Indholdsfortegnelse for 08/02/24 i Autosport

It’s a week since the news broke of the biggest driver move in Formula 1 history, but it still seems incredible. Rumours of Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari have circulated on and off for years, but it seemed unlikely Hamilton would give up such a good Mercedes gig. Being brutal, the move is not logical. Mercedes would surely be more likely to give Hamilton the chance of an eighth world crown than Ferrari, which hasn’t taken a title since 2008. Recent designs have been tricky to drive and Charles Leclerc is arguably the fastest driver in the field over a single lap. An easy ride it will not be. But there’s no denying the romance surrounding Ferrari. Most, if not all, drivers want to race for the famous Italian team.…

FORMULA 1 A five-year contract extension for the Japanese Grand Prix will keep Suzuka on the Formula 1 calendar until the end of 2029. While the renewal isn’t as long as deals given to Australia (2035) and Bahrain (2026), it improves upon the Honda-owned circuit’s previous three-year arrangements. And it leaves the British GP as the last remaining race with no guaranteed future beyond the end of this season, although a new deal is believed to be in the pipeline. Osaka, Japan’s third-most populous city, recently expressed interest in hosting F1. While city officials say their race would co-exist with – not replace – Suzuka, it’s unlikely that the country could land two spots on the schedule when expressions of interest from other potential host venues are in decent supply,…

WEC Peugeot will wait until round two of the World Endurance Championship at Imola in April to give a debut to the heavily revised 2024-spec version of its 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar. Racing the car at the season-opener in Qatar at the start of next month was never an option. The widely expected move was confirmed last week by Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie. He explained that the homologation requirements in LMH precluded an early debut of a car that has undergone a radical overhaul after the decision to abandon the equal-size tyres front and rear of the original 9X8. “We knew from the start that we couldn’t make it [the homologation of the revised car] in February,” said Jansonnie. “The reason is that with this homologation process when…

GT Frank Bird has joined Mercedes-AMG’s factory GT roster for 2024. The 24-year-old Briton was named as a junior driver when the German manufacturer took the wraps off an expanded line-up last week. Bird (below) has been picked up by Merc after two seasons racing customer AMG GT3s predominantly for the Haupt Racing Team across the GT World Challenge Europe, Intercontinental GT Challenge and Asian Le Mans Series. The opportunity came after he impressed in a young driver test at Valencia last November and was given a further evaluation the following month in the Gulf 12 Hours IGTC round, in which he finished fourth at the wheel of a GruppeM-run car. “It’s every driver’s goal to have an association with a manufacturer and it’s been my target for the past…

Denny Hamlin won the annual non-points season curtain raiser at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – which ran a day earlier than expected. Predicted bad weather led to the race being brought forward to Saturday. Hamlin qualified his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on pole, but had to battle past Joey Logano and team owner Gibbs’s grandson Ty (via a nudge) on a late restart. He then held off Kyle Busch following a late caution that sent the race into overtime, with Ryan Blaney third after starting 23rd and last. SIX FP1s FOR BEARMAN Ferrari Formula 1 reserve Ollie Bearman has been named in the same role at customer team Haas – and been handed six FP1 outings following his two runs late in 2023. Bearman’s first FP1 will be at…

SUSPENSION Sauber has switched to a pullrod front suspension layout for 2024. With the pushrod rear suspension package that was already in place, the team has settled upon the same set-up that Red Bull employed on its RB19. In theory, there’s no distinct advantage to selecting a pullrod over a pushrod; it ends up being largely a decision influenced by the aerodynamics of the car. Pushrods became the norm for having a slightly more agreeable local aerodynamic advantage, but there is an inescapable centre-of-gravity benefit to running the torsion bars lower down in the monocoque with the pullrod layout. It’s all a trade-off, and Sauber appears to believe that keeping the centre of gravity low is much more beneficial, a choice no doubt influenced by the performance shown by the…

One of the byproducts from last week’s news of the impending shock transfer of Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari was that it raised speculation, through a handy hint from Mercedes F1 chief Toto Wolff that it may be “an opportunity to do something bold”, that the Three-Pointed Star’s 17-year-old sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli may be called upon to fill the seven-time world champion’s sizeable shoes in 2025. Young Antonelli would be the lucky one. The Italian is clearly a sensational talent, about to embark upon his first season in Formula 2 as the reigning (but hardly dominant) title holder from the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine. He may well win the F2 crown, although he does have the not inconsiderable obstacle of Ferrari protege – and Haas F1-destined? – Ollie…

A couple of months ago, Carlos Sainz thought he was negotiating a healthy pay rise and at least a two-year extension to stay at Ferrari beyond 2024. After all, he’d given Charles Leclerc a run for his money during their three seasons together. Maranello management clearly had other ideas. Fortunately for the Spaniard, that sound team-mate comparison should leave him with plenty of options – not least because, as it stands, 13 seats will be up for grabs come 2025. Alpine, Williams, RB and Haas are yet to lock in either of their drivers but are likely the least appealing options. Towards the other end of the grid, Sainz is now acutely aware that Mercedes is short of a driver. So, he could hop on the reverse flight to Hamilton…

Had things gone as Callum Ilott had anticipated over the long IndyCar off-season – a full eight grand prix weekends have been held since he navigated September’s Laguna Seca season finale crashfest to finish an equal-best fifth – then he’d be preparing for a third full-season in top-flight US open-wheel racing. But as the Cambridge native put it on the Autosport International show’s main stage last month, “circumstances changed as they sometimes do in life”. The 25-year-old duly found himself facing the exit door at Juncos Hollinger Racing, the team he’d joined for the final three races of a 2021 season that overlapped with his final year on Ferrari’s books. Fortunately for Ilott, while the door to a Formula 1 race seat had remained firmly closed, he’d not spent 2021…

Fastest woman in the world? At least, that’s what ex-Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg says about Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky. The reigning Extreme E champion has to smile when she’s asked about the compliment from her Rosberg X Racing team boss. “I was definitely very honoured when he said this,” says the 31-year-old. “Being offered the opportunity to be a driver in his team RXR in Extreme E was a big deal for me.” When Ahlin-Kottulinsky joined the team in 2022, it had already taken the inaugural crown. She had very little off-road experience, but she and team-mate Johan Kristoffersson were a potent force during season two, only narrowly missing out on giving RXR another title. That experience only made her stronger, and the following season she approached things very differently,…

FORMULA REGIONAL MIDDLE EAST DUBAI (ARE) 3-4 FEBRUARY ROUND 3/5 Taylor Barnard took a great victory under pressure at Dubai Autodrome from Tuukka Taponen, but it’s the Finnish Ferrari protege who extended his series lead across the three races held last weekend. Barnard took pole for the first race, and the PHM Racing driver had to defend mightily from the R-ace GP car of Taponen. Time and again Barnard would seem to settle at the front, yet Taponen would come back at him – including during a mid-race sprinkle of light rain – and the Brit had to keep on his toes throughout. Rafael Camara took third with a boisterous move on Mari Boya, but the Brazilian earned a penalty for the pass that dropped him back to fourth. Camara,…

BRITISH GT Father-and-son duo Rob and Ricky Collard will team up together for an assault on the British GT Championship this season at the wheel of a Barwell Motorsport-run Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2. Collard Sr, a multiple British Touring Car race winner, returns to British GT for the first time since taking the outright GT3 title alongside Sandy Mitchell in 2020. The 55-year-old most recently claimed second in the GT World Challenge Europe Pro-Am standings alongside Dennis Lind last year. Collard Jr, meanwhile, will make his full-time debut in British GT after a one-off outing in 2018. He has already enjoyed GT success alongside his father after the pair were part of Barwell’s Pro-Am-winning crew in the 2020 Spa 24 Hours. “I’m not getting any younger, and it’s an experience,”…

CATERHAM GRADUATES The Caterham Graduates Racing Club will run a special race for new drivers at Snetterton this year. The 20-minute contest over the 17-18 August weekend, which is being promoted as a ‘Friends and Family race’, is only open to those who have never competed or held a race licence. They can use any car that is normally eligible for Caterham Graduates races, which spans models up to and including the Caterham Seven 310R. The idea originally came from one of the club’s members, and is designed as a way for people to experience racing in a less daunting environment and without having to pay for equipment. “James McCall, who runs our driving standards team, approached us with the idea of getting people who come with us to race…

IRISH RALLYING Multiple British Rally champions Keith Cronin and Matt Edwards experienced contrasting fortunes on the opening round of the Irish Tarmac Championship at last weekend’s wet and windy Galway International Rally. Cronin dominated the traditional curtain-raiser on Ireland’s west coast alongside co-driver Mikie Galvin, while Edwards – on his first visit to the event – was forced to retire his similar Ford Fiesta Rally2 on the second stage after overcooking a turn and coming to blows with a stone wall. “We haven’t done a rally at this level in Ireland for a long time,” said Cronin, who recorded a total of seven fastest times to end the two-day closed-road meeting with a commanding 38-second win. Cronin’s decision to prioritise the Tarmac Championship for the 2024 season took many by…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 has rejected Andretti’s proposal to form an 11th grand prix team. Four months after the American set-up’s application was approved by the FIA, the championship issued a 1400-word review outlining its “summary and conclusions of commercial assessment process”. The series stated that an expanded grid would not add sufficient extra value since any new entrant would not be fighting for podiums and wins for several seasons. F1 also implied that a partnership with General Motors marque Cadillac would not immediately suffice since Andretti would still have to rely on a customer Renault engine – since it currently supplies the fewest teams – in its early years, which in turn raises concerns about intellectual property being shared. But it should be noted that Andretti did have an…

Toyota put its World Rally Championship stars Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera into action in last weekend’s Arctic Lapland Rally to gather snow mileage ahead of next week’s Rally Sweden, and it was Evans (above) who won after final-stage technical problems sidelined reigning champion Rovanpera, who skipped last month’s Monte Carlo WRC season opener as he focuses on a partial campaign in 2024. Evans’s GR Yaris Rally1 defeated the Rally2 Toyota of Mikko Heikkila by five minutes, while Toyota WRC team boss Jari-Matti Latvala finished 20th at the wheel of a Celica ST185.…

WEC Pascal Vasselon’s departure from the top engineering job at Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe was suddenly brought forward, it has emerged. The Japanese manufacturer has confirmed that a plan was already in place for the 60-year-old to be replaced by David Floury as technical director of the Cologne-based organisation that masterminds the World Endurance Championship programme. The admission was made last week by long-time chief engineer on the WEC team Floury, who has been given the technical directorship on an acting basis for the moment. “The transition was expected anyway, but the timing may have been a bit different,” he said. What he didn’t reveal was the reasoning for the move, which he would only say “came from top management”. Vasselon was removed from his job after nearly 20 years…

BTCC Ex-Le Mans 24 Hours racer Andrew Watson has switched to the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota set-up for his second season in the British Touring Car Championship. The Northern Irishman makes the move after claiming 2023 title honours as a rookie in the Jack Sears Trophy for those who have not scored an overall podium in a BTCC race. That came thanks to an impressive campaign with the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall squad, which featured two podiums in rain-affected races. Watson, 29, is part of the same Mark Blundell-led MBP management stable as West Surrey Racing BMW star Jake Hill, and was linked with a berth at that team, which is still seeking a replacement for Carrera Cup-bound veteran Stephen Jelley. But he will instead form one half of the official…

WEC Sebastien Bourdais will race for the Ganassi-run Cadillac Racing squad in the World Endurance Championship season-opener in Qatar next month. The Frenchman will move over from the IMSA SportsCar arm of the operation to join WEC full-timers Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn in the solo V-Series.R LMDh for a race that could stretch to 10 hours. Cadillac has announced that Bamber and Lynn will be complemented by Bourdais, his IMSA co-driver Renger van der Zande and “select Chip Ganassi Racing team-mates” through the season. It added that the team will “confirm the third driver ahead of certain endurance races”. That stops short of confirming Chip Ganassi’s comments that the team will go into the five regular six-hour races with only two drivers. But the team boss was unequivocal at…

Given that McLaren had rather stolen its marketing-boosting thunder in by providing a livery-only season launch two weeks earlier, Haas has at least provided a few hints of what to expect from its real VF-24 car and its potential for the 2024 campaign. The new car will run for the first time in a Silverstone shakedown this Sunday. With Nico Hulkenberg at the wheel, Kevin Magnussen will have to wait until the upcoming Bahrain pre-season test for his first chance. The pair will eventually both be driving a car that, colour-scheme-wise in a first consideration, looks near identical to last year’s VF-23. The only real change concerns the VF-24’s nose, which is now mainly black compared to the largely white approach of last year. In the renders the American team…

Short-sighted policy towards new teams Disappointed. Frustrated. As an F1 fan for 40 years, this closed-door policy by FOM to new teams is in my opinion short-sighted. I understand that another team would dilute the ‘pot of money’ that the teams rely on and that they feel a new starter hasn’t earned this financial reward, but another team is of course two more seats available for up and coming drivers that the bigger teams might then want to sign up. The racing ladder of F3 and F2, the main feeder series for F1, has become almost surplus to requirements as where will the drivers go? F1 drivers these days sign long-term contracts that limit options for up and coming drivers. The extra seats should be welcomed. Also, to knock back…

Juan Manuel Fangio Ferrari wins 3 Ferrari titles 1 Before Mercedes disrupted the pecking order in its short-lived foray into Formula 1 in the mid-1950s, Ferrari had been the class of the field. Once the Stuttgart firm had absconded after winning the drivers’ titles in 1954 and 1955 with Fangio, he considered retiring from racing, but circumstances at home in Argentina kept him behind the wheel. President Juan Peron had been ousted and exiled, and asset-freezes for some of Argentina’s most renowned figures had been implemented, Fangio included. So he kept racing, and linked up with Ferrari to drive its Lancia-designed D50. Fangio faced stern competition in team-mate Peter Collins and Maserati pair Stirling Moss and Jean Behra, but victory in Buenos Aires got the ball rolling for 1956, albeit…

Although fourth place in Bahrain constituted the best result of its nascent Hypercar programme in the 2023 World Endurance Championship, Jota Sport boss Sam Hignett (right) professed himself happy when facing the public at Autosport International last month. The team’s single Porsche 963 had been delivered only 10 days before the Spa 6 Hours, and Hignett says he’s “never seen a bunch of humans work so hard” as his crew did to get the first racing example of a customer LMDh car ready, which elicited a telling comment from his Hypercar team principal Dieter Gass. “As the car rolled out of the pitlane for FP1, Dieter said, ‘I think that’s the most emotional thing I’ve ever experienced in motorsport’,” Hignett relates. Sixth on its debut exceeded expectations, and the eight…

BRITISH GT Al Buncombe will return to the British GT Championship this year for the first time in a decade alongside Simon Watts at the wheel of an RJN McLaren 720S. Buncombe spent 12 years with RJN – first in the GT4 ranks from 2007-11, before moving up as a factory NISMO GT3 driver until 2018 – and his spell included winning the GT4 European Cup and Blancpain Endurance Series. He also partnered Gran Turismo GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough in 2012, with the pair finishing sixth overall in British GT before Buncombe had several outings alongside Olympian Chris Hoy. After joining Bentley’s factory roster, Buncombe spent last season running the JBXE Extreme E squad. His brother Chris and RJN founder Bob Neville last year sold the GT operation to…

OBITUARY Nobody did more to boost the DAF marque’s public perception through motorsport than Dutch ace Johannes ‘Jan’ de Rooy, who died last week, aged 80. The success of production 55s with continuously variable transmissions on the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon was immortalised in the model range’s name, but de Rooy’s spectacular rallycross, then rally raid, exploits earned legions of brand fans. De Rooy’s connection went beyond motorsport as his family business grew its DAF fleet to 400 trucks in the 1960s. A teenage motocrosser, de Rooy switched to cars in 1969, racing a Mini Cooper S on the loose. Not only was he quick, but he demonstrated great aptitude for making complex machinery work. Driving DAF coupes powered by Renault Gordini engines, then Ford BDAs, he won Dutch…

RALLYING A new-look British Historic Rally Championship begins in the forests of North Yorkshire this Sunday with the Riponian Stages Rally. The first of nine events this year is a classic one-day forest rally with an entry topped by regular contenders Matthew Robinson and Adrian Hetherington in Ford Escort Mk2s, and Nick Elliott in his Fiat 131. The BHRC calendar has had a serious makeover for 2024 with 11 scoring rounds from nine events and three asphalt rallies to broaden the appeal beyond gravel competition. The high-profile Manx and Argyll rallies both join the calendar, while the season concludes with the new Rally Anglo Caledonian, which offers a 140-stage-miles doubleheader in late November.…

Just five race outings in the Peugeot 908 are enough for Christian Klien to select it as his favourite racing car. Victory in the 2009 Spa 1000Km when Audi stayed away was the high point of the Austrian’s involvement with the turbodiesel LMP1 machine, which ran alongside a test role for BMW-Sauber’s Formula 1 team that precluded him from racing more often, before he joined Aston Martin in 2011. Klien, who started 49 grands prix with Jaguar, Red Bull and Hispania, relished the ‘diesel wars’ with works budgets that “wasn’t too much difference to F1”. “That was an extremely fast car,” recalls the 41-year-old. “A lot of power, a lot of downforce, and driving this car in Le Mans was just awesome. The fact that it had a diesel engine…

FORMULA 1 Red Bull GmbH says it has launched an independent investigation into unspecified allegations against its Formula 1 team’s boss Christian Horner. Red Bull did not detail the nature of the accusations, but Horner, who has been at the helm of the dominant reigning constructors’ champion since its 2005 arrival into the top flight, has strongly denied any wrongdoing. A Red Bull statement issued on Monday said: “After being made aware of certain recent allegations, the company launched an independent investigation. This process, which is already under way, is being carried out by an external specialist barrister. The company takes these matters extremely seriously and the investigation will be completed as soon as practically possible. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.” Speaking to Dutch…

WEC Valentino Rossi will continue his partnership with Maxime Martin in 2024 when the motorcycle legend races in the World Endurance Championship for the first time. They’ll also be teamed at the WRT BMW squad for a programme of GT World Challenge Europe events. Silver-rated Rossi and Martin will share with bronze driver Ahmad Al Harthy, who is moving across to race a WRT BMW M4 GT3 in the WEC after a maiden season in the series aboard a TF Sport Aston Martin in 2023. Rossi and Martin will race in the five GTWCE Endurance Cup rounds with new BMW signing Raffaele Marciello and contest the early-season Sprint Cup events at Brands Hatch and Misano as a duo. WRT’s second WEC entry will be driven by Augusto Farfus, who like…

FORMULA 3 Alex Dunne, last year’s GB3 runner-up, has secured his graduation to the FIA Formula 3 Championship – with MP Motorsport. The 18-year-old Irish talent (left) had been tied to Hitech GP since he won the 2022 British F4 title with the team. As well as his GB3 season, he starred on his F3 debut at last November’s Macau Grand Prix, where he finished second with Hitech in the qualification race after just one test outing at Imola. But he appeared to be out in the cold when he was not part of Hitech’s three-car line-up for the 2024 season. Instead, Dunne joins fellow F3 rookies Tim Tramnitz and Kacper Sztuka – both Red Bull Juniors – in Dutch team MP’s line-up. “He had an outstanding year in GB3…

“When I look at the livery, it’s got this progression between the blues, which for me signifies where we have been – and where we’re going,” mused Williams team principal James Vowles, as the Grove squad unveiled its 2024 livery and a new sponsorship deal with Japanese heavy machinery manufacturer Komatsu at Puma’s Fifth Avenue store in New York City. Billed as a ‘season launch’, the livery was transplanted onto 2023’s FW45 chassis while this year’s new car remains under wraps. It features an evolution of the differing shades of blue used over the past two seasons. But, pleasingly, there’s a nod to the team’s history; a red and white pinstripe runs along the car’s nose to evoke memories of some of Williams’s most successful cars, including the FW14B and…

Apologies to Tazio Nuvolari and Auto Union fans, and to those who fondly remember Michael Schumacher switching from Benetton to Ferrari for 1996 after winning two world titles on the trot, but there’s a case to be made that Lewis Hamilton heading to Maranello for 2025 is the biggest motorsport driver move ever. Ferrari remains F1’s most evocative and successful squad; Hamilton’s fame transcends the championship. The parallels with Hamilton’s exit from McLaren over a decade ago, when the V6 turbo hybrid era was set to arrive one year into his Mercedes tenure, are obvious. Today, the 2026 regulation changes are no longer far over the horizon. Yet, this time, the risks of a move are different for Hamilton. Back in 2012, the question was whether an untested and even…

“I want to be in one of them!” That was Jenson Button’s thought at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2023 as he thundered down the Mulsanne Straight and held on for dear life through the Porsche Curves aboard the Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro LS1 NASCAR Cup Car. And by “one of them”, he meant one of the cars from the Hypercar class that kept buzzing past in the battle for overall victory last June. The 2009 Formula 1 world champion has got his desire for this year as part of his first full season of racing since 2019 by taking on the World Endurance Championship with the Jota Porsche team. “I always loved Le Mans and going there again in a relaxed way was super-cool,” says the Briton. He…

The path to the IndyCar Series for Tom Blomqvist is not so much about the road less travelled, but rather one paved in perseverance. Born in Britain, raised in New Zealand, he’s built up a diverse background that features a promising junior formula career that veered into DTM and Formula E, among others, before becoming a force in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Following an introductory three races in North America’s premier open-wheel championship last year, he now finds himself back in single-seaters and bracing for a full-time rookie campaign, driving the Honda-powered #66 entry for Meyer Shank Racing. “This is the first time in a while where I’ve got this anxious energy about getting started because it’s so new,” enthuses the 30-year-old. “Obviously, I’ve been doing something so familiar for…

ASIAN LE MANS SERIES DUBAI (ARE) 4 FEBRUARY ROUND 2/3 The 99 Racing team extended its advantage in the Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 standings in Dubai, where Louis Deletraz, Nikita Mazepin and Ahmad Al Harthy took a second victory of the campaign for their ORECA over the similar Proton Competition car. Following an early safety car, triggered when Alexandre Coigny’s first-corner spin resulted in bedlam in the pack, Al Harthy occupied second in the early stages behind the TF Sport ORECA of Salih Yoluc, until the Omani was turned around by Proton driver Giorgio Roda. But by the end of his opening double stint, an inspired Al Harthy had moved to the lead with textbook moves around the outside of Turn 1 on John Falb (Duqueine ORECA) and Yoluc,…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Dino Zamparelli’s Race Drive team will progress into the Porsche Carrera Cup GB – a series in which he finished runner-up three times – this season with a planned three-car entry. Zamparelli initially founded the organisation as a trackday operator but moved into Porsche Club GB competition last year. Now he is stepping up to the Carrera Cup and has signed 2020 Walter Hayes Trophy winner Oliver White as his first driver. “We had a pretty successful time last season but my heart was always in the Carrera Cup so we decided to move up straight away,” explained Zamparelli. “I worked with Ollie when I was with Redline [as a driver coach] and he had a bit-part season last year and just hasn’t quite been able…

MINI CHALLENGE Fiesta ST240 champion Albert Webster has been chosen as the inaugural winner of the Mini Challenge Scholarship after a three-stage selection process. Over 100 applicants took part in the initial stage, a karting event in London towards the end of last year. The best contenders then progressed to a series of assessments at Croft earlier this month, with the top 20 making it through to the final on the second day. Initially, drivers got to grips with the Cooper machines used in the Mini Challenge Trophy before the finalists were able to sample the new JCW Sport car. Webster (right) was selected as the winner and now receives a prize package worth over £50,000 to compete in the new JCW Sport class with entry, car hire, fuel, brakes…

TCR UK TCR UK champion Carl Boardley will launch a defence of his title as he once again teams up with the Hart GT team of Nick Hart to run a single-car attack. In his first year in the category, Boardley took four wins en route to last season’s title and, although his mount for this year is yet to be confirmed, he expects to be back in the same Cupra Leon Competicion. “There’s a couple of options but I don’t think we’ve extracted anything like the real potential out of the car,” said Boardley, who aims to “build on what we learnt last year, hopefully unlock a little bit more pace from it and raise the bar a little bit”. Boardley had planned to bookend his year with the…

There are some pretty impressive statistics surrounding the British Automobile Racing Club North Western Centre’s CNC Heads Sports/Saloons Championship. Over 700 different drivers have competed in the category during its history. It has played host to over 470 individual races. And 1999 champion Chris Maries, victorious in his Mazda RX-7, has contested the highest number of them, starting 222 in around 25 different cars. Yet it’s no surprise that such big numbers are involved given the championship celebrated its landmark 40th season last year, and one person has been a key part in its success throughout that impressive period: coordinator John Leck. The numbers have not always been quite so large. Just nine cars competed in the very first race at Oulton Park on 31 March 1984 and the series…

Michael Schumacher (Ferrari F2002) exits the first Monza chicane – at this point in fourth place – while the Jaguar R3Bs of Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa and Mika Salo’s Toyota TF102 take to the run-off on the hectic opening lap of the 2002 Italian Grand Prix. Schumacher had qualified on the front row, but a particularly robust blocking move off the line by polesitter Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams FW24) killed his momentum, allowing his brother Ralf (Montoya’s team-mate) and Ferrari #2 Rubens Barrichello to steal ahead from the second row. Moments before this photograph was taken the Williams duo had almost collided at the chicane, Schuey Jr taking a shortcut that put him in front. Instructions to cede position were rendered moot when his BMW engine exploded,…