Indholdsfortegnelse for 21/10/21 i Autosport

This year’s Formula 1 title fight is arguably the best since 2012. The 2018 contest was good, but Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton seem more evenly matched than Sebastian Vettel and peak Hamilton were. Both teams and drivers have made mistakes and pulled off some brilliant performances. Things have not been predictable. Since the pace of the Red Bull RB16B became obvious early in the year, many have had their money on Verstappen ending Hamilton’s run of titles. But, as Alex Kalinauckas shows on page 16, there are many factors that could swing the battle one way or another – and some of them are outside the drivers’ control. One critical element will be optimising the car at each circuit. That sounds obvious, but it is not the same as…

LE MANS/WEC/IMSA Lamborghini is moving closer to an LMDh prototype entry into the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. A link-up with Volkswagen group sister marques Porsche and Audi appears near-certain for the 2024 season. The Italian manufacturer’s racing department has received an initial go-ahead for plans for a programme first outlined in the summer, Autosport has learned. The project now appears subject to Lamborghini Squadra Corse finding funded partner teams to run an LMDh design based on the same Multimatic-built LMP2 chassis and engine to be used by Porsche and Audi from 2023. Lamborghini Squadra Corse head Giorgio Sanna explained in late July that the marque would not run an overt factory team in either the WEC or North America. Instead, it would follow the model it…

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Rally Northern Ireland is understood to be in the mix to fill the final vacant spot on the 13-round 2022 World Rally Championship calendar released last week. Following last Friday’s meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council, the WRC related next year’s schedule with a Tarmac event listed as TBC for 18-21 August. The governing body has been outspoken about its wishes to bring the championship back to the UK, which last hosted a round in 2019 with Rally GB, before COVID-19 forced the cancellation of last year’s event. As previously reported, a bid to take the WRC to Northern Ireland was among six candidates vying over four vacant spots on a partial nine-round WRC calendar issued in July. Reports emerging from Northern Ireland remain hopeful…

INDYCAR SERIES British IndyCar Series racer Jack Harvey has been confirmed at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for 2022, joining Graham Rahal and an as-yet-unannounced driver as the team expands to three full-time cars. Harvey, the 2012 British Formula 3 champion and a two-time Indy Lights-runner-up, has made the jump from Meyer Shank Racing following two part-time seasons in collaboration with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and, since 2020, two full schedules as a partnership with Andretti Autosport. This year he qualified six times in the top six but his best race results were two fourth places, in a year when his part-time team-mate Helio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 on his first race outing with MSR. Yet Harvey insists it was not frustration that drove him to join a different team. “Helio’s…

“So far, we’ve had a really good year, so it’s not going to change the world for me if we finish first or second at the end of the day.” Max Verstappen spoke these words in the post-race press conference at the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix, after he’d been soundly beaten by Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas in the wet conditions at Istanbul Park. While that result was something of a surprise given Verstappen’s wet-weather prowess, as he acknowledged at the time, the Dutchman had already expressed the same nonchalant-sounding view on his chances of winning his ultra-close battle with Lewis Hamilton for the 2021 crown three days earlier. But, after the Istanbul Park race, Verstappen was back in front of a battle he’d been commandingly winning at one stage –…

There are six races remaining in the 2021 Formula 1 season. As things stand ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, six points separate two of the championship’s best drivers. Only one of them will win the title, and it’ll either be a triumphant ending of an era or the glorious extension of one of F1’s most legendary tales. The battle between Red Bull and Mercedes, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, has ebbed and flowed throughout the season – rarely interrupted, rarely underwhelming. Looking back, the Bahrain season opener almost perfectly encapsulated the year’s rivalry, as the duo went toe to toe on behalf of their respective squads, well clear of the rest, the outcome decided, thrillingly, by the barest of margins. So, who will come out on top…

ABARTH SIMCA 2000 CORSA The delectable long-nosed GT was Italian Tirolean Herbert Demetz’s factory entry and won the 1965 Bolzano-Mendola hillclimb. American Michael Gans was quickest in practice for the Revival’s Fordwater Trophy race in 2019, when the Abarth engine threw a rod on his slowing-down lap, precluding a race. A short-nosed version was a period Members’ Meeting regular, driven by Bob Burnard. Gans qualified third for the Ronnie Hoare Trophy but retired early. ASTON MARTIN DB3S/6 ‘62 EMU’ Crashed at Le Mans in 1954, in coupe form, DB3S/6 was rebodied and finished second in 1956 – Stirling Moss/Peter Collins a lap behind Ron Flockhart/Ninian Sanderson’s Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-type – and 1958 with half-brothers Peter and Graham Whitehead. Collins/Tony Brooks drove it to third in the 1955 Goodwood Nine…

PURE ETCR PAU-ARNOS (FRA) 15-17 OCTOBER ROUND 5/5 Mattias Ekstrom made history by becoming the inaugural Pure ETCR champion in the most dramatic of circumstances on the series’ first visit to Pau-Arnos. The two-time DTM champion and one-time World Rallycross title winner arrived in France with a healthy 29-point advantage over Jean-Karl Vernay, and increased this to 34 across the opening two heats, meaning a fifth-place finish in Sunday’s SuperFinal B would be enough to crown him as the winner of the world’s first all-electric touring car title. As simple as that sounded for Ekstrom as he launched his Cupra e-Racer off the line from pole position, his hopes were almost shattered within seconds as he collided with fellow front-row starter Philipp Eng at the entry to the sweeping downhill…

WORLD RALLYCROSS MONTALEGRE (PRT) 17 OCTOBER ROUND 6/7 Knowing he needed to limit the points that championship leader Timmy Hansen could take away in Portugal, Johan Kristoffersson was in attack mode, but while the pair were caught up in their own battle it was Niclas Gronholm who came through to win. Hansen and Kristoffersson started together in Q1, with the latter taking an early joker lap, then losing time in traffic, picking up a puncture and falling down the order. Without the inside line on the grid for Q2, Q3 or Q4, Kristoffersson could only manage second fastest in each, but it was an overtake on Hansen in their Q4 race that stated the Swede’s intentions. Kevin Hansen won that session, but Kristoffersson had done enough to net pole for…

FORMULA FORD 1600 Newly crowned National Formula Ford champion Chris Middlehurst plans to defend his title with Team Dolan next year, as well as contest the upcoming Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy events. Middlehurst overcame a 28-point deficit to Alex Walker heading into the British Racing & Sports Car Club series decider at Snetterton earlier this month. Two podiums and a fifth-place finish were enough to clinch the title after Walker was twice involved in clashes, including one with two-time National champion Niall Murray for which Walker received two penalty points on his licence. “I keep saying, if I win it, I’ll stop but it’s addictive,” said Middlehurst. “I’ve raced a lot of other cars but you can’t beat Formula Ford. I’m really enjoying myself. Team Dolan is a great…

CLASSIC F3 Clubmans frontrunner Steve Dickens made his single-seater debut at Silverstone last weekend in the ex-Derek Warwick Chevron B38 now owned by his friend and rival Clive Wood. Dickens, who only needs one point from the final round of the Clubmans Sports Prototype Championship at the end of the month to be crowned CSP1 champion, had only ever raced in Clubmans. “That’s what I’ve done since I was 17,” said Dickens. “The F3 car is completely different and much harder to drive but, when you get it right, it’s very enjoyable.” He finished eighth and fifth in the pair of Classic F3 races in the car that Warwick competed in for part of the 1977 season, during which he finished third in the BRDC Vandervell F3 standings. Meanwhile, Wood…

DONINGTON PARK BRITISH GT 16-17 OCTOBER It was widely anticipated that Dennis Lind and Leo Machitski would convert their 18.5-point pre-race advantage into British GT title spoils at Donington Park, and they didn’t disappoint. But it was a nailbiting race for the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini pair, who have Enduro Motorsport’s breakout winners Marcus Clutton and Morgan Tillbrook to thank for keeping RAM Racing Mercedes rivals Yelmer Buurman and Ian Loggie off the top spot that would have tipped the balance in their favour. Fourth place was enough, just, for Lind and Machitski on a day when their Huracan was, for once, not really in the fight. “It was horrific, because it was totally out of our hands,” said Barwell commercial director Chris Needell. A relieved Machitski admitted: “I’ve never rooted…

A championship success means a lot to any driver, but the crowning of Josh Steed as the Ginetta GT5 Challenge title winner at Donington held particular significance. The 19-year-old had previously raced in the category in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic last year put his racing on hold, as did the death of his father. A return was always going to be tough given the circumstances, but even more so since he only had limited funds. “Originally we were going to take the year out because of COVID-19, we thought it wasn’t going to be quite the same, and then two months later my dad passed away and then it was a definite no,” said Steed of his 2020 plans. By the skin of my teeth, we managed to get…

MALLORY PARK BARC 17 OCTOBER The Classic Touring Car Racing Club staged its championship finale at Mallory Park last weekend with six of the seven categories’ titles still to be decided. Robyn Slater claimed a maiden overall win from pole position in the wet opening Pre-’66 race. His 1550cc Ford Anglia was initially passed by James Ibbotson’s even nimbler Hillman Imp before squeezing back ahead into the Esses and pulling clear of fellow Anglia driver Kevin Swann to win by 10 seconds. Alan Greenhalgh’s mighty Ford Falcon briefly split the Anglias mid-race, powering past Swann on the Kirkby Straight, only to head towards Hinckley rather than round Gerard’s, before recovering to fourth behind Ibbotson. In still greasy conditions, Greenhalgh made his extra grunt count in race two, which was shortened…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 has revealed its record-breaking 23-race calendar for the 2022 season, with Imola serving as a surprise late addition to the schedule. The FIA’s World Motor Sport Council met last Friday to approve the provisional schedule for next season, which will start in Bahrain on 20 March and end in Abu Dhabi on 20 November. Saudi Arabia will host the second round of the season less than four months after its inaugural grand prix in Jeddah, while the Australian Grand Prix returns in April after being cancelled in 2020 and 2021. The Chinese GP remains absent amid the country’s ongoing travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with F1 saying it would return to Shanghai “as soon as conditions allow”. That has paved the way for Imola…

ENDURANCE RACING Changes are afoot to the FIA system of driver categorisation. The governing body has revealed that it is reviewing the system ahead of the publication of 2022 gradings in the middle of next month. The FIA looks set to respond to a call for wholesale revisions from GT promoter Stephane Ratel (revealed last week in Autosport). Frederic Bertrand, under whose remit the system comes at the FIA, has conceded that changes are needed. “We need to address the full hierarchy to make sure everyone finds their right place,” said Bertrand (below, with Jean Todt). “Should we add a level? I don’t know. Should we redistribute the current levels we have? Probably.” Ratel has argued that the current distinction between the platinum and gold gradings, the home of true…

FORMULA 2/3 The FIA Formula 2 Championship has ballooned from eight race weekends to 14 for next season, with 28 races on the cards. F2 and its sister FIA F3 Championship switched to triple-headers and fewer rounds in 2021, and ran on separate weekends in what has become regarded as a failed experiment. For 2022, the two series will run together on nine weekends, with the senior F2 field going solo at a further five. The events, all of which will be double-headers, will continue to run as Formula 1 supports. Rene Rosin, boss of the Prema Racing squad with which Oscar Piastri is leading the 2021 F2 standings and Dennis Hauger won this year’s F3 title, has welcomed the change, but hopes that series boss Bruno Michel can carry…

Right then. Who’s going to win the British Touring Car Championship? The easy answer is that Ash Sutton will prevail this weekend around the glorious Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit. After all, he has a 32-point advantage – equivalent to a win, a fifth place and a random bonus point picked up somewhere – over closest rival Colin Turkington. Since the advent of the current scoring system a decade ago, the biggest swing against a pre-finale series leader has come in 2013, when Andrew Jordan’s last-round wobble resulted in a 28-point swing in favour of Gordon Shedden, who came from 35 adrift to lose out by just seven. So… it’s comfortable for Sutton, but what if early drama strikes the BMR and Laser Tools Racing boys with their Infiniti Q50?…

Rally Spain was billed as a probable World Rally Championship title decider, with many expecting Sebastien Ogier to lift an eighth world crown at the penultimate round on his favoured asphalt. But it appears that nobody read the script, and what eventuated on Catalunya’s finest roads was the complete opposite. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville issued a timely reminder that, had Lady Luck shone upon him this season, he could have been in Ogier’s position vying for a world title. The Belgian recorded a dominant 24.1-second victory, winning 10 of the 17 stages. As for the title race, the champagne is on ice. Ogier’s Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans produced a gusty drive under pressure to follow Neuville home and take the championship fight into a Rally Monza decider next month. Ogier could…

Formula Junior was Peter Arundell’s fiefdom in 1962 and 1963, when Team Lotus’s star won British championships in types 22 and 27. Goodwood naming its race for the Essex man was thus appropriate, but the odds on an ex-Arundell car winning it were long. Michael Hibberd (above, 4) qualified his ex-Arundell 22 26th in Saturday morning’s rain. When a back problem arose, officials permitted son Andrew – a previous Goodwood winner – to race it from the back of the grid. With Peter de la Roche, with whom he duelled in front-engined Lolas at last month’s Revival, on pole in a Lola Mk3, there was much work to do over 20 minutes on Sunday. DLR set off quickly, taking Simon Diffey (ex-Peter Warr Lotus Components 20/22) and Pete Morton (Lightning…

NASCAR CUP TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (USA) 17 OCTOBER ROUND 33/36 Kyle Larson became the first driver to guarantee himself a chance to compete for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series thanks to his Texan triumph, his second win in a row. The Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro racer locked himself into the ‘Championship 4’ for the 7 November season finale at Phoenix with a dominant performance in Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway. But while Larson led the most laps (256 of 334), he still had to hold off team-mate William Byron on six restarts over the final 60 laps to secure his eighth win of the season. “This is so cool,” Larson said. “We get to race for a championship. This is crazy. Thankfully, I was just able to clear William…

SUPER FORMULA MOTEGI (JPN) 17 OCTOBER ROUND 6/7 Tomoki Nojiri wrapped up his maiden Super Formula title with a race to spare thanks to a fifth-place finish at Motegi, as Hiroki Otsu scored his first series win. With three victories from the opening five races of the season, Mugen driver Nojiri came into the penultimate round with a strong chance of clinching the crown early, and qualifying third meant he needed only a top-four finish to guarantee it. Yuhi Sekiguchi was one driver in a position to deny Nojiri, but from sixth on the grid the Impul racer could only manage fourth, meaning fifth was enough for Nojiri to seal the deal. Nojiri’s team-mate Otsu converted the pole position he had scored by dint of being the only driver to…

BRITISH GT The top four amateur GT3 drivers in the 2021 British GT standings all plan on continuing in the series next year, with newly crowned double champion Leo Machitski intent on defending his title. Machitski and fellow Barwell Motorsport driver Adam Balon both plan to remain with the Lamborghini team next season, the squad’s commercial director Chris Needell confirmed to Autosport. “That’s the plan, that both Leo and Adam will be back next year,” he said. Asked how it sounded to be called a double British GT champion, Machitski said: “Sounds good. Three times sounds better! I really like the racing in British GT. I like the competitors, I like the circuits, so why not? The budget here is more reasonable than Europe, the racing is more demanding here…

CLASSIC TOURING CARS Martin Reynolds debuted his Ford Taunus P7, which is unique to British racing, in the Classic Touring Car Racing Club’s Pre-’83 Touring Car series at Mallory Park last Sunday. The 1968 machine, produced by Ford Germany, uses largely the same running gear as the British-built Mk3 Cortina. Reynolds has transplanted its 3.4-litre engine, with which it previously raced in South Africa, with a three-litre ‘Essex’ V6. “I bought it from a company in Northampton and we’ve converted it over the last seven months,” said Reynolds, who also clinched the CTCRC’s Blue Oval Saloon Series in his Ford Anglia. “I think I enjoy building the cars as much as racing. It’s not going to be up the front, but it’s a lovely car to have on the grid.”…

Will Moore and Matt Cowley secured runner-up spot in the GT4 standings with their second win of the season at Donington, the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang pair denying Alain Valente and Michael Benyahia’s Team Rocket RJN McLaren a maiden win. Valente and Benyahia have endured rotten luck this year and were long overdue a strong finish – they were denied a likely victory at Snetterton by a puncture, and missed out at Oulton Park with Benyahia’s ill-judged move on team-mate James Kell. But the McLaren “just didn’t have the pace for the win”, believed Valente, on a track where the Mustang has traditionally shone. After Moore and Benyahia had both cleared struggling Richard Williams’s polesitting Steller Audi, Benyahia hit the front by passing Moore on lap seven. But as the…

SILVERSTONE HSCC 16-17 OCTOBER Three fiercely competitive Historic Formula Ford 1600 races settled the title in favour of Cam Jackson and his Winkelmann during the Historic Sports Car Club’s annual Silverstone Finals meeting. Five cars ran wheel to wheel for much of the opener on Saturday. Tom McArthur managed to outbrake himself into Brooklands and fell away from the pack, but not far enough that he couldn’t drag himself back into contention. As Horatio Fitz-Simon, Jackson and Linton Stutely battled furiously, all the time McArthur was closing back in as the three leaders tussled and slowed themselves down. On the final lap, McArthur’s Titan caught the group and doors opened, allowing him to dive through to take a remarkable but unexpected victory over Fitz-Simon, Jackson, Stutely and the chasing Samuel…

OULTON PARK BRSCC 16 OCTOBER The UVio Hofmann’s duo of Scott Fitzgerald and Fabio Randaccio made it six Fun Cup Endurance wins out of eight, with a double victory at Oulton Park last weekend. Fitzgerald had the lead from four-time Clio champion Paul Rivett of Tachosys with RAW Motorsport in the opening stint of the sprint race. But, after two safety car interventions – the second enabling teams to make their final driver change – it was a straight fight to the flag between Fitzgerald and Team Olympian’s Riley Phillips, once Phillips had demoted PLR’s Neil Plimmer following the resumption. But Phillips could never quite make a move stick, and Fitzgerald took the win by just 0.238 seconds, with Plimmer third. Greensall Motorsport’s Sam Smeeth and Track Focused’s Sean Cooper…

The #19 Sauber-Ford SHS C6 shared by Walter Brun and Siegfried Muller Jr sits in 15th place on the grid alongside, but officially one place ahead of, the #11 Rondeau-Ford M382 of Francois Migault, Gordon Spice and Xavier Lapeyre during the countdown to the start of the 1982 Le Mans 24 Hours. Unfortunately neither car made the finish, the Sauber stymied by its starter motor and the Rondeau succumbing to ignition issues after 55 and 150 laps respectively. The race was dominated by Porsche, the #1, #2 and #3 factory 956s sweeping the podium in that very order. For classic Le Mans DVDs head to dukevideo.com/lemans For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel believes that Formula 1’s continuing calendar expansion puts it at risk of shedding important staff and devaluing its races. F1 is heading for its biggest world championship season next year, with 23 races crammed in between the middle of March and the middle of November. The stresses and strains that the schedule is putting on staff have already been highlighted by several teams, although they approved F1’s plans for 2022. In an interview with selected media including Autosport, Vettel, who arrived in F1 in an era when there were 17 races but more tests, said: “This is only my opinion, and it’s not worth anything, but I think we should not have that many races. It’s for a number of reasons. I think…

FORMULA E Formula E will adopt a tournament-style knockout qualifying format, which borrows heavily from the deceased Superleague Formula, from the inbound 2022 season as the electric championship bids to increase its credentials as a competitive meritocracy. The outgoing qualifying system sends the top six drivers in the points out first to lap on a circuit that hasn’t been rubbered in and is therefore at its slowest. But a growing resistance from teams, combined with Formula E bosses’ desires to create repeat winners and ditch some of the random results, has led the FIA World Motor Sport Council to approve this shake-up. The new format will initially divide the 22-car grid into two groups of 11 based on the championship table. Both groups will have a 10-minute session to post…

WRC Current-generation World Rally Cars will be allowed into next year’s World Rally Championship with a reduced power output. The WRC will move to new hybrid Rally1 regulations next year, with Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport Ford currently developing brand-new cars. But the FIA has now confirmed that the current WRC cars, introduced in 2017, can compete next year. The older cars will run with approximately 30bhp less than they do now, via a modification to the turbo restrictor, to ensure that they cannot topple the new Rally1 machinery. “The cars will be eligible to compete in the events next year and in terms of the interest shown, from the manufacturer teams there is not a lot of interest shown,” the FIA’s rally department explained to Autosport. “The priority is to…

UK START TIMES Friday 22 October FP1 1730 FP2 2100 Saturday 23 October QUALIFYING 2200 Sunday 24 October RACE 2000 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 0005 (Monday) TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers 1 Verstappen 262.5 2 Hamilton 256.5 3 Bottas 177 4 Norris 145 5 Perez 135 Constructors 1 Mercedes 433.5 2 Red Bull 397.5 3 McLaren 240 4 Ferrari 232.5 5 Alpine 104 RACE STATS Previous winners 2019 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 2018 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 2017 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2016 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2015 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2014 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2013 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 2012 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 2007 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 2006 Michael Schumacher Ferrari Best circuit results Hamilton 1st x 5 Vettel 1st x 1 Raikkonen 1st…

For the second year in succession, the World Rally Championship title race is set for an “anything-can-happen” head-to-head duel between Toyota team-mates Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier at Rally Monza. That’s the reward for a stirring drive by Evans in Spain to keep alive aspirations that seemed all but over a month ago, when gearbox issues thwarted his podium hopes on the Acropolis Rally. A stunning victory in Rally Finland followed up by a second in Spain mean Evans has cut Ogier’s advantage from 44 to 17 points, with 30 available at the Italian finale. Admittedly, Ogier remains the firm favourite to land an eighth world title as he prepares to say farewell to full-time WRC action at the end of this year, but Evans knows all too well that…

On a glorious Sunday afternoon in West Sussex the sound of musical V12 engines spanning 30 years – a Honda, a Cosworth and 14 Jaguars – rent the air as Goodwood’s 78th Members’ Meeting reached its rousing crescendo. These were demonstrations, and conditions were perfect for appreciating the aural delights of these mechanical masterpieces. All eyes were on Gordon Murray Automotive’s T50 on its public debut. Out in a set of cars tracing the lineage of the South African-born designer’s brainchildren, from 750 Formula racer through recently created 1972 Duckhams Special Le Mans contender and F1 Brabham BT44 homages to Rocket and McLaren F1 GTR, the new lightweight hypercar is sensational from every angle. Bristling with innovation, from exotic materials to (working) design cues such as the Brabham BT46B-esque fan…

WTCR PAU-ARNOS (FRA) 17 OCTOBER ROUND 6/8 Jean-Karl Vernay stormed back into title contention by getting the drop on Yvan Muller and claiming a race-two home win on the World Touring Car Cup’s first visit to the little 1.88-mile Pau-Arnos circuit in France. The victory represented a first in the WTCR for the Engstler Hyundai driver since the first weekend of the season at the Nurburgring, and boosts the former points leader back up to second, behind reigning champion Yann Ehrlacher. The Lynk & Co ace had a difficult time at a tight but pretty track that combines the best attributes of Cadwell and Oulton Park. Yvan Muller took his first pole position since Macau in 2019 in his Lynk & Co, but was too slow away from the grid…

INTERCONTINENTAL GT CHALLENGE INDIANAPOLIS (USA) 17 OCTOBER ROUND 2/3 Pitlane collisions, GT3 challengers tripping over GT4 contenders, and the stewards’ intervention created a clumsy Indianapolis 8 Hour contest that was won by the Team Sainteloc Audi R8 LMS of Patric Niederhauser, Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock. The Intercontinental GT Challenge round was summed up rather neatly by the fortunes of Ferrari’s Callum Ilott. He delivered a stunning three-car pass to put the AF Corse car shared with Alessio Rovera and Antonio Fuoco into the lead. But the win slipped away when he tried to pass a GT4 Aston Martin Vantage and was pinched against the wall, dropping to 25th. WRT Audi star Dries Vanthoor was also in strife when his push for first place was undone by a penalty for…

FORMULA FORD 1600 Ex-Formula 1 and Indycar driver Roberto Moreno is to race a Van Diemen RF80 at next week’s Formula Ford Festival, 41 years after he won the event in a similar car, before former British F3 champion and touring car ace Kelvin Burt takes the seat for the Walter Hayes Trophy. The programme has been put together by long-time Formula Ford team boss Jonathan Lewis, whose Snetterton Speed Shop operation will run the Van Diemen, plus a 1978 Royale RP26 with a Kenny Acheson-inspired livery at the Hayes for Burt’s single-seater contemporary Warren Hughes. Jonathan Lewis Racing ran Burt to runner-up to David Coulthard in the two 1989 junior FF1600 championships in the UK, and Hughes to a junior title double the following season. JLR then fielded Hughes…

BRITISH GT Newly crowned British GT champion Dennis Lind has revealed that he considered retiring from racing after being dropped as a Lamborghini factory driver last year. The Dane claimed fastest laps in six of the nine races in 2021 and netted the title alongside Barwell Motorsport team-mate Leo Machitski with a fourth-place finish in last weekend’s Donington Park season finale. But Lind told Autosport after sealing the championship that, following his split with WPI Motorsport early in 2020 and subsequent departure from the Lamborghini factory roster for 2021, he had seriously contemplated moving on from racing until a call-up from Barwell boss Mark Lemmer changed his mind. “I really enjoyed this year and I think it’s a pretty good way to bounce back,” he said. “Last year wasn’t particularly…

BATTLE FOR FAMILY HONOUR Father and son Craig and AJ Owen contested the same race for the first time in the combined Classic Thunder/BOSS races last weekend at Mallory Park. Owen Jr was back in his giantkilling Honda Civic Type R after gearbox problems at the previous round, while his dad, who returned to racing this season after a 10-year absence, was in a Ford Sierra Cosworth. “I passed him down the straight, in front of the rest of the family, which was quite cool,” said Owen Jr, who took a best result of fourth in the opener. “He gave me a little wave as I went past.” BELL BAGS RADICAL TITLE The Radical Challenge title was settled in Matt Bell’s favour last weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, despite him not even…

CLASSIC SPORTS CAR CLUB The Classic Sports Car Club has broken another of its entry records for its season finale at Silverstone this weekend. The one-day meeting on Sunday on the full Grand Prix circuit has attracted an incredible 348 entries. All five of the grids – which each feature two or more of the club’s categories – are full, and the combined Swinging Sixties and Classic K contest has 19 reserves. “It’s the first time the club’s been on the full Grand Prix circuit for all of our series so I think that’s the draw,” said CSCC director David Smitheram. “It’s the day after the Birkett and it clashes with quite a few other meetings, so we’re quite pleased with the numbers.” Smitheram added that the event will also…

It’s a pretty safe bet that the British Touring Car champion will be decided at the last race of the season, the close nature of the competition making it difficult for one driver to pull clear from the rest. And, although Ash Sutton enjoys a very healthy 32-point lead heading into this weekend’s Brands Hatch finale, it’s far from all done and dusted. On the other hand, very often at least one of the BTCC’s support categories is all sewn up prior to the trip to Kent. But, for just the third time in the past 10 seasons, none of the overall champions have been crowned with an event to spare. The Porsche Carrera Cup GB has most frequently been the series already decided prior to the finale – this…

DONINGTON PARK BRSCC 16-17 OCTOBER “Five weeks we’ve been waiting for this,” proclaimed a delighted Zak O’Sullivan after securing the GB3 Championship at the final meeting of the season. His attempted pass for the lead on Luke Browning at the previous Oulton Park round had left him in the barriers, pointless and unsure if he had done enough to claim the title. It turned out that the 16-year-old had – he went to Donington as champion-elect mathematically, with the number of competitors influencing how many points would be available for the fully-reversed-grid race, where a point is on offer for each position gained. With a maximum of 110 points up for grabs across the three races and a 112-point buffer over Ayrton Simmons, Carlin driver O’Sullivan was assured of the…

SNETTERTON 750MC 16-17 OCTOBER Lee Morgan’s recovery from near-disaster to be crowned F1000 champion for a second time was among the highlights of an intensely unpredictable 750 Motor Club season finale at Snetterton, which decided seven outright titles across 23 races contested by more than 300 drivers. On Saturday, Thomas Gadd won the first of the weekend’s three F1000 encounters, but was under pressure at the finish from the fast-closing Rob Welham. Morgan, his car spraying out coolant, kept going to finish third ahead of Matthew Booth, who’d started from pole but lost places off the line with suspected clutch gremlins. Dan Gore, who went into the event leading the standings, retired with a misfire that had affected him in qualifying and things would only get worse. Morgan’s car stalled…

VIDEO GAME CIRCUIT SUPERSTARS RRP £14.99 When it comes to racing games, there’s no shortage of choice whether you’re a hardcore sim racer or casual gamer. Circuit Superstars, which launched last week for PC and Xbox – with a release on PlayStation and Nintendo coming soon – sits somewhere in the middle, with its top-down-view experience also offering elements of simulation. Although it’s not on the same level as games such as iRacing or even EA’s Formula 1 franchise, as far as top-down games go it’s a step away from being a complete arcade offering. Cars suffer damage, and tyres and fuel can run out, necessitating pitstops. Braking is crucial if you want to make it around the corners (not something you always expect from a top-down game), while, if…

The 2000s was a period of huge US success for British drivers, with Indycar, Indianapolis 500 and Indy Pro Series triumphs aplenty. Century Motorsport British GT boss Nathan Freke had high hopes of emulating Mark Taylor, Jay Howard and Alex Lloyd by winning the IRL-supporting Indy Pro (now Indy Lights) title, but his American dream more closely resembled a nightmare that was curtailed after three uncompetitive races in 2008. The 2006 British Formula Ford champion joined minnow squad Michael Crawford Motorsports after an introduction from series promoter Roger Bailey, despite having only a fraction of the already meagre (by Indy Pro standards) $250,000 budget. “We had about £60,000, family money from remortgaged houses,” he recalls. Freke took the plunge, but soon regretted turning down computer game magnate Ian Hetherington’s offer…