Innehållsförteckning för 22/08/19 från Autosport

It is now 43 years since Lella Lombardi (above) started the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix, the last time a woman raced in the Formula 1 World Championship. Given the technological and social changes that have happened during that time, that is ridiculous. As Autosport’s first Women in Motorsport special in August 2015 showed, it’s largely a numbers game. Only very few karters ever make it to F1 and a vast majority (nearly 96% according to Motorsport UK’s figures on page 25) of them are boys, which goes a long way to explaining the wait. The key is getting more girls and women interested in the sport, and challenging the wider perception that ‘it’s a man’s game’. Several initiatives, including Dare to be Different and the new-for-2019 W Series, have attempted…

WORLD ENDURANCE More manufacturers could be gearing up to join the new hypercar World Endurance Championship division in season two of the category in 2020-21. French constructor ORECA has revealed that it is talking to multiple major manufacturers with a desire to take on Toyota and Aston Martin – who have already committed to the class – at the pinnacle of sportscar racing. “There is a clear interest in hypercar from ORECA and we have started to work on a project,” said company boss Hugues de Chaunac (below). “At the same time we have had some, I would say, early discussions with OEMs. “We have proved our level of technology and that our design office and our race team are at a very high level, so we can offer a…

NASCAR Collapsed landing gear caused a plane carrying ex-NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr and his family to crash off a runway last week before bursting into flames. Earnhardt’s jet caught fire and burned out within minutes during the incident at Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Tennessee. The plane had careered off the end of the runway and through the fencing at the end of the airstrip. Earnhardt, his wife Amy, daughter Isla, their dog and the two pilots escaped the Cessna Citation 680 before it burst into flames. The Earnhardts were transported to Johnson City Medical Center, with Dale Jr treated for cuts and abrasions. Nearby CCTV cameras caught the crash, allowing National Transportation Safety Board investigators to identify that the right-side main landing gear collapsed after a second or third…

Not just a great racing driver Congratulations on an excellent focus on the Porsche 917 (Autosport, 15 August), truly an iconic race car. I was working for an American entrant on a Porsche 935 K3 at Le Mans in 1981, but don’t recall any problems at scrutineering for the Kremer 917K/81 (right). Everybody knew it was coming, and I am sure the Kremer brothers were wise to the rules. Does the rear-view mirror ahead of the ‘postbox’ look like an afterthought? I think not! Bob Wollek had driven our 935 at the Nurburgring 1000Km two weeks previously, to a brilliant third place. I encountered him behind the pits at Le Mans, just after he had decided to call it a day with the 917K/81. He said to me that he…

So what comes next for Jamie Chadwick? Her development role with Williams suggests that the potential for a Formula 1 testing or free practice appearance may be on the horizon, but for that there’s the small hurdle of superlicence points to overcome, of which Chadwick currently has none. It was announced by the FIA at the World Motor Sport Council in June that from next season W Series will be eligible for superlicence points and, unlike many junior single-seater categories, Chadwick is welcome to return in 2020 to bid for a second title, giving her the chance to earn those valuable points and an extra $500,000 if she wins again. “I just want to be out there racing as much as possible; I don’t care what it’s in,” says Chadwick,…

The GTE Am class rarely garners the same attention as the fight for overall victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours, but that doesn’t mean the race is any less significant for the division’s mix of professional and amateur competitors. That was certainly the case this year for Kessel Racing trio Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Manuela Gostner, who became the first all-female line-up to enter the race since 2010, when the Ford GT Frey shared with fellow Swiss drivers Natacha Gachnang and Cyndie Allemann expired in flames. The idea behind the so-called ‘Iron Dames’ came from Ferrari Challenge racer and entrepreneur Deborah Mayer, who approached Kessel Racing to run a Ferrari 488 GTE in the European Le Mans Series and also reached out to the FIA Women in Motorsport…

Leena Gade Role Race engineer, Mazda Series IMSA SportsCar As Leena Gade was growing up dreaming about working in motorsport, she never imagined that it wouldn’t be possible for a woman. The engineer, who won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2011, 2012 and 2014 with Audi, insists that “no one was ever negative about what I wanted to do”. Audi backed Gade’s aspirations to take responsibility for running a car after she started working as an assistant engineer, initially for the Champion Racing squad in the American Le Mans Series in 2007. “It wasn’t always a smooth ride, but Audi supported my development,” she says. “There was always a network of more experienced engineers in the background.” Gade isn’t sure that her successes, which include working on the winning…

RENAULT UK CLIO CUP Renault UK Clio Cup title contender Max Coates has hit out at his rival Jack Young’s “unacceptable” move at the final corner of the second race at Thruxton last weekend. Coates failed to finish the contest after being pitched into a spin at the Club chicane by MRM driver Young on the last lap. Young crossed the line as the winner before being excluded post-race. This was the latest incident between the pair as Young had twice been penalised at Snetterton for contact with Coates. “This decision doesn’t give me my win back – it doesn’t pay to repair the damage,” said Coates. “I feel like I’m quite a clean driver but the same standard isn’t there from the rest – it’s unacceptable. “I’m now kicking…

MOTORSPORT GAMES Britain’s motorsport federation has asked potential competitors to apply for the chance to compete in the inaugural Olympics-style Motorsport Games. Motorsport UK is seeking representatives to compete in the six categories – GT, touring cars, Formula 4, drifting, karting slalom and Esports – that will comprise the FIA event, which takes place at Vallelunga in Italy from 31 October-3 November. Motorsport Games is an expansion of the amateur-based FIA GT Nations Cup, which took place for the first time last December and was won by a team of Turkish drivers. Motorsport UK chief executive Hugh Chambers, who spent a decade working in Olympic sports before returning to motorsport, told Autosport: “We’ve had a lot of interest in the GT category, and a lot of debate on the ways…

BRITISH FORMULA 4 There was no stopping JHR at Thruxton as the squad’s drivers won all three British Formula 4 races. The first and third encounters followed a similar pattern as Carter Williams got ahead of polesitter Luke Browning at the start and powered into a lead he wasn’t to lose; race one was the American’s maiden victory in the series. He finished well clear of Sebastian Alvarez in race one, but the third contest ended in a close finish as JHR team-mate Josh Skelton was right on his tail, though Williams clung on to win. “It’s been mega from the start – the momentum is strong with us right now,” said Williams. While Williams was delighted, Browning lamented engine troubles that caused him to drop back down the order.…

SNETTERTON BARC 16-18 AUGUST Team Gadget Racing won the Classic 2CV 24 Hours at Snetterton after holding off a late challenge from the Tete Rouge Crisis team. The Gadget squad last won the event in 2008 and has been waiting for another triumph ever since, but Tom Perry, Lien Davies, Ainslie Bousfield and double series champion Simon Clarke were able to deliver victory this time around. The race itself was dominated by two European BMW-engined cars; rather like Le Mans, the prototypes streak away into the distance leaving the other classes to run their own races. The BNLL 2 car of Michel Crespin, Mehdi-Rik Bouchereau, Philippe Denis and Claude Crespin defeated the faster sister car of Philippe Courtois/Yves de Kelper/Mathieu Devos due to the latter crew spending a lengthy period…

There’s a throwaway line in the film Rocky Balboa that perfectly encapsulates BMW Compact Cup driver Steven Dailly’s weekend: “It’s not about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward.” Hit both literally and figuratively during the Anglesey weekend, through sheer dedication, determination, teamwork and drive, the Scotsman bounced back from a torrid meeting at Croft, where he left with a solitary point, to claim a win and two podiums in the worst of circumstances. On the drive down from Edinburgh, Dailly received the sad news that his grandmother had passed away but, not wanting to give up, he opted to finish the journey and race in her honour. “It’s something we knew was going to happen,” Dailly explained. “We’ve got to take…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Rally Germany World Rally Championship Round 10/14 Bostalsee, Germany 22-25 August TV Live BT Sport 3, Sat 1400, Sun 1100, Red Bull TV, Sat 1350 TV Highlights BT Sport 1, Fri 2200, BT Sport 3, Sat 2300, Red Bull TV, Fri 2100, Sat 2100, Sun 2100, 5Spike Mon 1900 Live coverage on wrc.com All live service via WRC+ IndyCar Round 14/16 Gateway, USA 24 August TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 0100 Indy Lights Round 8/10 Gateway, USA 24 August IMSA SportsCar Championship Round 10/12 Virginia, USA 25 August Suzuka 10 Hours Intercontinental GT Challenge Round 4/5 Suzuka, Japan 25 August TV Live Eurosport 2, Sun 0900 DTM Round 7/9 Lausitzring, Germany 24-25 August TV Live Freesports, Sat 1215, Sun 1215 Australian Supercars Round 10/15 The Bend, Australia…

Ming vases, Persian rugs – classic examples of family heirlooms. For my family, however, our most precious heirloom is a bunch of welded tube metal that started life in a factory near Snetterton four decades ago. It’s a Van Diemen RF80 Formula Ford 1600, it’s bright yellow, and it’s one of the most recognisable racing cars in Western Australia. Its chassis number is a mystery, simply because it arrived in Perth without a chassis plate. Over the years we’ve worked out that it’s (probably) an ex-Marc Duez car, that was run by an English team in the Benelux series. Apparently chassis plates went missing a fair bit back then. Something about import taxes and border controls… The RF80 hit Australian soil in 1983, starting its new life as a customer…

Stirling Moss shelters in the cockpit of his new Maserati 250F before the start of heat one of the 1954 Daily Express International Trophy at Silverstone. Moss started the wet heat from third and finished there. He was running second in the final, behind the dominant Ferrari of Jose Froilan Gonzalez, when suspension problems forced him out. Moss would also retire while running second at the British Grand Prix held two months later, but by season’s end had done enough to secure a place in the Mercedes team for 1955. For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 Honda heads into the second half of the Formula 1 season facing a “very complicated” decision on when to introduce its next upgraded engine and trigger grid penalties for Red Bull. Honda has already introduced two engine upgrades during the 2019 season, with its aggressive development programme presenting the opportunity to introduce a third update the next time it gives Red Bull and Toro Rosso fresh engines. The Japanese manufacturer’s Spec 3 engine made its debut in the French Grand Prix in June and has completed five races. With power-sensitive circuits coming up at the Belgian and Italian GPs, followed by one of Red Bull’s potentially strongest races in Singapore, either of the two races immediately after the summer break represents a logical time to introduce a new…

WORLD ENDURANCE Sam Bird’s stint as a fixture in Ferrari’s factory World Endurance Championship squad has come to an end after three seasons. The Briton has been replaced in its GTE Pro line-up as a result of continuing uncertainty over date clashes with his Virgin Formula E programme. Miguel Molina, who has driven alongside Bird at the Le Mans 24 Hours for the past three editions, will race the #71 AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE in the full 2019-20 WEC, which kicks off at Silverstone on September 1. He will share the car with Davide Rigon, Bird’s team-mate over the past three seasons. Ferrari explained that the prospect of up to two clashes between the WEC and FE calendars was behind the move. The WEC has shifted next year’s Spa…

BTCC The British Touring Car Championship will trial reverse pit-garage access next month at Silverstone to increase fan engagement ahead of a possible part-time 2020 introduction. All cars will face the backs of their garages and towards the paddock, rather than the pitlane as is customary. Although the BTCC offers pitlane walks to fans, it is hoped that this measure will enable more spectators to see the cars being worked on by mechanics. BTCC chief Alan Gow said: “The garages will all be dressed up, and the public gets to see everything going on in the garage. “At the moment, we dress up the garages to face the pitlane and be seen just by ourselves. The fans only ever get to see the back of the cars, and the oil…

Most drivers who set out on the road to Formula 1 never make it, and those who do find it almost as hard to stay there as to get there in the first place. But the rarest of breeds is the returnee – the driver who arrives, disappears, then returns triumphant. This is exactly what Esteban Ocon aspires to do, either by taking Valtteri Bottas’s Mercedes seat or landing a deal with a rival team. In elite sport, a year on the sidelines is regarded as disastrous for career momentum. Losing a year when you have a relatively short competitive shelf life is never a good thing, but it’s not necessarily the bodyblow some believe it to be. If Ocon is frustrated, he just needs to look to the example…

Susie Wolff is hiding in the Venturi garage from a sweltering hot day in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, metres away from the famous New York City skyline, at the ABB FIA Formula E Championship finale. Following her spell as a test-and-development driver for the Williams Formula 1 squad, Wolff took on one of the biggest challenges of her motorsport career when she was announced as the team principal of the Venturi squad ahead of the 2018-19 FE season. Throughout the campaign, Wolff has had to balance getting the most out of ex-Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa in his FE rookie season alongside Edoardo Mortara, as well as Venturi’s early-season reliability struggles, while also coming to grips with the role of team principal. On top of that, she has…

It’s the fastest form of motorsport you can find anywhere, it has its European championship-deciding event in England next month, and the driver bidding to follow up their 2018 title with another crown is… a middle-aged Finnish mum. While circuit racing and rallying bid to get greater female participation, drag racing is ruled by Anita Makela. Crowned FIA champion in 2016 and 2018 in the headlining Top Fuel category, she’ll be bidding to retain the title at Santa Pod over its big weekend on 6-8 September. A stint at summer school in the late 1970s in the US – the home of drag racing – initially fired the then-16-year-old Makela’s enthusiasm for powerful machinery. While in Ohio, she fell in love with the notion of acquiring a Pontiac Trans Am.…

In July last year, as Silverstone sizzled in one of the hottest summers in recent memory, Petronas used the British Grand Prix as a platform to announce a global search for a new trackside fluid engineer to join the Mercedes Formula 1 team at every round of the 2019 season. Over 7000 candidates worldwide threw their hats into the ring – a remarkable number given the demands of the job. Working in the cramped environment of the back of a race truck, the two Petronas trackside fluid engineers play one of those vital but unheralded roles in motorsport: continuously monitoring the functional fluids in their cars to maintain performance, legality and reliability. The tools in the small but surgically clean trackside fluid lab can reveal the tiniest traces of contamination…

Both had contested the race once before. Both were driving a supercharged 2.3-litre Bugatti Type 35B. But there the similarities ended. Parisian Albert Divo was a vastly experienced professional – rated France’s best by some – who had won grands prix for Sunbeam and Delage. Elisabeth Junek (an Anglicised name) was a 5ft 1in woman from the Moravia region of Czechoslovakia. She had been competing since 1922, initially as co-driver to her Prague banker husband, nicknamed ‘Cenek’ – apparently changing gear on occasion due to his wartime hand injury – before taking over the controls in 1924. She impressed on local events before finishing fourth overall to win the three-litre category of the 1927 German GP, run to sportscar regulations, at the Nurburgring. Sicily’s Targa Florio, however, was a step…

INDYCAR SERIES POCONO (USA) 18 AUGUST ROUND 13/16 Through mechanical issues, team fumbles, driving errors and sheer bad luck, Will Power had gone winless this year until last Sunday’s truncated 500-mile race at Pocono Raceway. But with his third win in the last four IndyCar events at the 2.5-mile tri-oval, Team Penske’s 2014 series champion extended his streak of winning at least one race per year to 13 seasons. Power was annoyed that qualifying was cancelled due to bad weather, the grid being arranged in championship order. He was confident that his fondness for a slightly loose but less ‘draggy’ car at 215mph would have allowed him to nab his second straight pole at the venue. Instead, he would start fifth. But the two-hour afternoon practice that replaced morning practice…

SUPER FORMULA MOTEGI (JPN) Ryo Hirakawa Team Impul (Dallara-Toyota) JAPANESE FORMULA 3 MOTEGI (JPN) Race 1 Sacha Fenestraz B-Max with Motopark (Dallara-Spiess F314) Race 2 Ritomo Miyata TOM’S (Dallara-Toyota F317) Race 3 Sacha Fenestraz B-Max with Motopark (Dallara-Spiess F314) NASCAR CUP BRISTOL (USA) Denny Hamlin (below) Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota Camry) NASCAR XFINITY SERIES BRISTOL (USA) Tyler Reddick Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet Camaro) ADAC GT MASTERS NURBURGRING (DEU) Race 1 Mirko Bortolotti/Christian Engelhart GRT Grasser Racing Team (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo) Race 2 Franck Perera/Rolf Ineichen GRT Grasser Racing Team (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo) SUPER TC2000 SAN NICOLAS (ARG) Matias Rossi Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina (Toyota Corolla) EUROPEAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP RALLY ZLIN (CZE) Jan Kopecky/Pavel Dresler Skoda Motorsport (Skoda Fabia R5 Evo) For full results visit motorsportstats.com…

CSCC Ex-British Touring Car Championship driver Mike Bushell will make his racing return in a Lotus Cortina at Brands Hatch this weekend. The double Renault UK Clio Cup champion lost his BTCC drive on the eve of the 2019 season and has since engineered AmD Tuning driver Rory Butcher to two wins. Bushell made his rear-wheel-drive debut in the Cortina last year at Brands, and will return for the Bank Holiday Classic Sports Car Club meeting to share with owner Richard Wheeler. “Richard has been a good friend and a loyal supporter of my racing, so he treats us every now and again,” said Bushell. “It’s a bit more special for me this year as I haven’t done any racing at all. I’ll definitely dust off the cobwebs!” Last season,…

BRITISH GT British GT will mark its 300th race at Donington Park next month with a collection of historic supercars that have contested the series since it began as the BRDC National Sports GT Challenge in 1993. Among them will be the exceptionally rare Ian Stinton-owned Harrier GT1-98, which was entered in the GT1 class in 1998 by the factory Harrier team and had Jamie Campbell-Walter among its driver roster, while a Jaguar XJ220 chassis owned by Chamberlain Engineering will also be present. TWR 004, which has been converted to road-car specification, will be driven to and from Donington by the project’s chief development engineer Alastair Macqueen, who also masterminded Jaguar’s Le Mans 1988 and 1990 wins. One of two existing TVR Cerbera V12s, also converted to road-spec using pooled…

EPPS’S LAST-MINUTE DEAL Ginetta GT4 Supercup podium finisher Mike Epps made a late switch to the G55 usually raced by Team Hard team-mate Tom Barley at Thruxton last weekend. Epps looked set to miss the round due to budget issues but stepped in when Barley dropped out because of his own budget constraints. With Epps’s car already pressed into service in the GT Cup meeting at Silverstone, he took over Barley’s machine and scored a best finish of fourth in race three. GULF WINNERS GET UK RACE Radical Gulf Cup winners Jeff Curtis and James Edmeades made their debuts in the Radical Challenge Championship at Silverstone last weekend as their prize drive for last year’s Middle East success. The Radical Works Team-run pair finished 20th and 21st on Saturday, but…

Rules and regulations. They are always going to provoke plenty of debate. There will always be those who grumble about there being too many restrictions and unnecessary stipulations, and there will also always be some who feel that the rules don’t go far enough and that there are loopholes that should be closed or extra clarity added. But, in recent weeks, rules have caused controversy and bafflement in a different way. This time, it’s the rulings made by governing or independent bodies that go completely against the written regulations. The chief example of this surrounds Ginetta Junior driver Roman Bilinski. The rookie’s had a pretty eventful opening half of the season after being disqualified from a win on a technical infringement and subsequently changing teams. He’s also been involved in…

RENAULT UK CLIO CUP It is now four consecutive races in which the first Renault UK Clio Cup driver to take the flag has not been declared the winner, because both Thruxton results were altered in the clerk’s room. Brett Lidsey claimed his maiden series pole for the opener but he was too quick away and was handed a 10-second penalty. That didn’t stop him playing a part in a thrilling race that more resembled a Formula Ford slipstreamer than a tin-top contest as Lidsey, Max Coates, Jack Young and Jamie Bond were constantly changing positions. It appeared that Coates had triumphed, but he was demoted behind Young after passing him off the circuit at the Club chicane and not giving the place back. The second race was all about…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Dan Harper continued his march towards the Porsche Carrera Cup GB title as he became the first driver this season to win both races in a weekend. Harper edged Josh Webster to claim his fourth pole position in five rounds, but the opening race threw the curveball of a rain shower as the cars made their way to the grid. Motorbase Performance duo Lewis Plato and Dan Vaughan were joined by Tom Roche in peeling in for rain tyres and starting from the pitlane. “It poured down so I was like, ‘Right, this is Croft all over again – get the wets on’,” said Plato, Harper’s closest challenger in the points, who sacrificed fourth on the grid. Although only half the track – from the complex…

2CV 24 HOURS Euro BNLL 2 (Michel Crespin/Mehdi-Rik Bouchereau/Philippe Denis/Claude Crespin) 2CV Club Team Gadget Racing (Tom Perry/Lien Davies/Simon Clarke/Ainslie Bousfield) Mini Grand Slarky Malarky (Neil Slark/Ian Slark/Ben Butler/Steve Miles) HONDA VTEC AND CLASSIC VW CUP Races 1 & 2 Luke Schlewitz (Honda Civic) HYUNDAI COUPE CUP Races 1 & 2 Wayne Rockett (below) BARC SALOONS Race 1 Mark De’ath (Subaru Impreza) Race 2 Steve Rothery (Peugeot 308) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

The duel between Richard Chamberlain and John Seale has been finely poised in the GT Cup this year. Heading to Silverstone, the duo had shared six GTO (open-spec) class wins apiece, and by the end of Saturday another victory each – the sprint for Chamberlain and the pit contest for Seale’s Lamborghini, shared with Jamie Stanley in the 50-minute races – ensured the duel between the two continued. Chamberlain, in the CTR Developments-entered Porsche 935, enjoyed a lights-to-flag victory in the first sprint, but suffered heartbreak in the 50-minute second race with a stuck throttle. Chamberlain had engaged with the Huracan started by Seale in a fierce battle where the lead changed hands several times. The Porsche driver was ahead by around a second heading into the pit phase and,…

MONDELLO PARK HISTORIC FESTIVAL 17-18 AUGUST Mondello Park’s Historic Festival might have been one of many events that celebrated 60 years of the Mini but, with Formula 1 demos, visiting UK drivers and various other paddock entertainments, it was a huge success for the Irish circuit. Snetterton Speed Shop’s Jonathan Lewis clinched pole position when the much-anticipated Classic Mini racers took to the asphalt. In the opening race, he duly led away from team-mates and Mondello tin-top regulars Michael Cullen and Dave Maguire. Steve Griffin, though, was on a charge. Despite Dave O’Neill’s famous Wolseley Hornet only being completed the previous week, and Griffin not having competed in a front-wheel-drive car for many years, the combination stormed up to second. Griffin annexed many of the positions with some impressive moves…

1) Who, what, where, when? 2) Who is this? This charismatic charger made the best of a bad situation. Having started on the stages, he followed a patriotic path early on in his career. His promise was rewarded with some outings alongside one of the best in the business in fast but fragile machines. He was handed a way on to the back of the grid and, while he often failed to finish, his flourishes were enough to knit together a stronger package. As a natural against the blowers he was in a different class, but when the playing field levelled he looked set for stardom. His hopes came crashing down, but he carried on regardless in a new home with a different national hero. He was a genuine contender…

INDYCAR IndyCar rookie Felix Rosenqvist was hospitalised following a shocking five-car pile-up on the opening lap of last Sunday’s 500-mile race at Pocono. Takuma Sato, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay collided approaching Turn 2. James Hinchcliffe could not avoid the wreckage, while Rosenqvist clipped Sato – whose car overturned – and was launched into a scary aerial ride along the fence (below), echoing Robert Wickens’s career-ending accident at the same track in 2018. While the other four drivers were checked over in the infield medical centre, Rosenqvist was taken to hospital for scans but was later released. “I just have some minor back pain and a bit of a headache,” said Rosenqvist, who will be back behind the wheel of his Chip Ganassi Racing car for this Saturday’s race at…

FORMULA 3 The Japanese Formula 3 Championship has committed to Dallara’s new update of its ‘traditional’ F3 car from 2020, with the series renamed Super Formula Lights. Dallara recently unveiled the 320, which features a halo and will also be used in the Euroformula Open series. The Japanese organisers, whose F3 championship runs on the undercard of the country’s top-level Super Formula contest, weighed up the FIA’s Regional F3 formula before finally plumping for continuing the heritage of a series that dates back to 1979, using the lightweight F3 chassis and open engine competition. With FIA homologation of the existing Dallara F312 generation of chassis running out at the end of this year, the Japanese series – which offers 10 superlicence points to its champion – has to drop ‘F3’…

TCR GERMANY World Rally Championship title contender Thierry Neuville took a sensational hat-trick of pole position, fastest lap and victory on his circuit racing debut in TCR Germany at the Nurburgring last weekend. Neuville, third in the WRC standings with Hyundai, had tested the South Korean manufacturer’s i30 N TCR car before the weekend and said he was “surprised about the speeds you could go”. The Belgian topped the first free practice session and then secured pole on Saturday morning ahead of the weekend opener. The 19-lap race wasn’t straightforward for 31-year-old Neuville, as he had to survive a restart following a safety car, called when Bradley Burns parked his Pyro Motorsport Honda Civic by the track after it had caught fire, but after the restart he led every lap…

The inaugural W Series season drew to a close at Brands Hatch earlier this month with Jamie Chadwick a triumphant first champion. Almost overnight – if the plethora of international television and mainstream press appearances are anything to go by – Chadwick’s star power and notoriety have trebled, but so too have W Series’ own. From the outset, W Series has been subjected to intense scrutiny, and its second year will only bring even higher expectations. Continuing the upward trajectory it has established will now be more important than ever. By its own admission, the series has adopted a trial-and-error approach to running such a unique championship. That method has proved successful so far, but that’s not to say there are not still some changes to be made as it…

Have Dare to be Different and other efforts to increase female involvement in motorsport worked in the UK? We asked Motorsport UK, the country’s governing body of the sport, for its 2018 figures on licence-holders, and compared them with 2014 – the last full-season statistics available when we last ran a Women in Motorsport special in 2015. While there were more women in car racing last season than four years earlier, their percentage of the total had decreased by a fraction, as it had also done in rallying and speed events (hillclimbs and sprints). There was a minor increase in the percentage of females officiating. But the best news is in karting – where the future stars are to be found. While this branch of the sport has taken a big hit on…

Jndia Erbacher Switzerland’s Jndia Erbacher (her birth certificate shows the name ‘India’, but she changed it to mimic the stylised ‘I’ on the logo of US motorcycle maker Indian, which looks like a J) has followed in the footsteps of custom-bike-dealer dad Urs, and campaigns a Top Fueller in FIA competition as time and funds permit. She has run in the three-second zone in her dragster – named Jasmine – and like her dad, a three-time FIA European Top Fuel champ, she’s experienced National Hot Rod Association action in the US, where she gained Super Comp and Top Methanol Dragster licences. Maja Udtian Maja Udtian is the woman behind the tiller of the Islanders Top Fueller, a dedicated team of racers from Norway. Her father, Paul Ingar Udtian, has a…

Clubmans racing is not an obvious place for a talented female racer to make her mark and win a national championship. But that’s just what Michelle Hayward did in 2018 when she raced her Mallock Mk27 to the CSP2 title in the Clubmans Cup. Clubmans has been around for well over 50 years now and remains as valid as ever. Mainly in front-engined sports-racing cars designed or inspired by the late Arthur Mallock, countless racers have enjoyed a largely unrivalled bang-for-buck ratio. It may be inexpensive in racing terms, but the cars are blindingly quick and generate great gobs of downforce with which to reward the committed. The category has its roots in the self-build generation, which proliferated in the 1960s. Gifted and enthusiastic racers toiled in draughty sheds to…

STAT 34 Third-placed Cammish is now 34 points behind BTCC leader Turkington Since switching to full Next Generation Touring Car specification Honda Civics back in 2012, Team Dynamics has won a staggering 49 out of the 231 races run in the British Touring Car Championship. With a strike rate over 21%, it’s easy to see why its cars have become so desirable. AmD Tuning bought a brace of the previous-shape FK2 Civic Type Rs for 2019, while BTC Racing switched to two of the current FK8s. Courtesy of Sam Tordoff’s and Josh Cook’s triumphs in the opening races of the second visit of the season to Thruxton, ex-Dynamics cars have now notched up a total of six victories this year. But, prior to the finale last weekend, the factory-supported squad…

SUPER FORMULA MOTEGI (JPN) 18 AUGUST ROUND 5/7 Ryo Hirakawa took his maiden Super Formula win with the Kazuyoshi Hoshinorun, Toyota-powered Team Impul squad, the Red Bull athlete taking a breakthrough result in front of Red Bull’s Helmut Marko. Following his first pole last time out at Fuji, rookie Alex Palou planted his Nakajima Racing Dallara-Honda at the front of the grid again. He led Hirakawa for the first 23 laps of the 51-tour race, before Hirakawa made an opportunistic pass for the lead in the double-left near the end of the lap. Honda protege Nirei Fukuzumi ran third in his Dandelion Racing car, while Kamui Kobayashi had a superb start and opening lap to vault his Toyota-engined KCMG car from seventh to fourth. Kobayashi then grabbed third from Fukuzumi…

GOODWOOD REVIVAL Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti will return to racing at next month’s Goodwood Revival for the first time since his career-ending 2013 accident. Franchitti, now 46, walked away from his top-flight US single-seater career in 2013 on medical advice after he suffered a spinal fracture and concussion. A final-lap collision at Houston as he clipped the stricken car of Takuma Sato sent Franchitti airborne and into the catch fencing. Combined with injuries previously sustained, the risk of permanent paralysis from any further crashes meant Franchitti retired from competitive motorsport. Franchitti, who will drive in two races at the Revival on 13-15 September, said: “I’m delighted to be returning to competition at this year’s Goodwood Revival. I really thought my racing days were behind…

BRSCC Fiesta Championship drivers James Waite and Jake Dawson were uninjured despite a dramatic opening-lap collision at Anglesey last weekend. Dawson lost his brakes heading to Rocket and, after running wide to try and halt his momentum, collided into the left-front of second-place runner Waite, forcing a lengthy red flag period. The impact pitched Dawson into the air, his car rolling over twice and coming to a stop the right way up. “I’d been suffering with my brakes the whole weekend,” Dawson said. “When it came to the corner they just went. I tried pulling left to slow down but it was too late and I couldn’t avoid it. The car’s a write-off, a next-year job.” While Dawson was out, the Jamsport team worked through the night to repair the…

GOODWOOD MOTOR CIRCUIT Just 53 examples of the Jaguar XJR-15 ‘road car’ were produced during its three-year build run from 1990-92, and 11 of those came out of hiding to line up at the Goodwood Motor Circuit on Monday. Its chassis, housing a six-litre V12, was developed from the Tony Southgate-designed XJR-9 – the Group C sportscar that won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1988. Manufactured in conjunction with Tom Walkinshaw Racing, the XJR-15 enjoyed a brief three-race spell on the 1991 Formula 1 support package in the form of the Jaguar Intercontinental Challenge. It raced at Monaco, Silverstone and Spa, with Armin Hahne bagging the $1million prize fund. Among those at the Goodwood meet-up were Jeff Allam, John Watson, Ian Flux and Tiff Needell, who recalled “opposite lock…

GINETTA JUNIOR Zak O’Sullivan and Will Martin started the Ginetta Junior finale side by side. And it was a sign of what was to come because the duo were inseparable throughout a cracking race. Martin emerged ahead into the complex on the opening tour but the pair then spent the first nine laps scrapping relentlessly – and frequently banging doors up Woodham Hill. And matters came to a head on lap 10 of 12. Martin attempted to pass his rival at Allard but was squeezed onto the grass on the inside exiting the corner. Remarkably, Martin kept control as he bounced across the muddy terrain and rejoined just behind O’Sullivan. Then he passed O’Sullivan at Church. It was an incredible recovery but it still wasn’t over. On the final lap…

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP The combination of a terrific weekend for Will Burns and wretched luck for Harry King at Thruxton changed the complexion of the Ginetta GT4 Supercup championship fight. It hadn’t looked to be that way when King led race one from pole until the final lap. Getting a better exit from Club, Burns tried a move into Allard. King shut the door and there was slight contact between his right-rear wheel and Burns’s splitter. It was enough to puncture King’s tyre and he trailed around to retire, as Burns won from Tom Hibbert. Worse was to come for King in race two, as his driveshaft failed on the green-flag lap for the second time this season, while Mike Epps suffered a similar fate. Burns took full advantage as…

Plenty of drivers race in more than one championship during a season, either to build their experience or maximise their earnings. For some, that involves switching between different cars or even different types of car. But beyond Formula E and the World Endurance Championship – where the drivers fall into the category of paid professionals maximising their income – it’s rare to alternate between single-seaters and sportscars. That is what Porsche Carrera Cup GB racer Esmee Hawkey has been doing this year as she also fitted in a campaign in W Series. “Driving the Formula 3 car in W Series and then also the Carrera Cup car, it’s been tough,” said Hawkey. “They’re totally different cars so it’s been a difficult year, jumping in and out of both. You have…

SILVERSTONE MSVR 17-18 AUGUST “Up to now I would have said two second places would have been excellent. But to get pole and do the hard work to get there, to lose it off the line twice is not acceptable from my side and not good enough. I cost the team two victories this weekend.” Kiern Jewiss may be the kind of driver who beats himself up when not achieving his best, but it was hard to disagree with the Douglas Motorsport racer’s ‘what-could-have-been’ assessment of the Silverstone BRDC British F3 weekend after he had lost two race wins from pole. In race one he lost out to Sasakorn Chaimongkol into Copse, Hillspeed’s second-year Thai driver becoming the 12th different winner this year. Jewiss seemed to have only one opportunity…

ANGLESEY BRSCC 17-18 AUGUST With the eight-hour ‘into the night’ Fun Cup race breaking time, lap and distance records, it was perhaps fitting that the win went to one of the most experienced and tactically astute teams on the endurance grid. In taking victory, the JPR Uvio squad with drivers Scott Fitzgerald and Fabio Randaccio not only became the first multiple winners of the season, but also took a step closer to securing the 2019 crown. Despite being drawn on the penultimate row of the grid, after two hours of consistent lap times and fantastic strategy, the Uvio car was seven seconds clear of its nearest rival 2Rent Dominos (Henry Dawes/Chris Hart). Double fuelling at the start meant the Brands Hatch winners could save time in the initial pitstops by…

Marshals were firmly in the spotlight at the British Automobile Racing Club meeting at Donington Park on 1 June. Or rather, a shortage of them was. Insufficient numbers had signed up to volunteer at the event to allow the Britcar Endurance races to take place on the Grand Prix layout of the Leicestershire venue. Instead, the shorter National configuration had to be used. That incident raises the very valid question: do we have enough marshals for the amount of British motorsport there is? British Motorsports Marshals Club chair Nadine Lewis – a marshal for 22 years – reports that the club has a stable number of members, while Brands Hatch flag marshal Bob McEwan says numbers are rising “fairly steadily” in the south east. Rather than an overall lack of…

BOOK REVIEW ONE FORMULA – 50 YEARS OF CAR DESIGN RRP £225.00 As Gordon Murray stresses in the introduction, this is not his autobiography. Mentions of non-motorsport idol Bob Dylan are minimal. Instead, One Formula is a mesmeric and colossal collection of all his car designs. The grand prix title winners, the latest road car releases, previously unseen projects – they all receive extensive coverage in this 930-page, two-volume “blockbuster”, as publisher Porter Press International calls it. The standard edition comes in at some £225, while the ‘Unique Edition’ takes that up to £2500. For that hefty fee, readers can expect a comprehensive and beautifully presented overview of the design genius displayed frequently through Murray’s career in F1 and sportscars. As an example, the most revered road car to be…