Indholdsfortegnelse for 8/25/2022 i Autosport

Endurance racing was at perhaps its lowest ebb before the debut 40 years ago of what was arguably its greatest car. The crucial thing is that Porsche always intended to make its 956 challenger for the new Group C rules in 1982 available to customers. That democratised a branch of the sport that during the preceding few years had been inhabited by a handful of professional teams and a bunch of motley amateurs struggling to get their ageing kit to last six laps, let alone six hours. Michael Cotton was one of the foremost sportscar writers at the time. He lived the era, so who better to tell the story of the 956 and its close relative, the 962, on p16? Our own enduro doyen Gary Watkins then takes over…

FORMULA 1 Sebastian Vettel has challenged Formula 1 to reinvest some of its revenue into helping race promoters stage more environmentally sustainable events to offset a carbon footprint hurt by the championship’s growing calendar and an increase in spectator attendance. F1 has pledged to be net carbon zero by 2030. Bans on single-use plastic plus enhanced trackside recycling facilities are already in the pipeline, while Silverstone bosses want to make the British Grand Prix the most sustainable event to ensure its longevity. Retiring four-time champion Vettel said: “Any type of event that attracts a big crowd has to live up to the responsibilities that come with our times. We attract big crowds in Formula 1. But with that there’s more people that need to get to the track, that need…

Kimi Raikkonen ran as high as eighth on his NASCAR Cup Series debut last Sunday at Watkins Glen before a tangle ahead forced his TrackHouse Racing Chevrolet heavily into the barriers. The 2007 Formula 1 world champion made good progress in the wet early stages and held his own as the track dried out. At the start of the third stage, a clash between Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon resulted in the field stacking up, and Raikkonen was fired off by contact with Loris Hezemans. Raikkonen and Hezemans weren’t the only Europeans in the field. The Finn’s fellow ex-F1 driver Daniil Kvyat was classified one spot ahead in 36th on his second outing in a Team Hezeberg Toyota (as team-mate to Hezemans), while former Le Mans 24 Hours winner and…

FORMULA E Nissan has recruited French duo Sacha Fenestraz and Norman Nato as its Formula E drivers for the 2022-23 season as part of a total overhaul of its line-up, replacing Sebastien Buemi and Maximilian Gunther. Nato makes his full-time return to FE after driving for Venturi in 2021, while Fenestraz will take on his first full season following his FE race debut in the second race of this month’s Seoul finale as stand-in for the injured Antonio Giovinazzi at Dragon Racing. Fenestraz (right) has focused on his Super Formula and Super GT campaigns in Japan since 2020, but is also well-established in the FE paddock as Jaguar’s reserve and development driver for the past two seasons. He took his first SF win at Sugo in June. “I knew around…

UK START TIMES Friday 26 August FP1 1300 FP2 1600 Saturday 27 August FP3 1200 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 28 August RACE 1400  CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1830 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors RACE STATS Previous winners Spa points tallies Hamilton 184.5 Vettel 157 Ricciardo 80 Bottas 76 Alonso 61 Verstappen 46.5 Perez 43 Leclerc 27 Ocon 23 Albon 18…

So far my season in the Porsche Supercup has gone according to plan, but opening with a podium at Imola shifted my expectations quite dramatically. Every race we’ve finished in the top five, which is quite a strong performance in Supercup. We find ourselves only 12 points adrift of the leader [Dylan Pereira] and we’re a championship contender, which is quite a cool thing to say. I’m really motivated for the final three races, which are all back to back. I’ve scored two thirds and one second place. Getting on the podium at Silverstone was a really big highlight, also our qualifying performance in Monaco. We were P1 for the majority until Larry ten Voorde just pipped us. We would have started on the front row, but unfortunately we got…

“When I look at all the Porsche 956s and 962s that Porsche have brought together at various events this year, I think those are the cars that made my career. I got picked up by Porsche for Le Mans in 1981 to drive the 936 at a time when I was only doing a handful of races a year and was seriously considering stopping racing. I was staggered they put me with Jacky Ickx. I thought I’d be some kind of fourth driver in the second car, but Manfred Jantke told me after I signed, ‘Now I have the two best sportscar drivers in the world.’ “After Le Mans Professor Bott told me that he’d like to speak about the Group C car. The reality was I didn’t know what…

The Porsche factory team’s eggs were all in one basket for the majority of the 1987 Le Mans 24 Hours. Its hopes rested on a single car driven by Derek Bell, Hans Stuck and Al Holbert Jr for 23 of the 24 hours. Yet the trio made it home at the top of the leaderboard to follow up on their 1986 victory. The winning margin for Bell, Stuck and Holbert was 20 laps in a race of attrition during which a number of the fancied Porsches, one of the factory cars included, went out in the opening exchanges. Stuck remembers the pressure being intense, even though many of their rivals were out of the game early. “I really felt the pressure, because we were the last man standing, or rather…

THE BIG TITLES 1982 World Endurance Championship manufacturers World Endurance Championship drivers Jacky Ickx 1983 World Endurance Championship manufacturers World Endurance Championship drivers Jacky Ickx All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship manufacturers All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship drivers Vern Schuppan 1984 World Endurance Championship manufacturers World Endurance Championship drivers Stefan Bellof 1985 World Endurance Championship teams (Rothmans Porsche) World Endurance Championship drivers Derek Bell/Hans-Joachim Stuck IMSA GTP drivers Al Holbert All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship manufacturers All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship drivers Kunimitsu Takahashi 1986 World Sports-Prototype Championship teams (Brun Motorsport) World Sports-Prototype Championship drivers Derek Bell IMSA GTP drivers Al Holbert All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship manufacturers All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship drivers Kunimitsu Takahashi 1987 IMSA GTP drivers Chip Robinson All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship manufacturers All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship drivers Kunimitsu Takahashi 1988 All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship manufacturers All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship drivers Hideki Okada…

Following its disastrous Ypres Rally, M-Sport is searching for answers to arrest its poor World Rally Championship form. The Ford squad has struggled for results in recent months, with its most recent podium arriving in June courtesy of Craig Breen’s second place in Sardinia. The team’s fortunes failed to improve in Belgium, with all three drivers – Breen, Gus Greensmith and Adrien Fourmaux – involved in costly incidents. M-Sport started the year leading the manufacturers’ championship following Sebastien Loeb’s Monte Carlo win, which was backed up by a third for Breen and a fifth for Greensmith. But Breen’s Sardinia result is the team’s only subsequent podium, and its Pumas have recorded just three further top-five finishes among the roster of three full-time and two part-time drivers. Team principal Richard Millener…

NASCAR CUP SERIES WATKINS GLEN (USA) 21 AUGUST ROUND 25/36 Hendrick Motorsports team-mates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott tangled at the end of Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen, with Larson claiming the victory. Elliott, who led the most laps (29), had the inside lane on a restart with five of 90 laps to go, with Larson lined up alongside him. As the two exited Turn 1, Larson appeared to lock up his rear brakes and drifted to the left, which forced Elliott wide and allowed Larson to move into the lead. As Elliott fell back, Larson worked to hold off AJ Allmendinger to claim his second win of the 2022 season. “I knew that was kind of my only opportunity, I’m not proud of it,” Larson said. “But being in…

INDY LIGHTS ST LOUIS (USA) 20 AUGUST ROUND 9/11 He left it until the closing stages, but Matt Brabham pulled off a perfectly executed pass on long-time leader Linus Lundqvist to deliver a superb win for Andretti Autosport. From his seventh pole of the season, Lundqvist led as HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing team-mate and fellow front-row starter Benjamin Pedersen struggled to hold off Andretti Autosport duo Brabham and Christian Rasmussen, and gave up his second place to Brabham on lap two. Rasmussen kissed the wall but kept it straight, but then spent two laps side by side with Danial Frost (HMD) before establishing himself in fourth. Lundqvist could not shake Brabham and the pair eked out a small margin over Pedersen, before Rasmussen passed his fellow Dane on…

HILLCLIMB The top 10 hillclimb showdown for closed-cockpit cars could be repeated following a successful trial event at Shelsley Walsh earlier this month. The idea was to bring the fastest 10‘tin-tops’ together for a winner-takes-all run-off after the class runs. The mighty MG Metro 6R4 of Ian Rowlance was the first winner, less than 0.1 seconds ahead of the potent Audi S4 of Roger Banks and the shared 1000bhp Subaru Legacy of Steven Darley and Damien Bradley. Bradley was keen to see the initiative run: “Roger Banks created this concept of the top 10 run-off and I think it’s getting a bit more coverage for the tin-tops, the exciting monsters. I think spectators really enjoyed it as well.” Banks hopes it can be repeated at other events. “There are so…

FORMULA FORD 1600 First-time Formula Ford race winner Shawn Rashid paid tribute to his mentor Johnny O’Connell after claiming his maiden National Championship victory last weekend at Brands Hatch. The Ammonite Motorsport rookie had not finished on the podium before last weekend’s event but, after achieving his best qualifying position of fourth, he took third in the opening race. Rashid then converted reversed-grid pole to the win in Sunday’s finale, with four-time Le Mans class winner O’Connell on hand to join his fellow American’s celebrations. “Johnny and I are so close,” said 26-year-old Rashid, who began racing less than two years ago. “He’s like my racing dad. He’s been with me since day one when I started racing and I’m so glad that he was here to see all this.…

EDWARDS TO EXCELR8 Mini Challenge Trophy racer Nathan Edwards will switch to Excelr8 Motorsport for the rest of the season, starting with this weekend’s round on the British Touring Car bill at Thruxton. Edwards has taken a best result of eighth so far this year with MRM. Excelr8 is the team with which he made his Mini racing debut in 2020. SIMPSON BACK TO PICKUPS Former British Touring Car driver Matt Simpson made his Pickup Racing seasonal debut at Donington Park last weekend, but a track-limits penalty robbed him of second in race two. Simpson’s truck has been used in some races this year by his father Jeff, who drove David O’Regan’s spare machine at Donington. DAVE EDWARDS 1945-2022 Autosport is sad to report that long-serving Castle Combe chief scrutineer…

750 FORMULA After finishing runner-up in his second 750 Formula outing last weekend at Silverstone, Alex Bagnall says he is building his own car for the category. OEKC endurance kart racer Bagnall took a close second place to Bill Cowley last weekend aboard David Robson’s SDAR 17, but has been working on another project. “I’ve almost completed building up a Scholar that was started about 15 years ago but has never raced,” said the 41-year-old. “The plan is to debut it before the end of the season.” Bagnall’s only previous outing in the series was at Croft in 2019, when he claimed a best result of sixth in an Ingham V3. Also in action was David Watts, the Silverstone double-header representing his and his Centaur Mk16R’s first races since 2009,…

Time seems to be flying by at the moment. And, while there may still be a few months left in the regular club racing season, organisers are firmly switching attention to next year. The British Touring Car Championship and British GT schedules have long since been released and, with the British Superbike itinerary expected to be unveiled imminently, it means the triumvirate of highest-profile series will have their dates locked in, enabling clubs to finalise their own calendars for the new season. But planning a schedule seven to 12 months in advance is fraught with difficulty, especially in the volatile world that we live in with drastically rising prices. It is that tightrope organisers are now attempting to tread. Making the right call is notoriously tricky. Some operators admit they…

BRANDS HATCH BRSCC 20-21 AUGUST Another almost flawless weekend at Brands Hatch took Jordan Dempsey three steps closer to the National Formula Ford crown. Pole, two wins, a second and three fastest laps left Dempsey more satisfied than identical results at Snetterton last month. “Race three at Snetterton I should have had the win but made a mistake,” he said. “So this one’s better because the way race three was [today], there was no way I was going to win that.” Despite a 0.5-second deficit in qualifying, Colin Queen (Ray GR18) stayed in touch with Dempsey’s Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum for the opening laps of Saturday’s two races. But mistakes at Graham Hill Bend twice undid the American’s challenge and Dempsey scampered clear. Sunday’s reversed-grid race brought a first win…

DONINGTON PARK BARC 20-21 AUGUST Will Gibson proved to be the man to beat in an action-packed Legends weekend by taking three wins at Donington Park. Reigning champion Miles Rudman made a late break with Gibson in the opener, Rudman just holding on with 0.166 seconds to spare, while Stephen Whitelegg was a close third. Gibson then edged ahead of Marcus Pett on the second lap of race two, but couldn’t shake off his rival and they duelled to the flag. Gibson just kept Pett at bay, while Kieran Beaty took a solitary third. Whitelegg was in contention throughout Saturday’s final. He led initially before Rudman took charge, then John Mickel split them after seven of the 10 laps. But a penultimate-tour shake-up just went in Whitelegg’s favour, in a…

“I don’t have to think for a second,” is two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Hans-Joachim Stuck’s response when asked for his favourite car. That it is the Porsche 962 should come as little surprise. The tall German pedalled factory-run 962s to back-to-back wins at the Circuit de la Sarthe in 1986 and 1987, and claimed two of his three Sebring 12 Hours victories with Bob Akin and Bayside Disposal-run examples of the iconic machine. He and Derek Bell claimed three wins aboard the 962 during their 1985 World Endurance Championship title-winning season, while Stuck also shone in a sprint setting with the 962, claiming titles in the shortlived Supercup series in 1986 and 1987. “The combination of this car, the power, the downforce, the driveability was just fantastic,” says…

FORMULA 1 Under the ownership of Liberty Media, Formula 1’s audiences have boomed, revenues rocketed, and the US has been cracked. But the automotive market has proved more impervious: Honda has left, and the Alpine and Aston Martin names are rebranding exercises only. But that’s now set to change with the FIA finally approving the wording of the 2026 F1 engine regulations. This paves the way for Porsche to enter in partnership with Red Bull, while Audi’s grand prix commitment is expected thereafter. F1 plus the incumbent engine manufacturers and the Volkswagen Group had for several weeks already agreed the framework for the new rules package, which will chiefly drop the MGU-H and move to fully sustainable fuels. But new FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem was understood to have been…

SPORTSCARS Rene Rast is leaving Audi to join BMW. The move, announced last week, brings down the curtain on 11 seasons for the 35-year-old as a factory-contracted Audi driver, which included a trio of DTM titles, two victories in the Spa 24 Hours and one in the Nurburgring 24 Hours. That’s not to forget his participation in the Le Mans 24 Hours and Formula E with the German manufacturer. The announcement last week of Rast’s departure from Audi at the completion of this year’s DTM at Hockenheim in October was followed this week by confirmation that he is off to BMW next year. What has not been revealed, however, is where he will race with the Munich marque. BMW’s statement only said that “a host of opportunities to go racing”…

MOTOGP Pol Espargaro will make a return to Tech3 and KTM in 2023 on a new two-year deal that paves the way for Suzuki’s 2020 MotoGP world champion Joan Mir to join Marc Marquez at the factory Honda squad. Espargaro made his MotoGP debut with Tech3 Yamaha in 2014 before joining the fledgling KTM project in 2017, and the eight-time podium finisher was pivotal in the transformation of the bike into a race-winning package. He moved to Honda in 2021 but has endured a fruitless time on the troubled RC213V, scoring just two podiums so far over the past two seasons. From next year, the Tech3 squad will be known as GasGas Factory Racing – a sister marque to KTM. Despite ostensibly being a new manufacturer, it is in name…

WRC Rally legend Juha Kankkunen believes that hydrogen power could have a future in the World Rally Championship after driving Toyota’s GR Yaris prototype on last weekend’s Ypres Rally Belgium. The four-time world champion demonstrated Toyota’s latest hydrogen prototype on its public debut, co-driven by marque CEO Akio Toyoda as the pair navigated through a stage on each competition day. The GR Yaris H2 is based on a road-going version of the car fitted with upgraded suspension. The powertrain was developed in the GR Corolla H2, which was raced at the Fuji 24 Hours in June. “I don’t know what will happen but it is for sure one solution,” said the Kankkunen, 63. “Rallies are too long for full electric cars plus they are very heavy and they have no…

Attempting to savour the final days before travelling to Spa, perhaps Toto Wolff tuned in to Monday Night Football earlier this week. After all, the boss of eight-time Formula 1 constructors’ champion Mercedes has something of an appreciation for Manchester United, and the Austrian has revealed that he used the club as a case study to understand why great teams decline. If he did watch, Wolff will have seen the Red Devils triumph over Liverpool chiefly by outworking their fierce rivals. The work ethic of his own Silver Arrows squad is without question, and has garnered constant praise from drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton (and Mercedes has no need to bench its own talismanic 37-year-old…). The only thing is, it will have taken the grand prix team far longer…

There were deep problems in the Porsche hierarchy in Stuttgart in the late 1970s, and these threatened the company’s interest in endurance racing, especially at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Professor Ernst Fuhrmann, the CEO, believed that the rear-engined, air-cooled 911 had a limited lifeline. It could not meet new regulations regarding emissions and noise output that would dominate the 1980s, he thought, and Porsche would depend on a new generation of watercooled sportscars: the 924, 944 and 928. On a chart in Fuhrmann’s office the 911 would stop production in 1984, and development work on the six-cylinder model virtually ceased in 1978. For Le Mans in 1980, the factory ran a trio of 924 Carrera GTRs, one of them sponsored by Porsche Cars Great Britain for Tony Dron and…

“The GT era was coming after the end of Group C and it made sense for Porsche to be involved. We’d raced the 911 Turbo S LM at Le Mans in 1993 and had an improved version under development, but the rumour was that McLaren was coming with its F1 supercar. “The story was that they would come in 1994. We were wrong of course, because they wouldn’t arrive until 1995, but that was the rumour. Our research and development boss Horst Marchart asked me if we could beat the McLaren with what we had planned. I told him no. The reasons started with the McLaren architecture and continued with that big BMW V12. I said we had no chance of winning the GT class, so he gave me a…

Ask Hans Stuck to name the favourite iteration of the Porsche 956 or 962 he raced, and he doesn’t go for one of the factory chassis in which he notched up his two Le Mans 24 Hours victories in 1986 and 1987. Nor one of the two IMSA GTP cars in which he scored back-to-back triumphs at the Sebring 12 Hours in 1987 and 1988. Rather he plumps for a more obscure machine in which he enjoyed considerable success, one largely overlooked by the history books. And it is this obscurity that explains why the chassis in question has been restored to its former glory by the German manufacturer for the 40th anniversary of Group C and the launch of the 956. Stuck picks the car he raced in the 1987…

LEWIS HAMILTON’S WINNERS ON SHOW Seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton’s title-winning cars will be seen together for the first time as part of a special celebration for fans of the 37-year-old as Formula 1 takes centre stage at the Silverstone Classic. Hamilton’s McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23 (below) of 2008 – his second season at the sport’s pinnacle – will be displayed with Mercedes F1 W05 and W06 chassis from 2014 and 2015, and Mercedes-AMG F1 W08, W09, W10 and W11 of 2017-20 respectively. Among his 103 grand prix victories, 68 in his championship seasons alone, the Briton has a proud record at Silverstone, where wins in 2008, 2014-17 and 2019-21 enraptured home supporters. Hamilton has also finished second in 2010 and 2018 (plus the separate 70th Anniversary GP in 2020), and…

INDYCAR SERIES ST LOUIS (USA) 20 AUGUST ROUND 14/16 IndyCar could not have planned this championship fight better. In qualifying at World Wide Technology Raceway, Team Penske’s Will Power matched Mario Andretti’s all-time Indycar record of 67 pole positions, and the next six grid slots were taken by the drivers closest to Power in the hunt for the 2022 title. Marcus Ericsson scored his best qualifying result to date to start his Chip Ganassi Racing car on the front row, ahead of the other two Penske drivers, Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin. Ganassi’s two champs, Alex Palou and Scott Dixon, occupied row three, and Pato O’Ward was seventh for Arrow McLaren SP. Come the end of the race, Power’s championship lead was just three points over Newgarden, who scored his…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SANDOWN (AUS) 20-21 AUGUST ROUND 9/13 Shane van Gisbergen now holds a 500-point series lead in Supercars thanks to a pair of wins and a second at the Sandown SuperSprint. At a Triple Eight stronghold since the introduction of the ZB Commodore, van Gisbergen was expected to be hard to beat. But it was Dick Johnson Racing that came out firing, Will Davison’s Ford taking pole for Saturday’s race before dominating the 110-kilometre heat. But Sunday belonged to van Gisbergen. His cause was helped by Davison suffering a battery fire in the first qualifying session, which left him 11th on the grid. Davison did at least hit back in the second session with another pole. The second race was a cakewalk for van Gisbergen, who led from lights…

MOTOGP RED BULL RING (AUT) 21 AUGUST ROUND 13/20 A Ducati victory at the Red Bull Ring is nothing unusual. The Italian marque has won six times at the venue since it returned to the calendar in 2016. But its latest Austrian Grand Prix triumph could well prove to be its most significant. After a fourth DNF of the season in June’s German GP, Francesco Bagnaia’s title hopes lay in tatters. But a run of three victories on the bounce at Assen, Silverstone and Red Bull Ring is overturning a self-inflicted deficit to where it now stands at just 44 points from Fabio Quartararo, down from 91. Just like at Silverstone, Bagnaia didn’t start the weekend in a fashion that suggested he’d be the main threat for a race victory.…

GINETTA JUNIOR Ginetta Junior race winner Ian Aguilera has been forced onto the sidelines after receiving 12 points on his licence, while karting star Freddie Slater impressed in his place during the recent Snetterton round. R Racing driver Aguilera – a winner at Thruxton earlier this year – picked up his latest penalty points at Knockhill when he was sanctioned for failing to slow down sufficiently behind the safety car and running wide into gravel while marshals were attending an incident. This followed earlier penalties for contact at Croft and Thruxton, which meant he had accumulated 12 points this year and triggered an automatic three-month ban. “They seem to be clamping down on driving standards and making the penalties harsher to make the racing cleaner,” said R Racing boss Jamie…

Among the star cars at Brands Hatch’s Vaux Valves event last Sunday were a replica of the Viva GT raced by marque legend Gerry Marshall (left) and his Group 1 Magnum (right). Other Marshall machinery included Gerry’s Firenza-based ‘Baby Bertha’ Super Saloon, and his son Gregor’s Firenza. Tony Davies’s Thundersaloon Firenza and two Cavalier Super Touring cars also took part, while double British Touring Car champion John Cleland and former team-mate Jeff Allam (below) regaled BTCC mic man Alan Hyde with tales of old.…

SILVERSTONE 750MC 20-21 AUGUST An intense double victory for Bill Cowley in 750 Formula and a last-gasp win for William Stacey in Roadsports were among the highlights of the 750 Motor Club’s meeting on the Silverstone International circuit. The weekend’s 19 races attracted 290 entries as the outcome of several title races started to take shape. Cowley had it all his own way in the opening 750 Formula race after qualifying his Cowley MkIV in a surprise pole position. “The handling was terrible and I had pad knock,” said the 2017 champion. But a change to tyres already used on fellow competitor Bill Rutter’s Batten 3 transformed things and, after shrugging off early pressure from main title protagonists Mark Glover (Racekits Falcon) and Peter Bove (Darvi 88 P), Cowley was…

NATIONAL FORMULA FORD Races 1 & 2 Jordan Dempsey (Spectrum 011C) Race 3 Shawn Rashid (Ray GR18) CMMC INTERMARQUE SILHOUETTES Race 1 Malcolm Blackman (Vauxhall Tigra) Race 2 Steve Burrows (Vauxhall Tigra) ZEO PROTOTYPE SERIES Race 1 Graham Charman (Juno) Race 2 Matt Chamberlain (CTR 01, below) CMMC SOUTHERN TIN TOPS Matt Rowling (Honda Civic Type R) TRACK ATTACK Races 1 & 2 David Shead (BMW Compact) CLUBSPORT TROPHY David May/Mark Skeats (Ginetta G55) SUPERSPORT ENDURANCE Jake Severs/Andre Severs (Ginetta G50) C1 ENDURANCE SERIES Team Trojon (Austin Munday/Adam Willis/Charlie Bingham) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

CADWELL PARK BRSCC 20-21 AUGUST Fraser Fenwick added another win to his highly decorated Mazda MX-5 Championship season during the British Racing & Sports Car Club’s visit to Cadwell Park, but was pushed hard over the weekend by Steve Foden and Sebastian Fisher. Foden celebrated his birthday by qualifying on pole for the first encounter but, after losing out in a three-way scrap with Fenwick and Fisher through Chris Curve, suffered overheating issues and slowed to a distant fourth as Fenwick led home Fisher and Luke Pullen. Fenwick lost out in the early stages of race two to Fisher and Foden, who was free of his race-one gremlins following an overnight engine change. After moving around the outside of Fisher through Park corner, Foden took the lead into Gooseneck before…

MALLORY PARK VSCC 21 AUGUST The Vintage Sports-Car Club concluded its race season at Mallory Park on Sunday with a feast of entries ranging from the 1905 25-litre Darracq land speed record holder to a host of single-seater-defining Cooper 500s. But mostly, it was the remarkable array of specials, tourers, standard and modified machinery that brought together dapper and denim in true appreciation of those with history in their hearts. On track, Patrick Blakeney-Edwards was in resounding form, steering his 92-year-old Frazer Nash Super Sports to a brace of victories. First up was Allcomers; Michael James, in a Riley 12/4, held pole but a moment’s hesitation off the line meant he trailed Blakeney-Edwards before reclaiming the lead as they headed into Gerard’s. It stayed like this for the first half-dozen…

FORMULA 1 Ex-Alfa Romeo Formula 1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi has moved a step closer to reviving his grand prix career, with Haas revealing that it will run him during the FP1 sessions at Monza and Austin in place of Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher respectively. The Italian has been on a hiding to nothing racing at the back of the Formula E field for the Dragon team since he was ousted from Alfa in favour of Zhou Guanyu for 2022. But amid uncertainty over Schumacher’s Haas future for 2023, Ferrari reserve Giovinazzi will get his first true taste of ground-effects at Maranello’s request. This appears to be a genuine evaluation of Giovinazzi’s credentials to partner the contracted Magnussen, since Haas will now have just seven remaining weekends to satisfy the…

MOTOGP MotoGP will make its most radical grand prix weekend format change of the modern era in 2023 when it introduces sprint races. Promoter Dorna Sports confirmed at last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix that, from next season, a sprint will be held on the Saturday of each event. The move, first reported by autosport.com last Friday, has been prompted by a decline in interest in MotoGP in recent years. Dorna hopes the sprint race format will offer more value for money to fans and television broadcasters, which in turn could attract more sponsorship to the series. Unlike F1’s limited number of sprint races, MotoGP’s will have no bearing on the grid order for the main race. The sprints will run to half the distance of the main grand prix, and…

LE MANS 24 HOURS Wayne Taylor has vowed to do everything possible to take the new Acura LMDh prototype to the Le Mans 24 Hours in the future. The multiple Daytona 24 Hours-winning team boss reiterated his designs on the French enduro after the Honda brand finally unveiled the new contender that Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing will run in next year’s IMSA SportsCar Championship. “I’m lucky enough to have won the prototype class at Le Mans in 1998 [driving a Risi Competizione Ferrari 333SP] as a driver and, as a team owner, all the big endurance races in North America,” said Taylor. “But I have never been in a position to take my team to Le Mans and go for the win overall, but I do have…

“Kremer wasn’t planning to run a 956 when the first customer cars were released for 1983. We’d decided to continue developing our own CK5 Group C design, but Porsche France approached us with a proposal to run the Andrettis, Mario and Michael. They had a sponsor and wanted something with the same look as the Rothmans cars that had won the year before. “They convinced us to run a 956, but the problem was that there were no cars available. The first run of customer cars were all sold out. Alain de Cadenet had an option on a car, but was running out of money, so I flew to London to see him. Let’s say I went equipped to buy the option off him there and then. “We got the…

The wartime footing on which a race team operates lies behind the history of the use of the PDK, or Porsche-Doppelkupplungsgetriebe to give the system its full name, in sportscar racing. It was the pet project of Porsche research and development boss Helmuth Bott, and had been part of a series of advances shown on the 995 concept car at the tail end of the 1970s. “He thought that the development in the gearbox department was taking too long, so he decided to put it in the racing department,” recalls Norbert Singer. “He said, ‘In the race team, the development will happen much faster.’ He was right, of course.” The PDK system allows for flat, clutchless gearchanges courtesy of the dual-clutch arrangement. “You have two shafts and a clutch on…

At times it felt like nobody wanted to win Ypres Rally Belgium, such was the attrition on the World Rally Championship’s latest asphalt instalment, and the rate at which the leaders fell by the wayside. That was until Hyundai’s Ott Tanak inherited the lead following an unceremonious exit for home hero, team-mate and odds-on favourite Thierry Neuville. Few would have predicted Tanak to star in Neuville’s back yard, but the Estonian appears to have unearthed the form that helped guide him to the 2019 world title to deliver a second surprise win on the bounce. Ypres has developed a reputation of providing one of the toughest asphalt tests in rallying thanks to its narrow ribbons of road, lined by perilous deep ditches that cut across the fields of the Flanders…

SUPER FORMULA MOTEGI (JPN) 20-21 AUGUST ROUND 6/7 Naoki Yamamoto and Yuhi Sekiguchi both ended long winless streaks at Motegi as Tomoki Nojiri closed on a second title. Three-time Super Formula champion Yamamoto stole the headlines on Saturday when he took a surprise victory from pole, his first in two years and first since rejoining Nakajima Racing. Yamamoto had the weather gods on his side. A heavy rain shower led to a safety car start and, with the mandatory pitstops also being abolished, there was little that second-place man Sacha Fenestraz (Kondo Racing) could do to threaten the leader. Nojiri was third and a spin for Ryo Hirakawa, who couldn’t see properly due to a leaking visor, meant Fenestraz took over as the Mugen driver’s nearest title challenger. Sunday’s race…

BRITISH RALLYCROSS W Series dominator Jamie Chadwick is set to make her British Rallycross debut at Pembrey this weekend in the RX150 buggy class. Chadwick (below) has previous off-road experience from her time competing in Extreme E last season with the Veloce squad, but this will be the first time she has tackled the rallycross discipline. The Williams Formula 1 development driver is on course to land her third W Series crown this year. She leads the standings by 75 points with four races to go but, with the next round not until October, she is able to join the rallycross field during the break. “I’m so excited to get my first taste of rallycross at Pembrey in the RX150 Championship [above],” she said. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do…

FORMULA FORD 1600 One-time National Formula Ford 1600 Championship runner-up Michael Eastwell will return to the category for this year’s Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy. Eastwell, who finished second to category benchmark Niall Murray in the 2018 championship, will return to Kevin Mills Racing for the two prestigious end-of-season events. The 26-year-old has not raced since 2019, when he finished in the top six of both events. A year earlier, Eastwell had qualified his Spectrum 011C fastest for the 2018 Festival and won his heat before retiring from the first semi-final. “It’s been a long time coming,” said Eastwell, who has spent much of the past three years in Australia. “If I didn’t feel that I could come back and be competitive, I probably wouldn’t be coming back.…

MEMBERS’ MEETING DATE Goodwood has released the dates for next year’s 80th edition of its Members’ Meeting. The event will take place across 15-16 April, having returned to its traditional spring slot this year after the impact of the pandemic caused it to move to October in 2021. Next season will be the 75th anniversary of the first event held at the Sussex circuit. PORTER BACK TO RACING Sometime Modified Production Saloon and Classic Modified Saloon champion Gareth Porter took part in just his second race meeting in more than a decade at Brands Hatch last weekend. Porter drove his Peugeot 205 GTI to two class wins (twice fifth overall) in the Track Attack races, having focused on the karting career of son Morgan since his title successes in the…

The C1 Endurance series attracts a wide variety of drivers to its low-budget one-make long-distance racing. From novices to British Touring Car race winners like Josh Cook, there’s room for everyone in the three-cylinder Citroen C1s. Joining Cook on the grid at Brands Hatch last weekend was category first-timer Freddie Hunt. After a hugely varied career since making his Formula Ford debut in 2007, the son of 1976 Formula 1 world champion James Hunt is currently competing in the pan-European Le Mans Cup for LMP3 machinery. Stepping into former BTCC frontrunner Patrick Watts’s two-car PWR C1 team brought Hunt the opportunity to race against his girlfriend, Watts’s daughter Aimee. More accurately, it was a new arena in which to test what Aimee calls their “big rivalry”. “It was just a…

DONINGTON PARK LEGENDS Races 1 & 4 Miles Rudman Races 2, 5 & 6 Will Gibson Race 3 Stephen Whitelegg PICKUPS Races 1 & 2 George Turiccki BRITISH TRUCK RACING Races 1 & 5 Ryan Smith (Daimler) Race 2 Simon Reid (Iveco Stralis) Race 3 David Jenkins (MAN TGX) Race 4 Michael Oliver (MAN) CNC HEADS SPORTS & SALOONS Races 1 & 2 Jon Woolfitt (Spire GTR) JUNIOR SALOONS Maximus Hall PRAGA CUP Race 1 Gordie Mutch/Jimmy Broadbent Race 2 Charles Hall/Scott Mittell BRITISH ENDURANCE Tom Jackson/Wayne Marrs (Mercedes GT3) CADWELL PARK MAZDA MX-5 CHAMPIONSHIP Race 1 Fraser Fenwick Race 2 Steve Foden Race 3 Sebastian Fisher ST-XR CHALLENGE Races 1 & 3 Matthew Pimlott (Fiesta ST150) Race 2 Michael Blackburn (Fiesta ST150) FIESTA CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 3 Zachary…

KNOCKHILL SMRC 21 AUGUST Michael Weddell heads into the final round of the Scottish Mini Cooper Cup season with an 11-point cushion over Chad Little after producing a veritable Houdini act at Knockhill last weekend. The reigning champion entered the weekend nearly a full race win clear of nearest rival Little, but a driveshaft failure meant Weddell couldn’t set a laptime in qualifying. Things took a further turn for the worse as his morning altercation with the kerbs at the Chicane damaged the oil filter housing so much that he became a non-starter for the opener. But a second and third place in the remaining two races ensured Weddell kept his points lead before October’s finale. “After the way the day started, I would have bitten anyone’s hand off to…

MALLORY PARK PRE-WAR ALLCOMERS Patrick Blakeney-Edwards (Frazer Nash Super Sports) GRAND PRIX ITALA TROPHY FOR VINTAGE CARS Patrick Blakeney-Edwards (Frazer Nash Super Sports) STANDARD AND MODIFIED PRE-WAR SPORTS CARS Sue Darbyshire (Morgan Super Aero) MALLORY PARK TROPHY FOR VSCC SPECIALS Sandford Andrews (Morgan Aero 2str) BOB GERARD MEMORIAL TROPHY FOR PRE-’66 RACING CARS Justin Maeers (Cooper-Climax T53) 500 OWNERS ASSOCIATION Alex Wilson (Cooper Mk10) TRIPLE-M REGISTER Mike Painter (MG Kayne) DICK BADDILEY HANDICAP TROPHY Rob Hubbard (Vauxhall 30-98) SHORT HANDICAP FOR PRE-WAR CARS Alastair Bailey (Riley 9 2-Seat Special) ALLCOMERS FAST HANDICAP Rebecca Smith (Morris Mord) For full results visit: theresultslive.co.uk KNOCKHILL SCOTTISH MINI COOPER CUP Races 1 & 2 Craig Blake (R53) Race 3 Jack Irvine (Cooper) SCOTTISH FIESTA ST CUP Race 1 Steven Gray Race 2 Liam McGill…

VIDEO GAME F1 MANAGER 2022 RRP £44.99 (available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox) Release date 30 August Lando Norris has speared off the Spanish asphalt, hit the barrier on the outside of the fourth corner and retired. This has left us with just young Oscar Piastri – sorry Daniel, we traded you – upholding McLaren’s honour. The young Aussie is currently sitting outside of the points in 11th. This is crucial, because the team’s sworn enemy in this version of reality, Valtteri Bottas, is riding high in fourth. Alfa Romeo sits 10 points ahead of the papaya-painted squad in the teams’ standings, occupying the fourth place our board demands. Time to lower the speed of the race from 16x to real time and micro-manage Piastri’s route to a points-paying finish.…

Jim Clark holds his Lotus-Climax 25 in a sublime drift during the 1963 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The Scotsman set the pace throughout practice, securing pole position by two tenths of a second ahead of Dan Gurney’s Brabham-Climax BT7. Things didn’t go quite to plan at the start of the race, when he dropped to fifth place, but by the end of lap four he was back in control, pulling out a lead that was to prove untouchable. His winning margin of 25.8s over John Surtees’s Ferrari 156 fails to fully reflect his dominance, as he had eased up over the final laps due to concerns over fuel consumption. For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/f1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…