Indholdsfortegnelse for 06/04/23 i Autosport

What a load of nonsense. Restarting a grand prix when the cars have completed 56 of the scheduled 58 laps was ridiculous, although – as our debate on page 13 shows – not everyone shares that view. At least we ended up with the correct result, apart from the incredibly unfortunate Alpine squad, which deserved rather better from the weekend than two extensive car rebuilds. Of course, as we explain on p4, it took several hours to untangle the mess last Sunday. On track, the prowess of Red Bull’s RB19 was once again on display. Mercedes was stronger than expected, Ferrari weaker, but either way Max Verstappen could afford to have one of his less stellar weekends and still come away as an easy winner. It was nice to see…

FORMULA 1 The FIA has ushered in tweaks to the sporting regulations to combat controversies exposed by the opening rounds of the new Formula 1 season. Grid boxes have been widened in response to the infringements that earned Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso five-second penalties for being out of position. In each startline incident, Ocon and Alonso placed their wheels over the white painted lines on the edge of the grid boxes, but remained behind the yellow line that denotes how far forward a car can start. Beginning with the Australian Grand Prix last weekend, the grid boxes have been made 20cm wider for a total of 270cm, with the previous measurement already 20cm wider than the 230cm slots used in 2022. These changes come amid complaints from drivers that…

Mikko Hirvonen was the guest driver in the opening round of the New Zealand Rally Championship, the Otago Rally, held in the lower part of the South Island. The 15-time World Rally winner drove this Rossendale Wines Ford Escort RS1800 to ninth overall and won the Classic class. Home hero and former WRC driver Hayden Paddon, with co-driver John Kennard, was untouchable up front, winning every one of the 15 stages in his Hyundai i20 N Rally2. They were more than four minutes clear of the field as Paddon won the event for the 10th time. McLaren Extreme E driver Emma Gilmour was fifth in a Citroen C3 Rally2.…

The lanky Midlanders have taken a step back from the British Touring Car Championship, and we can but hope that, as before, it’s a case of au revoir rather than adieu. Team Dynamics, which will drop into a support role to One Motorsport in 2023, is the heritage team of the BTCC. While it hasn’t had the longest unbroken run of participation, there have been few interruptions since it joined the field in 1992 as Rimstock Racing with the ex-Will Hoy 1991 title-winning BMW M3 for Matt Neal. We’re now 750 BTCC race starts down the line for Rimstock/Dynamics, which is what Neal and father Steve, a star of the series in Minis in the late 1960s – how on Earth did a member of the Neal family ever fit…

Juncos Hollinger Racing continues to punch above its weight, and it is a measure of the team’s progress with its blend of JHR hires and former Carlin personnel that it was actually disappointed with ninth for Callum Ilott (above) in Texas. The ex-Formula 2 driver qualified 17th of 28 starters (team owner Ed Carpenter was in a third ECR car for the first oval race of the season), and was up to a legitimate 11th before half distance. A bad second stop dropped him to 15th, and a bad third stop left him outside the top 20. But through strong pace, decent fourth and fifth stops (and admittedly some attrition) he clambered back through the field. Yes, he was a lap behind the leaders, but he was in the wheeltracks…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS MELBOURNE (AUS) 30 MARCH-1 APRIL ROUND 2/12 Brodie Kostecki emerged from the Melbourne SuperSprint with both the Larry Perkins Trophy and the Supercars series lead. But it was also a weekend of controversy at Albert Park as engine fires ruled the headlines. The weekend got off to a mostly expected start, Shane van Gisbergen winning the opener after charging past Anton De Pasquale and Kostecki in the opening laps to take a lead he would hold until the end. The only quirk was the declaration of a wet track, which allowed drivers to skirt the multi-compound tyre rules and stick to the supersoft. That wasn’t a trick Dick Johnson Racing was wise to, De Pasquale dropping down the order as Kostecki and Will Brown made it a Chevrolet…

MOTOGP RIO HONDO (ARG) 2 APRIL ROUND 2/21 He may have retired at the end of the 2021 season at the conclusion of a campaign that yielded little success, but Valentino Rossi’s legacy and influence still looms large over MotoGP. His VR46 Academy, set up in 2014 to help foster a new breed of young Italian grand prix talents, has produced some real gems. First came Franco Morbidelli, its first MotoGP winner; then Francesco Bagnaia, its first champion in the premier class; and now there is Marco Bezzecchi. Already marking out his star in a rookie season in 2022 that saw him produce a maiden podium for the VR46 Ducati squad and a first pole, Bezzecchi has now added his name to the MotoGP race winners’ list. In a dominant…

The GB3 Championship is on the rise. Following one of its most successful seasons in 2022, a series record of 24 drivers are confirmed ahead of this weekend’s Oulton Park opener, and a grid of 27 cars could even be reached later this year. The series will again use the Tatuus MSV-022 chassis, which was widely praised throughout the paddock during its first season of use in 2022 and, if testing is anything to go by, lap times are set to be even quicker this year. The series has gained international status from the FIA, allowing a second international event at Zandvoort to be added to the calendar for the first time alongside Spa. With two visits to Silverstone’s Grand Prix layout once again part of the schedule, it means…

LEGENDS Triple British Rally champion Mark Higgins is due to join his son Ben on the Legends grid for the season opener at Cadwell Park next weekend. Alongside his BRC titles in 1997, 2005 and 2006, Higgins also claimed the 2018 British Rallycross spoils and has worked as a stunt driver on recent James Bond films. His latest assignment is a return to the Legends category, in which his son was rookie champion last year, tackling the Lincolnshire opener with Beaty Motorsport, and he may also make further appearances later in the year. “I wanted to have a play in Legends and this opportunity came up, and it’s a great chance to race with my son Ben – I hope he beats me!” said Higgins. “Cadwell is more like a…

MONOPOSTO An innovative lightweight, high-downforce trackday single-seater built in Australia has landed in the UK, and is to be raced in the Monoposto Championship by Ollie Hulme. Created by father-and-son racers Jon and Dean Crooke in Melbourne, Suzuki motorcycle-engined Hyper X1 Racers are taking their homeland by storm, with more than 20 currently built or on order. Following a four-race pilot series last season, the cars will venture outside the state of Victoria this year. Weighing less than 400kg, with a transverse-mounted 1340cc GSXR engine, the striking machine delivers a power-to-weight ratio of around 500bhp/ton, yet is designed to be operated by a driver without a pit crew. The six-speed sequential-change gearbox is driven via a centrifugal clutch. Hulme, 38, intends to show the car at Monoposto events initially, then…

HISTORICS Club racer Alex Taylor is to debut family team Rassler Racing’s latest Mazda RX-7, a tribute to Win Percy’s 1981 British Saloon Car championship winner, at Goodwood’s 80th Members’ Meeting. Coordinated by Taylor’s father, Trevor, the project has taken two years. John Freeman masterminded the bodyshell and Tony Absolom the final build. “It’s dad’s baby, I’ve just been brought in as the wheel man,” said Taylor Jr. “We have campaigned a turbo RX-7 since 2015, and accrued a brains trust of people who know 12A rotary engines inside out. “It’s as close as we can get to Win’s Tom Walkinshaw Racing car. Win won two races outright and qualified on pole five times in 1981. Our hope was always to be invited to Goodwood, because the Gerry Marshall Trophy…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 1-2 APRIL James Wallis did the double in the GT Cup opener at Donington Park, with the honours across the weekend shared between Audi, McLaren and Mercedes. Hugo Cook triumphed in his Cook Racing Audi R8 GT3 in Saturday’s sprint race, which was disrupted by a bizarre collision between reigning British GT champion Ian Loggie and Lucky Khera. Cook built a 3.5-second lead over Wallis’s Drivetac Mercedes-AMG GT3 before the incident occurred with seven minutes remaining. Khera was in an all-McLaren 720S GT3 battle for third with Morgan Tillbrook as he came up to lap Loggie, who appeared to be heading for the pitlane exiting the Roberts chicane when the contact occurred. Loggie’s McLaren was left broadside at the pit entry, while Khera spun before rejoining down…

Almost no car at Brands Hatch was as striking as the mammoth 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 that Martin Reynolds twice took to third place in Equipe 70s. He’s renovated the ex-Marcus Bicknell car over the past three years, and now his aim is to “get a total handle of it”. Reynolds plans to run the car shortly in Bernie’s V8s, and in V8 meetings in Germany and at Assen in the Netherlands. “It makes me smile – it’s a very popular car, people love it, and I enjoy driving it,” Reynolds said. “It’s not like my Escort and my Anglia to handle, put it that way!”…

OULTON PARK BARC 1 APRIL For most of Saturday, it looked like the various Caterham series were enjoying a triumphant return to the track in their 2023 season opener at Oulton Park. There had been consistently close battles – mostly in brilliant sunshine – throughout the day but, as the clouds gathered in the late afternoon, events took a dramatic turn. The 310R finale had been fought out for seven laps when Roger Gaunt and Duncan Cooke had a heavy accident (see News), serious enough to end the meeting and call out the air ambulance. Earlier, the near-perfect blue skies and crowded paddock promised an enjoyable day. With various changes made to the Caterham regulations and a move to two or three 20-minute races per class, there were plenty of…

5 HERMANN LANG (1952) A pre-Second World War grand prix ace, Lang lost his best years to the conflict but played his part in Mercedes’ first success at the 24 Hours. He and Fritz Riess needed a little luck – ill-advised late changes to the rapid Jaguar C-types, which all retired, and the late failure of leader Pierre Levegh’s Talbot-Lago – but the organised German team got the job done and Mercedes scored a 1-2 with its W194 coupes. 4 NICO HULKENBERG (2015) Yet to stand on a Formula 1 podium in over 180 attempts, Hulkenberg took just one to crack Le Mans. Then a Force India driver on a weekend jolly aboard Porsche’s third 919 Hybrid LMP1, he started and finished the race and was also aboard when #19 took the…

FORMULA 1 For the second Formula 1 race in succession, there was more than a four-hour wait after the chequered flag had been waved until the official results were confirmed. Haas triggered the delay this time when they contested the provisional classification of the Australian Grand Prix in an attempt to promote driver Nico Hulkenberg from seventh to fourth place. The Melbourne race dabbled with farce as the red flags were waved no fewer than four times, including to control a fan track invasion on the cool-down lap. Haas felt the most egregious of the lot was the handling of the third stoppage that preceded a safety car-led procession across the line. After Kevin Magnussen clipped the Turn 2 exit wall on lap 53 of 58 to rip off his…

FORMULA 1 Porsche has officially shelved plans to join Formula 1 for the advent of the new engine regulations in 2026 and will instead focus on Formula E and sports-prototypes. The decision follows the eleventh-hour collapse of a potential partnership with Red Bull, with the reigning constructors’ champion getting cold feet about giving up too much independence. It signed a glorified commercial deal with Ford instead. Despite the setback, Porsche was clear that it would continue to evaluate other options because the increased reliance on sustainable fuels and the scrapping of the expensive MGU-H for the nascent power units boosted the appeal and viability of an F1 presence. But since the 2022 retirement of motorsport vice-president Fritz Enzinger, the trail has gone cold. Passing evaluations of partnerships with Williams or…

INDYCAR Double IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden has praised the aerodynamic configurations that the series has allowed for big ovals in order to promote closer racing. The changes were seen as largely responsible for the vastly improved racing on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway last weekend. Other factors that had a positive effect were the ‘high-line’ practice sessions to rubber in a second lane, and the fading of the PJ1 surface additive in Turns 1 and 2. That had been applied to add grip for NASCAR, but had the opposite effect for IndyCar in recent years. New aero pieces added 300-400lb of downforce, which allowed all cars to race at similar rates early in a stint when tyres were fresh, but race winner Newgarden said that the best cars still became…

EXTREME E A former opencast coal mine site at Glenmuckloch in Scotland will host the second round of the 2023 Extreme E season. Located in Dumfries and Galloway, the Hydro X-Prix will be held on 13-14 May. The disused coal mine is to be transformed into a Pumped Storage Hydropower plant and wind farm, giving the series the opportunity to promote electric power and clean energy solutions. “Extreme E uses its racing platform to tell inspirational stories of global locations on the forefront of climate issues,” said series CEO Alejandro Agag. “In Scotland, our race site will pay homage to the much-needed transition of an old coal mine that is being given a new and exciting lease of life as a hydro project that will provide a fully renewable energy…

WEC Cadillac will field a second car in the Spa round of the World Endurance Championship as it gears up for its return to the Le Mans 24 Hours. The extra entry from the Chip Ganassi Racing squad alongside its solo full-season WEC V-Series.R will be a prelude to a three-car assault from the US manufacturer on the French enduro in June. The Spa 6 Hours on 29 April will be, says Ganassi director of operations Mike O’Gara, “a much-needed dress rehearsal for Le Mans”. The additional Caddy LMDh prototype entered in the Hypercar class will be driven by its regular drivers in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, as a duo. Scott Dixon, who will join them for Le Mans, will be on IndyCar…

The 2023 Australian Grand Prix actually had to explain itself, which seemed about right. The stewards of the third Formula 1 race of the campaign summoned its promoter – the Australian Grand Prix Corporation – to explain how fans had breached safety perimeter fences close to the debris barriers near Turn 1 when action was still ongoing on the final lap. One was actually on the circuit waving manically as soon-to-be winner Max Verstappen swept by celebrating his victory in bizarre, neutralised circumstances. The Dutchman made it three Red Bull wins in three attempts so far in 2023, with lots of what happened in Melbourne very familiar to the Bahrain and Jeddah proceedings. But they were bookended by two very different chapters – one very good, one very bad. In…

Alex Albon put his seventh-lap shunt at Albert Park down to a spike in tyre temperatures, but accepted the blame for his race-ending crash that denied Williams a chance to gather more points. The Anglo-Thai was running in sixth place and keeping Lance Stroll at bay, but took too much kerb on the exit of Turn 5. Heading into the next corner, Albon faced a snap of oversteer and lost the rear end, spinning into the wall and scattering gravel onto the circuit to bring out the first red flag. “Unfortunately, touching the kerb at high speed in Turn 5 led to a small snap and a spike in tyre temperature, which led him to lose the car,” explained Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson, after Albon’s impressive early…

FORMULA 2 MELBOURNE (AUS) 1-2 APRIL ROUND 3/14 Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa emerged victorious in Australia, securing his second Formula 2 win in as many events to lead the standings. The DAMS driver (above) became the first repeat winner of 2023 after converting pole position, set during a disrupted wet qualifying, into feature race victory for his fourth series triumph. Japanese driver Iwasa made a strong getaway to lead the opening lap, as preseason favourite and 2022 runner-up Theo Pourchaire repelled a challenge from ART team-mate Victor Martins for second. The top runners remained in that order until the safety car was scrambled when Hitech rookie Jak Crawford crashed at Turn 11 while battling for position with Virtuosi Racing’s home hero Jack Doohan. Martins led half a dozen drivers…

NASCAR CUP RICHMOND (USA) 2 APRIL ROUND 7/36 Kyle Larson took advantage of a late wreck by Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team-mate William Byron and claimed the NASCAR Cup Series win at Richmond Raceway last Sunday. Byron, who had led the most laps in the race, emerged from the final round of green-flag pitstops with the lead, but a caution for a spin by Tyler Reddick sent most of the lead-lap cars into the pitlane with 29 of 400 laps remaining. Larson was first out and led the way on the restart. Two laps later, Byron got hit by Christopher Bell, knocking him out of contention. Larson got a good jump on Josh Berry on the ensuing restart and cruised to a 1.535-second victory, his first of the 2023 campaign. The…

“I’m convinced, without fail, I have the best driver in GT racing with me.” It’s quite a statement to make about your team-mate, but John Ferguson has every reason to believe just that about the driver he’ll be racing alongside in this season’s British GT3 Championship, which kicks off at Oulton Park this weekend. Regarded as one of the fastest if not the fastest GT3 driver in the world, Raffaele Marciello is a man who knows how to win titles. The Mercedes factory driver, who is reigning GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and ADAC GT Masters champion, has clearly made his mark on the world of GT racing since switching his focus from single-seaters in 2017. The former Ferrari Driver Academy member is just one of eight factory drivers…

BRITISH GT British GT’s most successful driver in terms of race wins, Phil Keen, will contest three rounds of the championship this season for 2 Seas Motorsport. Keen, who has taken 19 overall GT3 victories and finished runner-up in the standings on three occasions, will stand in for both Jonny Adam and Jules Gounon at various points this season due to their commitments as Aston Martin and Mercedes factory drivers, respectively. Four-time British GT champion Adam will miss the second round at Silverstone and the Donington Park finale, while Gounon will be absent for British GT’s maiden visit to the Algarve circuit. Keen will stand in on each occasion, twice alongside James Cottingham and once with reigning British GT3 champion Ian Loggie – both in Mercedes-AMG GT3s. “I’ve raced against…

CIRCUIT RALLYING Mark Kelly and Neil Colman won the Alan Healy Memorial Rally, the penultimate Circuit Rally Championship round, in their Skoda Fabia R5 at Cadwell Park last weekend. Newly crowned champions John Griffiths/Emma Morrison pulled out an early lead in their Ford Fiesta R5, with 2020-21 champion Kelly heading the pursuit. Kelly lost time on SS2 when he grabbed second gear instead of the handbrake, but a nine-second lead soon began to disappear when Kelly set a string of fastest times and Griffiths had a grassy moment on SS4. The lead changed on the next stage, and Kelly finally took the victory spoils by 6s, with Ollie O’Donovan/Ashleigh Morris (Hyundai i20 R5) a distant and day-long third.…

GB4’S LATE ADDITIONS Four more drivers have been confirmed for the opening round of the 2023 GB4 Championship at Oulton Park this weekend. Josh Irfan and Harri Reynolds will drive for Elite Motorsport, Irfan in a bid to gain single-seater experience ahead of a planned British Formula 4 campaign, while Fortec Motorsports will run Ruhaan Alva and Aditya Kulkarni. It takes the total number of confirmed drivers to 14. GARLICKS ADDED TO RECIPE Brothers Conner and Luke Garlick are set to race on the same Ginetta GT Championship grid this season for Xentek Motorsport, starting at Oulton Park this weekend. Former GT4 Supercup racer Conner will be in the headline GT Pro class at the wheel of a G56, while his brother will be in a G40 in the GT5…

GT CUP Race 1 Hugo Cook (Audi R8 GT3 Evo II) Race 2 Morgan Tillbrook/Marcus Clutton (McLaren 720S GT3) Races 3 & 4 James Wallis (Mercedes-AMG GT3) UNITED FORMULA FORD Race 1 Chris Middlehurst (Van Diemen LA10) Race 2 Lucas Romanek (Van Diemen JL13) PORSCHE CLUB BOXSTER CUP Race 1 Tom Andrew Race 2 Jonathan Lovell PORSCHE CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP Race 1 Harry Mailer (Cayman) Race 2 Steve Wood (996) Z CARS & PRODUCTION GTIs Race 1 James Colbourne (Golf) Race 2 Ryan Sayer (Golf) RADICAL CUP UK Races 1, 2 & 3 James Lay (SR3, below) FOCUS CUP Race 1 Sean Reynolds Race 2 Simon Watts BELL SPORT CHALLENGE Races 1 & 2 Wayne Marrs (Ferrari 488) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

SCALEXTRIC SILVERSTONE MUSEUM Silverstone is a magical place. For motorsport fans it’s the birthplace of the Formula 1 world championship, it’s where Nigel Mansell swept past Nelson Piquet on the Hangar Straight in 1987, and where Lewis Hamilton roared clear to win a rain-soaked British Grand Prix in 2008. Sites of such cultural importance deserve to have their past preserved and celebrated, and Silverstone is no exception with its modern interactive museum. With support from the National Lottery Heritage fund, the BRDC was able to convert a former Second World War RAF hangar into a repository for its archive while at the same time providing visitors with an attraction that tells the story of this revered venue. Upon arrival you are taken to a virtual grid for an immersive audio…

The low cockpit sides of the Ferrari 625 heighten the impression of Mike Hawthorn sitting on – rather than in – the car as he puts in a gallant effort during the 1954 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. Hawthorn was racing for the first time since his accident in the Syracuse GP two months earlier, and a diminishment in pace initially thought to be a result of the lingering effects of his injuries prompted his team to call him in so that Jose Froilan Gonzalez, whose own car had expired on the first lap, could take over. But it was leaking exhaust gasses to blame, so Gonzalez was swiftly back in for repairs, resulting in a shared, lapped fourth-place finish. For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For…

FORMULA 1 The Australian Grand Prix Corporation is under scrutiny after a spectator was injured and fans prematurely invaded the track during last weekend’s F1 event. The race promoter was even summoned by the stewards and must present a plan to the FIA outlining the measures the race will take to improve its handling of the public in future. Outgoing Corporation CEO Andrew Westacott (right) said that a fan suffering a gashed arm as a result of being struck by debris was a “freak one-off”. The man sustained his cut after Kevin Magnussen clipped the Turn 2 exit wall on lap 53 of 58 to send carbon fibre from the right-rear wheel hub 20 metres into the air. It cleared the catch fencing. Westacott said: “You can’t necessarily have these…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS Supercars is investigating the cause of two separate engine fires that rocked the series’ Albert Park weekend. Two Ford Mustangs from different teams were badly burnt in Melbourne after what looked to be identical engine fires. The first was Nick Percat’s Walkinshaw Andretti United entry, which went up in flames on the opening lap of Friday’s race. The team quickly pointed to an electrical fault that was countered by Supercars, which directed teams to check oil levels and empty catch cans to avoid a repeat. That clearly didn’t do the trick, James Courtney’s Tickford Racing Ford (right) igniting in identical fashion on the opening lap of Saturday’s contest. The second fire prompted crisis meetings in the paddock, with the Gen3 Technical Working Group charged with finding a solution.…

BTCC British Touring Car Championship heritage squad Team Dynamics will be absent from the series’ grid in 2023 in what the Midlands operation has described as “taking a hiatus”. Instead, it has entered a “support agreement” with fellow Honda team One Motorsport. Under the arrangement, Brackley-based One – formerly BTC Racing – will have use of what is likely to be three Civic Type Rs that will be transferred from the Dynamics facility, powered by the Neil Brown Engineering-built Honda powerplants. This is in place of BTC’s existing chassis, which have used TOCA customer engines since 2021. Dynamics’ exit was triggered by two major commercial setbacks over the winter: the loss of Dan Rowbottom and his Cataclean backing to the Motorbase Ford set-up, and the more recent pullout of Halfords,…

Sebastien Loeb hasn’t been snapped up by a World Rally Championship team for a part-time drive this year, but the phone may begin to ring again after his latest triumph. The nine-time world champion once again reminded the rallying fraternity of his supreme talent last Sunday by adding the Azores Rally to his glittering list of achievements. Competing on his first traditional rally of the year following an invitation from the event organisers, 49-year-old Loeb and co-driver Laurene Godey – the Frenchman’s partner – took a Toksport Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 to a 19.2-second victory over two-time Azores winner Andreas Mikkelsen. The feat on the Portuguese island gravel rally was made impressive by the fact that it was Loeb’s first competitive outing in the car, rekindling memories of his charge…

“Mate – this was amazing.” Max Verstappen even seemed to surprise himself with the nature of his 1m16.732s pole-position-winning lap at the Australian Grand Prix. Qualifying at Albert Park was an unusual session compared to the two that had come before in 2023 – although like in Jeddah there was a Red Bull missing from the lead fray after Sergio Perez plunged off into the Turn 3 gravel on his first Q1 flier. The Mexican later blamed brake balance unexpectedly moving forwards leaving him “a passenger”, after he’d also basically spent more time off the road than on it during FP3 struggling with the same issue. For those who remained, the smooth track surface combined with the C4 soft Pirellis and the relatively low temperature allowed drivers to push on…

A brake problem in qualifying forced Sergio Perez into a recovery drive to fifth position in Australia from the pitlane. After stopping under the first-lap safety car to swap his hard tyres for a set of mediums, Perez called in a lap later to ditch them for a long hard-tyre run having completed his stops by the time the safety car came in. He chalked off the two Alfa Romeos in short order, but fell behind Zhou Guanyu and Logan Sargeant on the lap 10 restart following the first red flag after getting baulked by Nyck de Vries off the line. But the Mexican’s patience was rewarded and he reeled off a number of overtaking moves to haul himself back into contention, the Red Bull’s powerful DRS helping his efforts…

Josef Newgarden’s third Texas Motor Speedway win was a classic. Yes, he led 123 of the 250 laps, but his victory wasn’t certain until the drop of the chequered flag. Or rather, the drop of the final yellow on lap 249, when the field was frozen and finished under its fifth caution. Had the race played out to the end, who knows whether the Penske driver could have held on to beat the man who led 91 laps and dominated much of the second half of the race: Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren? In the final, frantic shootout, O’Ward, on three occasions, crossed the start/finish line ahead of his foe, swinging to the outside through the dog-leg of the front straight. Did Newgarden have a tactic for keeping his nosecone…

FORMULA 3 MELBOURNE (AUS) 1-2 APRIL ROUND 2/10 Gabriel Bortoleto made it two in a row in Melbourne, dominating Sunday’s Formula 3 contest to take his second consecutive feature race victory, after Zak O’Sullivan scored his first series win in the sprint. Trident rookie Bortoleto, a protege of F1 driver Fernando Alonso, extended his championship lead to 20 points after race-long pressure from Gregoire Saucy. From pole, Bortoleto didn’t put a wheel wrong over the course of the 23-lap race, holding off ART man Saucy by 0.596 seconds. Alpine junior Gabriele Mini, like Bortoleto a Formula Regional European graduate, led home a long train of cars to take the final podium spot for Hitech. Bortoleto had maintained the lead at the start on a relatively calm opening lap, but it…

The British GT4 class promises to be just as competitive in 2023, with new and returning faces making up the 16 full-time entry list that contains no fewer than seven manufacturers. The two leading crews from last year – champions Sennan Fielding/Richard Williams (Steller Motorsport) and Darren Turner/Matt Topham (Newbridge Motorsport) – are both absent from the grid this season, leaving the way open for new challengers to take the crown. One of those could well be Josh Miller, the 17-year-old having starred in his and R Racing’s inaugural British GT campaigns last year, as two wins – the first of which at Snetterton gave Miller the record for the youngest winning crew alongside Jamie Day – allowed them to finish third overall at the end of the year. Miller…

TCR UK Reigning TCR UK champion Chris Smiley will give a global race debut to the new FL5 version of the Honda Civic Type R TCR when he begins his title defence at Snetterton this weekend. The British Touring Car Championship race winner claimed the TCR UK crown at his first attempt last year, piloting the FK7 Civic run by Restart Racing. The FL5 has been developed by Honda’s customer racing specialist JAS Motorsport of Italy with World Touring Car Cup runner-up Nestor Girolami. It features a revised chassis and aerodynamics, plus upgraded brakes and transmission. Restart collected its car last week – after the TCR UK launch day at Donington Park – and Smiley gave it a run at Spa. “It’s a big thing for Honda to trust us…

LE MANS CUP Title-winning British GT squad Steller Motorsport is progressing into European competition this year as it targets climbing the sportscar ladder to Le Mans. Steller pairing Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams took the British GT4 crown last season at the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS. But, having been a long-standing stalwart of the British category, the team is now moving to the Le Mans Cup, where Fielding will be joined by historics racer James Wood at the wheel of a GT3 Audi that will carry the logos of Jackie Stewart’s Race Against Dementia charity. “We had great success last year and we reached a bit of a crossroads where we wanted a new challenge,” explained team manager Max Daymond. “With the outlook with the ACO for the…

MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY Mini Challenge Trophy race winners Nicky Taylor and Alex Solley will spearhead Graves Motorsport’s eight-car line-up in the series this year. While neither Taylor nor Solley won a race last year, having each triumphed in 2021, both were regular frontrunners and Taylor finished fourth in the standings. Now, they are planning to launch title bids as they attempt to follow in Nelson King’s footsteps and make it back-to-back championships for Graves, starting at Brands Hatch this weekend. “A real highlight of last year was the first event where we took our first ever 1-2-3 finish, and both Nicky Taylor and Alex Solley were massive parts of that and our success last year,” said team manager David Graves. Podium finisher Jack Byrne, who competed as a privateer last…

CATERHAMS Caterham racers Roger Gaunt and Duncan Cooke escaped serious injury after a major crash at Oulton Park last weekend in which both of their 310R machines were sent into a series of rolls. The pair tangled through the high-speed Island Bend left-hander on the International Oulton layout during the third 310R contest at the Cheshire venue. The race was instantly red-flagged and the meeting abandoned, with a lengthy clear-up operation needed and Gaunt being taken to hospital by air ambulance. Gaunt was still being kept in hospital for observation as Autosport closed for press, while Cooke had already been released, both having seemingly avoided any major injuries. Caterham chief motorsport and technical officer Simon Lambert paid tribute to the volunteers who arrived on the scene and dealt with the…

Where has the time gone?! It’s already over a month since the 2023 club circuit-racing campaign began when the Classic Sports Car Club shook off the winter blues with its successful season-opening event at Silverstone at the end of February. Since then, a further six events have taken place in England and, although the season truly begins in earnest over the forthcoming busy, four-day Easter Bank Holiday weekend, those initial fixtures still provide an intriguing snapshot into the overall health of national motorsport. Now, yes, it’s a very small sample size. And, yes, opening event figures are not always truly representative, particularly when the venue in question is an ever-increasing factor in any given grid’s popularity. But there are still some very encouraging early signs. Out of the 38 English…

BRANDS HATCH ECR 1-2 APRIL Equipe Classic Racing and MG Car Club shared the bill for their Brands Hatch Indy circuit season openers and, between them, produced an entertaining weekend with a varied and attractive line-up of machines. Tom Smith won the restarted Equipe GTS opener in his MGB Roadster, taking the lead early then keeping a scrapping pack behind at arm’s length. Poleman Oliver Pratt in his Morgan +4 had a poor start and dropped to mid-pack, before clawing his way up to a close second. Pratt got better launches in the also-restarted race two, and got the lead from Smith at the restart before keeping him out of reach. “I knew, if I got the start right, the rest would be plain sailing,” Pratt said. “In race one]…

Viewers of Strictly Come Dancing, or of the 1990s Dunlop Rover Turbo Cup, will be familiar with Lance Ellington. He raced a Daily Mirror-sponsored Tomcat 220 Turbo in the latter and, after a quarter of a century away, returned in the MG Cup in a Tomcat hired from Castle Combe champion Gary Prebble. Ellington immediately bagged a pole and a win. “I couldn’t have wished for anything better, I had the best weekend back,” he said, “and it’s everything I remember, especially the Tomcat, which is a great car. Gary Prebble set it up beautifully, and the racing was such fun.”…

The World Sports Car Championship wasn’t in the best of health in 1992 following the withdrawals of Jaguar and Mercedes. Peugeot pair Derek Warwick and Yannick Dalmas saw off the challenge of team-mates Mauro Baldi and Philippe Alliot plus the Geoff Lees-led Toyota team to clinch the title in the penultimate round at Suzuka, the scene of their third victory aboard the 905 Evo 1 Bis after triumphs at Silverstone and the Le Mans 24 Hours. Such was the impression made by ex-Jaguar racer Warwick that, despite being paired with him for only one season, Dalmas rates him as his favourite team-mate. “Between Derek and me, it was a very good cooperation,” reflects Dalmas. “He was at this time like a brother for me.” Dalmas and Warwick had crossed paths…