Indholdsfortegnelse for 9/1/2022 i Autosport

Max Verstappen is ticking more and more of the boxes to be one of Formula 1’s greats and did so again at the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend. His sublime Spa performance made him the 22nd driver to win a world championship GP (we’re excluding the anomalous Indianapolis 500s of the 1950s) from outside the top 10 on the grid. As Matt Kew shows in our report on page 16, the Red Bull star was on another level and had charged from 13th into victory contention before one-quarter distance. The ease with which he then nailed his ninth win of 2022, followed (at a distance) by team-mate Sergio Perez, must be serious concern for Ferrari. The more-stringent floor tests don’t seem to have hurt Red Bull one bit… It was…

FORMULA 1 AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly has emerged as a surprise candidate for a switch to Alpine in 2023, Autosport has learned. And in an even more unexpected development, IndyCar star Colton Herta has been linked with a future at AlphaTauri. Publicly, Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer insists that his squad won’t think about other drivers until the Contract Recognition Board’s ruling on Oscar Piastri (see p5). But sources suggest that Alpine has already indicated its interest in Gasly (right) to AlphaTauri parent Red Bull. The Frenchman was confirmed for 2023 by AlphaTauri on 24 June, so any move to get him will have to involve a deal that will suit Red Bull, and inevitably a substantial payment. But Red Bull could be open to releasing Gasly if the terms…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali insists that the series doesn’t need any new teams, casting doubts on Michael Andretti’s efforts to gain an entry. Andretti (right) has made clear his frustration at the apparent slow progress regarding his attempt to join the grid, having failed last year in his efforts to buy Sauber. Domenicali suggested that he’s happy with the current figure of 10 entrants and that a newcomer isn’t required to add value to F1, particularly with new manufacturers such as Audi and Porsche joining the grid. He also stressed that, along with Andretti, other parties have indicated an interest in entering, but have kept a lower profile. “I think today in the actual status of F1, it’s not a problem of quantity, where we can see…

Two-time BTCC race winner Tom Oliphant made a surprise return to the series at Thruxton for a one-off last weekend. Oliphant has moved to Australia with his fiancee, and they were back home visiting friends and family when he was contacted by Team Hard chief Tony Gilham after regular Will Powell stood down from the event due to other commitments. Oliphant, who says he is attempting to put a commercial package together to race in the Super2 feeder series to Aussie Supercars, dragged his old BMW racesuit out and took the wheel of Hard’s vacant Cupra Leon. Brake failure on his out-lap in qualifying scuppered his chances, and his best finish was 20th.…

He was so keen to send another ‘karma’ message to a vanquished rival that he missed his engineer’s increasingly firm radio instructions to adjust a car setting. Just as Fernando Alonso once delighted in learning Jolyon Palmer’s Renault had exited the 2017 Italian Grand Prix, he was again sending a message as he wagged his finger at Lewis Hamilton’s stricken Mercedes while passing by under safety car conditions early in last Sunday’s Belgian GP. Alonso fumed as only he can. But, aside from the negative impact the incident had on the race, four things really stand out now that Formula 1 is a few days removed and heading towards Zandvoort for Max Verstappen’s latest home race. Let’s start with Alonso. This whole episode simply highlights his worth to F1. There’s…

Not only was Max Verstappen’s romp to the spoils of glory in the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend the very finest work of his Formula 1 career, but his weekend-long performance should surely rank somewhere among the all-time great displays. Of the 1071 world championship races now held, only 14 have been won by a driver starting further back than he did at Spa. Adding to the case in favour, Verstappen’s mesmeric recovery came after he had absolutely dominated qualifying to top the order by six tenths, and despite needing to overcome a chunky grid penalty. Such was his command that, despite having lined up down in 13th, the reigning champion was already contemplating the “good possibility” of seizing the victory as early as lap eight of 44. Spa, which…

Williams driver Alex Albon was left celebrating “one of the tougher races I’ve done in my career and also one of my personal bests” after finishing 10th at Spa. Albon starred in qualifying to reach ninth in Q3, boosted by a low-drag rear wing, and lined up sixth after grid penalties dropped others further back. After slipping behind McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo at the start, Albon was one of many easily overcome by the recovering Max Verstappen and then continued his battle with the McLaren ahead of the first stops. Williams opted to pit Albon early each time to bank track position and rely on his searing top speed to stay ahead. This meant he headed a DRS train of six cars at the finish, ahead of Lance Stroll after holding…

McLaren left Spa without any points to show for its efforts after a lack of race top speed with DRS engaged hurt the orange squad. In qualifying, Lando Norris reckoned “we were quicker than Red Bull” in “pure straightline condition”. But come the race and the DRS trains that developed, the Briton thought he and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo were “missing [something] with DRS that makes our overtaking opportunities less than other people”. The straightline deficit, made worse for McLaren because the slipstream effect is reduced with the 2022 car designs, meant Ricciardo slipped back from starting seventh and Norris found his progress up the order stymied. Norris had started 16th after being among the host of drivers to take new engines at this event and, once he came up against…

Amid a hectic BTCC silly season, Ash Hand’s graduation with a minnow team seven years after his narrow defeat to Ash Sutton in the 2015 Clio Cup UK caused only a few minor ripples. But Hand, who in between times claimed the GT4 crown in the 2019 British GT Championship, has been looking ever-stronger at the wheel of his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra. At Thruxton he qualified the venerable machine sixth, and impressively raced to fifth position in the opening race as he bids to build himself a BTCC career. Hand has a five-year deal with his sponsor, used-car emporium CarStore, and “the plan is to be winning the championship in years two or three. We know we’ve got to progress but, the way this season is starting to…

IMSA SPORTSCAR VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY (USA) 28 AUGUST ROUND 11/12 Factory Porsche pair Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet combined to scored a hard-earned victory for Pfaff Motorsports in Sunday’s GT-only IMSA round at Virginia International Raceway. The pair’s fifth win of the season almost assured them of the GTD Pro title with one race remaining. The second GT-only race on the IMSA calendar proved to be a thriller as differing strategies abounded during the two-hours-and-40-minutes contest, which included just one, brief full-course caution almost exactly at the halfway point. As always, the caution assisted some teams and disadvantaged others. One of the most unfortunate was the factory GTD Pro Corvette team. Antonio Garcia had run third in the early stages, directly behind Ross Gunn’s pole-winning Heart of Racing Team Aston…

NASCAR CUP DAYTONA (USA) 28 AUGUST ROUND 26/36 Austin Dillon’s only chance to advance to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was to win the regular-season finale at Daytona – he did, but it took nearly two days. Saturday night’s race was postponed to Sunday morning due to persistent thunderstorms. Then, after Dillon emerged from a massive wreck on lap 138 of 160 with the lead, he had to wait out another three-hour-and-20-minute rain delay to defend it. Dillon restarted in the lead on lap 145 but quickly lost it to Austin Cindric. With three laps remaining, Dillon got into the back of Cindric entering Turn 1 and got him loose, which allowed Dillon to reclaim the lead. He then held off his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team-mate, Tyler Reddick, by…

BRC Three-time British Rally runner-up Tom Cave will make history this weekend on Rali Ceredigion, becoming the first driver to compete on a UK stage rally in an all-electric vehicle. Cave, who was most recently runner-up to Matt Edwards in 2019, will compete in a Vauxhall Corsa-e, a 100%-electric rally car that has been built by Opel Motorsport – for the purpose of competing in the ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup in Germany – with this model currently owned by Myerscough College & University Centre in Preston. Work between Ceredigion County Council, the FIA and Motorsport UK has enabled the event to become the first ever multi-venue stage rally in the UK to introduce a class exclusively for electric vehicles. “Being a local event to me and one I enjoyed immensely…

CLIO SPORT Points leader Jack Dwane says he is determined to race in the 750 Motor Club’s Clio Sport triple-header season finale at Snetterton in October after a shunt at Brands Hatch last weekend left his Clio 182 written off. Reigning champion Dwane’s car suffered two sizeable hits at Clark Curve in the opening Clio race from the 182s of a spinning Nick Brady (who had tangled with Charles Shelbourn) and then the unsighted Brian Reed. South African Reed’s car briefly caught fire, and both he and Dwane required treatment in the medical centre before being given the all-clear. Shelbourn was disqualified for his collision with Brady, which triggered the incident. Despite a zero score, Dwane still leads the 182 class and outright points standings. “I’d actually hung back from…

The great and the good of motorsport were out in force at Thruxton last Thursday for the second running of the Racing4Charity karting event, all with the purpose of raising funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. Autosport was once again invited to take part in the two-hour race, organised by ex-Formula 1 driver David Brabham and Bill Williams, whose brother Gideon is the inspiration behind the event, having been diagnosed in 2019 with the debilitating disease – and having lost his life to it just over a month ago. “Gideon loved karting, we used to do the karting at the Autosport show at the NEC; David and I ran that. Gideon every year would pay the public rate and come and join, he just loved it,” said Bill. “He…

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP The terrifying race-two crash for Mike Brown and Colin White was at the forefront of the Ginetta GT4 Supercup paddock’s mind at Thruxton last weekend (see News), but the event also featured more success for James Kellett as he drew level with the record for the most wins in a season with 11. It had looked like Century driver Kellett would have a real fight on his hands for success as ever-improving Elite Motorsport racer Tom Emson impressively qualified on pole by over two tenths. But his G56 was hobbled come the opening race with engine woes severely hampering his performance and that enabled Kellett and Aston Millar to blast ahead on the opening tour and left Emson having to settle for third. Emson was then putting…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB The Thruxton Porsche Carrera Cup GB weekend was all about two drivers who have slipped out of realistic title contention as Gus Burton and Theo Edgerton claimed the spoils, while Will Martin dramatically cut Kiern Jewiss’s points lead. It was Martin who set the pace in qualifying, posting a time just 0.059 seconds faster than Burton, while Jewiss was four tenths adrift and down in seventh. But it was clear from the very start that Martin would face a fight on his hands to convert that pole into a fourth win of the season. Century driver Burton challenged Martin into the Complex on the first lap and then spent the next eight tours glued to the rear of the Richardson Racing machine. Martin was regularly locking…

KIRKISTOWN 500MRCI LEINSTER TROPHY 27 AUGUST The Leinster Trophy is Ireland’s longest-running perpetual event, first run in 1934 when Fay Taylour won on a road course outside Skerries, north of Dublin. It has subsequently resided at venues such as the road circuits at Tallaght, Wicklow and Dunboyne as well as one visit to Bishopscourt and various versions of Mondello Park. Last year the ‘Leinster’ came to Kirkistown, and the venue hosted the event again last weekend. A Formula Libre event during its early life – and run as a handicap race for much of the time – it has since been presented for various classes of racing and most recently for Big Open Single-Seater Ireland cars. Last year Sylvie Mullins’s unique Judd-powered Gould took the honours, but this year it…

Chatting to drivers across the UK’s club racing paddocks serves as a reminder that they are just like us enthusiasts – ordinary folk with mostly ordinary day jobs. Often unseen is the strain that ‘living for racing’ puts on the day job, with limited time to arrive at a circuit ready for scrutineering and then, when all is done, to begin the chore of packing up and heading home to be back at the desk – or on site – the following morning. The 750 Motor Club’s paddocks are a prime example of the true club competitor. Only in early July had the Silverstone Wing’s pit garages been occupied by Formula 1 royalty. Now, mid-August, their splendour was being enjoyed by those in old 750 Formula machinery and several-thousand-pound Toyotas.…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC DAVE ALLAN TROPHY Chris Everill/Ben Scrivens (Ginetta G55) CCRC FORMULA FORD Felix Fisher (Ray GR05, above) HRDC CLASSIC ALFA CHALLENGE Chris Snowdon (Alfetta 2000 GTV) HRDC JACK SEARS TROPHY Ben Colburn (Morris Mini Cooper S) CCRC GTs Lucky Khera (Lamborghini Huracan GT3) HRDC ALLSTARS Alex Thistlethwayte (Ford Mustang) CCRC SALOONS Adam Prebble (Vauxhall Astra) OULTON PARK SWINGING SIXTIES Group 1 Connor Kay (MG Midget) Group 2 Mark Halstead (Ginetta G4) MODERN CLASSICS/FUTURE CLASSICS Oliver Smith (BMW M3 E36 Evo) NEW MILLENNIUM/OPEN SERIES/TURBO TIN TOPS Darren Fielding (BMW M3 E46 GTR) CLASSIC K Jamie Boot (TVR Griffith) TIN TOPS Chris Warburton (Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk1, below) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

Keke Rosberg is best remembered for winning the Formula 1 World Championship for Williams in 1982, but his lengthy motorsport career also straddled different disciplines as a driver. Equally adept in prototypes and touring cars, the Finn was also a prolific driver manager, whose charges had the opportunity to benchmark themselves against the old master during his spell with Opel’s DTM team between 1993 and 1995. One of those proteges, two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Manuel Reuter, says Rosberg still would have been his favourite team-mate without any managerial relationship, even if “this situation was I think quite unusual”. The pair drove together for Joest Racing in the 1994 DTM after giving the new Calibra its debut at the 1993 Hockenheim finale, with Reuter taking the programme’s first win…

FORMULA 1 After years of links to a Formula 1 entry amid its success at the Le Mans 24 Hours and Formula E, Audi finally announced at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix that it will be taking the plunge as an engine manufacturer in 2026. The move comes after the FIA finalised the next generation of F1 power unit regulations that will come into force for 2026, ditching the MGU-H and placing a greater emphasis on electric power, as well as embracing the use of sustainable fuels. These factors prompted the VW Group board to give the green light for Audi and its sister brand Porsche to enter F1, although no announcement has yet been made about Porsche’s plans with Red Bull. Audi board chairman Markus Duesmann made the announcement…

FORMULA 1 Spa will remain on the Formula 1 calendar for 2023 after agreeing a new one-year deal, while South Africa faces a delay to get back on the schedule. With the Belgian Grand Prix out of contract after this year, F1 officials looked set to drop the race for 2023 amid the influx of new events, including a return to Kyalami for the first time since 1993. The prospect of having a calendar without Spa was met dimly by F1 drivers, teams and enthusiasts, all of whom received good news on Sunday when a one-year extension was revealed. It is understood that Spa may shift to a July slot on next year’s calendar. The deal comes after efforts were made by Spa’s organisers to renovate the track (right) in…

BTCC British Touring Car Championship topliners Ash Sutton and Josh Cook were left disagreeing on a controversial clash between the pair as they battled for second place in the opening race at Thruxton last weekend. Sutton’s Motorbase Ford Focus and Cook’s BTC Racing Honda Civic had both traded paint with the BMW of Jake Hill into the first part of the Complex at Campbell on the opening lap. Cook then made contact with Sutton at Cobb, before Sutton repaid the compliment at Segrave, sending the Honda into a half-spin onto the grass. While Sutton went on to finish third, his long-time friend Cook dropped to 18th before recovering to 13th. “It was a hard contact and it damaged the right-rear suspension, and that put an end to my race really,”…

DTM Former DTM champion Martin Tomczyk has taken a greater role within the series’ organising body, and is even being tipped as a possible successor at the helm of the ITR to current encumbent Gerhard Berger. After retiring from racing at the end of last season, Tomczyk joined the ITR to head up promotion of its GT4-based DTM Trophy support series with the job title of DTM Representative Brand & Sports. He has now taken on greater responsibility for “the sporting direction of the DTM platform”, after what’s been described as an internal restructure. Frederic Elsner, previously in charge of series management, will focus on developing the fan experience. “Luckily, it’s an increasing volume of workload we are facing, and to make that happen in a very precise and direct…

Audi has been unexpectedly pointed in its reasoning for entering Formula 1, acting in a way most unlike the massive, grey-suited corporation that it is. In the very first paragraph of the official announcement of its new engine programme was this line: “This is the first time in more than a decade that a Formula 1 powertrain will be built in Germany.” The social media posts ran the message that the four rings will be “the new stars”. This comes as the Ingolstadt boardroom believes Mercedes can be beaten both on track and at the forecourt via the medium of grand prix racing. Whether you consider those lines to be entertaining needle or simply needless, there’s no escaping the enormity of the task at hand for Audi. Press conference at…

For the climax of qualifying, the lead Red Bull sat in the garage, its cockpit vacant. This was a scene reminiscent of Sebastian Vettel in his pomp, and one created by the sheer mastery of Max Verstappen. His first effort in Q3 was the only lap of the weekend to drop below 1m44s, and he was duly rewarded with a cavernous 0.632-second cushion to Carlos Sainz. Although the pressure was relieved a little, the Dutch ace knowing he had to serve a grid penalty for exceeding the upper limit of power unit elements used, he was still simply brilliant. When his Ferrari rivals clipped the gravel, his team-mate ran wide to nick the floor and the Mercedes were nowhere, Verstappen was almost perfect. A slightly scruffy first apex at the…

Lewis Hamilton escaped sanction from the Belgian Grand Prix stewards despite being found to be at fault for his first-lap crash with Alpine driver Fernando Alonso. After both former McLaren teammates had cleared the slow-starting Sergio Perez’s Red Bull when the lights went out, Hamilton used the big slipstream effect running up the Kemmel Straight to blast ahead of Alonso on the outside line into the first part of Les Combes. But he swung sharply across the Spaniard’s bows, with Alonso climbing over the kerbs to avoid a clash. This still couldn’t be prevented, and Hamilton was sent bouncing dramatically up in the air when his right-rear touched Alonso’s left-front. Perez and George Russell nipped past the pair on the exit, after which Alonso fumed about Hamilton’s driving and the…

Cars spanning 98 years, across 20 races, and fine Porsche 956/962 demos, characterised the 2022 Classic, but last Saturday’s sensational opening Historic Formula Junior tour and Sunday’s epic Pre-’66 Touring Car curtain-closer starred. Both will linger in the memories of spectators and petrolheads watching live streaming around the world. Having lost his mother Julia to cancer in May, factory McLaren GT racer Michael O’Brien set out to fulfil her wish for him to win both Junior races at Silverstone in the SpeedSport Brabham. All looked lost on Saturday when an electrical glitch left it 15mph down on the Hangar Straight and Cam Jackson tore ahead in Peter Arundell’s 1962 Monaco-winning Lotus 22. By maximising his steed’s corner speeds brilliantly – but principally by reading lapped traffic better than rivals –…

FIA FORMULA 2 SPA (BEL) 27-28 AUGUST ROUND 11/14 Jack Doohan had a superb weekend at Spa to take his maiden Formula 2 feature-race victory to add to second place in the sprint. The Virtuosi Racing driver started fourth before a great launch moved him up to second by La Source, and an undercut at the pitstops put him ahead of championship leader Felipe Drugovich. Polesitter Drugovich closed in as Doohan tackled those who had stayed out longer on the alternate strategy, but the Australian held fast to cross the line almost two seconds ahead of the MP Motorsport man. Drugovich’s second-place finish came after title rival Theo Pourchaire had a heartbreaking retirement on lap three, and the ART Grand Prix ace is now 43 points adrift in the standings.…

DTM NURBURGRING (DEU) 27-28 AUGUST ROUND 5/8 If Mirko Bortolotti doesn’t win the 2022 DTM title, the inquest will surely point to the Grasser Lamborghini man’s weekend at the Nurburgring as a principal factor. The pre-event championship leader’s nine-point advantage became a 21-point deficit to Schubert BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde after he came away emptyhanded from a weekend when second and fifth were there for the taking. Bortolotti has been a study in consistency all year, fast everywhere, albeit without winning a race. But the desire to right that statistic proved his undoing. Dense fog that caused Saturday’s qualifying session to be cancelled meant the grid was set in championship order, handing Bortolotti a free pole. The mist took most of the day to clear and the race finally…

UK MOTORSPORT Three serious accidents across two meetings that resulted in four drivers being taken to hospital overshadowed the Bank Holiday weekend’s racing. The first incident occurred on lap two of the second Ginetta GT4 Supercup contest at Thruxton on Sunday. G56 Am racer Mike Brown ran slightly wide out of the high-speed Church Corner before losing control, having got on the grass on the opposite side of the track, and was hit by Colin White’s G56 up Woodham Hill. This sent White’s CWS car into a frightening series of rolls and the race was immediately red-flagged. It is understood that White was able to get out of his car himself and was taken to hospital by road, where he was found to have two broken vertebrae along with a…

BRITISH GT Multiple British GT title-winning team Beechdean AMR will return to the championship for the final round of the season at Donington Park in October. The team has had vast amounts of success in the category, with team principal Andrew Howard claiming the outright GT3 title in 2013 and 2015, while back-to-back GT4 crowns were added in 2014 and 2015. The team’s most recent success came with Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman when they took 2019 GT4 Pro-Am honours. Howard and four-time champion Jonny Adam competed in the opening rounds last season. The team’s efforts turned to GT World Challenge Europe in 2022, but will withdraw from the championship for the remainder of the season. “We’re very excited to return to British GT at Donington,” said Howard. “We’re a…

BRITISH HILLCLIMB The battle between Wallace Menzies and Alex Summers for this year’s British Hillclimb Championship is set to go down to the wire over the two remaining events at Prescott this weekend and at Loton Park at the end of September. Reigning champion Menzies has a five-point advantage over Summers, who won the title in 2015. But both drivers are now dropping scores and will count their best 24 scores from the 29 events due to run. Once dropped scores are factored in, Summers is effectively two points behind because he has three seven-point scores to drop, while Menzies has eights to lose. Such has been their consistency this season that both drivers will probably end the season dropping points scored for third-place run-off finishes. Summers knows that he…

BRITISH F4 Alex Dunne’s domination of British Formula 4 reached record-breaking proportions at Thruxton. That he has been the standout driver this year is undisputed, but he has now claimed the most wins in a single season in the FIA F4 category’s history having taken his tally for the year to 11 last weekend. But more important to the Irishman than that piece of F4 history is the size of the points lead he now enjoys. With closest rival Oliver Gray having an event to forget, Dunne’s advantage has grown to 106 and he is on the brink of sealing the title next time out at Silverstone. Of Dunne’s near-dozen victories, the triumphs around the Hampshire speedbowl were not his most dominant – but they did not need to be.…

MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY It was not just the GT4 Supercup that had its second race red-flagged for a serious crash, as there was also a sizeable shunt for Jonathan Sargeant in the Mini Challenge Trophy. Aside from that, there was some super racing at Thruxton as Tom Ovenden claimed a first win of 2022 before series dominator Nelson King demonstrated his prowess in race two. Two safety car periods meant the opener was a stop/start affair, but that did not faze Excelr8’s former rallycross star Ovenden as he resisted pressure from behind on each restart to win from team-mate Matt Hammond, first-time podium finisher Jack Byrne and King. But the long delay for the Minis to then complete another full racing lap was worth the wait as the second encounter…

Gus Burton made a statement when he qualified on pole on his Porsche Carrera Cup GB debut at Donington Park. Especially when considering he was two tenths faster than the competitive pack and his Century Motorsport team was new to the championship, competing against successful Porsche squads that have been a part of the series for almost 20 years. However, while that Donington weekend demonstrated reigning British GT4 champion Burton’s undoubted pace, it also proved to be a microcosm of the opening half of his season. In the first race, he clashed with the attacking Kiern Jewiss and fell to an eventual fourth with a slow puncture before then retiring from the second contest after striking the chicane’s tyre stack. More misfortune followed at Oulton Park, where he failed to…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC 29 AUGUST What should have been a hugely entertaining afternoon of racing at Castle Combe was brought to a standstill after a serious accident involving historics racer Charles Knill-Jones soberly reminded all that motorsport remains dangerous. With little more than half an hour’s racing gone, the track fell silent as the medical team carefully extracted the stricken driver, and then for helicopter crews to arrive and depart (see News). But, once racing got back under way, those who remained were rewarded with a succession of thrillers where the outcome could only be predicted on the short run out of the final corner to the flag. Saving the best until last, the annual Dave Allan Trophy race produced an epic encounter between the Porsche of father-and-son pairing Kevin…

BOOK 50 FIRST VICTORIES Al Pearce and Mike Hembree RRP £30.00 The history of the NASCAR Cup Series is rich with legendary drivers who have captured the imagination of fans over the past seven decades. But even Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon were, at one time or another, little-known racers trying to break into Victory Lane for the first time, seeking to write their names into the history books. A new book from Octane Press, 50 First Victories, tells the story of how that trio and many more made it to the winners’ circle and the impact they made on NASCAR. Written by veteran NASCAR journalists Al Pearce and Mike Hembree, the book covers the full and rich history of the Cup Series from its first race at…

The DTM’s brace of classic support series continue to get aficionados salivating, and last weekend at the Nurburgring it was the turn of the Classic DRM Cup to take the stage. You’ve already seen Mucke Motorsport founder Peter Mucke’s Zakspeed Capri in these pages, but this time his son, former DTM racer Stefan, raced against him in a BMW M1 Procar. The machine carries the livery of the machines in which F1 drivers were invited to compete in 1979-80, with Mucke Jr’s weapon bearing the name and #6 used in 1979 for Nelson Piquet, who went on to win the 1980 title. The younger Mucke gave the BMW victory on Saturday, but didn’t compete on Sunday, leaving his 75-year-old dad to take honours in his ex-Klaus Ludwig Capri.…

BTCC British Touring Car Championship race winner Dan Lloyd’s season has been saved after Excelr8 Motorsport title backer Bristol Street Motors stepped in to help with his budget. Lloyd was left with a shortfall of over £50,000 due to the damage sustained in his Oulton Park crash in June. He took his repaired Excelr8 Hyundai i30 N to two wins next time out at Croft, but was expecting to have to miss the final two rounds at Silverstone and Brands Hatch. An initiative to offer special packages in return for contributions raised over £10,000, before BSM stepped in with a top-up in time for last weekend’s round at Thruxton. “There’s still work to do until I can finally say that the damage bill has been settled, but I feel a…

UK START TIMES Friday 2 September FP1 1130 FP2 1500 Saturday 3 September FP3 1100 QUALIFYING 1400 Sunday 4 September RACE 1400 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1830 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors RACE STATS Previous winners Zandvoort points tallies Verstappen 25 Hamilton 19 Bottas 15 Gasly 12 Leclerc 10 Alonso 8 Sainz 6 Perez 4 Ocon 2 Norris 1…

Whether we like it or not, motorsport is very much in a transition phase and the consumption of it is changing too. Formula 1’s various shifts in recent years are a case in point. The series is moving further away from traditional venues in favour of fan-hub street tracks, while it has made format tweaks to something that hasn’t really changed that much for decades. Of course, we’re talking about sprint races. F1’s radical decision to try three sprint races on a Saturday to decide the grid for the main grand prix was met with raised eyebrows in 2021, but it was generally well-received, and three more were pencilled in for 2022 with the aim of increasing that output in the future. Inevitably, then, it seemed only a matter of…

Lance Stroll only just failed to secure Aston Martin’s targeted double points finish at Spa, with the Canadian battling to 11th while team-mate Sebastian Vettel finished eighth. The pair nearly came to blows on lap one as they ran through Les Combes in the aftermath of the Lewis Hamilton/Fernando Alonso shunt, with Vettel’s move exiting the second apex putting Stroll briefly in the gravel and losing him a place to Alex Albon. On the next lap, Stroll’s aggressive defence against Charles Leclerc briefly put the Ferrari on the Kemmel Straight grass. From there, Stroll was engaged in a fight with Esteban Ocon (who would later go on to pass Vettel in a double move involving Pierre Gasly and finish ahead in seventh), then the McLarens and Albon. “Losing some positions…

When a competitor is described as “on fire”, the usual meaning is metaphorical. Unfortunately, Dan Cammish was literally so on the first day of the 2022 British Touring Car Championship, when his car caught ablaze. And since then, his season had merely smouldered and almost blown out. But last weekend at Thruxton, Cammish and his Motorbase Performance-run, NAPA-liveried Ford Focus ST were unstoppable. The former nearly-man who’d become something of a nowhere man is now the man. He was the man in a sporting sense too. Cammish’s travails this year meant he arrived at Thruxton a lowly 12th in the points, with team-mate Ash Sutton embroiled in a four-way fight for the title. The Yorkshireman inched himself up to 11th with victory in the first race, then he gifted Sutton…

One of the appeals of the Classic is that it introduces new ‘historic’ races, but the strengths and weaknesses of that were on display last weekend. Tim de Silva and Michael Lyons were the stars of the 31-car Masters Endurance Legends field, while the Masters GT4 Classic Silverstone Challenge showed that some ideas can be premature. Steve Tandy qualified his Peugeot 90X on pole for race one for the GTs and sportsprototypes of the 1995-2016 era, but came under attack from de Silva’s Gulf-liveried Pescarolo. The two LMP1s swapped places when de Silva dived inside at Brooklands on lap three. He pulled away before the stops, only for alternator failure to put the car out shortly after father Harin jumped aboard. That left Tandy to take victory on the road,…

FIA FORMULA 3 SPA (BEL) 27-28 AUGUST ROUND 7/9 It was a weekend of two first-time winners in FIA Formula 3 at Spa. Ollie Bearman triumphed in the sprint race, before Zane Maloney took victory in Sunday’s feature encounter, one day after smashing into the barriers and rolling at the high-speed Blanchimont sweeper. Ferrari protege Bearman lined up fifth for the sprint in his Prema Racing car, and immediately moved up one place. There was chaos at Les Combes, when polesitter Zak O’Sullivan and Juan Manuel Correa made contact as he attempted to prevent the ART driver making a pass for the lead. That gave Correa a puncture, and caused front-wing damage for Carlin driver O’Sullivan. Just behind Bearman, Franco Colapinto was tapped into a spin by Jonny Edgar, for…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES BARCELONA (ESP) 28 AUGUST ROUND 4/6 Lorenzo Colombo, Louis Deletraz and Ferdinand Habsburg took Prema Racing’s third European Le Mans Series victory in four races at the 4 Hours of Barcelona. The Italian squad started out in a relatively low-key seventh place, but a particularly strong opening stint from Habsburg meant its ORECA quickly rose up through the field. By the time an early safety car was called for a pair of opening-lap skirmishes involving GTE and LMP3 machinery, the Austrian was already up to fourth behind Panis Racing’s polesitter Julien Canal, Racing Team Turkey’s Salih Yoluc and Cool Racing youngster Niklas Kruetten. Both Kruetten and Habsburg made short work of gentleman driver Yoluc following the restart, with Habsburg making a move on the German less…

SUPER GT SUZUKA (JPN) 28 AUGUST ROUND 5/8 Team Impul Nissan pair Bertrand Baguette and Kazuki Hiramine scored an unlikely last-to-first victory in an action-packed 450km race at Suzuka. A well-timed safety car period helped the Calsonic-liveried Nissan Z recover from 15th on the grid, but Hiramine, who took over from Baguette at the first round of pitstops, still had to work hard in the closing laps to seal the deal. The caution period came just as the Impul car was in the pitlane for its second stop, promoting Hiramine to fourth behind the Real Racing Honda of Koudai Tsukakoshi, the SARD Toyota of Yuichi Nakayama (also in the pits at the time) and the NISMO Nissan of Tsugio Matsuda. Hiramine then dispensed with both Nakayama and Matsuda. He dropped…

BRITISH RALLYCROSS British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy points leader Patrick O’Donovan secured a brace of wins at Pembrey last weekend, but had to battle for both successes to extend his margin at the top of the standings. The 18-year-old drove his way to the front in the opening Q1 race to set the first fastest time before a broken driveshaft from contact in Q2 dropped him down the order. He still battled back to win both his semi-final, despite getting shoved off the outside of the circuit at Turn 2, and the final from pole to secure his fourth win of the campaign. In round eight the following day, with the circuit reversed to run in the clockwise direction, O’Donovan again missed out on Q1 pole, but again drove…

HISTORIC FF2000 Former GB3 driver Alex Fores is set to make his return to racing in Historic Formula Ford 2000 at Croft this weekend, following a July Castle Combe crash. Fores went off at Camp in the Magnificent Sevens race at the Wiltshire venue, striking a gate that leads to the assembly area and suffered tears on his lungs and liver from the impact. He is now due to make a comeback driving Jennifer Ridgway’s Reynard SF78, with Ridgway unable to make the Croft event. Both Fores and his dad Richard have coached Ridgway and her father Graham, leading to Fores Jr being offered the outing. Ridgway Sr, meanwhile, was racing a different car last weekend, stepping up to Historic F2 in the ex-Richard Evans/Andrew Smith March 742 at the…

SAUBER WOE FOR ACHESON The Sauber-Mercedes C9 owned by Kenny Acheson failed to join the Group C demonstration at the Silverstone Classic last weekend due to water-pump issues. Had Acheson taken part, it would have been his first time on a race track since he retired in 1996. DALY MAKES GT DEBUT British GT race director and British Racing & Sports Car Club chairman Peter Daly qualified 10th in the 16-car GT4 Classic Silverstone Challenge last weekend. The Formula Ford 1600 driver took his Team Parker Porsche Cayman to 12th in both races on his GT debut. ABBOTT ENDS RACING LAYOFF After a gap of eight years, Lionel Abbott returned to racing to share the Ford Escort Mk1 of Nick Whale at the Silverstone Classic. Former Production Saloon ace Abbott…

GINETTA JUNIOR Thruxton is the closest circuit to the Dorset home of Josh Rowledge, but even he can’t have previously explored the grass bordering the track to quite the extent that he did last Sunday. That the Ginetta Junior points leader did so twice – and backwards on one occasion! – yet still won the finale was the most remarkable feat of a sensational weekend of slipstreaming action. On the third lap, Rowledge’s R Racing car was forced off at the gentle left-hand kink on the run to the Complex. Yet he kept his foot pinned, sped across the grass and rejoined the track at Cobb in the lead. The following lap, he clashed with Kanato Le at the same spot and this time spun backwards, dropping to eighth position.…

SNETTERTON BARC 2CV 24 HOURS 26-28 AUGUST The Team Lion crew made it a third successive win in the Classic 2CV 24-hour race at Snetterton last weekend, Pete Sparrow and David O’Keeffe sharing with Gary Adnitt for the second year in a row. For the first hour or so there was a lead duel between Sparrow and Crisis at Tete Rouge’s Alec Graham, both having a spell in front. Sparrow handed over to Adnitt then O’Keeffe, with the team gradually consolidating its lead – which grew considerably to 10 laps by half-distance. Nick Roads, Andrew Bull and Ian Gibbon had shared the Tete Rouge car but, after Graham had hit the Frogettes machine during the early hours, they continued to lose ground, as Car Caryl moved into second, with Louis…

BRANDS HATCH 750MC 27 AUGUST Christopher Nylan or Jake Hewlett now look certain to be crowned the Type R Trophy champion in 2022 after they took a win apiece at Brands Hatch, while Jack Dwane’s pursuit of a second straight Clio Sport title suffered a setback with a heavy crash. Both championships featured as part of the 750 Motor Club’s single-day event on the Indy circuit that featured six different categories and 135 qualifiers for the 11 races. Points leader Nylan qualified fastest ahead of Hewlett for the Type R opener, which was red-flagged on the first lap when another title protagonist, Matt Digby, went out in a skirmish with Mark Dicken at Paddock Hill Bend. At the restart, Hewlett drew ahead as Nylan’s second gear jumped out on the…

OULTON PARK CSCC 29 AUGUST An eventful Swinging Sixties Group 2 contest opened the Bank Holiday programme at Oulton Park, with Mark Halstead’s Ginetta G4 taking the honours despite a mid-race spin. Halstead qualified sixth, dropping from provisional pole after pitting as others improved on a drying early morning track. But, after rapid early progress, Halstead cut inside leader Steve Hodges’s Lotus 7 at Old Hall on lap two. Halstead built a five-second lead before his mistake at Lodge dropped him to third behind Hodges and Malcolm Johnson (Lotus Europa). Halstead was quickly back in front, but Hodges stayed with him until a 30s pitstop success penalty, as the Brands Hatch winner, dropped him from contention. Halstead’s slower stop put Johnson ahead once more, but he finally regained the lead…

Damon Hill (Williams-Renault FW16) and Michael Schumacher (Benetton-Ford B194) lead the field at the start of the 1994 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, while in the background the Peugeot V10 in the rear of Martin Brundle’s McLaren MP4/9 detonates spectacularly. This was the second attempt to start the race – the first had to be abandoned when Hill’s team-mate David Coulthard stalled on the grid. On both formation laps Schumacher overtook polesitter Hill, resulting in a black flag followed by a two-race ban – just part of a season-long saga of intrigue and controversy… For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/f1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…