Innholdsfortegnelse for 20/07/23 i Autosport

Sebastian Vettel described Nyck de Vries’s sacking as “brutal”, and it’s hard not to feel sorry for the Dutchman. Ten races for AlphaTauri is not really enough, particularly as the AT04 is far from the team’s best. On the other hand, it’s nice to see Daniel Ricciardo back on the grid. One of Formula 1’s happier souls, Ricciardo’s time at McLaren did not do his talent justice and, if he really has rediscovered his mojo, we’ll again be able to enjoy watching a proven grand prix winner. The move has kicked off much intrigue in the F1 driver market. Sergio Perez’s recent struggles at Red Bull raise the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Ricciardo could end up as Max Verstappen’s team-mate, a position he gave up at the end of…

OBITUARY Few in Europe knew much about Reeves Callaway and his line of high-performance Chevrolet Corvettes prior to the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1994. But when Boris Said put one on the GT2 class pole for the French enduro, everyone – class rivals Porsche and Honda included – was forced to take notice. Callaway, who has died suddenly aged 75, had been building specials in the US for nearly 20 years when the SuperNatural LM Corvette arrived on the scene in 1994. He had linked up with German preparation expert Ernst Wohr to create Callaway Competition near Stuttgart and a new ’Vette for the burgeoning European GT scene. The car was only finished in the paddock at the Le Mans Test Day in April, but come the race in…

GT Audi will end its factory involvement in the GT3 arena at the end of this year as its customer racing department is downscaled. Production of the GT3, GT2 and GT4 versions of the R8 LMS, as well as the RS3 LMS TCR tin-top, will end next year. The decision, made at board level last week, means that Audi will not support customers running its cars in series such as the DTM and the GT World Challenge Europe. Its 14-strong roster of factory drivers, which includes Markus Winkelhock and Christopher Mies, will become surplus to requirements at the end of 2023. Supporting teams with the technical assistance and the loan of factory drivers was a key tenet of the Audi R8 programme, which began in 2009. Victories on the marque’s…

For the first time since 2016 (not counting the disrupted 2020 campaign), this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix doesn’t lead into F1’s summer break. But its position as 2023’s halfway stage nevertheless provides a handy reference point for assessing how the drivers have been performing so far. There are intriguing driver performance subplots across the grid, even away from those that usually capture the most attention. At Aston Martin, which heads to the Hungaroring knowing in theory that its low-speed layout should favour the AMR23, the focus has been upon Fernando Alonso’s impressive start to life in green. Across the garage, Lance Stroll is yet to stand on a 2023 podium. The Canadian became one of the biggest stories in pre-season, when his cycling crash fractured both his wrists and a…

On a weekend when Formula E championship rivals collided, a multi-car accident wiped out nearly half the field, and a clear title favourite emerged after a virtuoso performance, it was fitting that, with its gladiatorial heritage, Rome should prove to be the venue. While Jake Dennis has not claimed this year’s title just yet, the Briton firmly placed one hand on the crown with his performance across the scorching Rome E-Prix double-header, despite at one stage losing the championship lead he held coming into the event. That typified a frenetic weekend of racing in Italy where the balance of the championship swung in several directions before landing in favour of the Andretti Autosport Porsche driver, who had to wait until Sunday’s second race of the weekend before unleashing his true…

The 30th edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed may have been hit by bad weather – after Friday’s heavy rain, forecasts of strong winds led to the unprecedented cancellation of Saturday’s activity on safety grounds – but its star quality shone as brightly as ever. Alongside Goodwood’s own anniversary theme, also taking in 75 years of motorsport on the estate since the motor circuit opened in 1948, a number of other significant milestones were celebrated. The pace of motorsport’s post-war boom was further evidenced by commemorating 75 years of NASCAR, Lotus and Porsche too. Sixty years of McLaren were embraced by the current iteration of Bruce McLaren’s eponymous marque via a terrific array of standout cars and star names, including double world champion Mika Hakkinen and current Formula 1…

SUPER FORMUL A FUJI (JPN) 16 JULY ROUND 5/7 Red Bull Formula 1 aspirant Liam Lawson made it three Super Formula wins in six attempts with a serene drive to victory at Fuji. From second on the grid, Lawson jumped poleman Tadasuke Makino at the pitstop phase and wasn’t seriously challenged thereafter. The foundation of Lawson’s latest win was his front-row starting spot, which matched his best qualifying effort of the season, and Team Mugen’s decision to commit to an early pit strategy that put early leader Makino (Dandelion Racing) on the back foot. Lawson pitted on lap 11 of 41, prompting Makino to come in next time by. But a lightning-fast out-lap for Lawson meant Makino had no defence against the Kiwi when he approached on already-warmed tyres, sweeping…

BRITISH GT Former International GT Open champion and FIA GT frontrunner Miguel Ramos will tackle his local round of British GT at the Algarve circuit in Portugal this weekend with the Garage 59 McLaren squad. Ramos is currently driving for the team in the GT World Challenge Europe, and for British GT’s overseas round he replaces Alex West alongside Marvin Kirchhofer. The team withdrew from the previous race at Snetterton when West picked up a grid penalty for a collision. Ramos is far from the only tweak to the GT3 ranks for the event, with Nicki Thiim and Phil Keen confirmed for British GT returns with the Beechdean Aston Martin and 2 Seas Mercedes squads respectively. Also rejoining the fray is due to be 7TSIX, which is set to field…

500CC F3 Formula 3 cars of the 500cc motorcycle-engined era tackled Brands Hatch’s short circuit in an anti-clockwise direction for the first time in 70 years on Saturday during a special demonstration session under a Motorsport UK permit within the Historic Sports Car Club’s Superprix. The Half-Litre Car Club, promoter of the category in Britain, paid £12,000 to surface the original kidney-shaped circuit for the 1950 season. Races for the cars were run that way for four seasons, the change to clockwise coming when the Druids loop was added in 1954. The amphitheatre circuit, with its startline located behind what is now the pit complex, featured right-left curves through the modern Graham Hill Bend to the foot of Paddock Hill Bend, then rose steeply, arcing left over the brow onto…

CLASSIC NOSTALGIA McLarens, Minis, British Touring Car machinery and rally cars are all set to be part of what promises to be the best Classic Nostalgia to date at Shelsley Walsh this weekend. The Worcestershire hillclimb is due to host two days of competition from classic cars as well as a raft of star cars and drivers. Notable celebrations are commemorating 60 years of McLaren, 60 years of the Mini Cooper S and 65 years of the BTCC, while period rally cars from the Ralli22 movement will take to the hill. Several Can-Am McLarens, including a mighty M8E, will run up the hill, while marque founder Bruce McLaren will be honoured by the Cooper T62 in which he won the 1962 Australian Grand Prix. Legendary McLaren designer John Barnard is…

For a sport that takes place at a frenetic pace, the speed of change in motorsport can be remarkably slow at times. Traditions are well established and are often religiously stuck to with very few daring to break the mould. Yet trying something new is important to keep offering fresh ideas for competitors – although such innovation can be tricky at a time of financial uncertainty, like at present, when many are battening down the hatches and keeping things simple. One organiser that has not been afraid to innovate over recent years has been the Classic Sports Car Club. Rather than simply sticking to the most popular circuits, it recognises the importance of spreading the joy and includes a wide variety of venues on its calendars. And another example of…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 15-16 JULY Joshua Law had to drive “the most defensive corner you can imagine” against the rapidly closing Michael Gibbins to ensure back-to-back Duratec Sports 2000 wins in a rain-affected MotorSport Vision Racing meeting at Donington Park. Law, starting from pole, won the opening race by more than three seconds as Gibbins, just 0.211s adrift in qualifying, gradually fell away in second place as fluid started to leak onto his tyres. Patrick Sherrington took third ahead of Richard Johnson and David Houghton as MCR S2n machinery locked out the top five spots. Paul Trayhurn (Gunn TS11) had been among them until retiring after a tangle with Johnson, which caused a red flag. “I should be a bit stronger in race two,” said Gibbins – and he was…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC 15 JULY Felix Fisher maintained his slender lead over Luke Cooper in the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 championship at the Combe Carnival last weekend, but the duo’s winning streak was broken by Lucas Romanek. Having shared the spoils across the season’s previous six races, the pair were upstaged by Oldfield Motorsport driver Romanek, who took a commanding victory from pole in a damp opener. Cooper edged Fisher to second after both made final-lap passes on 2020 Festival winner Rory Smith, making his first Combe appearance in five years. Heavy rain made for a contrasting second bout, with Romanek suffering wheelspin off the line and slipping to fourth, while Fisher gained two spots to run second behind Smith’s Medina. A slight error from Smith exiting Camp allowed…

Norris becomes new series’ first winner 4 APRIL 2015 RACE 1 Of the 70 different drivers who have won British Formula 4 races to date, it’s perhaps fitting that the category’s most successful graduate so far, Lando Norris, was triumphant in the very first contest. That opening event at Brands Hatch in 2015 – when the series was called MSA Formula prior to formally adopting the British F4 name part-way through the following year, after BRDC F4 acquired the British F3 title – set the tone for the inaugural season. While Carlin racer Norris did not qualify on pole, he was on the front row, and he impressively remained there throughout the year, never dropping below second quickest as he showed signs of the F1 star he would become. In…

Anthony Reid was undoubtedly one of the stars of the British Touring Car Championship’s golden Super Touring era. He was fortunate enough to drive the Nissan Primera and Ford Mondeo – two of the period’s most successful cars – and twice finished runner-up in the standings. Reid also had the chance to race alongside a roll call of tin-top greats. Alain Menu and Rickard Rydell were his team-mates at Ford, while he later drove for MG with Colin Turkington. But it’s his Nissan team-mate from 1997-98, the late David Leslie, who Reid picks as his favourite. “I think the relationship I had with David was a very good one – we worked together well and we liked the car set up really quite similarly,” says Reid. “Alain Menu and I…

WEC/IMSA “It looks like a Lamborghini!” That was the proclamation of the Italian marque’s top brass when the covers came off its new LMDh prototype last week. Anyone who got to see the car that will race in both the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship next year following its unveiling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed would probably find it hard to disagree. The first ever Lambo factory prototype, which will be known as the SC63, exploits the freedoms in the LMDh rulebook that allow a manufacturer to impart its styling code on the car. Giorgio Sanna, head of the in-house Squadra Corse motorsport division responsible for the car, revealed that a stylist from Lamborghini’s Centro Stile department was embedded in the design team. Mitja Borkert, head…

FORMULA 1 French president Emmanuel Macron has written that he ‘fully shares the ambition’ of restoring the French Grand Prix to the Formula 1 calendar, with a street race in Nice touted. After the contract with Paul Ricard wasn’t renewed, the country dropped off the schedule for this season after a 2018-22 stint at the lesser-celebrated venue. Nice had recently emerged as a successor although some believe that this supposed plan was a ruse to help resolve ongoing contract negotiations with neighbouring Monaco. According to newspaper Nice-Matin, city mayor Christian Estrosi, a top-flight motorcycle racer who failed to qualify for the 1984 Monaco GP Formula 3 support race, has written to Macron asking for his support and stressing the importance of the French GP. The president responded favourably and gave…

WEC Roger Penske has hopes of hosting a round of the World Endurance Championship at Indianapolis in the future. He has reiterated his desire to bring the WEC to a circuit he bought along with the IndyCar Series in 2019, despite the US fixture moving from Sebring to Austin for 2024. Penske last year outlined a desire to hold a major sportscar enduro on the 2.60-mile road course at Indy, home of the US Grand Prix in 2000-07. The so-called Battle of the Bricks IMSA SportsCar Championship round introduced for this year is, for 2024, scheduled to be increased in length from its initial duration of two hours and 40 minutes, and Penske wants the domestic fixture to be part of a double-header with WEC. “We want to use that…

BTCC A mid-season switcharound in the British Touring Car Championship has culminated in the removal of Will Powell from the grid, a team change for Jade Edwards, and the arrival of a potentially exciting talent in the form of 17-year-old Radical and Britcar ace Daryl DeLeon. Powell (top) arrived at the Honda team formerly known as BTC Racing during the winter when it acquired his Motus One GT squad and was renamed as One Motorsport. This allowed the Brackley operation to expand into British GT and the new McLaren Trophy. Powell, who took his first BTCC steps as a driver last season with Team Hard, took the wheel of One’s third Civic Type R, as well as being named as the team’s marketing and commercial director. But in a brief…

WRC Toyota clearly means business on next month’s Rally Finland. It has entered reigning World Rally champion Kalle Rovanpera (right) and team-mate Elfyn Evans for next week’s Hyacenter Rally in preparation for the blue-riband WRC event. WRC teams have elected to enter local rallies this season following the FIA’s implementation of new testing restrictions to clamp down on costs. As a result, manufacturer teams are limited to 21 days (a maximum of seven per driver) instead of 28. Hyundai and M-Sport Ford have all chosen to enter their Rally1 machines in national rallies this year to recover the lost test mileage, but until now Toyota has only participated in a local rally once, when it fielded Takamoto Katsuta in the Kuopio round of the Finnish Rally Championship in February, prior…

The temperature went up drastically last weekend in Rome, both on and off the track, as the Formula E title battle reached fever pitch when championship rivals and childhood friends Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy collided. The dramatic incident paved the way for Jake Dennis to put one hand on the title ahead of the London E-Prix double-header at the end of this month, a 24-point lead placing him firmly in the pound seats. The events of Sunday and their title ramifications somewhat overshadowed what had happened the day before when, for a few seconds, everyone held a collective breath following the biggest crash in Formula E history. The wide eyes and heavy breathing captured by the onboard camera on Edoardo Mortara’s car, just seconds after his huge head-on impact…

The bare facts of Christian Lundgaard’s maiden IndyCar Series victory for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on the streets of Toronto were that he qualified on pole by over three tenths of a second, led the most laps and won the race by over 11 seconds. But none of that reflects the manner of how it was achieved. Qualifying was a mad scramble, as rain arrived towards the end of Lundgaard’s Q1 session, which he ended third. In Q2, which was fully wet, he just beat the chequered flag for one final lap and jumped from 11th to the top of the times. In the top-six shootout, which required slicks on a treacherously damp surface, he once again pulled out a stunning final tour to jump from sixth place to score…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES PAUL RICARD (FRA) 16 JULY ROUND 2/6 Algarve Pro Racing’s James Allen ran third overall in the 4 Hours of Le Castellet with just 30 minutes left on the clock. Half an hour of drama later, the Australian crossed the line to win the second European Le Mans Series round of the season along with Alex Lynn and Kyffin Simpson. The series returned from a three-month hiatus when the green flag dropped at a blazing hot Circuit Paul Ricard on Sunday afternoon – following the Barcelona race in April. Delayed track work at Imola forced the cancellation of that event in favour of a double-header finale at Portimao. As the action got under way, it was the polesitting Cool Racing ORECA that led the early going…

GT4 EUROPEAN SERIES MISANO (ITA) 15-16 JULY ROUND 4/7 Northern Irishman Tom Edgar took his first GT4 European Series victory at a baking hot Misano to consolidate second place in the drivers’ standings. In oppressive heat during Sunday’s second race, when temperatures reached nearly 40C, the son of ex-FF1600 star Michael Edgar kept his metaphorical cool amid waves of pressure late on to prevail in his Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW alongside Berkay Besler. The pair had finished fourth in Saturday’s opener as championship leaders Gabriele Piana and Michael Schrey took their second win of the year, and Besler started alongside BMW stablemate Piana on the grid for race two. A bold move to the inside of Turn 2 by Besler gave the turquoise BMW M4 GT4 the lead on the…

GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED A 1998 Nissan R390 long-tail owned by ex-Formula 1 driver Erik Comas took centre stage on the Cartier Style et Luxe Lawn at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend. It even caught the eye of the judges and was picked as best in class from among the Road to Le Mans GT1 homologation specials. The road-registered R390, chassis #R8 that finished fifth at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1998, is the culmination of a 25-year dream for long-time factory Nissan driver Comas. He fell in love with the initial version of the R390 developed for the French enduro in 1997 by TWR, and cut a deal to waive his fee for driving in exchange for one of the planned run of road cars. When…

MOTORSPORT UK British Kart Championships competitor Marcus Littlewood has been named as the 2023 Motorsport UK Young Driver of the Year after impressing in a series of assessments earlier this month. The award is contested between standout performers on the second year of Motorsport UK Academy’s Enhanced Diploma in Sporting Excellence course, and Senior X30 karter Littlewood was up against Mini Challenge frontrunner Will Orton, Britcar Trophy driver Jack Meakin and C1 Endurance racer George Davis. Littlewood stood out from a range of simulator assessments at the iZone facility at Silverstone, as well as in fitness tests and when giving a presentation about his time on the DiSE programme. “I feel extremely happy and honoured to win and I cannot thank Motorsport UK enough for this award,” said Littlewood. “We…

A special memorial service was held to honour long-standing Formula Ford 1600 coordinator Ian ‘Diz’ Smith at Oulton Park last weekend, following his death in January. His ashes were scattered at the Cheshire circuit, a venue that, along with Aintree, was close to the heart of Smith, who grew up nearby. Last weekend’s race meeting was chosen because the Super Classic Pre-’99 FF1600 series, which Smith masterminded in its previous Northern guise, was among the categories in action. British Racing & Sports Car Club officials paid tribute in front of an assembled crowd that included his family.…

BRANDS HATCH HSCC 14-16 JULY Even the most optimistic of soothsayers would not have predicted the seismic turnaround in Historic Formula 3, despite stalwart supporters’ efforts, a slowburner since Monaco’s 2010 call-up. As momentum behind the 1000cc category of 1964-70 is refocused by next year’s 60th anniversary, a sensational field of 31 ‘screamers’ was the largest of the Legends of Brands Hatch Superprix weekend! That Samuel Harrison proved uncatchable in Speedsport’s ex-Peter Westbury Brabham BT21B was no surprise, but the howling pack is closing. Harrison may not find the opportunities merited by period stars but, with talent mentored by Mike O’Brien, is the current yardstick. On pole by two seconds, Harrison was kept honest in Saturday’s opener by the highly skilled Andrew Hibberd (ex-Chris Irwin BT18) and HF3 newcomer Peter…

SPORTS 2000 DURATEC Races 1 & 2 Joshua Law (MCR S2n) CLUBMANS SPORTS PROTOTYPES Races 1 & 2 James Clarke (Phantom PR22, below) Race 3 Spencer McCarthy (Mallock Mk20B/21) SPORTS 2000 HISTORIC Races 1 & 2 Charlie Hyett (Lola T87/90) TRACKDAY TROPHY Colin Tester/Ronan Quinn (Porsche Boxster S) MIATA TROPHY Race 1 Declan Lee Race 2 Alex Miller ENDUROKA Windgat Racing (Leon Bidgway/Matthew Weymouth/Mike Marais) SUPERKARTS Races 1 & 2 Liam Morley (Anderson/VM) Race 3 Matthew Robinson (Anderson/Redspeed VM) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

OULTON PARK BRSCC 15 JULY In what was billed as the British Racing & Sports Car Club’s Summer race weekend, Oulton Park was seemingly transported into late autumn, with strong winds, sporadic showers and cold temperatures setting the scene for the action in the north west. It fell to the Fun Cup Championship to battle the elements for the majority of the day, with the four-hour enduro headlining the action. It was a race won by the Team Olympian car of Chris Dovell, Riley Phillips and Kristian Rose, making it their third win from five races this season. The race looked poised to be a battle between the Olympian crew, drawn in 13th on the grid, and the Team UVio/Hofmann’s Motorsport machine of Scott Fitzgerald and Fabio Randaccio – who,…

FORMULA 1 Daniel Ricciardo will use his front-line Formula 1 return with AlphaTauri in this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix to convince Red Bull to give him Sergio Perez’s seat for 2025. After his demoralising stint at McLaren, Ricciardo is “not scared of anything” ahead of his comeback. He supposedly has no set targets as he replaces Nyck de Vries, plus he acknowledges the challenge of pedalling the AT04 machine, which has the Faenza squad rooted to the bottom of the table. That relaxed brief may be true for the short term, but Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says eight-time GP winner Ricciardo has his eyes on a longer-term prize. Speaking to the F1 Nation podcast, he said: “At the moment, there’s only something in place until the end of…

F1 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX PREVIEW UK START TIMES Friday 21 July FP1 1230 FP2 1600 Saturday 22 July FP3 1130 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 23 July RACE 1400 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 1830 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors HUNGARORING STATS Previous winners 2022 POLE POSITION George Russell1m17.377s POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton1m13.447s (2020) RACE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton1m16.627s (2020) Laps led…

Lando Norris Norris is contracted to McLaren until the end of 2025, so Daniel Ricciardo’s re-entry to the Red Bull fold doesn’t have an immediate impact on the Briton’s future. But it could well be a big factor further down the line – especially if his former McLaren team-mate does well enough at AlphaTauri to earn a Red Bull recall, in place of the struggling Sergio Perez. Norris is close with Max Verstappen, considered the Dutchman’s best friend among the drivers in the paddock, and their ease with each other is clear to spot whenever they appear together in front of the media. Red Bull is also a big Norris fan, and came close to signing him to the Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri path back in 2018. He was also linked with…

Bobby Rahal’s IndyCar team hadn’t won a race since the 2020 Indianapolis 500, so Christian Lundgaard’s trip to Victory Lane in Toronto was a much-needed tonic to one of the series’ greatest racers and team owners. It comes two months after Rahal’s disastrous Indy 500, where son Graham didn’t even make the field in one of his cars as it struggled woefully off the pace. Rahal Sr opened up last Sunday, admitting that experience had genuinely sickened him. “I’m 70 years old, and the month of May took a real toll on me,” he said. “I wasn’t sleeping well at night. We’re not here to fricking play around or to be part of it. We’re here to win. “I just said right after that, we’re going to create and instil…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE SPRINT CUP MISANO (ITA) 15-16 JULY ROUND 2/5 As Valentino Rossi crossed the finish line to claim his maiden GT World Challenge Europe victory at Misano, the emotions were clear to see. On home soil, at the circuit where he won three times in MotoGP, ‘The Doctor’ had finally triumphed in his new career. Rossi, alongside Team WRT BMW team-mate Maxime Martin, had enjoyed a small amount of luck in Sunday’s second one-hour encounter of the weekend – the sister WRT BMW of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts dropped 13 seconds and the race lead in a disastrous pitstop. But make no mistake, Rossi not only maintained his margin at the head of the field but produced arguably his most composed and impressive drive to comfortably…

BRSCC Ginetta has decided to join forces with the British Racing & Sports Car Club from next season, with its suite of one-make manufacturer-backed championships moving away from the British Automobile Racing Club’s administration. The Yorkshire-based car maker has enjoyed a relationship with the BARC dating back to when Lawrence Tomlinson bought the company ahead of the 2006 season. But now Ginetta is switching allegiances a year after leaving the BARC-administered British Touring Car Championship support bill and focusing on BRSCC-run British GT events. “We want to keep Ginetta at the forefront of UK racing, as well as continuing our expansion into new markets globally,” said Ginetta head of motorsport Mike Simpson. “Joining the BRSCC from 2024 will further guarantee that our teams and drivers will experience great customer service…

HISTORIC FF2000 Classic Formula Ford champion Jordan Harrison’s first Historic FF2000 victory at Brands Hatch last weekend was achieved on American Hoosier tyres, evaluated due to the phasing out of British Avon rubber. Not claiming points for the purposes of the trial, Harrison was third on the road in the twice red-flagged Grand Prix circuit race, but was promoted when reigning champion Graham Fennymore and Ben Glasswell were penalised for weaving on the warm-up lap. “Back-to-back, the performance of the Hoosiers appears to be very close to the Avons the championship has always used, as little as a tenth of a second a lap,” said HFF2000 chairman Alan Morgan. “The sizes are very similar.”…

BRITISH RALLYCROSS A two-car entry from World Rallycross squad Munnich Motorsport has helped contribute to a record Supercar field for this weekend’s British Rallycross round at Lydden Hill, when it supports the world series. The German squad’s founder Rene Munnich will join fellow European Rallycross competitor Mandie August at the wheel of a pair of SEAT Ibizas in Kent, adding to its regular WRX entry for two-time DTM champion Timo Scheider. “We as a team enjoy racing at Lydden Hill, as the team has been since 2009,” said Munnich Motorsport team manager Dominik Greiner. “It will be fun for Rene and Mandie to experience the new-look circuit in our SEAT Ibiza RX1s. With our programme in World RX, it makes sense for Rene and Mandie to join the 5 Nations…

In spite of a misdemeanour behind the safety car, Declan Lee still took a comfortable win in the first of two Miata Trophy races at Donington Park before a dramatic tangle with John Langridge on the final lap denied him a possible victory in the second, much to the joy of the following Alex Miller. Lee won the opener by over four seconds – a gap he’d created by lapping a slower car after the safety car boards had been shown which, in fairness, had slashed the earlier advantage he’d built. As Lee bolted at the restart, his pursuers were still following the backmarker to the start/finish line before passing, Miller eventually taking second from Langridge, Daniel Parrans-Smith and Steve Kite. “I thought the backmarker would unlap itself from behind…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC FORMULA FORD 1600 Race 1 Lucas Romanek (Van Diemen JL13) Race 2 Felix Fisher (Ray GR05) MARK SUTTON REMEMBRANCE RACE Dylan Popovic (Ginetta G50) CCRC SALOONS Gary Prebble (SEAT Leon Cupra, above) CCRC GT Races 1 & 2 Doug Watson (Ferrari 488 Challenge) CCRC HOT HATCH Shaun Goverd (Citroen AX) NORMAN LACKFORD MEMORIAL TROPHY Races 1 & 2 Andy Fido (Radical SR3) OULTON PARK FUN CUP Team Olympian (Chris Dovell/Riley Phillips/Kristian Rose) CLUBSPORT TROPHY Phiroze Bilimoria (VW Scirocco) SUPER CLASSIC PRE-’99 FORMULA FORD Races 1 & 2 Morgan Dempsey (Van Diemen RF92) MODIFIED FORDS Races 1 & 2 Jason Davies (Sapphire Cosworth, below) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

TV SECRETS OF SUCCESS Sky Documentaries There’s a lot said for not revealing your hand in a review at the very start, but this is one of those rare occasions where this is not applicable. For sports fans in general, Secrets of Success makes for engaging viewing, with a wide range of high-profile personalities from different disciplines explaining the challenges of reaching the top in their fields. But despite only featuring for a total of 15 seconds in the trailer, the 2021 conflict between rival team principals Toto Wolff (Mercedes) and Christian Horner (Red Bull) looked set to take centre stage. In reality, this is not the case, with only a handful of minutes devoted to the topic towards the end, Horner expressing how he knew Wolff was feeling the…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Hungarian Grand Prix F1 World Championship Round 11/22 Hungaroring, Hungary 23 July TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 1355 TV Highlights Channel 4, Sun 1830, Sky Sports F1, Sun 1730 Formula 2 Round 9/13 Hungaroring, Hungary 22-23 July TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sat 1310, Sun 0900 Formula 3 Round 7/9 Hungaroring, Hungary 22-23 July TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sat 0845, Sun 0720 Porsche Supercup Round 4/7 Hungaroring, Hungary 23 July TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 1100 Rally Estonia World Rally Championship Round 8/13 Tartu, Estonia 20-23 July TV Live BT Sport 2, Thur 1800, BT Sport 2, Fri 0700, 1230, 1515, BT Sport 2, Sat 0900, BT Sport 3, Sat 1245, 1400, 1545, 1700, 1815, BT Sport 1, Sun 0600, 0700, 1100 TV Highlights BT…

Jean-Pierre Wimille (#6 Alfa Romeo Monza) leads the similarly mounted Guy Moll (#8), the Bugatti T51s of Marcel Lehoux (#10) and Achille Varzi (#22) and the #2 Maserati 8CM of Tazio Nuvolari at the start of the Nice Grand Prix on 6 August 1933. Polesitter Nuvolari was back at the head of the pack by the end of the first lap, but faced a spirited challenge from home hero Philippe Etancelin (Alfa Romeo), the pair swapping places before a spin by the latter, then his retirement, allowed the Italian a straightforward run to the flag, ahead of Rene Dreyfus (#14 Bugatti) and Moll. For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…