Innehållsförteckning för 15/10/20 från Autosport

Did you ever think that Michael Schumacher’s Formula 1 wins tally of 91 would be matched? All records are there to be broken, of course, but Schuey’s (then) unprecedented period of domination with Ferrari, combined with longer seasons (and careers) than in the past did make the victory benchmark look like one of F1’s toughest. When Schumacher took his final win in the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix he had 40 more than the driver in second (Alain Prost) and Fernando Alonso, the next-highest active driver, had only 14 wins. Lewis Hamilton arrived the following year, just as Schumacher left (the first time). Although it was obvious from his first race in F1 that he was going to be one of the talents of his generation, his trials and tribulations at…

FORMULA 1 Mercedes has ruled out supplying Red Bull with Formula 1 engines following Honda’s planned exit at the end of 2021. With Honda announcing its plan to exit F1 at the start of this month, Red Bull and sister team AlphaTauri are now in search of a new engine supplier from 2022. The teams appear to have limited options, as just three engine manufacturers remain in F1. Renault has said that it would be open to rekindling a partnership with Red Bull, but Mercedes has categorically confirmed it would not be interested in working with its closest on-track rival. When asked by Autosport if a deal was of interest, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff ruled it out for “various reasons”. “The main [reason] being that we are supplying four…

BTCC British Touring Car Championship Audi driver Bobby Thompson walked away from an enormous barrel-roll at Croft last weekend, and is planning to be back on the grid for next week’s Snetterton round pending the all-clear from medical checks. Thompson had made a breakthrough in form at the North Yorkshire circuit. He drove his AmD-run Trade Price Cars Racing Audi S3 to a time that would have been good enough for pole position in a wet qualifying session, only for that lap to be deleted for track limits. His second best was good enough for fifth on the grid, and he held his own among the BTCC heavy-hitters to claim eighth in each of the first two races. Third-year BTCC racer Thompson was battling for eighth again in the final…

NASCAR NASCAR Cup veteran Clint Bowyer will retire from racing and switch to TV commentary when his Stewart-Haas Racing contract expires at the end of this season. The 41-year-old has raced full-time at the Cup level since 2006, winning 10 times in 537 starts with Richard Childress Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and SHR. He was third in the Cup in 2007 and second in 2012, and has been a regular playoff finalist. He last won a race in 2018. In a statement posted on social media, Bowyer said: “In 2021 my suit will no longer be fireproof” and paid tribute to the people who have supported his career. “I’ve sat in race cars prepared by some of the very best men and women the sport has to offer, for world…

Formula 1 statistics rather mirror the endeavour itself – the emotion of sporting success and human achievement matched with cold, hard facts. It’s the former that makes motorsport so interesting, but the latter that sums up success. It often does this distortedly – given that opposition level, strike rate and car quality must be added for consideration of ‘greatness’. Nevertheless, Lewis Hamilton’s triumph in the Eifel Grand Prix put him level with Michael Schumacher at the top of F1’s all-time win list, with 91 apiece. It’s the achievement we will consider – and whether it will ever be scored again. As things stand, Hamilton does not hold the record outright. But, although it would be wrong to assume anything given the state of the world these days, he will surely…

He’d done everything right. He’d taken a storming pole position against a resurgent Red Bull threat and in the process seen off his illustrious team-mate. He’d done enough at the start to stay in the fight at the first corner, which became an off-track shoving match that, in the words of his team boss, he won in the style of a “rally driver”. He’d prevailed there with a muscling move into the second turn and then led for 12 laps, staying out of DRS threat against the other Mercedes. And then it all went wrong for Valtteri Bottas. At the start of the Eifel Grand Prix’s 13th lap, the Finn locked up his right-front tyre heavily into the Nurburgring’s first corner and slid off the road, his soft rubber ruined.…

Despite the lack of practice time available after Friday’s washout, McLaren decided to equip both cars with its new aerodynamic upgrades to press on with its development. Lando Norris, running fewer new-spec parts than team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr, was able to make good progress in the race’s early stages and fought with Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez – which became the battle for third after Valtteri Bottas’s retirement. Norris then began to report issues with his power unit, which was new for this race. First, he struggled with energy deployment while trying to keep Perez at bay, and then began to lose progressively more from the engine, which helped Perez pass at the chicane after the two had pitted. Norris continued to drop back, relinquishing fifth to Sainz but hanging…

Four months later than planned, Rally Italia Sardegna played host as the sixth round of this year’s World Rally Championship. Dani Sordo, Hyundai’s ‘supersub’ for the weekend, took a thoroughly deserved victory; his third career WRC win and the second in his last two visits to Sardinia. As the WRC continues to proceed cautiously out of lockdown, this final gravel round on the 2020 schedule felt much more like a full WRC event than either of the preceding events in Turkey or Estonia. Spectators and ceremonial events may have been absent (officially at least), but six timed stages on the opening day felt like business as usual. Four of the six would be complete before the day’s service halt, which meant that many crews took a measured approach early on.…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE SPRINT CUP BARCELONA (ESP) 10-11 OCTOBER ROUND 4/4 There were no fewer than 17 mathematical contenders for the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup title heading into the Barcelona season finale last weekend. But it was quickly whittled down to four realistic protagonists, and then to just two over the course of three intriguing one-hour races. Team WRT Audi’s Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts would be crowned the eventual champions, and their mix of relief and exultation at the end of the third and final affair was clear. It had been a long, hard slog and not without controversy. For some time, it looked like Haupt Racing’s Mercedes duo of Maro Engel and Luca Stolz were going to avenge their narrow 2019 title loss before the…

MOTOGP LE MANS (FRA) 11 OCTOBER ROUND 9/14 The 2020 MotoGP French Grand Prix was already a finely poised affair before the race was even under way. Eventual winner Danilo Petrucci said after qualifying third that he expected a 10-rider battle for the podium. The consensus was that if polesitter Fabio Quartararo could get the holeshot and deploy the blistering race pace he displayed in practice on Saturday, it was game over. If the Ducatis of Petrucci and Pramac’s Jack Miller starting alongside could get the jump, then it was anyone’s game. Then the rain came and washed Quartararo’s hopes of a home win away. The Petronas SRT rider struggled in the wet FP1 on Friday, but the predicted dry weather for Sunday meant it was a worry he could…

Lucky Khera finished the second season of the Ferrari Challenge UK category unbeaten after taking two more wins at Snetterton last weekend. Khera (above) has dominated the small field all season and was again in control in the Norfolk opener and triumphed in the wet second contest too, after Martin Smith and Paul Hogarth collided while battling for the lead. Three different F355 drivers took Ferrari Formula Classic spoils across Friday and Saturday as Wayne Marrs, Tristan Simpson and Tim Mogridge (inset) each won, Marrs and Simpson by less than a second.…

MSVR The Porsche Club Championship will be administered by MotorSport Vision Racing from next season. The category has previously appeared at a number of different events, including at MG Car Club meetings. MSVR has already collaborated with Porsche Club GB on the Festival of Porsche, which takes place at Brands Hatch. The event will return next summer for a special celebration of Porsche Club GB’s 60th anniversary. Joe East, competitions manager at MSVR, said: “We have worked with Porsche Club Great Britain and its team successfully for many years, welcoming its series to our race programmes from time to time, most notably at the Festival of Porsche events, which have always been a joint effort. “It is fantastic to take that relationship to the next level now, by welcoming the…

McLAREN DRIVERS’ MESSAGE Irish racer and team owner Sean Woods, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease last year, has received a special message from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. His daughter Aimee spoke with Autosport correspondent Leo Nulty and suggested Woods would love a message of support from his favourite drivers. A delighted Woods received a video message from both drivers before last weekend’s Eifel Grand Prix, thanking him for the support and urging him to keep fighting. MINI CHALLENGE DEBUT Former Renault UK Clio Cup and Fiesta competitor Nathan Edwards made his debut in the Cooper class of the Mini Challenge at Croft last weekend with Excelr8 Motorsport as the series again formed part of the British Touring Car support bill. The 22-year-old…

HISTORIC FORMULA FORD 2000 The unique Nomad Formula Ford 2000 is set to return to competition next season, having last been raced by its late designer/constructor Phil Lloyd in 1978. Lloyd was 750 Motor Club F1300 champion – driving his Nomad Mk2, another self-build – when he joined the Pinto-powered slicks-and-wings category with its successor in 1977. He evolved the Mk3 into lighter Mk4 spec with inboard rocker front suspension for 1978, but tragically became quadriplegic when his Frank Bradley-loaned Reynard rolled as a result of a clash of wheels at Mallory Park in 1979. The bones of the Nomad were sold but were snapped up by 2015 Historic FF2000 champion Tom Smith from an eBay advert in 2016. His category specialist TS Historic team has subsequently rebuilt it. “We…

GINETTA JUNIOR It’s not very often that a Ginetta Junior race is won by 6.8 seconds. And it’s not very often that a driver bounces back from losing a win, a roll into the gravel trap and a disappointing 13th place to catapult themselves back into title contention in the next event. But that change in fortunes is what Tom Lebbon has enjoyed in recent weeks. After his miserable Silverstone event, he was 74 points adrift of leader Bailey Voisin and admitted he “lost all hope for a little bit”. That despondency was replaced by confidence at Croft as he came very close to winning both races. The opener featured two safety car periods and all came down to a one-lap shootout. Lebbon had briefly lost the lead to Tom…

MINI CHALLENGE TROPHY Harry Nunn was the star in the Cooper class of the Mini Challenge at Croft as he took his maiden win and a third to propel himself to the head of the points table. Nunn grabbed the lead on the first lap of the opener, held in drying conditions, and stayed in front for the remainder as a dramatic battle unfolded behind him. Polesitter Alex Nevill slightly overcooked it into the Complex on the opening lap and lost out to Dominic Wheatley, before soon dropping behind Lee Pearce and Lydia Walmsley too. But the driver on the move was James Hillery, having stormed up from 16th on the grid. He grabbed third from Walmsley with a move up the inside at Tower with two laps to go,…

Zak O’Sullivan has already shown in his short car racing career that he can adapt to new machinery pretty quickly. He finished his maiden car race in second place in Ginetta Junior at Brands Hatch last year – no mean feat for a rookie in a competitive championship – and then took two podiums, including a reversed-grid victory, on his debut single-seater weekend at Donington Park this year. But both of those seasons have followed a similar pattern. A strong start to the year, followed by a tricky spell in the early-to-mid part of the season before a resurgence in the second half of the campaign. That resurgence took O’Sullivan to second in the Ginetta standings last year, albeit almost 100 points behind runaway champion James Hedley, and he is…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR 10-11 OCTOBER Winning honours were shared when the GT Cup came to the full Brands Hatch circuit for a quartet of races forming what is due to be the penultimate round of this year’s championship. Grahame Tilley probably had the most to celebrate, with two wins and a fourth, although he also suffered a mechanical retirement. Saturday’s races packed in plenty of drama. Shamus Jennings (Porsche 911) surged from last place to win the opening sprint after a first-corner spin, while Tilley’s polesitting Nissan GT-R had looked comfortable in the lead until it shed a wheel. Jim Geddie’s Lamborghini, another lap-one casualty, was third behind John Dhillon (Ferrari). Fourth, reinforcing his points lead, was class-winning Ginetta driver Simon Orange. The pitstop race was effectively decided on lap…

KNOCKHILL SMRC 10 OCTOBER Ross Dunn takes a 15-point lead into the final round of the Scottish C1 Cup championship at the end of the month after picking up a win and a second place at Knockhill last weekend. Such has been the impact of COVID-19 on the motorsport calendar, the second round of the Scottish Motor Racing Club season was held on the weekend the club traditionally has its season finale. Rain usually features heavily on such weekends but this year the weather Gods in Fife behaved themselves, allowing for some close-knit racing among the C1s. It was a bit too close in race one, as a three-car pile-up at McIntyres involving Tom Denham, Cameron Bryant and Elliot Lewthwaite brought out the red flags on the first lap. Polesitter…

5 TAKUMA SATO, 2004 A career-best second in qualifying meant Sato led in his high-flying BAR 006 after polesitter Michael Schumacher pitted his Ferrari. After his third stop, Sato resumed in third just behind the two-stopping Rubens Barrichello and wasted no time in attacking at Turn 1. Caught unawares, the Brazilian turned in and broke Sato’s front wing. Shortly after pitting for a replacement and rejoining in fifth, Sato’s engine cried enough. 4 CARLOS PACE, 1973 The Surtees squad was hardly a top-liner, and Pace qualified his TS14A 11th, but he climbed to a surprise fifth as Niki Lauda and Peter Revson both crashed. Pace then headed a queue stuck behind Carlos Reutemann – struggling with a slow puncture – for six laps until the DFV in the Argentinian’s Brabham blew, moving…

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Rally GB has been given hope of returning to the World Rally Championship calendar for 2021 after being awarded a provisional August date, but it will require approximately £2million of local government funding. Britain’s date on the 12-round schedule is pencilled in for 19-22 August, but its long-term backer the Welsh government has cooled its support for the event in recent years, and the economic impact of coronavirus could see the break clause in its contract triggered one year early. Meanwhile, a vigorous campaign has been fought to move the rally to Belfast, led by local rally kingpin Bobby Willis and North Antrim MP Ian Paisley. With Paisley’s intervention, conversations have been ongoing between the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Northern Ireland Office and the…

FORMULA 1 Fernando Alonso made his first Formula 1 track appearance since the announcement of his Renault return at Barcelona on Tuesday of this week. The two-time world champion was driving the current Renault F1 car in a promotional/filming day, with 100km of running allowed. “It’s going to be an amazing feeling, after two years not driving an F1,” said Alonso – whose last outing came with McLaren in April 2019 – before the test. “I think it’s going to be like a new beginning, getting surprised about the speed of the car, the braking performance, the cornering speed, a lot of things that will surprise me once again. “It is very special to be back in Barcelona. I remember my first test with Benetton in the year 2000 was…

SPA 24 HOURS Porsche factory drivers Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and Richard Lietz will return to the Spa 24 Hours in a bid to become the first repeat winners of the Belgian enduro for more than a decade. The World Endurance Championship regulars will race for Hong Kong entrant KCMG after winning last year’s event with GPX Racing. The trio have been called up to drive one of two Porsche 911 GT3-Rs fielded by KCMG (above), which also contested last month’s Nurburgring 24 Hours with factory backing. They will contest the double-points round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup on 24-25 October alongside Alexandre Imperatori, Edoardo Liberati and Josh Burdon, who all raced for the team at the ’Ring. “It’s good to be back to defend our crown…

SCANDINAVIAN TOURING CAR CUP Newly crowned Scandinavian Touring Car champion Rob Huff says he is happy to stay where he is for 2021, but that he and the Lestrup Racing Team with which he claimed the title last weekend are also eyeing race events further afield. Huff was forced out of the World Touring Car Cup for 2020 owing to VW’s withdrawal, but found a berth in Sweden with the Lestrup squad’s Golf GTIs, and entered last weekend’s Knutstorp finale in a tight three-way title battle against Robert Dahlgren and Tobias Brink. Huff won the opening race, before Dahlgren took his PWR Racing Cupra to victory in race two, leaving the two level on points for the finale – and together on the fourth row of the reversed grid, with…

Sport is a distraction, and one that takes place at weekends. The first race of the 1931 European Drivers’ Championship – distant forebearer to Formula 1 – was the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on 24 May, a Sunday. Precedent set, motorsport has overwhelmingly taken place at a weekend. There are fleeting exceptions. Occasionally NASCAR Truck Series races stray onto a Thursday or Friday, national club events can occupy a bank holiday Monday or, in the case of the Plumb Pudding meeting at Mallory Park, whichever day Boxing Day falls on. The Marathon de la Route on the Nordschleife would run from Tuesday through until Saturday. Still taking place at Zandvoort is the Zomeravond Competitie. Roughly translated as ‘Summer Evening Competition’, these events continue to run midweek 25 years after…

In recent years, as the to-and-fro battle over Formula 1’s sporting soul (the dreaded ‘spectacle’) has persisted, an argument has developed that suggests removing the Friday practice sessions. This would mean a much-reduced chance for the teams to understand everything they typically do ahead of qualifying and the race, and this would therefore shake up the competitive order. The short gap between the Portuguese and Emilia Romagna races meant F1 was always set to test this theory, with the Imola weekend a designated two-day event. But thanks to low cloud at the Nurburgring last Friday, it got a bonus chance to see what would happen with reduced practice running – actually 30 minutes less than the teams will get in Italy – with FP1 and FP2 called off as the…

Nico Hulkenberg once again came to Racing Point’s rescue, this time as a last-minute replacement for Lance Stroll in the Eifel Grand Prix after the Canadian was ruled out through illness. Following his two-race stint in place of Sergio Perez at Silverstone, Hulkenberg had only been due to be at the Nurburgring to complete TV duties for a German broadcaster. But when a stomach bug left Stroll unable to “get off the toilet for long enough to get in the race car”, according to Racing Point team boss Otmar Szafnauer, so Hulkenberg again got the call requiring him to stand in. “It was even wilder and crazier than last time,” said Hulkenberg, who was in Cologne, over an hour away by road, when he received the news just before final…

The attritional nature of the Eifel Grand Prix handed opportunities to Alfa Romeo and Haas, which have both found points tricky to come by in 2020. Romain Grosjean finished an excellent ninth to score his first points of the season, tripling Haas’s tally for the season, but it was a painful road to that result. Early on, an errant piece of gravel flew off Kimi Raikkonen’s car and struck Grosjean’s left index finger, leaving him worried it was broken. Having dropped to the back on lap one, he soldiered on and was able to make his way up the order in the early stages after starting on the medium tyres, which allowed him to stay out as others pitted. After stopping at the end of lap 28 for hard-compound tyres,…

The helicopter shots that opened each broadcast of this year’s Rally Italia Sardegna showed the beauty of a hillside town and the rustic charm of the island. Whether intentionally or not, the sequence mirrored the credits to Italy’s celebrated TV export, Inspector Montalbano, tales of a police detective who navigates the grey area in which the law does not always favour victims or the community. The delicacy with which Montalbano must think and act is often undermined by the constant badgering of local press and the inability of his team to perform their tasks to his satisfaction. Several parallels could be found with Hyundai team principal Andrea Adamo over the course of the weekend, as the fortunes of his drivers ebbed and flowed. Toyota’s Tommi Makinen was unequivocal: no team…

WTCR SLOVAKIA RING (SVK) 11 OCTOBER ROUND 3/6 Dutch veteran Tom Coronel claimed his first win at world level since 2016 and Nestor Girolami’s bid for the title was effectively ended by a huge accident, as the World Touring Car Cup put on its first triple-header of the season at the Slovakia Ring. Coronel, 48, won the reversed-grid race two in the wake of his Comtoyou Audi team-mate Nathanael Berthon claiming the opening encounter from pole position. Engstler Hyundai’s Nicky Catsburg completed a hat-trick of maiden WTCR winners in race three. Berthon claimed maximum points from qualifying by claiming pole for both the first and last races of the weekend. But he initially failed to capitalise in a damp race one when Catsburg got the drop on him from the…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES MONZA (ITA) 11 OCTOBER ROUND 4/5 The potent United Autosports sportscar duo of Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson appeared odds on to seal the European Le Mans Series title the moment they snared pole position by 0.1 seconds at Monza. Even in the shorter five-round calendar – down from the usual six – third place in the season opener at Paul Ricard marked a happy low point as they headed to Italy with successive victories under their belt. But the concertina into the first of Monza’s tight chicanes looked to have been the undoing of the United crew’s title bid when Hanson was tagged and his damaged LMP2 class ORECA-Gibson 07 careered over the gravel on corner exit. An early pitstop was taken and an out-of-sequence…

IMSA SPORTSCAR CHARLOTTE (USA) 10 OCTOBER ROUND 8/11 Corvette duo Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor secured their fifth IMSA Sportscar win of the season under the lights in an all-GT race 0n a sodden Charlotte ‘roval’. The night contest was delayed by an hour due to wet conditions brought about by Hurricane Delta, and it was still raining when the green flag was waved, with Taylor leading from pole. His time in first place was short-lived however, as Jesse Krohn’s RLL BMW took the lead on lap four. Taylor then lost second to Porsche’s Fred Makowiecki, only for the French racer to spin the 911 RSR into the Turn 2 wall. Although he made it back to the pits, the car was retired soon afterwards, capping a bad night for…

BRITISH GT Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula 1 world champion, is due to make a one-off appearance in the final round of the British GT Championship at Silverstone next month. The 15-time grand prix victor will drive a McLaren 720S GT3 entered by the Jenson Team Rocket RJN squad he co-owns with RJN boss Bob Neville and lifelong friend Chris Buncombe, who will share the car with GT3 rookie Button. Since concluding his F1 career with McLaren at the 2017 Monaco GP, Button has mostly raced in the Japanese Super GT Championship, winning the title in 2018, and made a DTM cameo at last year’s Hockenheim finale in his Super GT Honda NSX. The three-hour Silverstone 500, which will be held behind closed doors on 8 November, will be Button’s…

750 MOTOR CLUB Type R Trophy frontrunner Dan Thackeray has described the series’ new Foundation Programme as “an amazing deal” for new drivers, which should bolster grids for next season. The 750 Motor Club-run series, which is in its second year in 2020, announced earlier this month that a single-fee package would be available for both novices and existing licence holders to cover the full cost of a new-build car and race entry next year when the series becomes an official championship. For licence holders, that includes full season entry, transponders, a second set of tyres and a 12-month 750MC membership, while the novice option features an ARDS test and helmet and overalls. Just seven drivers competed at Mallory Park in the last round despite 12 having submitted an entry,…

GOODWOOD SPEEDWEEK British Touring Car champions Colin Turkington and Matt Neal will be two of the leading lights from the 2020 series to race at this weekend’s Goodwood SpeedWeek. Turkington is set to race a Lotus Cortina in the St Mary’s Trophy and a Mini 1275 GT in the Gerry Marshall Trophy, while Neal will drive an ex-Marshall Vauxhall Firenza in the race named after the tin-top legend. Turkington will reunite with ex-West Surrey Racing BMW team-mate Andrew Jordan with the Cortina. Jordan Racing Team, run by Jordan and his father Mike, is prepping the Cortina that the four-time BTCC champion will share with Ollie Taylor. He will co-drive with Jason Brooks in the Mini, turned out in the livery used by Tim Goss in the BTCC’s Group 1 era.…

PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE GB James Dorlin moved into the driving seat as the new-for-2020 Porsche Sprint Challenge GB made its debut on the TOCA package at Croft, thanks to his own vast superiority and an absolute disaster for pre-weekend series leader Tom Jackson. Ex-Clio Cup runner-up Dorlin headed the 12-car field of 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsports in a wet qualifying session, while Jackson trailed in seventh. Things went from bad to worse for Jackson when he was excluded because his car had insufficient fuel for a sample, sending him to the rear of the grid. Jackson went for slick tyres for the opening race, but took until the end of it to start matching the lap times of the leading runners, as he finished 11th. Up front, Ginetta Junior graduate…

GINETTA JUNIOR Race 1 (10 laps) 1 Josh Rattican; 2 Tom Lebbon +0.723s; 3 Tom Edgar; 4 William Vincent; 5 Will Jenkins; 6 Freddie Tomlinson. Fastest lap Rattican 1m43.808s (73.69mph). Pole Lebbon. Starters 20. Race 2 (8 laps) 1 Lebbon; 2 Tomlinson +6.817s; 3 Rattican; 4 Joel Pearson; 5 Jenkins; 6 Edgar. FL Rattican 1m39.397s (76.96mph). P Lebbon. S 20. Points 1 Rattican 412; 2 Bailey Voisin 390; 3 Lebbon 371; 4 Georgi Dimitrov 301; 5 Edgar 231; 6 Pearson 219. PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE GB Race 1 (15 laps) 1 James Dorlin; 2 Theo Edgerton +11.953s; 3 Archie Hamilton; 4 Sarah Moore; 5 Ambrogio Perfetti; 6 Paul Donkin. FL Dorlin 1m28.168s (86.76mph). P Dorlin. S 12. Race 2 (12 laps) 1 Dorlin; 2 Edgerton +2.977s; 3 Ethan Hawkey; 4 Donkin;…

MALLORY PARK BARC 11 OCTOBER James Card set up an exciting conclusion to the Kumho BMW Championship by taking a double victory in two attritional races at Mallory Park. Darren Morgan-Owen was giving chase to fellow E46 M3 driver Michael Pensavalle when his off at the hairpin brought out the red flags after six laps of the opener. Pensavalle picked up where he left off at the restart but was caught and passed by Brad Sheehan on the seventh lap, losing several more places before retiring. Sheehan was being put under pressure by Card – both in E46 M3s – going into the final stages when he tangled with the backmarking Peugeot 308 of Terry Stephens, from the concurrent Saloons grid. With Sheehan’s battered car not running at the stoppage,…

There are many reasons for the strong levels of interest in the Junior Saloon Car Championship, but one of them is its scholarship competition to receive a funded season in the series. The contest helps to engage the next generation of racers in the Citroen Saxo category, which has a long history as it was previously known as Saxmax and originated from the 750 Motor Club, but is now administered by the British Automobile Racing Club. The first scholarship winner was Emily Glanvill in 2016, who then moved on to Mini racing. It wasn’t awarded in 2017, but the following year it was revived and won by last season’s champion Scott McIntyre, now a Team Hard driver. Harry Rice was the 2019 winner, while the current scholar is Deagen Fairclough.…

MONDELLO PARK CKMC 10-11 OCTOBER A tactical masterstroke amid wet weather proved key to 2013 champion Fergus Faherty triumphing in the BOSS Ireland opener at Mondello Park last weekend, while race-two victory handed Cian Carey the 2020 title. All of the cars headed to the pitlane for rain tyres when the red flags flew on the warm-up lap to signify a wet race. But, upon the start, Faherty dived for the pitlane a second time to return his Formula 3 Dallara to slicks. His choice didn’t look good early on as he lost chunks of time but, when the track eventually dried, he hauled the leaders in at three to four seconds per lap. He reached the battling duo of Michael Roche and Sylvie Mullins in the closing stages. Having…

BOOK REVIEW FORMULA 1: THE OFFICIAL HISTORY Written by eminent motorsport journalist Maurice Hamilton, Formula 1: The Official History acts as a gateway into 70 years of the world championship, tracking from Giuseppe Farina’s victory at Silverstone in 1950 through to the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix won by Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes. Each chapter of this book is broken down by decade, with the author picking up on major themes from the eras – the rise and fall of teams and drivers, the changing face of the championship, and the wider context of other seminal motorsport moments, such as the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours disaster and its ramifications on racing across the globe. It’s not just what happens on track that gets attention – game-changing technical innovations are…

Against the impressive backdrop of the Eifel topography and forests, Richie Ginther (BRM P57) leads Bruce McLaren (Cooper-Climax T66) and Graham Hill (BRM P57) during the 1963 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Ginther finished the 15-lap race in third place, behind Jim Clark (Lotus-Climax 25), who’d started from pole but was hampered by a misfire, and John Surtees (Ferrari 156), who took his maiden grand prix victory. Neither McLaren nor Hill made the finish: the Kiwi crashed out when his steering broke, and the Briton retired with gearbox failure. For classic motorsport DVDs head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 Ferrari is set to wait until December’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix before handing Mick Schumacher and Callum Ilott their Formula 1 free practice run-outs after poor weather forced the cancellation of their planned debuts at last weekend’s Eifel GP at the Nurburgring. Ferrari Driver Academy members Schumacher and Ilott were set to drive for Alfa Romeo and Haas respectively, but rain and fog meant the medical helicopter was unable to take off from the Nurburgring and all Friday running was cancelled, dashing their hopes of getting out on track. The wait for their belated FP1 debuts will be a long one for Formula 2 championship leader Schumacher and title rival Ilott (below), because the roster of upcoming circuits complicates practice running for teams. All of the next three…

WEC New rules on driver gradings in LMP2 for the World Endurance Championship were revealed last week – only for the announcement that followed the latest meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council to turn out to be incorrect. Existing regulations that mandate just one silver or bronze-rated driver in each P2 line-up will remain unchanged, whereas the WMSC bulletin suggested that from next year either two silvers or a bronze would be mandated. A WEC spokesperson confirmed that the announcement was “premature” and that “there is more news to come”. It appears certain that there isn’t going to be any change, though an amateur class or trophy will be instigated for next year’s WEC and the sister European Le Mans Series based, it seems, on the configuration of…

FORMULA 3 Johnathan Hoggard, the 2019 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award winner, proved one of the stars of last week’s two-day post-season FIA Formula 3 Championship test at Barcelona when he topped one of the sessions and set the fastest time of any category debutant over the four sessions. Hoggard turned out for Swiss team Jenzer Motorsport, and went quickest on the second afternoon, when most teams concentrated on race runs. But in the morning session, when the majority went for qualifying-style efforts, he was fifth fastest, and ended the test in the same position overall on combined times. As preparation for the test, he had a runout with Double R Racing’s Euroformula Open team at Pembrey. “I struggled quite a lot in the first…

LAMBO SUPER TROFEO Versatile Briton Dean Stoneman has moved to the top of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe standings thanks to a pair of top-five finishes at Barcelona last weekend. Partnered by British GT regular Patrick Kujala at Bonaldi Motorsport, Stoneman led both of the 50-minute races, but time penalties in each meant the pairing finished second and fourth over the weekend. Kujala was penalised three seconds for contact with ex-F2 driver Dorian Boccolacci at the start of race one, before receiving a drivethrough penalty for pitlane speeding in the second. Despite this, Stoneman (above and below, with Kujala) leads the points ahead of the next round at Spa thanks to a non-start for title rivals Milos Pavlovic and Raul Guzman. Boccolacci claimed both wins at Barcelona for Oregon Team…

F1 needs a new vision for the future of its engines Honda withdrawing from Formula 1 at the end of next season (Pit+Paddock 8 October) will hopefully kick-start, once and for all, the powers that be in terms of where they see F1 in the future. Everyone knows the current F1 power units were lamented when they were introduced back in 2014. The clamour for high-revving naturally aspirated engines is growing again. Treading the fine line between technology and entertainment will not be easy for F1’s powerbrokers. What they have to do, however, is make sure it’s possible for independent engine manufacturers to be able to design and run a competitive engine. Being reliant on OEM corporations is not the way forward in any way. Surely they must know this…

George Russell’s wait for his first Formula 1 points continued at the Nurburgring after a clash with record-breaker Kimi Raikkonen, who became the most experienced driver in F1 at the weekend, brought his race to an early end. After Raikkonen’s slip at Turn 1 he clattered into Russell, popping the Williams car into the air and leaving it with damage on its left-hand side that brought Russell’s early bath. “It was obviously frustrating,” said Russell. “I left plenty of space but I think Kimi just locked up and then lost the rear. Sometimes it’s racing, we are all pushing hard. The way the race went, I think we could have scored points. It’s all gone against us at the moment unfortunately.” Raikkonen served a 10-second penalty for the collision at…

This may be a slightly embellished tale from last weekend’s visit to Croft, but let’s go with it anyway, because it illustrates the scarcely believable developments in this hugely unpredictable British Touring Car Championship season. According to one team principal, moments after Colin Turkington had slithered his BMW helplessly into the barriers with the most uncharacteristic of mistakes at the beginning of race two, series supremo Alan Gow wandered up to our unnamed boss and said: “All we need now is for Ash Sutton not to finish.” Moments later, Turkington’s main title rival Sutton looked his gift horse in the mouth, fumbled a move on Jake Hill that he’d been succeeding in pulling off with monotonous regularity in race one, and inflicted a puncture upon his Infiniti. Gow returned to…

DTM ZOLDER (BEL) 10-11 OCTOBER ROUND 7/9 Rene Rast put himself firmly back in DTM title contention with a double victory at Zolder, just as both his championship rivals Nico Muller and Robin Frijns endured their worst weekends of the season. It wasn’t that Rast had slipped completely out of the championship battle ahead of the seventh round of the season, but a 47-point deficit to Muller in the face of Abt Audi domination meant that there was a risk the German wouldn’t be able to bridge the gap sufficiently to realistically remain in the hunt. However, in a weekend that could play a defining role in deciding the destination of the crown, Rast was a class above the rest of the field, slashing the points deficit to just 10…

FORMULA RENAULT EUROCUP BARCELONA (ESP) 10-11 OCTOBER ROUND 6/10 The pendulum of the title battle swung firmly towards Victor Martins and away from Caio Collet during the latest double-header at Barcelona. Martins qualified his ART Grand Prix car on pole for Saturday’s wet race, with the R-ace GP machine of Renault F1 Junior Collet alongside. But a poor start from the Brazilian allowed the Frenchman to ease away to victory by 17 seconds. As Collet dropped to an initial 10th, Franco Colapinto ran in second place. But Collet did a great job of moving up the order. Once he took MP Motorsport racer Colapinto for second, he stabilised the gap to the dominant Martins. A mistake a few laps home dropped Colapinto to sixth, and it was Ugo de Wilde…

NASCAR CUP CHARLOTTE (USA) 11 OCTOBER ROUND 32/36 Chase Elliott is NASCAR Cup’s resident road course specialist – a reputation the Hendrick Motorsports driver enhanced in last Sunday’s race on the Charlotte ‘roval’. For the first time in the history of the Cup series, a race started with cars on wet tyres, thanks to Hurricane Delta lashing North Carolina, although thankfully the situation had improved greatly from Saturday night when the NASCAR Xfinity Series and IMSA SportsCar raced in monsoon-like conditions. Elliott assumed the lead of the race on lap eight of what would become a 109-tour encounter, but stage one would be claimed by Ty Dillon – who was the first to swap to slicks under the lap 10 caution as the track quickly dried. Stage two, won by…

BRITISH GT British GT will scrap the Silver Cup class in GT3 next year, with Silver-graded drivers able to compete only alongside a Bronze-graded amateur in a move that is designed to keep Pro-Am pairings competitive. Six cars were entered in the Silver category this year, comprising over half of the GT3 grid after several withdrawals from Pro-Am entries amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the eight races held so far in 2020, half have been won by Pro-Am pairings, while Silver crews Sam De Haan/Patrick Kujala (RAM Mercedes) and Sandy Mitchell/Rob Collard (Barwell Lamborghini) hold the top two positions in the standings with one round to go. A championship statement confirmed that the change will be made “to redress the balance while maintaining a viable environment for young, would-be professionals…

GINETTA GT ACADEMY The new Ginetta GT Academy series is set to appear alongside the British Touring Car Championship for one of its events next season, as 11 cars have already been sold. The series was unveiled last month and is designed to replace the Ginetta Racing Drivers Club division as the entry point into racing with the manufacturer and features a modified version of the G55 car. The GRDC category has shared a grid with the G40 Cup this season but the GT Academy is due to be a standalone competition, while the G40 Cup will again pair up with the GT5 Challenge in 2021. “The plan is the GT Academy will have five events – four with British GT and one with touring cars,” explained Ginetta motorsport manager…

FORMULA VEE Multiple Formula Vee champion Martin Farmer returned to the series at Oulton Park on Saturday for the first time this season. He secured two third places on a wet and greasy track in his GAC, having refamiliarised himself with the car during a half-day of testing on the Friday before. Farmer has taken a step back from racing in the past two years and has been concentrating on running his growing Torq Racewear business, with his last race prior to the weekend at the Vee Festival in 2018. He decided to enter the Oulton rounds at the last minute and is undecided when he will get the car out again. “As it stands, we’ll just do this as a bit of a one-off,” he explained. “I’ve heard that…

HISTORICS An iconic Lotus 72 has been restored and is set to be reunited with Emerson Fittipaldi at this week’s Goodwood SpeedWeek. The car, chassis 7, was raced in 19 Formula 1 grands prix by the Brazilian, and powered him to five wins across the 1972 and 1973 seasons (see 8 October Autosport for a special issue dedicated to the 72). At the end of that season it was sold and was raced in South Africa, during which time its chassis number was swapped with that of 72/3, which had also been sent to South Africa. It wasn’t until the latter chassis was brought back to Classic Team Lotus many years later for restoration work that its true identity was revealed. The original 72/7 – which was brought back to…

LUTI MAKES C1 CUP DEBUT MG Trophy regular Paul Luti made his first appearance in the Scottish C1 Cup at Knockhill last weekend for the second round of the Scottish Motor Racing Club season. Luti qualified fifth on the grid, despite not having tested the car, and finished seventh in the opening race, before recording a fifth place in race two. Luti admitted that his first experience of the championship had been “eye-opening”, but added he “genuinely enjoyed” the second encounter. RALLY OF THE TESTS IS OFF The Historic Endurance Rallying Organisation has decided to cancel its planned Rally of the Tests event for this year, amid increasing coronavirus restrictions being imposed upon northern areas of England. The event is one of the UK’s most popular classic rallies and was…

GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP Will Burns, Gus Burton and Tom Hibbert had proved inseparable across the majority of the Ginetta GT4 Supercup season, but it was Burns who edged clear in the title race at Croft. Burns bagged two victories over Adam Smalley and Burton in the largely uneventful opening two races to retake the championship momentum as Hibbert could only manage sixth and fifth. The second race was much closer at the front than the first, which was held in damp conditions, and Burton tried a move around the outside of Smalley at Tower but to no avail. The partially reversed-grid finale was far more dramatic. As polesitter Falvey led away, Smalley ran side-by-side with Burton through the Esses and sealed the move into Sunny In. Burns also got ahead…

BRITISH FORMULA 4 Momentum counts for a lot in a championship fight and right now it seems to be slipping away from Luke Browning in British Formula 4, as his main rivals Zak O’Sullivan and Casper Stevenson again took a significant chunk out of his lead. The first Croft race was held in the wet conditions that Browning normally thrives in. But that was not the case in North Yorkshire as he made a slight mistake at Clervaux at the start, running wide and allowing O’Sullivan and Abbi Pulling through. Browning then lost out further at Tower as the Arden machines of Frederick Lubin and Roman Bilinski got ahead to leave him sixth – and that was where he stayed to the finish. Up front, polesitter Stevenson led initially but…

SILVERSTONE BARC 10-11 OCTOBER Andy Wilson’s seven-litre Holden Monaro came out on top of both Classic Thunder races, held in vastly different conditions, on Silverstone’s International layout. In a wet opener, he blasted well clear on the first lap, leaving the Ford Sierras of Dan Brown and Bradley Gelman to fight Andy Robinson’s Ford Falcon for second. But their battle allowed James Janicki (Nissan Skyline) to close and, by the end of lap four of 12, he had passed all three and consolidated second place. Robinson briefly dropped to fourth but, after retaking Brown, he had reduced Janicki’s hold on second to only 0.301 seconds at the flag, with Gelman demoting Brown to fifth a lap from home. It was another lights-to-flag win for Wilson in the dry race two,…

OULTON PARK 750MC 10 OCTOBER Autumn was in evidence at the 750 Motor Club’s Oulton Park meeting as intermittent heavy rain created highly challenging track conditions. The Sport Specials title was decided in favour of Andy Hiley, who took the overall prize in his Chronos HR1S. He travelled to Oulton five points ahead of Class A rival Paul Collingwood (Eclipse SM1) and, when Collingwood struggled in the first race due to his lack of wet tyres and Hiley won, Hiley only had to finish the second race to secure the title. Never unbeatable, Hiley was bested in qualifying for both races by Rob Johnston’s Cyana Mk2, but Johnston was no match for him at the start of race one and was quickly overtaken. Within a lap, John Saunders’s Caterham had…

BRANDS HATCH GT CUP Race 1 Shamus Jennings (Porsche 911 GT3) Race 2 John Dhillon/Phil Quaife (Ferrari 488 Challenge) Race 3 Grahame Tilley (Nissan Nismo GT-R) Race 4 Tilley/Will Tregurtha (Nissan Nismo GT-R) RADICAL CHALLENGE Races 1 & 2 Mark Richards Race 3 Shane Stoney RADICAL SR1 CUP Race 1 James Pinkerton Race 2 Will Hunt 7 RACE SERIES Races 1 & 2 Phil Jenkins (Caterham 420R) SPORTS 2000 Races 1 & 2 Michael Gibbins (MCR S2) TRACKDAY CHAMPIONSHIP Luke Reade (BMW 130i) ALLCOMERS Races 1 & 2 Mike Jenvey (Gunn TS6) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com MONDELLO PARK FORMULA BOSS IRELAND Race 1 Fergus Faherty (Dallara F3) Race 2 Cian Carey (Dallara F317) FIESTA STs Race 1 Alex Denning Race 2 Graham McDonnell FIESTA ZETECS Race 1 James Fleming…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Petit Le Mans IMSA SportsCar Round 9/11 Road Atlanta, USA 17 October Bathurst 1000 Australian Supercars Round 11/11 Mount Panorama, Australia 18 October TV Live BT Sport 3, Sun 0130 World Touring Car Cup Round 4/6 Hungaroring, Hungary 18 October TV Live Eurosport 2, Sun 0800 TV Replay Eurosport 1, Mon 0100 DTM Round 8/9 Zolder, Belgium 17-18 October TV Live BT Sport ESPN, Sat 1215, Sun 1215 NASCAR Cup Round 33/36 Kansas Speedway, USA 18 October TV Live Premier Sports 2, Sun 1900 NASCAR Xfinity Series Round 30/33 Kansas Speedway, USA 17 October NASCAR Truck Series Round 19/22 Kansas Speedway, USA 17 October Brazilian Stock Cars Round 5/8 Velo Citta, Brazil 17-18 October World Rallycross Round 4/6 Barcelona, Spain 17-18 October TV Live Free Sports, Sat 1500,…

‘Ford for Formula 1’ was the lead headline in Pit & Paddock this week in 1965. After much speculation, Ford confirmed it would finance a series of racing engines for Team Lotus, to be built by Cosworth Engineering. “The man behind the scheme is Walter Hayes, Ford of Dagenham’s director of public affairs, who has persuaded his board that such a venture must lead to immense prestige for Ford,” said the story. Autosport described the move as “a major step”, and added: “The decision to enter F1 racing in conjunction with Team Lotus is not only a genuine desire by certain enthusiastic gentlemen, but part and parcel of a long-term scheme to project the Ford image in every acceptable phase of motorsporting activity.” Interestingly, Autosport suggested that among the requirements…