrom were the dominant forces in Italy as they won five of the six ‘Battle’ races held in their e-Racers, but both had to face their share of adversity along the way. Placed in Pool A with five other drivers in Friday night’s random draw (Pure ETCR doesn’t do qualifying), Azcona won both of his Saturday ‘Battles’ on Vallelunga’s 1.06-mile ‘Club’ circuit to leap to the head of the standings, an achievement matched by Pool B leader Ekstrom. But disaster struck during Sunday morning’s single-lap Time Trials, the results of which…

MOTOGP SACHSENRING (DEU) 20 JUNE ROUND 8/19 The world has changed dramatically in the 581 days between Marc Marquez’s most recent MotoGP victories. No one could have predicted what would follow across 2020 on that November day in 2019 when he eased to win number 12 in his sixth title-winning season. In the 19 months between Valencia 2019 and last Sunday’s German Grand Prix at Marquez’s stomping ground of the Sachsenring, the Honda rider has been through hell and back. Breaking his right arm in last July’s Spanish GP set him on a path it was not certain he would ever emerge from again as a MotoGP racer. Three surgeries later, endless hours of rehabilitation and a daily routine far removed from normal, Marquez’s return to MotoGP action this April…

MOTORSPORT UK Ex-Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok is striving to re-establish the UK as a nation where young global talent learns the ropes in junior single-seaters following his appointment on the board of directors of Motorsport UK. The Indian raced in British Formula 3 from 2002-04 as part of a highly international field but, since then, the UK has largely been eclipsed by Germany and Italy as the preferred destination for young drivers. While Chandhok remains a public figure with his media duties, he has also moved into a role in the sport’s administration as part of the FIA Drivers’ Commission, and as a drivers’ representative on the FIA Single Seater Commission. “I knew John Ryan [Motorsport UK’s sport, safety and technical director, and vice-president of the FIA SSC] from…

NATIONAL FF1600 Driving standards came under scrutiny in National Formula Ford 1600 at Silverstone after a collision between title rivals Alex Walker and Max Esterson. Opinions differed over the crash – declared a racing incident – in race two when Esterson, who had served a five-place grid penalty for a separate clash with Joey Foster in the first race, collided with Walker on the Wellington Straight. “I was climbing through the field until Alex Walker squeezed me on the brakes, knocked me off the track and I spun,” said Esterson. “I caught back up and he did exactly the same and took himself out. Defending is one thing, but you can’t swerve on the brakes.” But Walker’s team boss Kevin Mills felt differently, saying: “In race two we just got…

CHAMPIONS TO ENDUROKA Trackday Championship and MSV Supercup class champions Ray Honeybone, Jamie Jeffrey, Martyn Culley, Michael Smith and Matthew Anstiss will all get a fully funded drive in the 12-hour EnduroKa event at Snetterton this weekend as part of their title-winning prize. The quintet will share the Moores Motors Ka in the ‘12 Heures du Norfolk’ contest. JOHN LEFFLER Mini Cooper S graduate John Leffler, winner of Australia’s 1973 Formula Ford Driver To Europe series driving a Bowin P6F designed by former Team Lotus engineer John Joyce, has died. Leffler also won the 1976 Australian Drivers’ Championship in an F5000 Lola T400, but did not turn his back on touring cars, finishing second in the 1978 Bathurst 1000 with Allan Grice in a Holden Torana. GRANT’S PLANS THWARTED Double…

HISTORICS Porsche Supercup racer Michael Crees enjoyed a brief opportunity to try Jonathan Bevan’s newly restored Group 2 Sunbeam Imp at a wet Brands Hatch last Friday, ahead of some demonstration runs at next month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Prepared by Bevan’s grandfather, George, near the Kent circuit, the 1000cc machine was used by North London-based Irishman Bill McGovern to complete a hat-trick of British Saloon Car Championship victories in 1972. It was subsequently sold to Germany. “I met Jonathan and his father Peter having a cup of tea at Brands in 2019,” said Crees, who was racing in the British Touring Car Championship at the time. “They told me the incredible story about George and his cars. We hit it off and have been friends since, so to drive…

We have never heard more about rules and regulations than we have during the coronavirus pandemic. Whether it was criticism of the severity of the rules, frustration over them being confusing and impossible to follow, or anger at people who should really know better flouting them, the rules have never been more in the spotlight. But this column is not about temporary laws introduced to tackle a devastating virus, instead it’s about rules that have been in place for far longer. Specifically, it’s about governing body Motorsport UK’s regulations surrounding the punishment of drivers guilty of wrongdoing on track. Unlike the tangled web of coronavirus legislation, the rules surrounding licence penalty points seem fairly straightforward: if you pick up 12 points on your competition licence within a 12-month period, your…

CADWELL PARK VSCC 19 JUNE A fine day of racing at Cadwell Park from the Vintage Sports-Car Club was topped by another Shuttleworth Trophy victory for Mark Gillies, who was sublime in his handling of ERA R3A. After a year’s COVID-19-enforced absence, the VSCC’s annual visit to Lincolnshire drew a fine entry and a healthy crowd – and the racing lived up to expectations. A quarter of a century after he first won the Shuttleworth Trophy, Gillies was back to dominate the Pre-’61 Racing Car event in R3A. He was able to edge clear in the early laps as the rest of the field battled in his wake. A damp and slippery qualifying session was not what Fred Harper wanted in the Kurtis Indy Roadster, but the dry race allowed…

KNOCKHILL KMSC 19-20 JUNE The season-opening Knockhill Motor Sports Club meeting certainly lived up to expectations with two days of thrilling and tense on-track racing, and the ever-changing weather providing tough conditions for the drivers. The meeting was dedicated to the late Gerard McCosh, a much-loved member of the Legends paddock, to whom a poignant tribute was paid last Sunday afternoon. The Legends delivered as per usual on an emotional weekend with six action-packed heats. Stewart Black looked on course for a full set of victories until an inspired drive from Ben Mason netted him the final win and the Gerard McCosh Trophy. Two series also made guest appearances at Knockhill, and the visiting Pickup Trucks were a spectacle. There was some fantastic close racing, Reece Jones coming out on…

Tim Harvey had finished fifth in the 1995 British Touring Car Championship in his single season with the TWR-run Volvo 850, but Kelvin Burt replaced him for 1996. That meant a move to Peugeot for Harvey, who spent three years at the struggling team before a recall from TWR for the 1998 Bathurst 1000, where he would share an S40 with Jan Nilsson. This wasn’t just a race; effectively it was an audition for a 1999 seat. While newly crowned BTCC champion Rickard Rydell and Jim Richards won the race, Harvey qualified the sister Volvo third, but crashed out on oil mid-race. The Tom Walkinshaw-run team had replaced Burt with Gianni Morbidelli for 1998, but the Italian was well off the pace. “They realised that perhaps I was a bit…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 teams and drivers have hit out at a lack of transparency following Pirelli’s tyre failures at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after the Italian company’s investigation deemed that no rules had been broken. Pirelli launched an inquest into what caused Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin to both suffer left-rear tyre failures in Baku in the 6 June race, having initially said that debris could be to blame. The company issued a statement ahead of last weekend’s French Grand Prix making it clear that the failures were not caused by a production fault, wear or delamination, but instead were the result of a circumferential break on the inner sidewall of the tyres, rather than being the result of a cut from debris. The statement…

FORMULA 1 FIA president Jean Todt says he supports Formula 1 going to countries that have been criticised for their human-rights records, and that he believes motorsport should stay out of politics. The addition of Saudi Arabia to the 2021 F1 calendar has raised questions from human-rights groups, while other races such as the Bahrain, Chinese and Russian GPs have also proved controversial. Todt said his road-safety role with the United Nations has given him the chance to meet human-rights experts who agreed that F1 should visit such countries. “It’s something which is very dear to my heart,” said Todt, “and since now five years I’m very much involved with the UN as secretary general special envoy for road safety. If you see the high-level panel I made on road…

EUROFORMULA OPEN Ex-British Formula 3 ace Louis Foster has slashed the gap to Euroformula Open series leader Cameron Das to 19 points after taking a remarkable hat-trick of wins at Spa last weekend. Foster claimed pole for the opening race in his CryptoTower Dallara-Spiess. He led at the start, while the fight for second between Das and Josh Mason ended dramatically with a collision. That sent Das to the pits with a puncture, and the American later retired. Series debutant Christian Mansell, driving for EFO returnee Carlin, held second, but slipped to fifth. Nazim Azman came through to complete a CryptoTower 1-2, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Casper Stevenson third. Foster took only two and a half laps to rise from sixth on the reversed grid to take the lead of…

Marshal’s solution to safety car chaos Your column suggests a solution to safety car chaos (Club Autosport, 17 June). However, I believe a better version is this: just before the safety car joins the track the pitlane is shut. Once the safety car is withdrawn and all race cars have passed the flag stand, the pitlane is reopened. Any competitor in the pits at the time of closing is allowed to rejoin at the rear of the train as the cars pass the pit exit. A competitor who enters the shut pitlane can only do so for a safety related reason. Failure to comply means disqualification. A version of this procedure was successfully used in world sportscar races run in the 1970s and 1980s. If someone’s got a copy of…

McLaren split its pitstop strategies in France before Lando Norris headed home Daniel Ricciardo in a 5-6 for the team. Norris had endured a poor start from eighth on the grid that shuffled him behind Ricciardo, but the two showed good pace after a second-lap squabble into Turn 1, and were able to make up ground as Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc began to reach the end of their tyre life. Ricciardo pitted on lap 16, falling behind Leclerc again, but possessed good pace to make his way back up the order while maintaining his tyres. Norris waited until lap 24 before he collected hard Pirellis, falling to 14th. But he managed to cruise through the field with relative ease after that, until he reached Pierre Gasly. Norris attempted a…

George Russell lifted Williams back up to ninth in the constructors’ championship with a charge to 12th in France. After running 18th early on following a poor start, Russell jumped Esteban Ocon, Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi on the pit undercut before also gaining a place when Charles Leclerc pitted a second time. Russell managed his tyres well to close on Yuki Tsunoda in the final stages, passing for 12th with three laps to go. “Finishing 12th on merit, I would go as far as saying that is probably our best ever race together [with Williams],” said Russell. “It’s a shame nothing happened in front [so he could score a point].” AlphaTauri driver Tsunoda started from the pitlane after taking a new floor and gearbox following his Q1 crash, but…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE SPRINT CUP ZANDVOORT (NLD) 19-20 JUNE ROUND ⅖ Since its return to the GT World Challenge Europe schedule last season, Zandvoort has proved a happy hunting ground for the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo. That is certainly the case for the Swiss Emil Frey Racing squad, which picked up both Sprint Cup victories last weekend to catapult itself into title contention. It was only a matter of time before Lamborghini claimed its breakthrough first win of the season, with the FFF team having taken a pair of Endurance Cup poles. But perhaps nobody could have predicted the manner in which that first win was achieved, as the sensational Silver Cup pairing of Alex Fontana and Ricardo Feller utterly dominated Saturday’s opening one-hour race. Feller, who topped a…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS HIDDEN VALLEY (AUS) 19-20 JUNE ROUND 5/12 Shane van Gisbergen went within a stuck wheelnut of clean-sweeping the Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley. The Kiwi was well on track to win Saturday’s opener after muscling his way past polesitter Anton De Pasquale at the first corner and settling into a comfortable lead. But his good work from the first stint was undone by a stubborn wheelnut during the Triple Eight-run Holden’s mandatory stop, the 30-second delay meaning the best he could manage was 13th. That was good news for Chaz Mostert, who started eighth but found himself running third on the opening lap after surviving a Turn 1 pile-up that took out De Pasquale and other frontrunners including Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye. He then overhauled Nick…

GOODWOOD The Goodwood Festival of Speed will go ahead this year after being chosen as a pilot event as part of the UK government’s Events Research Programme. The news that the final stage of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown had been pushed back cast serious doubts over the viability of the event, given the importance of fans to the 8-11 July extravaganza. The delayed easing of restrictions until at least 19 July would have limited spectator numbers to just 4000 but, now that the Festival of Speed has been chosen as the first motorsport fixture to be a pilot event, it does not have to stick to this cap. Instead, all existing ticket holders will be able to attend as planned and a limited number of Thursday tickets are…

GINETTA JUNIOR Leading Ginetta Junior team R Racing plans to appeal the 70-point deduction for star rookie Callum Voisin after a technical illegality at Snetterton. Voisin has been one of the stand-out drivers in the opening events of the season, grabbing an impressive win in his maiden car racing event at Thruxton before taking the spoils in the opening Norfolk contest after a penalty for team-mate Tom Edgar. But Voisin was excluded from his fourth place in race two due to a camtiming irregularity on his car, a decision that sent him to the back of the race three grid (based on second race results) and also came with the loss of 70 points. “What was found, you can’t argue as a team that it’s wrong,” said team co-founder Jamie…

MGCC The MG Car Club has reaffirmed its commitment to organising and running race meetings next year and beyond, amid a number of new appointments to its board and Equipe Classic Racing moving to organise its own events. Equipe regularly takes a significant chunk of track time at MGCC fixtures for its popular GTS, Pre-63 and Libre categories, but has decided to operate its own meetings for 2022. The MGCC is already in talks with a number of guest championships – including those with which it has existing arrangements – to appear alongside its own portfolio of categories next year. “We wanted to let our members and racing competitors know that we are still planning for 2022,” said MGCC race competitions secretary Mark Baulch. “We’re talking to the circuits and…

SILVERSTONE BRSCC 19-20 JUNE After a long search for his maiden victory, Steve Foden finally ended the drought with a brace of wins during an action-packed round of the Mazda MX-5 Championship on the Silverstone National layout. Foden spun down the order in the first encounter in damp conditions, as Fraser Fenwick took the honours after a thrilling six-car lead battle. Following his hat-trick of wins at the opening event, Jack Brewer led early on from Fenwick, who had his AB Motorsport team-mate Oliver Allwood for company behind. Brewer then ran deep into Maggotts and dropped to fourth, but soon recovered to contest the lead with Fenwick, the pair swapping places several times. But, on the final lap, Brewer was spun around from behind by Allwood and dropped to seventh,…

OULTON PARK BRSCC 19 JUNE Dominant performances were on show at Oulton Park, with five double victories across the five series in action at the British Racing & Sports Car Club meeting. The two Track Attack rounds were the least predictable. Chris Southcott posted what looked like an easy first-race win in his Peugeot 205, one of the older cars on the grid, but he was helped by polesitter Steve Simpson’s 206 being boxed in cheekily at the start between Southcott and the Renault Clio of Nick Gwinnett, who attacked from fourth. Simpson dropped all the way down to 11th place at Old Hall, but he was soon back on the hunt and up to fifth after the first lap. He recovered to second after a lengthy scrap with Mike…

BRANDS HATCH CTA 19-20 JUNE A mixed Tunerfest programme both on and off the circuit brought the third round of TCR UK to Kent for the only triple-header of the year. Always close and absorbing, the racing was sometimes too confrontational. Brothers Lewis and Bradley Kent had a victory each in their Hyundais, and Cupra driver Dan Kirby was a first-time winner. The first race was red-flagged twice with only six racing laps recorded, and race two had a shortened rerun after an opening-corner shunt. Race three was stopped early when two drivers clashed. The TCR cars shared the track with the Touring Car Trophy class. Toby Bearne’s Mercedes won twice but there were no finishers in race three. A poorly supported VW Racing Cup division gave success to Jack…

BOOK REVIEW GRAND PRIX’S WINNING COLOURS RRP £30 As the title of the book suggests, this is all about victorious machines – and every car to win a Formula 1 World Championship race is drawn in brilliant detail, from the Alfa Romeo 158 that Giuseppe Farina used to take the flag in the 1950 British Grand Prix, through to the Racing Point RP20 that Sergio Perez drove in the 2020 Sakhir GP. No corners have been cut here, as artist and motorsport enthusiast Mick Hill has painstakingly hand-drawn each machine. Every detail, from the smallest of sponsor decals to the intricate flicks and swishes of the bodywork, has been included. Hill’s images pop off the page with bright, vibrant colours. With each car shown in a side-on view, turning the…

PURE ETCR The series director for the new Pure ETCR electric touring car series, which kicked off last weekend at Vallelunga, has said that the long-term plan is for all-electric racing weekends. Eurosport Events’ Xavier Gavory said: “Our goal in the future is ideally to have 100% electric racing weekends, but today there are not so many electric racing series.” He added: “Pure ETCR is on the top of the pyramid that does not exist for the moment, but will in the future. We have a world-class championship, but we want regional championships and national championships.” HOW QUICK ARE THEY? It’s tricky to be exact. Pure ETCR ran its ‘Battles’ on a short layout of Vallelunga on Saturday, but used the old, pre-extension two-mile circuit for free practice on Friday…

WEC The World Endurance Championship will not revert to its traditional eight-race schedule next year. Series bosses reckon it will be too early for that in the face of the continuing COVID crisis and its economic impact. Pierre Fillon, president of WEC promoter the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, and series chief executive officer Frederic Lequien believe that retaining this year’s downsized six-race calendar, or possibly going up one to seven events, will be more prudent for 2022. “Due to the COVID situation and the economic situation related to COVID, I think it is too early to imagine to come back to eight races,” said Fillon. “I think it will be six or seven; we are discussing that.” This year’s calendar was originally split half and half between races in Europe…

WORLD RALLYCROSS Triple World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson has switched to an Audi S1 and Mattias Ekstrom’s EKS JC team in his bid to win a fourth crown this year. Kristoffersson, who has campaigned only Volkswagen machinery in rallycross since his debut in the discipline in 2013, will spearhead the effort of EKS JC, an amalgamation of Ekstrom’s EKS team and Joel Christoffersson’s JC Raceteknik squad. The operation won last year’s WRX teams’ title with Ekstrom and Robin Larsson, and will field Belgian former Blancpain GT champion Enzo Ide alongside Kristoffersson in 2021. Kristoffersson’s three WRX drivers’ titles have come in Volkswagen Motorsport-built Polos, the first two with Petter Solberg’s PSRX Volkswagen Sweden team, then last year within the family Kristoffersson Motorsport squad. “First of all, I’m very pleased that…

LENGTH 2.683 miles NUMBER OF LAPS 71 UK START TIMES Friday 25 June FP1 1030 FP2 1400 Saturday 26 June FP3 1100 QUALIFYING 1400 Sunday 27 June RACE 1400 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1830 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors RACE STATS Previous Red Bull Ring winners Best results Hamilton 1st x 2 Bottas 1st x 2 Verstappen 1st x 2 Raikkonen 2nd x 2 Leclerc 2nd x 2 Vettel 2nd x 1 Norris 3rd x 1 Ricciardo 3rd x 1 Sainz 5th x 1 Alonso 5th x 1…

Ferrari left Paul Ricard empty-handed after both Carlos Sainz Jr and Charles Leclerc struggled to manage their tyres and slumped out of the points. Ferrari looked set to pull further clear of McLaren in the constructors’ championship when Sainz led the midfield in qualifying to take fifth on the grid, and then Leclerc undercut Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly at the first round of pitstops. But both Ferrari drivers quickly dropped back as they struggled with the hard tyres graining. Sainz was passed by Lando Norris, Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll through the second stint, claiming afterwards that his tyre wear was twice as bad as those around him. “Cars that yesterday we were half a second quicker than, like the McLarens, towards the end of the…

DTM MONZA (ITA) 19-20 JUNE ROUND ⅛ Red Bull Junior Liam Lawson rang in the DTM’s new GT3 era by taking victory in the first of the two 50-minute races at Monza in his AF Corse-run Ferrari. Heading into the curtain-raiser, there was a fair degree of scepticism surrounding the direction the DTM has taken this year, as extensive manufacturer involvement and thoroughbred race cars were what made the series so popular in the first place. Based on the first impressions from the Italian Grand Prix venue, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the GT3 cars didn’t make for a like-to-like replacement for the old Class 1 tourers, and the overall picture was very different to the DTM as we knew it. That said, some quality wheel-to-wheel battles and…

SUPER FORMULA SUGO (JPN) 20 JUNE ROUND 4/7 Dandelion Racing’s young Honda star Nirei Fukuzumi took a long-awaited first Super Formula win last Sunday at Sugo. Fukuzumi qualified fifth in wet conditions, but was much more competitive in the dry and moved up to third on the opening lap with an excellent launch. He picked off a fading Sena Sakaguchi for second early on, and then set about catching poleman Yuhi Sekiguchi’s Toyota-powered Team Impul car, with a one-second gap between the pair until the pitstop phase. Sekiguchi was the first to dive for the pitlane on lap 17 of 53, followed by Fukuzumi a lap later. But a faster stop and a quicker in-lap served to allow Fukuzumi to rejoin ahead. From there, he was never seriously challenged, and…

ZEO PROTO SERIES The Sebeco NP01-EVO prototype made its UK race debut in the new Zeo Proto Series at Silverstone last weekend as part of a 15-car grid, and the US machine could form the basis of its own category in the future. Fun Cup and former Britcar racer Jay Shepherd recently acquired the car and used the event as a shakedown, with plans for the NP01 to have its own UK series by 2023. “We brought the car to a trackday last week not knowing what it was going to be like,” said Shepherd. “They run 50 cars in America. The car weighs 688 kilos and runs a standard two-litre Mazda engine. Overall, the package really does look the part and it drives really, really well. It’s 30% or…

MOSS TROPHY Former National Saloon Car Cup racer Stuart Clarke had his first race for 11 years at Thruxton earlier this month, when he shared the Lotus 11 sports-racing car driven by former Porsche Carrera Cup racer Mark Cole. Cole needed a co-driver for the Stirling Moss Trophy race and asked Clarke, who had just renewed his race licence. “We’re good friends and I wanted to get back out and do something,” said Clarke. “I’d always raced saloon cars before this, and it’s the first time I’ve driven anything like it. It’s chalk and cheese to what I’ve done before.” Despite a persistent misfire, they qualified fourth but, shortly after Clarke took over in the hour-long race, he was forced into the pits with a distributor failure.…

HILLCLIMB A new initiative has been launched to get young drivers into hillclimbing in the cheapest possible way, using standard 1.2-litre Vauxhall Corsas. The Shelsley Walsh Young Drivers Championship will start at the Curborough sprint course on 11 July when at least nine drivers aged between 17-21 will make their competition debut. To be eligible, drivers must have a valid road licence but not have previously held a competition licence. The post-2000 Corsa models have a maximum price of £3000 including the required safety equipment, and no modifications are allowed. The initiative was prompted by a desire to make motorsport more affordable for youngsters and allow them to compete in a safe environment rather than on the public road. The project has the backing of the Midland Automobile Club and…

MX-5 CHAMPIONSHIP Race 1 Fraser Fenwick Races 2 & 3 Steve Foden NATIONAL FF1600 Races 1 & 3 Max Esterson (Ray GR18) Race 2 Chris Middlehurst (Van Diemen LA10) MX-5 SUPERCUP Race 1 Samuel Smith Race 2 Patrick Fletcher Race 3 Jack Harding FUN CUP UVio/Hofmann’s Lotus (Fabio Randaccio/Scott Fitzgerald) MX-5 CLUBMAN Races 1 & 2 Owen Mills CLUBSPORT TROPHY David Shead/Malcolm Edeson (BMW Compact, below) ZEO PROTO CUP Race 1 Matt Manderson (Radical SR8) Race 2 Mike Jenvey (Jenvey-Gunn TS6) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

CADWELL PARK PRE-’61 RACING CARS Mark Gillies (ERA R3A) PRE-’35 GRAND PRIX CARS Alex Ames (Bugatti T35C) ALLCOMERS SCRATCH Alex Ames (Bugatti T35C) FRAZER NASH/GN Patrick Blakeney-Edwards (Super Sport) RILEYS John Reeve (Brooklands) PRE-WAR MGs Harry Painter (PA) PRE-WAR SPORTS Jonathan Sharp (Riley 12/4) VSCC SPECIALS Dougal Cawley (GN Piglet, above) ALLCOMERS HANDICAP Race 1 Simon Gallon (Austin 7) Race 2 William Twelvetrees (Wolseley 16/20) For full results visit: theresultslive.co.uk OULTON PARK TRACK ATTACK RACE CLUB Races 1 & 2 Chris Southcott (Peugeot 205) CITYCAR CUP Races 1 & 2 Nic Grindrod (Citroen C1) FIESTAS Races 1 & 2 Luke Pinder (ST180, below) FIESTA JUNIORS Races 1 & 2 Jenson Brickley NORTHERN & SUPER CLASSIC FORMULA FORD 1600 Races 1 & 2 Jack Wolfenden (Firman RFR17) For full results visit:…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Styrian Grand Prix Formula 1 World Championship Round 8/23 Red Bull Ring, Austria 27 June TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 1355 TV Highlights Sky Sports F1, Sun 1730, Channel 4 Sun 1830 Safari Rally World Rally Championship Round 6/12 Nairobi, Kenya 24-27 June TV Live BT Sport 2, Thu 1200, BT Sport 1, Sat 0700, Sat 1300, BT Sport 3, Sun 0630, Sun 1100 TV Highlights BT Sport Extra 1, Thu 1415, Fri 1500, Sat 1545, Red Bull TV, Fri 2000, Sat 2000, Sun 2000, ITV4, Wed 2000 Porsche Supercup Round 2/8 Red Bull Ring, Austria 27 June TV Live Eurosport 1, Sun 1115, Sky Sports F1, Sun 1125 W Series Round 1/8 Red Bull Ring, Austria 26 June TV Live More4, Sat 1500 World Touring Car…

The two Spirit-Honda machines at the disposal of sole driver Stefan Johansson during the weekend of the 1983 European Grand Prix are displayed in the Brands Hatch pitlane. Johansson briefly drove the British squad’s new 101/1 (foreground) in practice for the penultimate round of the season, but overheating issues meant nearly all his time was spent in the 201C/5. Things still didn’t go smoothly as the Honda engine’s fierce thirst meant the turbo pressure had to be dialled down, so the Swede struggled for race pace. Having qualified 19th of the 26 drivers to make the cut, he came home second to last of the 15 finishers, two laps down. It was to be the Spirit team’s final appearance with Honda power, the Japanese manufacturer choosing to divert its energies…