Innholdsfortegnelse for 05/10/23 i Autosport

It’s not every week that Autosport staffers find themselves (metaphorically!) ripping up magazine pages and starting again on a Monday press day. But the confirmation of Aston Martin’s return to the top class of endurance racing and (let’s be honest, pretty cool) images of the Valkyrie LMH were too good to miss. This week we bring you news of the exciting project (page 4) and a reminder of Aston Martin’s rich endurance-racing history (p20). Everyone seems to be getting in on the act, including Lamborghini, which does not have a big motorsport heritage. As Gary Watkins explains on p26, it’s been a long road to Le Mans for the Italian marque but there’s no reason to think it can’t take on Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin et al in the burgeoning…

FORMULA 1 The FIA has finally announced that it has accepted a bid submitted by Andretti Formula Racing LLC to create a new Formula 1 team. Of the candidates – which also included FIA F2 squads Rodin Cars (Carlin, see right) and Hitech, and Asian start-up LKYSUNZ – only the American bid supported by General Motors firm Cadillac has been given the green light after a “thorough appraisal”. The application will now be passed on to FOM for commercial discussions. But incumbent competitors will vehemently object to having their slice of the financial pie reduced to feed another entry. The governing body was satisfied that Andretti could prove its ability to raise and maintain sufficient funding to participate “at a competitive level”, and that its plans to satisfy sustainability credentials…

FORMULA E Lucas di Grassi has returned to the Abt Formula E team with which he won the 2016-17 title for next season, and will join forces with the encumbent Nico Muller. The Brazilian, one of the most successful drivers in the all-electric championship’s history, has been a stalwart of the series since its inception in 2014. He has amassed a joint-record 13 wins, 12 of which came with the Abt squad where he spent the first seven seasons. “It just feels great to be back with Abt,” said the 39-year-old. “Not only did I win two titles [including the teams’ crown] with this team, but I also have endless memories with all the people who work there with so much passion. I couldn’t be more excited to return after…

UK START TIMES Friday 6 October FP 1430 QUALIFYING 1800 Saturday 7 October SPRINT QUALIFYING 1400 SPRINT RACE 1830 Sunday 8 October RACE 1800 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 2300 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors LOSAIL STATS Previous winner Laps led 2021 POLE POSITION Lewis Hamilton 1m20.827s POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m20.827s (2021) RACE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m23.196s (2021)…

Wanted: five new F1 teams I get Formula 1 is hugely expensive, and as the teams put on the show they should get rewarded. However, fans want to see lots of cars and drivers challenging for the wins. Therefore, the FIA should negotiate a different commercial split for the teams, to reduce it from the current situation over, say, the next three-five years, having banned the use of wind tunnels and providing a standard rear wing. Reintroduce prequalification, so 30 drivers and cars are fighting for 20 grid slots. They are then able to support new teams, perhaps those they already know from F2 or F3. Or for a new team like Andretti Cadillac to step up. This would keep the fans happy and improve the show. This also means…

Lamborghini and Le Mans haven’t been happy bedfellows over the years. No-shows, non-qualifications and retirements – two after a single lap – have featured in the marque’s sporadic appearances or non-appearances at the Circuit de la Sarthe. A Lamborghini first graced the hallowed asphalt in 1975 when French privateer Paul Rilly, who wanted to fulfil a life’s ambition by racing at Le Mans, ended up taking a Lamborghini Islero entered in the GTX class for production GT cars after abandoning plans to drive first a Ferrari and then a Porsche. A road car purchased in the run-up to the event was hastily converted into a racer, the modifications including a suspension and brake sports kit sold to Rilly by the factory. The car shared with friend Roger Le Veve was…

Toyota has hailed a third consecutive World Rally Championship manufacturers’ title as “unique” in the series’ fiercely competitive modern era. Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala (below) has pinpointed reliability as the defining factor that has earned titles from 2021-23. In the past three seasons, Toyota has won 24 of 36 rallies, while its only failure to score a podium finish this season came at Rally Sweden in February. Its most dominant display arrived in Kenya, where it recorded a 1-2-3-4 on the Safari for the second successive season. “First of all I’m really proud of the team and the drivers and all the work we’ve done during the season,” said Latvala (below). “It has been an incredible job because we are getting the title two rounds before the end of the…

PORSCHE The four drivers selected as finalists for the 2024-25 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior shootout have been revealed. A dozen candidates were interviewed by series organisers at the end of last month and those drivers have now been whittled down to four who will go head-to-head at Silverstone on 1 November. British GT racers Josh Rowledge and James Wallis, Porsche Sprint Challenge GB points leader Joe Warhurst and European GT4 competitor Tom Edgar have been selected to progress to the final stage. Rowledge, 17, won the Ginetta Junior title last season and stepped up to a McLaren in British GT4 for this year, taking a best result of second so far. Wallis, 17, meanwhile, has been racing in the series’ GT3 division and has also been a frontrunner in…

BRITISH GT Jonny Adam’s hopes of a reprieve from his European Le Mans Series commitments to gun for a fifth British GT crown in the Donington Park decider have been dashed, but he could still claim the GT3 title. The Scot, who with the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes squad is on the cusp of a fifth British crown, is being forced to skip the season finale due to his clashing date as an Aston Martin factory driver in the ELMS finale in Portugal. He will be replaced alongside co-driver James Cottingham by fellow veteran Phil Keen. Adam had hoped to be at Donington with the title on the line, but he has been unable to secure a release. Adam and Cottingham hold a 13-point buffer over Century Motorsport BMW pair…

CLASSIC F3 Former British Formula 3 and F3000 driver Gary Ward will make a return to racing after an absence of 20 years at the wheel of a Ralt RT3. Ward, who has not raced since contesting a pair of EuroBOSS outings in a Jordan 197 powered by a Judd V10 in 2003, has spent the past year restoring the Ralt in which Belgian Didier Theys contested the 1983 European Formula 3 Championship with Ravarotto Racing. He will make his debut in the car at the Historic Sports Car Club finals meeting at Silverstone next weekend in the Classic F3 event. Ward explained that he had been motivated to buy the car previously raced by Paul Smith due to his love of Ralt’s all-conquering RT3. “I didn’t get to race…

ALFA ROMEOS Mike Hilton is planning to develop his Alfa Romeo 4C – believed to be the only racing example in Europe – for outings in the Britcar Trophy in 2024. The 53-year-old from Esher gave the striking-looking car (left) its fourth outing of the season in the 750 Motor Club’s Alfa Romeo Championship at Donington Park last month, where he took a second-place finish before encountering mechanical glitches in race two. “It had been imported as a trackday project before I bought it two years ago,” said Hilton. “I’ll keep racing it in this championship but fancy a go in the Britcar Trophy as well. “It will need some more work to get it competitive – this is only its fifth ever race meeting – but, when it’s behaving,…

CATERHAMS The majority of the manufacturer-backed Caterham championships will switch to using Toyo Tires next season following the planned closure of the Avon Tyres factory. Caterham has enjoyed a long partnership with Avon but, with the Goodyear-owned brand set to disappear in the coming months, the Academy series will now switch to running Toyo CF2 tyres, while the Roadsport, 270R and 310R divisions will use the Toyo R888R from next year. The top-tier 420Rs of the Caterham Seven UK Championship will continue to use Avon slicks for the next two seasons. “We’re hugely grateful for the support Avon have given us – they’ve been fantastic so it’s a real shame to see them go, but we’re very grateful to Toyo for stepping up,” said Caterham chief motorsport and technical officer…

HISTORIC RALLYING International rally stars Kris Meeke, Chris Ingram and Oliver Solberg have all confirmed plans to contest the Roger Albert Clark Rally next month. The trio have committed to the five-day marathon, which takes in 350 stage miles in the forests of Wales, Scotland and England from 23-27 November. With a near capacity entry of 175 cars and unrivalled spectator interest, the event promises to be the biggest rally of the year in the UK as it recreates the spirit and atmosphere of the original RAC Rallies of the 1970s. Five-time World Rally Championship event winner Meeke (below) will drive a freshly built historic-specification Ford Escort Mk2 from the Wales Motorsport team, while 2019 European Rally champion Ingram will drive a replica works Triumph TR7 V8 built by David…

Randy Heideman and his car #5151 are both new to the salt. Heideman has visited before, but this year he was in Utah with a car he has built himself over the past seven years, with the sole aim of fulfilling his ambition of competing on the salt at Speed Week. A long-time motorcycle racer (he won the Pikes Peak Hill Climb Vintage class in 2004), the dream to race at Bonneville first took hold when he was a freshman just into high school. His seven-year build typifies the stories of many who come to the salt. “I’ve put the car together myself over the last seven years – what you see here is largely the result of my own sweat,” he explains. “The motor came first. It’s a 1953…

The Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16V of Juha Kankkunen and co-driver Juha Piironen kicks up a storm of dust and gravel en route to victory in the 1991 Rally Australia – his third in a row on the Perth-based event. The Finn spent most of the rally up front as ‘road sweeper’, although he ceded the lead briefly to team-mate Didier Auriol before the Frenchman’s engine expired. Any challenge from championship points leader Carlos Sainz (Toyota Celica GT-Four) was extinguished when he crashed for a third and final time. Kankkunen was chased home by the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 of Kenneth Eriksson. For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

WEC/IMSA Aston Martin will be back at the sharp end of the grid at the Le Mans 24 Hours from 2025 as it bids for a first outright victory in the French enduro since 1959. The British manufacturer has reactivated the Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar project for twin assaults on the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. It has partnered with North American entrant Heart of Racing, which has run Aston’s GT Daytona machinery in IMSA since its establishment in 2020 and joined the WEC this year, for what at the moment are likely to be one-car assaults in the respective Hypercar and GTP classes of the two championships. Plans for Le Mans 2025 are focused for the time being on the single Valkyrie LMH entered in the…

FORMULA 1 Toyota is thought to be strengthening its ties to the McLaren Formula 1 team amid rumours that the Japanese manufacturer is considering a championship comeback. McLaren has not long finished correlating its brand-new wind tunnel in Woking, which means it will no longer rent the Toyota facility in Cologne as it has done since 2010. But rather than this signalling that the two firms will go their separate ways, both want to trade engineering knowhow. Initially, this reignited relationship arrives in the form of McLaren signing 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours victor Ryo Hirakawa as a reserve for next year. Also a Super GT champion and Super Formula runner-up, Hirakawa will take on simulator duties and test the 2021 MCL35M alongside representing Toyota in the World Endurance Championship.…

WRC World Rally Championship heavy hitter Ott Tanak is to leave M-Sport and rejoin Hyundai for the 2024 season. The 2019 world champion’s move comes just days after scoring a second victory of the WRC season with the M-Sport Ford Puma squad on Rally Chile last weekend. This will be his second spell with the South Korean marque after sensationally leaving the team with a year remaining on his contract at the end of the 2022 season. Aside from wins in Sweden and Chile, and a second in Croatia, Tanak’s 2023 campaign at M-Sport has been plagued by misfortune and reliability woes. The 35-year-old has been convinced by Hyundai’s new management structure, led by ex-Renault Formula 1 boss Cyril Abiteboul, and its new technical director, former Volkswagen WRC and Williams…

IMSA Paul di Resta will contest most of the IMSA SportsCar Championship for the first time next year as he doubles up on his World Endurance Championship programme with Peugeot. The ex-Formula 1 driver will compete in LMP2 with the Anglo-American United Autosports squad. Di Resta is maintaining a relationship with United that stretches back to 2018 and includes class victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2020 and a campaign in this year’s European Le Mans Series. He will drive one of United’s pair of ORECA-Gibson 07s alongside mandatory Bronze-rated driver Dan Goldburg, who is moving up from the LMP3 ranks, with ex-Formula 2 racer Marino Sato joining them for the five endurance rounds of the series. A clash between the IMSA round at Mosport and the Interlagos…

There’s no need to feel sorry for Max Verstappen. He’s on the cusp of becoming a three-time Formula 1 world champion, after all. But for a driver presently operating at such a consistently high level, perhaps he deserves to wrap up one of his titles in something approaching ‘normal fashion’. The last-lap farce of Abu Dhabi 2021 was met by Mercedes seeking immediate legal counsel to throw the result into doubt. Few could get their points permutations correct for a rain-shortened Suzuka contest last year that left Verstappen to eventually find out his fate courtesy of a parc ferme chat with the FIA. And then there’s this weekend in Qatar. Should Verstappen score three points or more on Saturday, regardless of what his competitors might muster, then one of the…

“I think there’s probably six really elite standout drivers in the championship at the moment, and I’d put Bobby in that six, definitely. He’s very fast, he’s deceptively quick, and he’s got a very calm head on his shoulders. He doesn’t get flustered, he looks inwardly at himself before blaming other things and other people and the car and everything, which is refreshing. He gets on with the job, and he’s a good racer as well.” That’s three-time British Touring Car champion Matt Neal talking about the current cause celebre of the series, Bobby Thompson. You’ll know the 27-year-old Essex man as the guy hustling around in the middle of the pack in his Team Hard Cupra Leon, sometimes breaking through to the sharp end, often a victim of incidents…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE ENDURANCE CUP BARCELONA (ESP) 1 OCTOBER ROUND 5/5 Multiple full-course-yellow periods and a late-race penalty ensured that the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season ended in slightly chaotic fashion at Barcelona, with Nicklas Nielsen leading an AF Corse Ferrari 1-2. Victory on the road in the final three-hour bout of the year had gone the way of the GetSpeed Mercedes trio of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller, but a five-second penalty for contact with the Iron Lynx Lamborghini of Jordan Pepper on the opening lap – delivered inside the final 12 minutes – demoted them to fourth. Quite why the punishment took 80 laps to be delivered is a question perhaps only race officials will be able to answer, but the timing of…

MOTOGP MOTEGI (JPN) 1 OCTOBER ROUND 14/20 The odds of MotoGP getting its fourth new champion in as many seasons shortened again at Motegi when Jorge Martin closed to three points adrift of series leader Francesco Bagnaia after victories in the Japanese Grand Prix sprint and rain-shortened main race. With six weekends to go, Martin is looking very much like the form man on his Pramac Ducati, with five wins out of six (including sprints) from the past three events. His factory-run counterpart Bagnaia had to do his best to put a brave face on seeing what had been a more than 60-point advantage all but evaporate. Indeed, Bagnaia arrived in Japan insisting that his focus was not on his shrinking points lead, down to 13 after his crash in…

BRSCC The British Racing & Sports Car Club has launched a new Fiesta Junior scholarship for next year to win a fully funded season in the category, worth an estimated £65,000. The prize package includes use of the latest Mk7 Fiesta Zetec car for a year, along with entry and registration fees, professional team support, all consumables, mentoring from British Touring Car ace Josh Cook and the cost of taking an ARDS test. Drivers born between 1 January 2007 and 8 March 2010 that have no previous car racing experience are eligible to enter the scholarship, which costs £595, plus VAT. Two qualifying days will be held at Blyton Park on 13-14 February, with the top three drivers from each progressing to the final shootout. All drivers that make it…

MSV New debris fencing has been installed at top Brands Hatch viewing spot Paddock Hill Bend ahead of the barrier up Hailwoods Hill being pushed back. The tall, tightly meshed fencing encroaches on the popular area and has been erected in recent weeks, delayed from the original plan of being put in place for the start of the season. The work has been described as part of circuit operator MotorSport Vision’s “continued commitment to improving venue safety”. “The fence line has been adjusted to accommodate an upcoming widening to the run-off area at the exit of Paddock Hill Bend,” said circuit manager Mike Lally. “This will allow us to move the barriers back and extend the distance between them and the circuit itself as well as reducing the angle of…

MINI 7 RACING CLUB Provisional Mini 7 Racing Club champions Aaron Smith and Jonathon Page will switch to different classes for this weekend’s Silverstone finale, where seven-time Miglia champion Peter Baldwin will be honoured. Smith has scored enough points to secure a fourth Miglia title but, rather than risk picking up a penalty in the seasoncloser, he has instead switched to the Se7ens division. Similarly, Se7en S-Class champion Page will make his Miglia debut. A bumper entry of 65 cars across the club’s two grids has been received and the drivers will gather to pay tribute to Baldwin, who died in August, including being able to contribute to a book of remembrance. “We’ve got an amazing entry and it should be a very fitting tribute to Peter,” said the club’s…

CLASSIC SPORTS CAR CLUB The MG Trophy will move across to the Classic Sports Car Club’s portfolio next year as the club begins to administer championships for the first time while the MG Car Club ceases to organise race events. The MGCC closed its competition department at the start of this season and announced earlier this year that its July Cadwell Park meeting would be “the last to be independently organised by the club”. Many of its series have now been seeking partnerships with other clubs. The MG Trophy for ZR models will switch to the CSCC but retain its championship status. A vote was held among drivers to approve the move and series coordinator Pete Macwaters believes there is now the potential to grow grids again, while expressing sadness…

HISTORIC RALLYING Rally aces Stig Blomqvist and Gwyndaf Evans, as well as over 80 rally cars spanning the history of the discipline, made for a fantastic spectacle during the Historic Rally Festival based at the Weston Park venue in Staffordshire. Last weekend’s event featured an entry including a host of Group B and Group A cars of the 1980s and 1990s. Blomqvist (pictured) was back at the wheel of an early Group B specification Audi Quattro, like the cars he drove 40 years ago, while Evans handled a Ford Escort Mk2 with typical aplomb. “Everybody’s here with the right attitude to have some fun in some very nice cars and that suits me to the ground,” said Evans, as he kept abreast of son Elfyn’s progress in the World Rally…

SILVERSTONE BRSCC 30 SEPTEMBER Jordan Kelly secured the National Formula Ford Championship with two victories at Silverstone last weekend as the title aspirations of Lucas Romanek crumbled. Nine points separated the pair before race one, and Romanek’s bid to overturn Kelly’s advantage started brightly when he led the first half as the rest squabbled behind. On lap 10 of 20, the Oldfield Motorsport Van Diemen JL13 driver got sucked back into the pack, however. As Romanek tried to reclaim third from Kelly’s Team Dolan team-mate Chris Middlehurst at Luffield, there was a collision. Romanek was disqualified from third but reinstated on appeal, so still in the hunt at the start of race two. Kelly had a more straightforward run to victory later, protected by fellow Van Diemen driver Middlehurst. Romanek…

In early August each year, Bonneville Salt Flats in the extreme north-west of Utah provide the stage for a spectacular, otherworldly meeting of people and machines. Racing on the vast, blindingly white plain first took place in 1914, with something akin to an auto-racing exhibition. What is now known as the Bonneville Speed Week, held under the auspices of the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), first took place in 1949. The event has been run (weather and pandemic-affected years excepted) annually ever since. It has become the mecca for the curious art of land speed trials; the challenge of making a wheel-driven vehicle go as fast as budget, rules and ingenuity will allow. Located on an area at the western edge of the salt flats christened the Bonneville Speedway, it…

Geoff Stilwell is an affable Briton who owns and drives ‘7707’ – in SCTA terms, a blown-fuel rearengined modified roadster. Officially listed as a 1927 Ford Model T base, it looks anything but as it sits in its pit area resplendent in gorgeous red paint. The car, running a 496ci BAE supercharged V8 on nitro fuel and putting out in the region of 5000bhp, requires top-class preparation and handling if it’s to give its best. Stilwell has a workshop in Pomona (LA), which is the car’s permanent home; adjacent to his shop is Mick’s Paint, which built the car and looks after it. Last time out at Bonneville in 2018, Stilwell set the record for his class at 258.569mph. Since then, the car has run at El Mirage (an SCTA…

Had Nick Heidfeld’s career path gone to plan, he’d never have spent the 2002 Formula 1 season at Sauber with Felipe Massa. The long-time Mercedes protege had blazed a trail through the junior categories and joining McLaren appeared a matter of when, not if, until Kimi Raikkonen’s rapid emergence prompted Ron Dennis to instead pick him as Mika Hakkinen’s successor. Heidfeld therefore stayed at Sauber, joined by another newcomer in Euro F3000 champion Massa. But far from any bitterness over what could have been overshadowing their time together, today Heidfeld picks out the “all-round good guy” as his favourite team-mate. “He’s loved all over the world not only for his skills but also for his personality,” explains Heidfeld, eight times a runnerup from 183 F1 starts. “As a team-mate, I…

1959 Aston Martin triumphs at Le Mans with the svelte DBR1 prototype, with Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori leading home a marque 1-2. Aston goes on to seal the sportscar world championship with a maximum score. 1960 The factory team under John Wyer switches its attention to F1, but a privateer DBR1 run by the Border Reivers team mixes it with the more powerful Ferraris and ends up third in the hands of Jim Clark and Salvadori. 1962-64 Two of the line of so-called Project cars – the DP212 and DP215 – are entered as prototypes, alongside DP214 GTs, and should be viewed as outright contenders. They fail to register a finish, but Graham Hill leads early on in 1962 (below). 1967 Team Surtees enters a pair of Lola T70…

Former W Series racer Jessica Hawkins completed several runs aboard an Aston Martin AMR21 from 2021 at the Hungaroring last week to become the first female to test near-current Formula 1 machinery since Tatiana Calderon in 2018. The 28-year-old team ambassador chalked 26 laps in between inclement weather while sharing the car with Aston reserve Felipe Drugovich. “It’s taken me every bit of blood, sweat and tears to get here,” she said. “Nothing will compare to the acceleration and braking of a Formula 1 car and, having looked at the data, I’m really proud of my performance. I’ll keep pushing for more and, in the process, I want to inspire other women and let them know they should follow their dream no matter what it is.”…

GT4 EUROPEAN SERIES British youngsters Josh Rattican and Tom Emson claimed their maiden GT4 European Series race win in the series finale at Barcelona last weekend. Rattican led the Saturday race comfortably in their Elite Motorsport McLaren Artura and handed over to Emson, who converted for victory. He headed the Speedcar Audi of Benjamin Lariche and Robert Consani in a safety car finish, while the sister Elite McLaren of Anglo-Irish pair Jack Mitchell and Alex Denning was fourth behind Alpine duo Antoine Leclerc and Jean-Bernard Bouvet. Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW duo Gabriele Piana and Michael Schrey put the 2023 title to bed with victory in race two, comfortably clear of Mitchell/Denning, with third going to outside title shots Lariche and Consani ahead of the Mirage Racing Aston Martin…

BTCC Should Ash Sutton succeed in not snatching defeat from the jaws of a 45-point advantage over closest rival Tom Ingram at Brands Hatch this weekend, it looked as though Motorbase Performance was going to finally claim its first British Touring Car Championship title. But even if Sutton wins, that won’t be the case. The team, almost ever-present in the BTCC since 2006 and now running its Ford Focuses under the NAPA Racing banner, has been renamed Alliance Racing with immediate effect. That may sound like an homage to the 1980s middle ground of British politics, but cast aside all thoughts of Davids Steel and Owen cosying up together. Instead, it reflects the next stage for team owner Pete Osborne, who bought Motorbase from founder David Bartrum during the winter…

Ferrari’s impending return to the Le Mans 24 Hours was arguably the biggest motorsport story of 2021, while the famous Italian marque’s victory in the French classic will probably stand as this year’s feel-good moment. This week’s Aston Martin announcement should be viewed in a similar way. Aston Martin’s comeback is a big deal and – whisper it – endurance competition is its true motorsport home. The Formula 1 team has added some much-needed spice to this season, but Aston’s time at the pinnacle of the single-seater ladder stands at four seasons: 1959 and 2021-23, aside from a brief grand prix presence between the world wars. In long-distance racing, Aston Martin has a rich history. For Brits, only Jaguar is as big a name and it doesn’t have such a…

As Lamborghini celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, it’s gearing up to take on the ultimate challenge for a sportscar manufacturer: a bid for outright honours at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The attack on the centrepiece round of the World Endurance Championship with a new LMDh prototype run by the Iron Lynx team will be the first such campaign in those 60 years. It’s been a long haul to endurance racing’s top table for the marque, both in the context of its storied existence and the project that has resulted in the prototype racer we now call the SC63. Ferruccio Lamborghini, who branched out from producing tractors and farm machinery, shied away from motor racing. He built his first sportscar as a result of dissatisfaction with his Ferrari road…

“I can’t remember an event like this before.” That was Ott Tanak’s summary of a particularly challenging Rally Chile that ultimately ended a character-building eight-month barren run for the Estonian and M-Sport in the World Rally Championship. It’s fair to say that Tanak has witnessed pretty much everything the WRC can throw at you over a 14-year career at rallying’s highest level. But Chile’s welcome return to the calendar after a three-year hiatus offered up a vastly different prospect than back in 2019, a rally also claimed by Tanak. The South American country boasts stages that tick a lot of boxes for drivers, combining attributes of the fast-and-flowing roads you can find in Wales, New Zealand and Finland. But nobody anticipated quite how abrasive Rally Chile’s virtually all-new route would…

NASCAR CUP TALLADEGA (USA) 1 OCTOBER ROUND 31/36 Ryan Blaney emerged from a head-tohead battle with a photo-finish win over Kevin Harvick in an important NASCAR Cup playoff victory at Talladega. As Sunday’s race wound to a finish, Blaney and Harvick found themselves swapping pushes and the lead – Team Penske Ford racer Blaney was looking for a win to advance in the playoffs, and Stewart-Haas Racing Ford veteran Harvick was trying for a victory in his final season as a driver. With two of the 188 laps remaining, Harvick appeared to have grabbed control of the race but saw Blaney edge past him for the lead thanks to help from the Ford of Riley Herbst. Blaney and Harvick raced side by side virtually the entire final lap but, as…

BRITISH GT Reigning British Touring Car champion Tom Ingram will make his British GT debut in this month’s season finale at Donington Park. Ingram will race MKH’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4 alongside Ron Johnson as the team, which has previously raced in the British Endurance Championship, also lines up on the grid for the first time. Ingram, who heads into the BTCC finale at Brands Hatch this weekend with an outside title shot, raced alongside Johnson in a GTC-spec Ferrari 458 in the GT Cup two years ago. “Ron and I have done bits and pieces together for quite a few years, he’s just a good mate,” Ingram told Autosport. “I’ve raced with him in the [Citroen] C1s, we raced with FF Corse together at Snetterton in a Ferrari, and…

BRITISH GT Fox Motorsport will return to British GT at the final round of the season at Donington Park this month fielding a GT3 entry for Abbie Eaton and John Seale. The Silver-Am duo will race a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 at the two-hour season finale on 22 October. The team returns to the championship where it has been a race winner in the GT3 and GT4 classes, most recently at Spa last year with a McLaren 720S GT3. “Donington’s going to be good fun,” said Seale, whose most recent British GT outing came in 2020 at Oulton Park. “I’ve had a couple of days in the Evo2 Lamborghini and I’m still dialling myself in, but it’s a beautiful car to drive and I’m looking forward to getting as much…

FF1600 Team USA Scholarship drivers Jack Sullivan and Ayrton Houk made their UK racing debuts at Silverstone last weekend in the final National FF1600 round of the year as part of their build-up to the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy. Sullivan, 17, and Houk, 20, won their places in a shootout held at the Polecat Training Centre in Tennessee. They arrived in the UK a week prior to testing the Ammonite Motorsport-run Rays for the first time the day before the Silverstone races. “The biggest takeaway is how competitive it is,” said Houk after his first race on Saturday. “We’re both still getting used to the Avon tyres – they are less grippy than the Hoosiers we used in the States, and the cars slide more.” Both Houk…

HISTORICS BMW guru Lester Owen has called time on his engine-building business after servicing the German marque’s racing fraternity for 47 years. Apprenticed as a mechanic in the early 1960s, Owen ran a garage and opened a bodyshop before leaving Halesfield Motors in Telford, which folded after running Hillman Avenger GTs for Bernard Unett, Adrian Boyd and Jenny Birrell on the 1975 Avon Tour of Britain. The Shropshire engineer, who founded LH Owen Automotive in 1981-82 (under John Beasley’s BAT Motors umbrella), cites “workforce problems” for his decision to retire. “I’m 79 now, and still have it [the ability to work], but need staff to sustain it,” he said. “It’s too much for just one man.” Owen is most widely known for his BMW M10 (2002-type) SOHC engines, which have…

SPA SIX HOURS ROADBOOK 28-30 SEPTEMBER For Andy Priaulx, September 2023 has represented another golden patch in his glittering career. Fewer than three weeks after the triple World Touring Car champion piloted a Jaguar E-type to victory in Goodwood’s wet RAC Tourist Trophy Celebration, the Guernseyman added the Spa Six Hours crown to his CV on his event debut, relaying Miles Griffiths and Gordon Shedden to a repeat of their 2019 win in Philip Walker’s Ford GT40. Priaulx’s event was a baptism of fire. “I was working for Multimatic in Detroit until Wednesday night and arrived at Spa late on Friday,” he explained. “I’d not driven an historic GT40 before, so my first experience of it was in heavy rain and in darkness during qualifying. They decided I should start…

KIRKISTOWN 500MRCI 30 SEPTEMBER There was no doubt that rain was on the horizon as teams gathered for last weekend’s Martin Donnelly Trophy meeting, the 500 Motor Racing Club of Ireland’s largest event of the year. Dry conditions during morning qualifying may have given some a false sense of security, but rain was always forecast, although not before Ronan Doherty chalked up what turned out to be the first of two convincing Formula Vee wins, the second of which also netted him the Emerson Fittipaldi Trophy. Anthony Cross took the runner-up spot in race one ahead of Dan Polley but the sequel, run in very wet conditions, finished with a red flag with several cars stranded at the Hairpin. Jack Byrne took second spot ahead of Polley and Cross, the…

Ian Northeast and his 1965 Jensen C-V8 are no strangers to the salt or land speed racing. Northeast was involved in the Bloodhound SSC project and last ran his Jensen at Bonneville in 2018, achieving a maximum velocity of 148mph and learning much in the process. Bought for a ‘bargain’ £5000 as a 250,000-mile classic, the inspiration to make it the world’s fastest Jensen originated over a pint in his local pub in 2016. The list of modifications over the seven years Northeast has been working on this project is extensive. With a nominal goal of achieving 200mph in mind, both the engine and aerodynamics have received serious work. The original block is retained but the stroked engine now has a capacity of 496ci (8.1 litres), runs modified heads and…

VIDEO GAME FORZA MOTORSPORT PC and Xbox RRP £69.99 Forza Motorsport is a big deal, because it’s the sort of video game that can help racing attract a new audience thanks to its ubiquity. This is even more of a draw than ever thanks to Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service that acts like Netflix for gamers. Due, in part, to being on the service, 2021’s open world driving game Forza Horizon 5 has amassed well over 10million players. So now, here’s a reboot of the circuit-based sibling, Forza Motorsport. Despite the lack of a numbered title, this is the eighth in the franchise with a lineage back to 2005. As expected, there are real-worldlicensed cars recreated in luscious detail, with Cadillac’s V-Series.R LMDh a cover star. You drive on faithfully…