Indholdsfortegnelse for 5/19/2022 i Autosport

Porsche and Audi are two of motorsport’s giants. Porsche has to be regarded as the greatest sportscar manufacturer, particularly when it comes to the Le Mans 24 Hours. And Audi revolutionised rallying before scoring success in touring cars, enduros and Formula E. Neither of them, though, have particularly storied histories in Formula 1. Aside from the TAG-badged Porsche engine that powered McLaren to five titles in the 1980s, it’s been slim pickings at the pinnacle of the sport and they have often looked elsewhere. Given the current boom F1 is enjoying, that now seems set to change. This week, Matt Kew looks at the reasons behind their new directions and examines how Audi and Porsche are likely to attack their F1 programmes (page 18). We’ve also had a litttle fun…

FORMULA 1 Reigning Formula E champion Nyck de Vries will make his Formula 1 free practice debut tomorrow (Friday) at the Spanish Grand Prix with Williams. All F1 teams are required to run a driver with no more than two grand prix starts in at least two FP1 sessions this season. Williams will be the first to fulfil part of its obligation by fielding the 27-year-old Dutchman at Barcelona in place of regular driver Alex Albon. “I’d really like to thank Williams for the opportunity to run in FP1,” said de Vries. “It’s great for me to get to know the team and drive the FW44, and also to get myself out on track during a Formula 1 weekend. “Preparation for the test is going well so far and the…

INTERNATIONAL GT OPEN Saudi Arabia’s first female racing driver has set up a race team with the aim of eventually contesting the Le Mans 24 Hours. Reema Juffali, who cut her racing teeth in single-seaters in Britain, has established Theeba Motorsport for an assault on this year’s International GT Open series. Juffali made the decision to set up the team, which is running a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo out of premises in Banbury near Silverstone, after making her GT debut at the Dubai 24 Hours in January. The short timescale explained why she and her 2022 team-mate Adam Christodoulou raced an SPS Automotive-run Merc under the Theeba banner in the series opener at Estoril last month. But the new operation is now up and running as the pair look to follow…

“Last year there was a lot of needle. There was a lot going on off-track, as well as on. This year seems much more focused about on-track.” So said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner at the Miami Grand Prix. This was shortly after he’d entered the room nearly 10 minutes before the start of the session he was appearing in was due to start, without waiting for Mercedes boss Toto Wolff to finish a point. Perhaps that was an attempt to put his rival off his train of thought. Perhaps not. It’d be a minor point scored, but this is F1 – the oft-called ‘Piranha Club’. This is what team principals are supposed to do – find any way at any moment to pry and needle their way to…

“Audi actually has the better case than Porsche for F1” Audi and Porsche have crafted titanic legacies in motorsport. The game-changing Quattro established 40 years ago that surefooted four-wheel drive was fundamental for World Rally Championship success. Porsche has mastered the Le Mans 24 Hours with its record 19 victories. That run was started by the 917, arguably the greatest competition car of all time, which partially provided the template around which the Group C regulations – a hallowed era of sportscar racing that Porsche also dominated thanks to the 956/962 – were devised. But for neither manufacturer did the light shine quite so brightly with their forays into grand prix racing. Bernd Rosemeyer delivered Audi precursor Auto Union, with its Type C designed by Ferdinand Porsche, the European championship…

As 20 of the finest athletes in the world, racing in the most international of international series, Formula 1 drivers have grown accustomed to a certain way of travelling. First-class flights and private jets are the norm for many in F1, a world that is often (rightly) seen as elitist, detached from much of reality and blinkered by its own dramas. Yet had you been sat on the 1516 South Western Railway service from Feltham last Thursday, you would have seen a man with tousled hair wearing a blue-and-green check shirt. You’d probably have walked past him without batting an eyelid, and definitely not said hello or attempted any interaction – an unwritten commuting rule in London. It’s hardly the mode of transport a four-time F1 world champion would be…

Last Saturday’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis started in the damp, turned dry, then damp again, and then properly wet. There were eight caution periods for a total of 31 laps, and these slowed what should have been an 85-lap race whereby it became a two-hour race in which the chequered flag was waved after 75 laps. There were 471 passes – 362 for position – and 142 of these were among the top 10 runners, 44 among the top five. There were 10 lead changes among six leaders, one of whom was Tatiana Calderon and none of whom was the polesitter. Yet despite all this craziness, the winning move came as early as lap two, and the victor led 50 of the 75 laps, despite starting 14th. Colton Herta stood…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES IMOLA (ITA) 15 MAY ROUND 2/6 Lorenzo Colombo, Louis Deletraz and Ferdinand Habsburg took Prema Racing’s second European Le Mans Series victory in as many starts by winning at Imola. While their maiden win at the Paul Ricard opener was the result of a controlled performance, Sunday’s at a scorching hot Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari could not be more different. Colombo, still filling in for the injured Juan Manuel Correa, started the Prema ORECA third but took advantage of a partially empty front row as second-placed TDS Racing was condemned to a pitlane start. On the opening lap, the young Italian made quick work of polesitter Francois Perrodo to take the lead, but was later deemed to have not respected the start formation. This…

OBITUARY Tick Steward, the inaugural Legends Cars National champion who went on to win the first Legends world title, has died aged 52 after battling cancer. Having already enjoyed considerable success in short oval racing, Steward was the first person to buy a car from Legends series owner Phil Cooper and claimed the 1996 and 1999 titles. Across a four-year period, he took 70 victories from 153 starts. After an 18-year spell away from racing, he returned to pilot a Legends car in the Live Action Arena at Autosport International in 2020 alongside stunt driver Terry Grant, who was one of Steward’s rivals during the 1990s. “I can’t stress enough what a pivotal role Tick played in the early years of Legends racing here in the UK, he was the…

RALLYCROSS Teenaged Supercar newcomer Patrick O’Donovan dominated the British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy rounds at Pembrey last weekend to march into the series lead. Ford Fiesta driver O’Donovan had a turbulent first top-flight event at Lydden Hill, where he finished on the podium in round one but endured issues and mistakes in round two. But he was faultless in Wales in winning both rounds, with the track run in a different direction for the second. Fastest throughout qualifying and the semi-finals on Saturday, O’Donovan only lost the lead of the final briefly, when he took his joker lap early to cover off reigning champion Derek Tohill. O’Donovan briefly gave up track position to Tristan Ovenden, but he passed the Citroen DS 3 driver later on the same lap to…

HISTORICS A team of Hillman Imp drivers is targeting an historic achievement when they contest the new Club 24-Hour race for under two-litre cars at Anglesey later this year. Multiple Historic Touring Car champions Simon Benoy and Adrian Oliver will head a five-man crew in Benoy’s car for September’s twice-round-the-clock enduro, with the sole aim of seeing the chequered flag. It is believed that, in doing so, it would be the first time a Hillman Imp – or Imp-derived car – has finished a 24-hour race in Europe. “I’ve been around Imps for a long time and I’m not aware of anyone having done it before,” said Benoy. “So, obviously, we’re going to be fairly sensible about it – keep the revs down a bit and try and prolong everything…

HRDC The slenderest of margins decided the outcome of the Classic Alfa Challenge, as the Historic Racing Drivers Club visited Mallory Park last weekend. Chris Snowdon and Ambrogio Perfetti shared a win apiece on Sunday, having battled hard against each other in both encounters, but on combined results it was Perfetti who took the honours by just 0.597 seconds. Jamie Boot secured a brace of wins at the wheel of his TVR Griffith in the Allstars contest for pre-1966 sports, GT and touring cars, having been kept honest by Andrew Somerton’s Lotus Elan S1 in the opener. Michael Cullen also came out on top of both Jack Sears Trophy races, but had to work hard in the sequel to keep the similar Lotus Cortina of Paddy Shovlin behind. Jeff Smith…

GINETTA JUNIOR Sophomore drivers Josh Rowledge, Harri Reynolds and Joe Warhurst again showed they are key Ginetta Junior contenders this year at Brands Hatch, but they were challenged by a trio of impressive rookies in three entertaining encounters. One of those rookies, Luke Watts, grabbed pole for the opener and kept his advantage for the first two laps before Elite Motorsport driver Warhurst got ahead at Druids. But it was far from a comfortable lead, with Watts piling the pressure on into Paddock Hill Bend, only to allow his R Racing team-mate Rowledge to sneak past at Druids. It was then Rowledge’s turn to attack Warhurst, the pair making contact up Hailwoods Hill and Warhurst was forced wide at Druids, losing a handful of places. A late safety car period…

MINI CHALLENGE Considering it was only a few days before the Mini Challenge season began that Motorbase young driver Jack Mitchell knew he was taking part, he has made an excellent start to the campaign. After taking two podiums at Donington Park, he then won the first two Brands Hatch races before his joy was tempered by a DNF in the finale. Mitchell led throughout the uneventful opener, while champion Dan Zelos challenged Sam Weller at Druids – a move that ended with the Excelr8 driver instead dropping behind Jason Lockwood. But things did not get off to a good start for Mitchell in the wet second race as he fell behind Weller off the line. But, after a long safety car period, Mitchell reclaimed the place on the inside…

It may seem an odd thing to say about a 19-year-old, but Will Martin is now the elder statesman among the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Pro ranks. OK, he is not in terms of age but, in race starts, he leads the way. Martin is entering his third season in the championship with the Richardson Racing squad this year and feels he is now ready to launch a title bid. The 2019 Ginetta Junior frontrunner demonstrated flashes of pace in the past two campaigns as both he and the team adapted to the competitive championship, one of the most notable examples being when he impressively picked up the pieces to take a maiden series win at Thruxton in 2020 after that year’s dominator Harry King suffered a puncture. Martin finished…

ANGLESEY CSCC 14-15 MAY On his first appearance at the circuit, Richard Perry was one of only two double winners as the Classic Sports Car Club visited the spectacular scenery of Anglesey. Experienced ‘Spridget’ racer Perry initially struggled to master the Coastal layout and qualified his Austin-Healey Sprite 12th for Saturday’s 30-minute Swinging Sixties Group 1 race, for smaller-engined cars. He had risen to fifth by the time the pitstop sequence started, and searing pace allied to the quickest stop – aided by new seatbelts with easier buckles – elevated him into the lead before the race was brought to a conclusion under Code 60 conditions. Simon Benoy (Hillman Imp) and Sam Polley (Mini Marcos) had been trading the lead, with Abigail Whitt (MG Midget) in close attendance, but Benoy…

SNETTERTON SNETTERTON SALOONS Jasver Sapra (BMW M3 E46) BRITCAR TROPHY Races 1 & 2 Jasver Sapra/Bryan Bransom (BMW M3 E46) KUMHO BMWs Race 1 James Card (M3 E46) Race 2 Niall Bradley (M3 E46) BRITISH ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP Lucky Khera/Euan Hankey (McLaren 720S GT3, above) PRAGA CUP Race 1 Charles Hall/Scott Mittell Race 2 Jimmy Broadbent/Gordie Mutch HYUNDAI COUPE CUP Races 1 & 2 Alistair Dendy JUNIOR SALOON CAR CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 2 Harry Hickton CROFT NATIONAL FORMULA FORD Races 1 & 2 Jordan Dempsey (Spectrum 011) Race 3 Colin Queen (Ray GR18) FUN CUP ENDURANCE UVio Hofmann’s Lotus (Scott Fitzgerald/Fabio Randaccio) FIESTA CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 2 Alastair Kellett (below) Race 3 David Nye FIESTA JUNIORS Races 1 & 2 Sid Smith NORTHERN SALOON & SPORTS CARS Races 1…

The Canon Racing Porsche 956 of Jan Lammers, Jonathan Palmer and Richard Lloyd is serviced during the 1983 Le Mans 24 Hours. Future British motorsport mogul Palmer qualified the car – one of 11 956s on the entry list – in sixth place, but it came a cropper on lap two when a charging Lammers spun, punting off the works Porsche of Jacky Ickx in the process. The camera-branded machine went on to finish eighth, while Ickx’s co-driver Derek Bell valiantly chased home Al Holbert (sharing with Vern Schuppan and Hurley Haywood) in a nailbiting conclusion to Porsche’s 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-10 steamrolling. For classic Le Mans DVDs head to dukevideo.com/lemans For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA E McLaren will join the Formula E grid for the 2022-23 season after agreeing to buy the departing Mercedes squad, expanding the British team’s growing involvement across global motorsport. Following Mercedes’ announcement that it was to depart FE at the close of the Gen2 regulations at the end of this year, its upper management was keen on selling the team. McLaren, which had already agreed an option to join the grid for the start of the Gen3 ruleset, felt that buying an existing team would be a better investment. The deal is set to be formally completed later this year. The FE operation will partially join McLaren’s Formula 1 team at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, but most of the engineering portion of the squad will move out…

FORMULA 1 Charles Leclerc was left red-faced during the Monaco Historic Grand Prix last weekend when the Formula 1 points leader shunted an ex-Niki Lauda Ferrari 312B3 during a demonstration run alongside Maranello hero Jacky Ickx. The Monegasque had been milling around the paddock on Sunday morning for the illustrious classic event held on his doorstep, before hopping aboard the high-airbox machine that bore Ferrari second place in the 1974 championship. Leclerc headed out for a sighter lap and soon picked up the pace until, on the third lap, he lost the rear and backed the Methuselah Racing-owned car into the barrier at La Rascasse. He resumed soon enough with wing damage before pulling up on the home straight when smoke began to waft from the rear. The 2022 Bahrain…

WEC/IMSA Lamborghini will join the LMDh prototype category in 2024. The long-awaited confirmation that the Italian manufacturer will for the first time bid for outright honours at the pinnacle of sportscar racing, the Le Mans 24 Hours included, came the better part of a year after it went public on its aspirations to enter the top divisions of the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Lamborghini announced on Tuesday that it is developing one of the hybrid prototypes, but crucially not which of the four next-generation LMP2 chassis on which it will be based. It is known, however, that it is linking up with French constructor Ligier Automotive for its expansion into the prototype arena. That represents a change of tack by a marque that had been looking…

UK START TIMES Friday 20 May FP1 1300 FP2 1600 Saturday 21 May FP3 1200 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 22 May 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 winners Barcelona points tallies Hamilton 205 Vettel 155 Alonso 124 Bottas 99 Verstappen 92 Ricciardo 67 Perez 46 Sainz 40 Leclerc 23 Magnussen 14…

Formula 1 drivers live the dream that many of us once possessed and enjoy a privileged lifestyle. Professionally at least, it’s difficult to feel sorry for them. But not long after the rear wing of the ex-Niki Lauda Ferrari 312B3 crumpled against the Rascasse barrier last Sunday, perhaps Charles Leclerc was deserving of a little empathy. When the current championship leader dropped the high-airbox machine from 1974 during a demonstration run at the Monaco Historique Grand Prix, it looked as though the back axle had locked when he downshifted in the braking zone. In other words, might a racer used to a semi-automatic change have fluffed his heel-and-toe and the H-pattern manual to trigger the spin? Of course not. Leclerc quickly gesticulated there had been a mechanical issue. Then when…

Porsche is expected to come full circle. In 2017, a prospective Formula E programme tapped into the mid-emissions-scandal zeitgeist and got the nod. In turn, the development Formula 1 engine and pukka 919 Hybrid LMP1 efforts made way. Now, the testing of its forthcoming LMDh challenger – co-created with Multimatic and to be run by Penske – is running at full steam in preparation for a 2023 return to the Le Mans 24 Hours and competition in North America. This comes at a time when its interest in Formula E is believed to be cooling. It took until the Mexico City E-Prix in February of this year, its third season in the all-electric series, to chalk a first victory that wasn’t denied by technical infringements and penalties. While Stuttgart is…

A run of two consecutive retirements, both as a result of damage from contact, had taken Edoardo Mortara out of the Formula E championship lead. Upon arriving at the disused Tempelhof Airport, the apron of the expansive terminals now transformed into a racing circuit, Mortara was fifth overall and 32 points behind series leader Stoffel Vandoorne, the Belgian having taken a haul of 53 points over the past two events. In Rome, Mortara had been unceremoniously shuffled into the wall by Antonio Felix da Costa, which broke the suspension on his Venturi chariot, an ailment that became terminal after sliding into the Turn 3 exit barrier. Three weeks later in Monaco, Mortara’s rise through the field was terminated by team-mate Lucas di Grassi, who gifted the Swiss a puncture that also…

Well, this wasn’t in the script. The recruitment of reigning champion Ash Sutton alongside Dan Cammish in Motorbase’s NAPA Racing Ford Focus superteam was the talking point of the pre-season. But, after a solid if unspectacular (by his standards) start at Donington, the three-time title winner qualified 18th at Brands – that’s three places below rookie Dexter Patterson, his replacement in the Laser Tools Racing Infiniti line-up. Sutton was mystified in the immediate aftermath – “We’ve got to try and isolate the problem” – but by Sunday engineer Tony Carrozza held his hands up to a wrong turn hidden among “multiple layers” of set-up that made it difficult to pinpoint one culprit for the loss of traction. To which Sutton immediately leapt to the defence of his pal, with whom…

Conor Daly produced the best weekend-long performance of his 85-race IndyCar career in Indianapolis, qualifying fourth and finishing fifth, yet his legitimate-sounding complaints about IndyCar’s mandatory aeroscreen in the wet overshadowed his efforts. This was the first time IndyCars had raced in the wet with the safety device introduced in 2020, and Daly found that the airflow failed to dissipate rain from around the screen’s central spar. “Thankfully, we have a great spotter in Packy Wheeler, who was literally guiding me into Turn 1,” he said. “I couldn’t see the brake zone or the cars in front of me or the end of the pitwall, but I could look out the side of the aeroscreen, so I was looking right and left to go straight, which was neat! “Obviously, we…

IMSA SPORTSCAR MID-OHIO (USA) 15 MAY ROUND 5/12 For the second successive event, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor combined to score a fine IMSA SportsCar Championship victory for Wayne Taylor’s Konica Minolta Acura team. And once again they had to work hard to achieve the result. The nimble Acura ARX-05s of Albuquerque/Taylor and Oliver Jarvis/Tom Blomqvist (Meyer Shank Racing) were perfectly suited to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course’s undulating parkland setting, as they had been two weeks earlier on the American West Coast at Laguna Seca. But a 10kg weight break under IMSA’s Balance of Performance structure gave the Cadillacs a little extra incentive for the fifth round of the DPi machines’ 10-race season. Sebastien Bourdais took advantage of that fact, plus his own prodigious talent, to lay down another…

MOTOGP LE MANS (FRA) 15 MAY ROUND 7/21 With each passing race in this enthralling 2022 MotoGP season, the results seem to become more and more pertinent with a view to the future. This sentiment was blown wide open at the French Grand Prix in the wake of Suzuki’s shock announcement that it would be quitting MotoGP at the end of 2022, leaving two of the grid’s best performers seeking rides. The only manufacturer that bombshell seems unlikely to affect is Ducati, whose in-house philosophy in terms of promoting riders to its factory team keeps it (at least in theory) off limits to the rest of the field. Jack Miller’s time at the factory Ducati squad, despite his second-place finish at Le Mans, looks over amid LCR Honda links. Favourites…

BRITISH F4 Monica Boulton Ramos and Deagen Fairclough have won the inaugural ROKiT Racing Star F4 Esports Competition and have each secured six months of training and a funded drive in British Formula 4 for 2023 in Hitech GP-run cars. Former FIA Single Seater Commission president Bob Fernley worked with ROKiT, ex-Sauber F1 team principal and CEO Monisha Kaltenborn, British F4 organiser Motorsport UK and the University of Bolton’s National Centre for Motorsport to determine the winners of the prize. Qualifying for the finals took place remotely between February and April across five online sim races. Over 1000 entrants were then whittled down to 23 finalists – all aged 14 or 15 – who travelled to Lancashire to race against each other using motion simulators created by Kaltenborn’s Racing Unleashed…

FUN CUP The Fun Cup Endurance Championship celebrated its 20th anniversary at Croft, with current owner Paul Rose and original UK series boss Grahame Butterworth in attendance. The concept originated in Belgium before spreading through Europe, and Butterworth was asked about creating a UK version. “I was working on the Slick 50 Road Saloons and both that and the Fun Cup used Uniroyal Tyres, so Uniroyal’s UK operation asked me to set up a UK series,” Butterworth explained. “It took a couple of years to sort out rules with the MSA [governing body], then we launched at Rockingham in 2002 and the first race was at Snetterton in May that year.” Darlington dentist Lance Robson and Phil Leech were the first race winners. The car they campaigned is now raced…

SUGDEN TROPHY AT OULTON The Classic Sports Car Club’s Special Saloons and Modsports series will compete for the Tony Sugden Trophy in its guest races at Oulton Park’s Gold Cup meeting on 30-31 July. Special Saloons favourite Sugden, who celebrated his 90th birthday at the club’s meeting at Thruxton last month, enjoyed particular success at the Cheshire circuit, winning multiple North-West Sports/Saloons titles. O’BRIEN PASSES AWAY The racing community was saddened to learn of the death of Julia O’Brien last Wednesday (11 May). Wife of Speedsport and Classic Team Merlyn boss Mike, and hugely supportive mother of McLaren GT and historic racer Michael, she was a popular figure at Silverstone where the businesses have long been based. She had suffered a relapse of cancer having first battled it a decade…

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP Blasting into a lead of 2.5 seconds on the opening lap of the Ginetta GT4 Supercup season. Winning race two despite a faulty clutch. Becoming the first driver to take a hat-trick in the series since 2016. James Kellett was simply superb at Brands Hatch as the championship’s new G56 era began. It all started in qualifying. The Century Motorsport driver only set six laps to grab pole around the short Indy circuit by an impressive 0.36s. Then he stormed clear in the opener, before doing it again following a safety car restart, although he was slightly aided by Elite Motorsport team-mates Josh Rattican and Tom Emson pitting with punctures early on. Instead, series veteran Reece Somerfield, fresh from a best-ever qualifying of third, took second from…

OULTON PARK 750MC 14 MAY The Type R Trophy continued its ultra-competitive start to the season with Joe Jessup and Jake Hewlett sharing the victories at Oulton Park. Jessup had been classified as winner of round two at Croft, but only after on-the-road conqueror Travis Coyne had been excluded, so victory in round three was the first time he had passed the chequered flag first. His win was made at the start, as he surged through from the outside of row two to lead into Old Hall and was never headed thereafter. That is not to say that it wasn’t close, because former Stock Hatch champion Jeff Humphries piled pressure on the leader, while also being threatened by round-one winner Chris Nylan, who briefly got ahead on lap four. Humphries…

SNETTERTON BARC 14-15 MAY Jasver Sapra capped a busy weekend with a hat-trick of wins during the British Automobile Racing Club’s visit to Snetterton. After winning Saturday’s Snetterton Saloons contest in his BMW M3 ahead of the Ginetta G56A shared by Mark Lee and Owen Hizzey, Sapra then triumphed in both of Sunday’s Britcar Trophy races alongside Bryan Bransom. It was another M3 that led most of the opening Britcar race, with invitational entrant Niall Bradley building a 20-second advantage. Sapra closed to within 4s towards the end of the 50-minute encounter and inherited victory at the flag when Bradley received a 155s penalty for making his mandatory stop outside of the permitted window, before being excluded for failing to submit a Britcar Endurance Performance Indicator (BEPI). Lee and Hizzey…

DOCUMENTARY SEBASTIEN OGIER – THE FINAL SEASON Few can be more deserving of a modern-day motorsport biopic than eight-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier. Starting from humble beginnings, the Frenchman has developed into one of motorsport’s finest drivers, dominating the pinnacle of rallying for more than a decade before bowing out of the sport on a full-time basis in style, wrapping up an eighth world title last year. Formula 1 and MotoGP have recently received the documentary treatment through Netflix’s acclaimed Drive to Survive and Amazon Prime’s MotoGP Unlimited series, and now the WRC can join the party with the release today (Thursday 19 May) of Sebastien Ogier – The Final Season, through Red Bull TV. Produced by Red Bull Media House and directed by Vanessa Dumont and Nicolas Davenel,…

During a 16-year stint in the DTM with Audi and BMW, Martin Tomczyk was afforded opportunities to drive classic machinery from the German giants’ back catalogues. And a run at Misano in the Audi 90 Quattro that contested the 1989 IMSA GTO series made such an impression that the recently retired Tomczyk singles it out as his favourite. The 710bhp four-wheel-drive beast, a successor to the title-winning Trans-Am 200 Quattro, was driven in period by Hans-Joachim Stuck and Hurley Haywood, but only raced for one year before Audi elected to focus its efforts on the DTM. Stuck claimed seven wins and finished third in the standings in a car Tomczyk describes as “a four-wheel-drive limousine”. He might have won the title too, had Audi not skipped the Daytona 24 Hours…

A new car joins the GT2 European Series at the Red Bull Ring this weekend — with some famous faces at the wheel. DTM legend Bernd Schneider will race a machine known as the Mercedes-AMG GT Track Series with series boss Stephane Ratel. The trackday car has been homologated for GT2 and will go up against contenders from Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Brabham and KTM in the fledgling category. It is powered, like AMG’s GT4 racer, by a four-litre twin-turbo V8 pushing out nearly 750bhp. The new Merc will be limited to a production run of 55 cars, in celebration of the 55 years since AMG was established.…

USF2000 Formula Renault Eurocup race winner and FRegi0nal podium finisher Alex Quinn took a hat-trick of wins from his debut on the Road to Indy ladder at Indianapolis last weekend. The Cornishman contested the USF2000 round with Velocity Racing Development as part of a tie-up with Arden Motorsport, the team that has guided Quinn’s career since the demise of the Racing Steps Foundation that initially carried him into single-seaters. Arden chief Garry Horner has kept Quinn racing for the past couple of years, and his squad has forged a liaison between its Young Racing Driver Academy and Georgia-based VRD, whose chief Dan Mitchell was formerly a team manager at the Fortec single-seater empire in the UK. As part of the exchange, VRD’s Formula Regional Americas racer Nico Christodoulou (the Canadian…

BTCC The British Touring Car Championship’s new customer TOCA engine scored its maiden wins at Brands Hatch last weekend, despite a reduction in boost since the opening round at Donington Park. Fourteen of the 29-strong field use the TOCA powerplant, which is based on a Ford EcoBoost block and developed by M-Sport after the Cumbrian motorsport giant won the deal for 2022-26 from long-time TOCA supplier Swindon. But cars powered by the engine did not show great form in pre-season testing, and were granted an increase of 40 millibars of boost prior to qualifying at Donington. For the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit round, the TOCA-engined cars were turned down from Donington by 20 millibars, and some in the paddock speculated that this is due to a tendency towards overboost spikes.…

Formula 1 needs to be more welcoming I read with interest that Michael Andretti is to start building an F1 facility in Indianapolis this summer, in anticipation of his team starting the 2024 season. At the same time I feel disappointed that some teams currently on the grid may well try to block this entry because, in their view, it will dilute the distribution of money in the pot come the season’s end. I understand their thinking, especially with the cost cap now, but we all want to see competition, and a new team on the grid (especially one that is successful in other forms of motorsport, therefore has pedigree) will be a good thing for various reasons. It will throw extra spice into the mix that could potentially, given…

The motorsport offering from Audi has changed drastically since the end of 2018. Where it relied on internal combustion for propulsion, Ingolstadt pulled its works input from World Rallycross and the DTM most notably. No-nonsense former Renault Clio Cup racer Dieter Gass was also replaced by powertrain specialist Julius Seebach at the helm of the motorsport arm in 2020. With its LMDh venture, which was poised to be constructed by Multimatic, now unofficially scrapped, it leaves the RS Q e-tron as the de facto flagship programme. The uber-complex electric-powered two-tonne-plus SUV, which also houses a DTM engine-derived energy converter, made its Dakar Rally debut earlier this year and is understood to have consumed far more resources than anticipated. The off-road and prototype ventures were announced at the same time as…

NO PENALTY FOR FRIJNS DS Techeetah driver Antonio Felix da Costa narrowly missed hitting the wall after being nudged by Robin Frijns on the final lap of race two while they battled for fifth. Although the stewards did not deem it worthy of a penalty, da Costa disagreed. “I think we opened a really bad precedent here, especially when Robin is the first one to come and apologise,” he said. PROGRESS FOR ROWLAND… Oliver Rowland enjoyed a strong run to seventh in race two, as Mahindra showed improved pace in Berlin. “It’s nice to see the things we’re doing are making a difference,” he said. The Brit was running as high as fifth before dropping to seventh, for which he took the blame, citing inexperience with Mahindra’s software that led…

This little chunk of text was supposed to be a little look into how the new ‘success penalties’ on hybrid usage for qualifying had impacted the BTCC since the end of the old success ballast. After all, round two at Brands was going to be our first look at it, since the opener at Donington had no championship top 10 going into qualifying, so everyone was allowed the full 15 seconds of deployment. At Brands, series leader Tom Ingram was allowed no hybrid use on his Excelr8 Hyundai for qualifying, pre-weekend runner-up Gordon Shedden had 1.5 seconds of button pressing per lap on his Team Dynamics Honda, and so on in 1.5s increments up to 13.5s for 10th position and 15s for 11th down. And it ended in a BMW…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE SPRINT CUP MAGNY-COURS (FRA) 14-15 MAY ROUND 2/5 For the second time in as many rounds, Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy took an utterly dominant win in their ASP Mercedes in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup. Pole position, fastest lap and victory by leading every lap was about as unequivocal as you could get in race two of the Magny-Cours weekend. And perhaps the most concerning aspect for ASP’s rivals was that the result barely looked in doubt throughout the one-hour encounter. “The car was amazing all weekend, and when it’s like this it makes everything much easier,” said Marciello, who now heads Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor by 3.5 points in the overall standings. But despite this dominance, which followed a similar performance…

NASCAR CUP KANSAS SPEEDWAY (USA) 15 MAY ROUND 13/36 Kurt Busch had to run down two of the NASCAR Cup Series’ best drivers – including his younger brother Kyle – in the final laps to come away with Sunday’s win. The 2004 champion dominated much of the race in his 23XI Racing Toyota but lost the lead to Busch Jr during a late round of pitstops under caution. Reigning champion Kyle Larson grabbed the lead from Kyle Busch on the restart with 33 of 267 laps remaining, before Kurt dispatched his brother three laps later. The older Busch patiently made up ground on Larson and dived inside him in Turn 3 with eight laps to go, and came away with the lead. He edged Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet by 1.413…

OBITUARY The historic racing community is numbed by the death of Simon Diffey, among its most colourful alumni, in a road traffic accident on the A6 near Bedford last Saturday evening. Diffey, 57, driving a vintage Bugatti T13 Brescia, was in an incident involving an ambulance answering an emergency call. Luton-born Simon lived life to the full and, with his extraordinarily quick mind and (often outrageously irreverent) wit, was an irrepressible character, a natural entertainer. The outpouring of sadness at his passing across social media from around the world speaks volumes. Raised in a family of printers, through which his professional eye for detail underpinned many club magazines, Diffey learned to drive in his father’s 1926 Humber. Passionate about Bugatti and Lotus, his personality and prowess saw him entrusted with…

BRITISH GT Jamie Stanley will be replaced by factory McLaren driver Rob Bell in Fox Motorsport’s 720S GT3 for the three-hour British GT race at Donington Park later this month. Bell will be making his first British GT appearance since Silverstone 2020 because Stanley will be absent to attend his brother’s wedding. Stanley will then return to the cockpit alongside GT4 graduate Nick Halstead for the double-header at Snetterton in June. The pair took third place in the Oulton Park season-opener, but had first-lap contact at Silverstone last time out that required Halstead to perform a system reset, limiting them to 13th. “Naturally I’m gutted to have to miss this event,” said Stanley. “But I made a commitment to my brother on this date before the 2022 British GT calendar…

MITCHELL’S SUSPECT ENGINE Double Mini Challenge winner Jack Mitchell’s success at Brands Hatch last weekend remains provisional after an engine seal was found to be missing from his JW Bird Motorsport-run car after race one. He was allowed to complete the rest of the weekend with the engine resealed, winning again in race two, but it will now be sent to builder Damico – at the team’s cost – to be inspected. ROSKELL AND ROUGHEAD WIN Neil Roskell and Andrew Roughead won the Manx Rally for the first time on Saturday in their Ford Fiesta R5. In a rally of attrition among the leading crews, Roskell belied his limited Isle of Man experience to win by over four minutes after 110 miles of closed-road stages. Out even before the start…

HISTORICS Fifty years after it was built, and four decades after it last competed, a return to the tracks for the Team Surtees TS10 Formula 2 car constructed for Andrea de Adamich to race between F1 commitments was thwarted by a major engine failure at Silverstone last Saturday. A sister works entry to European champion Mike Hailwood’s, chassis TS10-04 (right) took a best result of fourth on aggregate at Imola in July 1972 in the hands of de Adamich. Italian March 713 graduate ‘Shangri-La’ subsequently bought the Surtees and hillclimbed it through 1973 and 1974, finishing fourth at Cesana-Sestriere (Italy) and Mont Ventoux (France) in the final season. Loaned to Helmuth Koinigg for the early season F2 race at Hockenheim, it reappeared at the same venue in September with Hans…

MONACO HISTORIQUE ACM 13-15 MAY Stuart Hall scooped a Formula 1 double with McLaren machinery at the 13th Monaco Historique last Sunday. Dominant poleman Hall made a poor getaway in the race for cars of the 1966-72 era, allowing the Matra MS120C of Jordon Grogor to lead as far as Tabac. There, Hall sent Roald Goethe’s M19A down the inside before heading off into the distance. Grogor then came under pressure from the BRM P153 of ex-F1 racer Esteban Gutierrez. Wearing a Pedro Rodriguez tribute helmet, Gutierrez dropped out with gearbox trouble. Grogor was penalised for a jumped start, handing second to Michael Lyons’s Surtees. Hall also took pole for the 1973-76 race. Roberto Moreno qualified second in a Lola T370 and Le Mans winner Marco Werner was third in…

BRITISH F4 It was an ominous start to the British Formula 4 weekend. Having dominated at Donington Park, Alex Dunne added another win in the first Brands Hatch race to move onto 96 points – double that of nearest rival Oliver Gray. But, after that dominant performance – where he was aided by fellow front-row starter Aiden Neate stalling – the Hitech GP driver’s event took a turn for the worse. The partially reversed-grid contest was always going to be tricky but it was made all the more difficult when he got stuck in fifth gear and had to pit. But there was further strife in the wet finale as it was Dunne’s turn to struggle off the line before spinning at Clearways and then tangling with team-mate Oliver Stewart.…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB The pre-season expectation was another close battle for supremacy in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB this year. And that has proved to be the reality as just four points separate the top five drivers in the standings after the opening two events – the arrival of rain having added extra spice to the Brands Hatch contests. Considering he did not score in the first Donington Park encounter and then only qualified eighth in Kent, it’s perhaps a surprise that 2018 British Formula 4 champion Kiern Jewiss leads the way, but he was in inspired form during the races. While polesitter Will Martin surged clear at the front in race one, Jewiss was on a charge. He was up to fourth by the end of the first…

SILVERSTONE HSCC 14-15 MAY Andy Smith’s Aurora Trophy win, debuting the restored ex-Eddie Cheever Project 4 Racing March-BMW 782-14, opened links with the BRDC International Trophy features at Silverstone, long celebrated by the Historic Sports Car Club. Established in 1949 as a non-championship F1 race, the International Trophy title was commuted to European F2 alternately from 1977, Cheever winning the wet 1979 F2 race in his Osella-BMW. Awesome in other March machinery including a Formula 2 742, Formula Atlantic 79B and F3 783 in recent seasons, Smith qualified the 782 on pole with a 2m00.340s (109.50mph) after system checks and just five flying laps in Friday testing. Lack of rear brakes hindered his pursuit of Rob Wainwright (ex-Alex Ribeiro March-BMW 762) in Saturday’s race, before a loose front wishbone forced…

CROFT BRSCC 14-15 MAY Jordan Dempsey made it two wins from three races in the National Formula Ford Championship last weekend at Croft. The opening race of the event was red-flagged in dramatic circumstances, after Lucas Romanek’s Van Diemen JL13 and Jamie Sharp’s Medina Sport JL17 clashed at the Jim Clark Esses. The pair had battled hard throughout, but Sharp was a little too close on lap 10 and touched Romanek’s rear wheel, which sent him into a roll. From a solitary third, Dempsey (Spectrum 011) was declared the winner, with Colin Queen and Morgan Quinn completing the podium. Dempsey and Queen made an early break in the second race, but gradually Dempsey consolidated his advantage. Queen’s Ray GR18 was left a lonely second, with Andre Lafond (Ray) just holding…