Indholdsfortegnelse for 20/01/22 i Autosport

Rarely has a set of regulations been so eagerly anticipated in motorsport. Formula 1’s new era will finally kick off in 2022, one year later than planned, and there are many laudable aims. A more level playing field and better racing are the main targets of the new rules. The cars certainly look striking, as our artist’s impression shows, but will the rules work? Our Technical Editor Jake Boxall-Legge goes into the details and takes a look at some of the other new things to expect this season on page 12. One driver who won’t be part of the new-look F1 is Kimi Raikkonen. The laconic 2007 world champion, who is now ready to focus on family life after 349 grands prix, gives a surprisingly revealing interview to Luke Smith…

WEC The new Porsche LMDh is up and running. The hybrid prototype that will take the German manufacturer back to the pinnacle of sportscar racing in both the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2023 ran for the first time last week. The new car, running in camouflage livery, turned its first laps on the test track at Porsche’s Weissach development centre last Friday. Behind the wheel was Frederic Makowiecki, who described the run as “a very positive roll-out”. “We could do some laps and the car was working as expected,” continued the Frenchman, who was a reserve driver for Porsche’s 919 Hybrid LMP1 programme. “Now we have a good starting point to go forward.” The shakedown was called a “a very important step in the development…

FORMULA 2/3 When Red Bull communicated last Friday where its junior drivers are racing this season, it came amid a clattering of dominoes as the FIA Formula 2 and 3 grids for 2022 started falling into place. For those who followed the post-season tests there are few surprises. Jehan Daruvala heads back to Prema Racing, where he contended for the 2019 FIA F3 title, after two years in F2 with Carlin, and he is joined Dennis Hauger, who won the F3 crown with the Italian squad last year. Red Bull splits up its 2021 Hitech GP pair of Liam Lawson and Juri Vips, with the Kiwi heading off to Carlin and the Estonian staying put. Ayumu Iwasa, who showed flashes of form in his rookie F3 campaign, makes the step…

Reduce the need to exercise judgement Following the events at Abu Dhabi last year, I believe that the rules of F1 racing should be changed to reduce the need for the race director and stewards’ judgement. First, new safety car rules. The basic principle of the safety car should be: (a) to protect drivers, marshals and trackside workers; (b) to preserve the race positions and not give random advantages to different drivers otherwise F1 becomes an entertainment circus. To this end the rules should be simple. The preferred safety car should be the virtual safety car. All cars are to reduce speed and keep their relative time positions on the track. Any driver trying to close on to the car in front should be warned and/or penalised. Under the actual…

The World Rally Championship will usher in its 50th season with the dawn of a new era. New Rally1 regulations centred on hybrid-powered cars have provided the series with arguably its biggest rules shake-up for a generation, and promise to deliver the most unpredictable season for decades. Last year the WRC said goodbye to its ‘modern Group B’ monsters, and the all-new 500bhp beasts are set to be unleashed on the world’s toughest stages. Toyota, Hyundai and a rejuvenated M-Sport, benefiting from increased support from Ford, have been beavering away around the clock building new challengers. Each has started from a blank page, and nobody knows which marque will come out on top. This weekend’s Monte Carlo Rally, which kicks off WRC 2022, also features fresh driver line-ups, and there…

HEAVIER CARS Cars will be up to 70kg heavier than their predecessors. This is mainly due to the addition of the hybrid system. In total, Rally1 machines will weigh in at approximately 1260kg. CHASSIS The chassis is no longer built around the production road car, with teams constructing their machines from scratch. New tougher and safer steel spaceframe chassis, regulated by the FIA, form the base of the car, built to a minimum wheelbase for the first time. According to the FIA’s tests, side impacts showed a 51% reduction in intrusion. The roof section can absorb energy up to 115% better than a previous WRC bodyshell reinforced by a traditional rollcage. A frontal impact against a rigid obstruction resulted in 70% less intrusion in the bulkhead area, protecting the crew’s…

Despite increased backing from Ford, M-Sport cannot afford to relax and will face a stern challenge from reigning WRC manufacturers’ champion Toyota and rival Hyundai. Both factory teams have faced similar challenges in developing their new cars for the season, and neither team can be sure of how their new creations will fare until the stage times start coming in at Monte Carlo. Toyota has developed its all-new GR Yaris, which takes design cues from the new Yaris road car, but that’s where the similarities end. Speaking at the official launch, Toyota sporting director Kaj Lindstrom was pleased with the effort from his team in developing the GR Yaris, but expects the car will undergo minor changes as the season progresses. “A lot of work has been put into it…

DUBAI 24 HOURS DUBAI (ARE) 15-16 JANUARY Just a few months after its late Le Mans drama, WRT proved that it’s not doomed to always lose 1-2 finishes on the final lap of a twice-round-the-clock race by cleaning up in last weekend’s Dubai 24 Hours. The Wallonian sportscar powerhouse celebrated as Christopher Mies took the chequered flag one lap ahead of the sister Audi R8 LMS GT3 in the hands of Benjamin Goethe. The Audis looked strong from the moment Mies took the lead from pole. Their 1-2 was effectively cemented a few hours from the finish when the challenging Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, in which Mirko Bortolotti was the star driver, was taken into the pits by Rik Breukers with terminal technical problems. The advantage between the…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Porsche Sprint Challenge GB champion Theo Edgerton will graduate to the Carrera Cup this season with the JTR squad. Edgerton dominated the Cayman contest with Total Control Racing last year, winning eight of the 12 races to comfortably take the title, after finishing third in the standings in 2020. He was then selected as one of the four finalists for Porsche GB’s Junior shootout to secure funding and support from the manufacturer, but missed out on the prize to Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion Adam Smalley. Undeterred, he has joined the team that powered ex-Porsche GB Junior Dan Harper to the 2019 title and nearly guided Lorcan Hanafin to last season’s crown. “JTR are a great team – they’ve had a lot of success with Harper and…

CSCC The long-running Sports Racing and V8s series is being revamped for this year and is due to appear at a number of Classic Sports Car Club meetings. The category’s bosses had teamed up with Bernie Chodosh’s Bernie’s V8s division for the past few years, running with the 750 Motor Club. But now that Chodosh has formed a new Bernie’s V8s and Historic Outlaws series under MotorSport Vision Racing’s umbrella, Sports Racing and V8s has made a few tweaks. “This year we’re racing mainly with the CSCC’s Special Saloons and Modsports,” said Cheng Lim, the category’s technical chief and also a racer in the series since it was founded in the 1980s. “We’re trying to keep the register going for the old SR-GT drivers and we will then try to…

SPICE CLASS FOR POMEROY A special class honouring touring car star Gordon Spice, who died last September, will form part of this year’s Pomeroy Trophy. The Silverstone Vintage Sports-Car Club event on 19 February will feature a division for 1970s to 1990s touring cars and, unlike those competing for the overall Pomeroy Trophy, the cars do not need to be road legal. An ex-Spice Group 1 Capri is among the entries already received. COLLINS SWAPS TO ROYALE Historic Formula Ford 2000 stalwart Fraser Collins is switching to the later class this season, having acquired the ex-Jono Baines Royale RP30 over the winter. The Lola T580 in which Collins won the pre-’79 class by a country mile last season, and finished 14th overall, is now for sale. FLOODING FUNDRAISER A fundraising…

Cam Jackson could not have gone any closer to topping the Autosport National Driver Rankings in 2020. He headed into the final event of the club season with a two-win advantage over rival Gary Prebble. But Prebble triumphed in both Hot Hatch races at the 750 Motor Club finale, bringing the duo level on 15 victories and Prebble top spot because the average grid size for his wins was just 0.6 cars greater than Jackson’s. “It was a little bit frustrating to lose it at the last race of the year!” reflects Jackson. “In 2020 I also lost out by one point in Historic Formula Ford to Pierre Livingston so it was a double kick in the teeth.” But, in 2021, he was able to reverse both of those disappointments.…

McLaren came mob-handed to the 1991 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, bringing five Honda V12-powered MP4/6s for Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger to choose from in the run-up to the race (the world champion had the pick of three cars, his team-mate two). Senna’s best efforts netted second place on the grid, splitting the Williams-Renaults of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese, with Berger next up. Senna led at the start, but was swiftly demoted by Mansell, who dominated to the flag, picking up the Brazilian for a sidepod ride home after the #1 McLaren ran dry on the last lap, elevating Berger to second place. For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/f1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 The FIA has outlined the next steps for its investigation into the controversial 2021 Formula 1 season finale in Abu Dhabi as Lewis Hamilton continues to ponder his future – and the process to finalise any changes to the regulations as a result of the probe may not be completed until just two days before the opening race of the 2022 season in Bahrain. Newly appointed FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is set to consult teams and drivers as part of the analysis of the events at Yas Marina, where race control’s late-race restart and apparent failure to follow the sporting regulations sparked outcry and led to protests from Mercedes after Hamilton lost the title on the final lap to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. In a statement issued…

WEC Track testing of Peugeot’s 9X8 World Endurance Championship contender has started without a rear wing. The French manufacturer began its development programme at Motorland Aragon this week with the car in a similar aero configuration to which it was unveiled last July. The first laps in anger by the 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar were undertaken on Monday by Peugeot development and simulator driver James Rossiter. It was the start of a multi-day test at which Loic Duval, Paul di Resta and Gustavo Menezes were also present. Peugeot has insisted since the launch of the 9X8 that it is on course to race the car without a conventional wing at the rear. But teaser photos from its shakedown at a proving ground in late December had the rear of the…

IMSA Robert Wickens is “aiming big” on his return to racing, three years after the IndyCar crash that left him with a spinal injury that curtailed his topline open-wheel career. He will race in the TCR class of IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge this season in a Hyundai Elantra N run by Bryan Herta Autosport, with fellow Canadian Mark Wilkins. Wickens will use a specially modified steering wheel fitted with hand-controlled brake and throttle systems, which Wilkins will be able to switch on or off during their driver change. He will make his racing return at Daytona at the end of this month, in the 24 Hours support race, and is aiming high from the start of the season. “Aim big, right? Let’s go for the win,” he said. “It’s not…

A full year after Formula 1’s reimagining of ground-effects was supposed to underpin an all-new aerodynamics package, the long-awaited technical overhaul finally enters from stage left in 2022. But the changes have a lot to live up to. The 2021 contest proved to be one of the best F1 seasons in years, with exciting races providing a more than adequate stage for one of the all-time greatest championship battles to claim the globe’s attention – and it did that with the old cars. This year’s fresh aero package has promised to add closer racing and afford a greater chance for drivers to overtake on track. Let’s hope F1 can cope with the hype. If it feels like a long time since the rules were first announced, that’s simply because it…

As the laps ticked down in Abu Dhabi towards the controversial, farcical finish to the Formula 1 season, the fan-voted ‘driver of the day’ was already out of the race. Kimi Raikkonen’s 349th and final grand prix start came to a premature end at Yas Marina after a wheelnut issue following his pitstop forced him to retire less than halfway through. It left him to complete his media pen commitments – reluctantly, on instruction from the FIA – before skulking away for a low-key end to his F1 career. Over 20 years has passed since Raikkonen made his F1 debut with Sauber as a kid just out of Formula Renault, one many wrote off as not being ready to race at the highest level. He went on to win 21…

Autosport spoke to Tim Jackson, M-Sport’s lead development engineer for constructing the Ford Puma, and Toyota technical director Tom Fowler to provide a guide to the two key changes for the new season. HOW WILL THE HYBRID SYSTEM WORK DURING WRC EVENTS? The hybrid boost can deliver a maximum of 1000 kilojoules of energy for a 10-second period, controlled by the team’s own FIA-homologated electronic engine management software. To unlock a further boost, 30kJ must be harvested through regeneration achieved under heavy braking. If regeneration is sufficient, the next boost will be used once the driver uses the throttle pedal. “From each acceleration, you have a certain amount of energy, which you are allowed to expend from the hybrid unit,” says Jackson. “Once that is used up you are back…

It’s hard to find anyone as excited for the 2022 World Rally Championship as Craig Breen. After 13 years working his way up the rally ladder, the 31-year-old has finally landed his first full-time campaign in the WRC, courtesy of a two-year deal to spearhead M-Sport Ford’s charge into the new Rally1 hybrid era. Simply driving up to the start ramp at Monte Carlo will be the realisation of a dream for the Irishman, known for wearing his heart on his sleeve and an unbridled joy for rallying. “It’s what I’ve been searching for all my life to be honest,” declares Breen. “It has been a long old road to get here and to finally have it in front of us, first of all I’m proud, but I’m just really…

GB4 Graham Brunton Racing and Rossoverde Racing have revealed plans to enter the new-for-2022 GB4 Championship. The MotorSport Vision-run series has been created as an entry point into single-seaters, and the addition of these two squads means that 13 teams have now pledged to compete in the inaugural season. Multiple Scottish Formula Ford winner GBR follows fellow FF1600 squads Oldfield Motorsport and Kevin Mills Racing into the slicks-and-wings series, and GB4 team manager Craig Brunton believes the opportunity was too good to miss. “The timing was key,” he said. “There’s not any loss of love with Formula Ford but we needed a step up for the team and the drivers. It’s achievable for the team and the drivers that budget. It all comes down to money. We’re a business at…

BRITISH GT The sons of Ginetta owner Lawrence Tomlinson and the late former TVR boss Peter Wheeler will team up in this year’s British GT Championship. Freddie Tomlinson and Joe Wheeler, both 17, will step up from Ginetta Junior to campaign Assetto Motorsport’s Ginetta G56 GT4 this season in the Silver Cup class. The pair finished ninth and 10th respectively in the 2021 Ginetta Junior standings, Wheeler as part of the Assetto stable, while Tomlinson raced under the same R Motorsport awning as champion Aston Millar. Tomlinson Sr last raced in British GT in 2012, when he finished ninth alongside Ginetta stalwart Mike Simpson at Donington Park, and twice placed second while sharing a TVR with Nigel Greensall in 2004. “To represent my family’s company in British GT – just…

LOCKWOOD IN MINI AGAIN Mini Challenge podium finisher Jason Lockwood will remain in the series with Excelr8 Motorsport this year after finishing seventh in the standings in his second campaign last season. Other drivers announced as racing Minis, all in the Trophy category, are Sophie Wright (who has dual British/Canadian citizenship and had her first circuit outing on a trackday at the Mission Raceway Park venue near Vancouver last year) with AReeve Motorsport, and karting graduate Lauren Tayla, who will join Mad4Mini Motorsport regular Morgan Wroot. VOLUNTEERS WANTED Both the British Automobile Racing Club and British Racing & Sports Car Club are seeking volunteers to come forward and fill race meeting roles ahead of the 2022 season. The positions include marshals, scrutineers, championship coordinators and event stewards among many more…

OBITUARY John Blanckley, who died last month, was a delightful old-school competitor who packed a diverse range of motorsport into his 84 years, enjoyed with his partner of seven decades Ann Humphreys. Originally from County Durham, he began racing in the 1960s. From 1970, Blanckley and Stan Robinson raced the ex-works 1969 Le Mans Unipower GT, contesting the Spa and Nurburgring 1000Km as plucky minnows. They fitted the 1600cc Cosworth FVA engine and Hewland FT200 gearbox to the Unipower chassis for 1971, but it crashed heavily following suspension failure at the Nurburgring. A new spaceframe was built to take the engine and gearbox, becoming their SAR sports-racer. This morphed into the Scorpion JB4 of 1973 in which Blanckley and American Ed McDonough entered the Osterreichring 1000Km. Blanckley also raced a…

“It’s a terrible illness for a family.” For anyone who has had to suffer watching a loved one lose cherished memories and literally wither in front of their eyes, the words from Sir Jackie Stewart will resonate deeply. The three-time Formula 1 world champion knows more than most the horrors of dementia as his wife Helen was diagnosed with the illness several years ago and currently “is not at all well”, requiring 24-hour care. His love for his wife and passion for motorsport led Stewart to create Race Against Dementia, an international charity tasked with finding a cure for the disease and which, over the years, has gathered momentum and support from the motorsport community – as well as further afield. It’s fair to say, after speaking with the 82-year-old…

Patrick Tambay Derek Warwick is spoiled for choice when it comes to choosing his favourite team-mate. From the tough-as-nails Brian Henton at Toleman to racing legend Mario Andretti at Le Mans in 1996 and Peter Brock at Bathurst the following year, Warwick’s two-decade career brought him into close quarters with a varied cast list from different eras. And there’s the team-mate that ‘got away’, after Ayrton Senna blocked Warwick’s move to Lotus… But the one he picks is best remembered for being parachuted into Ferrari to replace Gilles Villeneuve, earning a bittersweet maiden F1 victory at Hockenheim after team-mate Didier Pironi sustained career-ending injuries in practice. Warwick stepped into a top Renault F1 seat for 1984 and was joined by Patrick Tambay, already a two-time grand prix winner for Ferrari.…

FORMULA 1 Former Aston Martin Formula 1 chief Otmar Szafnauer is poised to join Alpine in a senior role ahead of the new season as part of the French team’s ongoing management shake-up, which has resulted in the departure of Alain Prost and Marcin Budkowski. Weeks after claiming he had “no intention” to leave, Szafnauer parted company with Aston Martin earlier this month after 12 years at the squad. An Alpine announcement is expected soon. Alpine confirmed last week that executive director and de facto F1 team boss Budkowski had left, while senior advisor Alain Prost (above) has also now departed the squad. Four-time F1 world champion Prost took on a formal advisory role with the team in 2019, but did not agree a contract renewal for this year. Prost…

BTCC British Touring Car Championship nearly man Tom Ingram has taken himself off the driver market until 2024 by agreeing an extra season with Excelr8 Motorsport beyond his current two-year stay, while three-time champion Gordon Shedden looks certain to stay at Team Dynamics in 2022. Ingram joined Excelr8 last season on a deal encompassing 2021-22 to pilot its Hyundai i30 N. His win at Snetterton was Excelr8’s first BTCC triumph, he went on to score two more victories, and finished fourth in the points. Now he has extended the relati0nship to include 2023. Team and driver are clearly extremely happy together, but it is unusual for a top-liner to take himself out of the driver-market equation at such a premature stage. Autosport understands that there has been a change of…

GT3 Toyota has unveiled a show car that hints at a future involvement in the GT3 class. The GR GT3 Concept given a debut at the Tokyo Auto Salon last week suggests that the Japanese manufacturer is gearing up to take the baton from its Lexus sub-marque in the world of customer GT racing. The car shown in Tokyo was not based on an existing model, but Toyota has outlined an intent to develop race car and road car in parallel as part of its “driver-first” business model. It stated that it wants to “provide attractive cars that customers participating in GT3, which is the pinnacle of customer motorsports, would choose”. Toyota Gazoo Racing president Koji Sato suggested that a prototype could be up and running before the end of…

Bearing Formula 1’s most famous surname always meant that Mick Schumacher would struggle to go under the radar through his rookie season in 2021. Racing for the backmarker Haas squad, which opted against any development of its car so it could focus on the new regulations for 2022, Schumacher was able to get to grips with life in F1 with fairly low stakes. Haas failed to score any points and, while Schumacher didn’t put in the kind of stunning campaign for a minnow squad a la Fernando Alonso at Minardi in 2001 or George Russell at Williams in 2019, there were plenty of encouraging signs. Schumacher was able to outclass fellow Formula 2 graduate Nikita Mazepin across the garage, winning their qualifying head-to-head 20-2 and only finishing behind the Russian…

IS THE CALENDAR TOO MASSIVE NOW? With 23 races on the bill, F1’s 2022 calendar is the largest yet. It’s not the longest, however, with those 23 rounds stuffed into an eight-month window, necessitating the use of seven double-headers and two triple-headers to complete the exhausting schedule. Following their respective COVID-enforced layoffs, the Australian, Canadian, Japanese and Singapore Grands Prix make provisional returns to the calendar, although Australia concedes its usual status of season-opener to Bahrain. The Turkish and Portuguese races are (for the moment, depending on the whims of a pandemic) off the table after their admirable stints as replacement rounds, and the Red Bull Ring will host just one race. Qatar also takes the year off as it focuses on shoehorning the FIFA World Cup into the winter…

As part of Alfa Romeo’s Abu Dhabi GP farewells to Kimi Raikkonen and outgoing team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi, the team had a few small tributes in store. All team members were given special T-shirts giving thanks to both drivers, while the squad’s garage also featured artwork to mark the final race. Both Alfa Romeo C41s were branded with farewell messages. For Giovinazzi: “Grazie di Tutto, Antonio” (“thank you for everything”). On Raikkonen’s car, the engine cover read: “Dear Kimi, we will leave you alone now.” It was a reference to Raikkonen’s most famous quote, arriving in the closing stages of the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. At the end of his impressive comeback season with Lotus, Raikkonen found himself on course for victory at Yas Marina after Lewis Hamilton was forced…

While Kalle Rovanpera heads the WRC’s youth movement, there is a growing list of young pretenders who could soon emerge as the next big thing. The youngest of this fresh wave of talent is Oliver Solberg, son of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg. He comes from good stock and has been steadily impressing plenty of people in rallying’s top tier to secure a full factory WRC contract with Hyundai for 2022, when he shares the third entry with Dani Sordo. The 20-year-old may only have four WRC starts in top-tier machinery to his name, but Solberg has already offered a glimpse into his potential after matching his more experienced Hyundai team-mates to finish fifth outright in last year’s Rally Monza finale. “It is a dream come true and something very…

The seeds were sown from a trip to Ferrari’s famous Maranello base 30 years ago and, after a decade of graft, M-Sport now has its own piece of Fiorano on its doorstep. This is the vision of M-Sport founder Malcolm Wilson that became reality this year when the final pieces of the project finally came together. The result is a 1.7-mile FIA Grade 3 test track that is surrounded by a new ultra-modern behemoth of a workshop. Approaching the Cumbrian village of Dovenby, there’s a sign that reads ‘Welcome to Dovenby please drive carefully’. It’s a touch ironic, since within 100 metres of that sign is the headquarters of World Rally Championship powerhouse M-Sport. Although tucked away in the Lake District countryside, it’s an imposing 115-acre site featuring the Dovenby…

DAKAR RALLY JEDDAH (SAU) 1-14 JANUARY Nasser Al-Attiyah matched Ari Vatanen’s tally of four Dakar Rally wins by stroking his Toyota home in the final days through the Saudi Arabian desert last week to defeat Sebastien Loeb’s Prodrive machine. The battle for the rally featured a new generation of T1+/T1U 4x4 prototypes with bigger wheels, more suspension travel and more than two tons of weight that are destined to be the future of the new World Rally Raid Championship. Audi Sport’s arrival in the category with an electric vehicle with a power extender posed a real challenge for the FIA and Amaury Sport Organisation, who had to find a way to balance the performance of the German prototype against petrol-engined rivals. But the event quickly came down to a fight…

NEW BRITISH F4 PARTNER Base Performance Simulators has become the latest partner to be announced for the revamped British Formula 4 series this year. Included as part of the championship’s registration fee, drivers will get the chance to have two free sessions in the company’s simulators, as well as a reduced rate for further visits. HITECH UAE F4 DEBUT British Formula 4 race winner Oliver Gray will join Hitech GP for the UAE F4 season that is due to get under way today (Thursday) at the Yas Marina Circuit, as the first series to make use of the new Tatuus machinery. Gray raced for Fortec in British F4 last season, while Hitech is new to the category. Gray is joined at Hitech by Alex Dunne, son of former Irish Formula…

CIRCUIT RALLYING Frank Bird and Jack Morton made it three wins from four in the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship at Brands Hatch last weekend. The pair’s Ford Fiesta Rally2 was fastest on all eight stages and took the win by 1m17s. “It never missed a beat all day and we just had to blow off the early cobwebs after a month out of the car,” said Bird. The Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 of John Stone and Tom Woodburn was second all day despite using “very worn tyres”. They managed to pull out eight seconds over Cadwell Park winners Neil Roskell/Andrew Roughead (Fiesta R5) after two stages. “We then had a bit of an off on stage three,” Roskell explained, which allowed Ollie O’Donovan/Ashleigh Morris (Hyundai i20 R5) to share…

HISTORIC FF2000 British Touring Car Championship BMW equipe Ciceley Motorsport’s chief race engineer Steve Farrell is to break a 12-year driving layoff to compete in Historic Formula Ford 2000 this season, returning to ostensibly the category in which he contested the 1983 British championship. The Australian raced a Van Diemen RF82 and Reynard SF83 chassis under the family Milldent Motorsport banner, the team that gave compatriot and future Reynard designer Malcolm Oastler his UK break. Farrell has now acquired a Reynard SF79 from former Historic Sports Car Club Morgan +8 racer Paul Conway for the popular series, for which chassis built between 1975 and 1981 for the Pinto-powered class are eligible. “Formula Ford 2000 is still fantastic – in terms of cost versus performance it represents amazing value,” said 63-year-old…

HISTORIC FORMULA 2 Historic Formula 2 racers are raring to tackle their first European season since 2019 following the unveiling of the Historic Sports Car Club’s calendar of six double-header events. Historic F2 was torpedoed by the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions of the past two years, effectively scaling it back to a British domestic series, but the 2022 schedule – 50 years since Mike Hailwood won the European title in John Surtees’s eponymous TS10 chassis powered by Hart BDA engines – also visits venues in Germany and France. The starting point is the Jim Clark Revival at Hockenheim on 6-8 May. Paul Ricard’s Historique Grand Prix de France (17-19 June) is followed by two home events in July: the HSCC’s Legends of Brands Hatch Super Prix (9-10) and Oulton…

The 6-7 November weekend was pivotal in determining who would seal first place in the 2021 Autosport National Driver Rankings. Legends ace Miles Rudman had narrowed long-time table-topper Cam Jackson’s advantage to just one victory and both had multiple chances to add more wins over that autumn weekend. And it was Jackson who struck first. The Historic Formula Ford ace claimed the Janet Cesar class spoils (for cars built between 1982 and 1992) in the second heat of the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone to take his total to 18 victories. But Rudman closed the gap to just one win again after triumphing in the fourth of the six Legends races across the series’ Brands Hatch event. While he did win the title for a second time, Rudman was unable…