Innholdsfortegnelse for 15/02/24 i Autosport

Who, if anyone, will challenge Red Bull and Max Verstappen this season? We asked that question 12 months ago but Aston Martin would not have been many people’s first (or second) answer. That the Silverstone-based team is now regarded as one of the main chasers says a lot about the big leap it made in 2023. There were still two problems, though. The first was that, like everyone else, Aston Martin was still a significant chunk behind Red Bull. And the second was that it fell off the development pace during the campaign and ended up fifth in the constructors’ championship when second had seemed possible early on. This week, Alex Kalinauckas hears why the team in green is cautiously optimistic for 2024 (page 16), as well as Fernando Alonso’s…

FORMULA 1 Renault will not resume talks with Andretti over a potential Formula 1 customer engine deal until the American outfit is granted permission to enter the championship. The French manufacturer had a pre-contract agreement with Andretti, but that lapsed last year, meaning there’s now nothing formal in place. Andretti is evaluating its next steps after FOM recently rejected its bid to form an 11th grand prix team. It is understood that Renault remains Andretti’s preferred option for a customer deal if it gets the go-ahead to join from 2026. This would bridge the gap before General Motors firm Cadillac could construct its own power unit in time for 2028. However, Renault has made it clear that until Andretti officially secures an entry, there will be no point in discussing…

WRC/CARRERA CUP World Rally champion Kalle Rovanpera will make the step into circuit racing with an entry into the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux series this season. The double World Rally champion had indicated a wish to broaden his motorsport horizons after announcing plans that he and co-driver Jonne Halttunen will contest a partial World Rally Championship campaign this year for Toyota, which begins in Sweden (round two) this week. The 23-year-old has now confirmed he will run a partial programme in the one-make Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux series. The Finn will contest four of the six rounds with Red Ant Racing, managed by 1991 Formula Ford Festival winner and Le Mans veteran Marc Goosens. Two of the six Benelux rounds (the first at Spa on 9-11 May and the fourth…

EXTREME E Lewis Hamilton’s X44 team will not compete in the final season of the all-electric Extreme E series before it morphs into its hydrogen-powered Extreme H guise. X44 was run by Prodrive for the first two seasons of the off-road championship that began in 2021, and captured the drivers’ title in 2022 with Sebastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez. Management of the programme switched to Rodin Carlin in 2023 as Gutierrez was partnered by Fraser McConnell, with the pair finishing fourth. But on the eve of the championship’s fourth season, which begins in Saudi Arabia this weekend, it was revealed that the squad would not return. No reason for X44’s departure was given in a statement outlining its exit. “We’ve had an incredible three seasons competing as X44, winning multiple…

Formula 1 is soon going to hit some major anniversary moments. Next year, the championship, along with Autosport, is going to be celebrating 75 years of continuous history. Three months from now, it will be 30 years since the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger on that awful weekend at Imola. But, in just three weeks, it will be one year since Aston Martin shocked its rivals by making what star driver Fernando Alonso calls a “once in a lifetime” car performance gain. The Silverstone-based squad that had just finished seventh in the 2022 constructors’ championship made a step worth over a second a lap in one off-season. It resulted in Alonso’s first race alongside inevitable team stalwart Lance Stroll finishing with the Spaniard standing on the podium alongside…

Red Bull is a marketing colossus, and its junior Formula 1 team is embracing a new era under a new identity. But you weren’t to know that from last Friday’s launch of the daftly named VCARB 01. The unveiling was held on the Las Vegas Boulevard and featured American rap sensation Kendrick Lamar. It should’ve been spectacular. Instead, it passed with little fanfare. Partly, that’s because the covers came off around 0630GMT. Although F1 doesn’t revolve around the UK and the series is targeting growth in the USA, the major audience remains hardcore fans based in Europe. They were neglected in favour of the 1000 who turned up in person. For those that did set an alarm, there was no livestream, little communication, no Q&A session with new team boss…

FORD AND TOYOTA DEBUT NEW CAR BODIES While the 2024 NASCAR Cup season features new drivers and new venues, there will also be an updated look to the entries from Toyota and Ford: Toyota Racing Development and Ford Performance are to debut new iterations of their respective Camry and Mustang race cars. In early November, Ford unveiled its new-version Mustang for competition in 2024 based on the Mustang ‘Dark Horse’, the seventh generation of the revered model. Since arriving in Cup in 2019, the Mustang has won a manufacturers’ championship and series-best 18 races in 2020, and drivers’ championships with Team Penske pair Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Later that same month, Toyota followed with its new Camry XSE race car for Cup series competition.…

The 2024 NASCAR Cup season brings with it some intriguing schedule changes, highlighted by the revival of the Brickyard 400. The return of this crown-jewel event will represent NASCAR’s first race on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval since 2020. The Cup Series will also compete in the state of Iowa for the first time since 1953, adding the Iowa Speedway short track to the 2024 schedule. The Bristol Dirt Race is no more, with the half-mile now hosting two races on the concrete once again. Where things get really interesting is when you look at the playoffs. Due to the TV demands of the Olympics in Paris, NASCAR is taking a two-week hiatus after the Brickyard 400. As a result, the first round of the playoffs will look very different.…

TCR UK Chinese manufacturer Lynk & Co’s world title-winning 03 TCR car will make its British debut this year, with Pro Alloys Racing running a two-car team in TCR UK. Geely Group subsidiary Lynk & Co’s first international motorsport foray yielded back-to-back World Touring Car Cup successes in 2020 and 2021 with Yann Ehrlacher, as Cyan Racing’s 03s recorded 20 wins across a three-and-a-half year period. Neil Greenland’s Pro Alloys outfit sampled TCR UK with a two-event programme for Alistair Camp in a Hyundai i30 N last year, securing a win at Donington Park. It will now run one-time Stock Hatch champion Ryan Bensley, a Civic Cup race winner with the team, in the Lynk & Co aboard which Viktor Andersson took two pole positions and sixth in last year’s…

BRITISH GT The new Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo will make its British GT debut this year with Colin White and Tom Holland. White will return to British GT after finishing third in last year’s Ginetta GT points, having recovered from serious injuries suffered in a crash at Thruxton in 2022. The four-time GT4 Supercup class champion’s own CWS team will run the G56 Evo. “I’m excited to be making my British GT comeback with my team, CWS,” said White. “I feel that Tom and I will make up a strong Pro-Am pairing that should be ready to take it to the other teams. I also think the combination of this driver pairing and the new Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo should allow us to operate a competitive package from the outset.”…

HISTORIC RALLYING George Lepley and Dale Bowen took the historic victory on the Riponian Stages last weekend with a faultless performance in their Mitsubishi Galant VR4 on a very muddy and slippery rally. Once again, the Riponian started the British Historic Rally Championship calendar with two runs through the stages of Wass, Cropton and Gale Rigg. Torrential overnight rain ensured that the normally fast Yorkshire forests were thick with mud and flooded in some places. Though not eligible for overall points this year, the four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi was ideal for the testing conditions and Lepley did a fine job as they emerged from the stages with more than half a minute in hand. It was a significant result as the later Category 4 historic cars start to make their mark in…

HISTORICS Nicholas Pearce, 68, plans to end a 16-year sabbatical when he returns to racing this season in a One-Litre Formula 3 car in the category’s landmark 60th anniversary campaign. Pearce, whose last circuit race was in a Formula Ford 2000 Delta at Pembrey in 2008, has acquired the Ford-powered U2 Mk4 dormant in Iain Rowley’s shop since colourful American Tupper Robinson last used it circa 2015. Pearce’s only competitive events in the interim were outings in Richard Falconer’s spectacular Chaparral-Chevrolet 1 sportscar at the Chateau Impney Hillclimb and Crystal Palace Sprint in 2017-18. His family has F3 history, father Gordon having raced a 500cc Staride in the 1950s. Pearce Sr then supported his son’s FF1600 exploits in Hawke DL11 and Saracen chassis from the mid-1970s. The U2 also marks…

It was love at first sight for Alex Lynn when he pitched up at Laguna Seca in the spring of 2022 as part of his maiden, and so far only, full season in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. “Most drivers know immediately, on your first laps, if you are going to click with a circuit,” says the Briton. “And I loved it straight away.” Lynn’s debut at the 2.24-mile Laguna Seca Raceway came during a season aboard a Ganassi-run Cadillac Racing Daytona Prototype international. Then as now, the World Endurance Championship regular with the same team was paired with Earl Bamber, a driver familiar with all the circuits on the North American sportscar trail after his years as a Porsche factory driver. “Earl was always my primary reference, and Laguna was…

FORMULA 1 It’s two weeks since the Formula 1 driver market was turned on its head by the news that Lewis Hamilton will swap Mercedes for Ferrari from 2025. That’s ample time for representatives to phone team principals with seats going spare and for HR departments to check just how robust their existing paperwork is. For example, Williams boss James Vowles used the team’s New York City livery launch last week to confirm that Alex Albon is contracted until the end of 2025 – a year longer than thought. The Thai-Brit hasn’t hidden away from the fact that, at 27, he’s entering his prime, wants to battle at the front so might need to switch employers. Autosport understands Red Bull has offered Albon a first option on his future. In…

5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL Vettel retired at the end of 2022 to pursue life outside of F1, so his interest is assumed rather than a given. But he’s always left the door open when quizzed about a comeback. A competitive Mercedes berth would be tempting. He’s in regular contact with Wolff, who can see the benefits of Vettel’s experience alongside lead driver George Russell and who might need a short-term option until hotshot Andrea Kimi Antonelli is ready. 4 ALEX ALBON When Albon signed a new contract with Williams in 2022, he finally cut formal ties with Red Bull. His independence, stellar performances, personability and knowledge of the Mercedes powertrain would all be assets. But he was chewed up and spat out by Max Verstappen so reservations may remain. Plus, Red Bull…

Aston Martin expects to have approaching 30 of its Vantage GT3s racing in the new-for-2024 evo specification by the end of the season. That number will be made up of a mix of updated and new-build chassis. Aston has “a very strong order book” for the latest-spec car, said head of endurance Adam Carter ahead of the official launch of the car on Monday. “There will be 30 cars in the new spec by the end of the year, not all competing because some teams will have a spare,” he explained. “But it will be in the high 20s competing.” PROTON’S 963 LINE-UP Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer have completed the line-up in Proton Competition’s Porsche 963 LMDh for this year’s World Endurance Championship. They will share the Hypercar entry…

NXT GEN CUP A new all-electric junior touring car series dubbed NXT Gen Cup will support Formula E and DTM at selected European rounds this year. The category, which was founded and began in Sweden last year, will be open to drivers aged between 15 and 25 who are taking their first steps into racing. The 20 drivers, consisting of male and female participants, will compete across six 2024 rounds, each consisting of a 20-minute race. This includes Misano, Berlin, Monaco and London for Formula E, while it will also support the DTM at the Norisring in July and Hockenheim in October. The single-make series will use electric Mini Cooper SE road cars that have been developed by the Lestrup Racing Team and will be run centrally for all 20…

“George has the potential to be the next lead driver in the team.” How’s that for a vote of confidence from your boss? Toto Wolff, in the aftermath of Lewis Hamilton’s impeding defection from Mercedes to Ferrari being announced, left Formula 1 followers in no doubt what he thought about the standing of the other racer in his current line-up, George Russell. The 26-year-old is now two seasons into works life at the team that signed him as a junior back in 2017. He’s registered an F1 pole position and, critically, is a grand prix winner thanks to his triumph in 2022’s Sao Paulo race. That victory sets him apart from Lando Norris and Alex Albon – his contemporaries in the class of 2019 F1 rookies. It also means he…

FRONT WING The AMR24 has a shorter nose this term; its predecessor featured a version where the nose extended to the leading edge of the front wing. This has been cut back for 2024, now leaving the bottom front-wing element free to generate extra downforce and the open slot gap can trim back any pockets of flow separation from under the nose. Both Red Bull and McLaren managed to push their nose-wing attachment points to a similar configuration last year. SIDEPODS Aston continues to plough its own furrow with its sidepod design, although there are small Red Bull influences here and there, particularly in shaping the underside. The bulge underneath the sidepod helps to eliminate any lift effects produced by the sidepod geometry; this is something that was featured to…

SUSPENSION Having built its own suspension package last year, RB has rolled back on that approach to align more closely with Red Bull. Part of that reversal was conducted last season, as it picked up the RB19’s push-rod rear suspension prior to September’s Singapore round. It has now taken on front suspension components from Red Bull’s 2023 car for 2024, including pull-rod actuated springs. The team has thus implemented the heavily inclined wishbones within the RB19’s front suspension to imbue the VCARB 01 with improved anti-dive properties to keep the floor platform less affected by changes in pitch. Keeping the flow underneath the car consistent reduces the risk of sudden downforce losses during high-speed cornering. FLOOR There are similarities to the AT04’s very late-spec floor. That’s perhaps to be expected…

Next year will be the 30th anniversary of Colin McRae famously winning the 1995 RAC Rally to become Britain’s first world rally champion in front of an estimated two million fans stage-side, propelling the sport to incredible heights in the UK. McRae’s exploits, coupled with the nature of the RAC Rally – thanks to the unique gravel challenges posed by famed Welsh stages such as Crychan, Myherin, Hafren and Sweet Lamb – added to the RAC’s standing as a revered event. Sadly, the original RAC Rally (1932-97), which morphed into Rally of Great Britain and latterly Rally GB (1998-2019), no longer exists – the UK lost its place on the WRC calendar after 2019. But the event’s beating heart and its bespoke challenge live on through the Roger Albert Clark…

The most exciting newcomer to NASCAR in 2024 isn’t even going to be a Cup Series regular, but Shane van Gisbergen’s victory in the Chicago Street Race last year for Trackhouse Racing rocked the stock car world. The first man in 60 years to score a Cup triumph on his debut is to compete full-time in the second-tier Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing to learn the ropes, but he will run in at least seven Cup events among a 40-race programme that will start in the ARCA series at Daytona. “I’ve never done anything like this before,” the three-time Australian Supercars champion admits of superspeedway racing. “I’m a full rookie.” SVG will share the #16 Kaulig Chevrolet in Cup with Josh Williams and AJ Allmendinger. Also worth keeping an eye…

While NASCAR’s Next Gen car in the Cup Series has visibly improved the quality of racing on the series’ intermediate and superspeedways, the effort on short tracks and road courses remains a work in progress. For the second consecutive season, NASCAR begins the year with a new aerodynamic rules package for road courses and most short tracks. On road courses and most ovals of 1.058 miles or less, cars will run a simplified diffuser along with a handful of other updates. Among them: use of the 2023 short track/road course splitter stuffers, removal of engine panel strakes, a three-inch spoiler, and simplified diffuser strakes. These changes came about following driver feedback from a test at Phoenix last December, which was prompted by a second season of short track and road…

FORMULA REGIONAL MIDDLE EAST YAS MARINA (ARE) 9-10 FEBRUARY ROUND 4/5 Ferrari F1 protege Tuukka Taponen extended his Formula Regional Middle East series lead over Taylor Barnard at Yas Marina last weekend, with the pair taking a victory apiece. Barnard took pole for the opening race in his PHM Racing car, with the R-ace GP machine of Taponen alongside. The F2-bound Brit led throughout, repelling numerous bids from the Finn to take the win by just 0.423 seconds. Australian Costa Toparis, who raced in GB3 last season, was the surprise package and drove his Evans GP car to third position ahead of Taponen’s team-mate Zachary David. From the fifth row of the reversed grid for race two, Taponen won his first-lap fight with Barnard and climbed the order to finish…

TCR UK Mazda MX-5 Supercup champion Aidan Hills is targeting a part-time TCR UK programme later this year, with a view to a full-time effort in 2025. Hills tested a Rob Boston Racing-run Cupra Leon Competicion at Donington Park last month, having first sampled a TCR car at the British Racing & Sports Car Club’s Driven by Racing event at Silverstone in November. “We’re looking at the second half of the year,” said Hills, who contested part-seasons in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge in 2021-22 but has not driven a front-wheel-drive competition car since his rallycross days in 2016. “The money’s there for two or three rounds and then that gives me [a platform] to try and get a full season in for 2025.” Hills will contest at least the opening…

OBITUARY A sporting hero from the Boy’s Own mould, Donovan ‘Don’ Shead, who has died aged 87, was Britain’s greatest designer of offshore racing powerboats, then competed in cars. Birmingham-born Shead raced hydroplanes before switching to boats in the early 1960s, whereupon he rose rapidly to the pantheon of specialist naval architects. His innovative Avenger, Enfield Marine, Planatec and CUV designs won dozens of races and championships, while Shead won the gruelling Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race thrice in his designs – including in 1970 with Tommy Sopwith of Equipe Endeavour. He also penned leisure craft for Sunseeker. A back injury ended Shead’s frontline career in 1980, so he took up car racing with a Lister-Jaguar Costin in 1982. He won the 1983 Historic Sports Car Club Sportscar championship, scoring his first outright…

CIRCUIT RALLYING Michael Igoe and Will Atkins’ Citroen C3 Rally2 emerged victorious from a three-way battle on the latest Circuit Rally Championship round at Snetterton last weekend. Igoe led John Griffiths and Emma Morrison’s Ford Fiesta R5 by nine seconds after the opening stage, with the Hyundai of Patrick O’Donovan/Jack Morton level in third with Chris West/Steve Cox’s Peugeot 306 Maxi. Griffiths then briefly led after stage three, before he picked up a one-minute penalty for booking in early, leaving O’Donovan and Igoe to fight for the win. They entered the final test tied, a five-minute penalty for O’Donovan for hitting a chicane having been rescinded earlier. O’Donovan went quickest again and provisionally won by a solitary second. However, an appeal was lodged and O’Donovan’s penalty was reinstated, dropping him…

GOODWOOD REVIVAL The life of Formula 1 and motorcycle world champion John Surtees will be celebrated at the Goodwood Revival in September, with this year marking the 60th anniversary of his F1 title success. Surtees remains the only person to have achieved the feat of winning a world title on four and two wheels, accomplishing the former in 1964 with Ferrari. He had already claimed seven motorcycle world championships between 1956 and 1960, and would also win the 1966 Can-Am crown before moving into F1 team ownership in 1970. The tribute to Surtees at the Revival, which is due to be held from 6-8 September, will comprise machines from 250cc, 350cc and 500cc motorcycles to grand prix winners, unlimited sportscars and GTs. The Duke of Richmond said: “As an eight-time…

FORMULA 1 The British Grand Prix will remain at Silverstone until at least 2034 now that event organisers have agreed a new 10-year contract with Formula 1. This summer’s race weekend, scheduled for 4-7 July, was the last one covered by the previous five-year arrangement announced in 2019 – which came at the end of nearly two years of talks. After the deal for the Japanese GP to stay at Suzuka through to 2029 was announced earlier this month, Silverstone was the last venue on the current calendar waiting to be locked in. Now, it can boast a long-term agreement like Austria and Saudi Arabia (2030), Canada (2031), Hungary and Qatar (2032), Abu Dhabi and the new Spanish GP venue in Madrid (2035), Bahrain (2036) and Australia (2037). Silverstone boss…

WEC Mick Schumacher has been teamed with Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere for his maiden season of sportscar racing with Alpine in this year’s World Endurance Championship. Placing him with veteran Lapierre was an obvious choice, according to team boss Philippe Sinault. The Frenchman is the “perfect teacher” for the Mercedes Formula 1 reserve, according to Sinault. The decision was made, he said, for him to “be ready as soon as possible”. Putting Schumacher with Lapierre and Vaxiviere, who raced together in the Alpine A480 grandfathered LMP1 in 2021-22, means that the sister A424 LMDh will be raced by Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Paul-Loup Chatin. Jules Gounon was revealed as Alpine’s reserve driver on the launch of the 2024 WEC programme at the same time as the reveal of…

BTCC The third piece in Speedworks Motorsport’s British Touring Car jigsaw was completed earlier this week with the arrival of four-time race winner Aiden Moffat. The Cheshire operation is expanding from three Toyota Corolla GR Sports to four for this season, and Moffat will form one half of the LKQ Euro Car Parts with Synetiq line-up alongside Josh Cook. Andrew Watson is the only driver confirmed for the parallel Toyota Gazoo Racing UK attack. The presence of 27-year-old Moffat is little surprise. Following the withdrawal of the family’s Laser Tools Racing Infiniti squad at the end of 2022, he raced last season with the One Motorsport Honda effort in LKQ colours, and became firm pals with team-mate Cook. “Aiden is an established race winner in the BTCC and arrives with…

The question of turnover in F1 I read with interest the comments in last week’s magazine (Your Say, p23) about the lack of new drivers and teams in Formula 1. The lack of turnover in drivers has arisen partly because of the safety work over the last six decades that fortunately has eliminated much of the ‘natural wastage’. It is also due partly to the constructors’ championship and thus prize money being weighted towards consistency which tends to favour experienced drivers. One option would be a ruling whereby one driver in each team could be required to have less than say 50 F1 races’ experience (two seasons plus one or two stand-in races). This would provide a significant turnover of drivers with only the very best surviving for the long…

POWERTRAIN Although the power units are largely homologated – and Renault has long since diverted its focus onto the 2026 powertrain regulations – the team has made some changes in terms of packaging its components. “There are a number of things that we can do to make sure that we installed the power unit well into the car,” said Alpine technical director Matt Harman. “We’ve integrated the tailpipe around the transmission to reduce the pressure drop across that, making sure that every single bit of work done by the power unit is delivered at the crankshaft, and therefore the rear wheels. We’ve also moved the ERS unit and the battery pack rearwards, to help us with that weight distribution of the car.” SIDEPODS Although similar in form to last season’s,…

There’s no question that the 2023 Roger Albert Clark Rally was an overwhelming success. It captured the imagination of UK rally fans and, by attracting World Rally Championship stars Kris Meeke and Oliver Solberg, the event went to another level. On social media it was a smash hit, with Autosport’s own video output from the event exceeding more than a million views, in addition to the many millions of watched clips captured by fans. So, are there lessons to be learned from the RAC’s success for the wider rallying world and even the World Rally Championship? There is no doubt that nostalgia is big business at the moment, and the RAC taps perfectly into that market with its historic vehicles and its homage to the original RAC Rally. This is,…

ASIAN LE MANS SERIES YAS MARINA (ARE) 10-11 FEBRUARY ROUND 3/3 Algarve Pro Racing capitalised on a nightmare weekend for 99 Racing in the Asian Le Mans Series’ Abu Dhabi doubleheader finale to snare an automatic invite for the Le Mans 24 Hours. Canny pitstop timing helped Malthe Jakobsen, Colin Braun and George Kurtz to win the opener, while fifth in the second race won by their stablemates Toby Sowery, Freddie Tomlinson and Chris McMurry was enough to scoop the title as pre-event LMP2 points leader 99 Racing slid to third in the table. Nikita Mazepin being sidelined through illness proved the least of 99 Racing’s concerns. Ahmad Al Harthy claimed pole for both races in the ORECA he shared with Louis Deletraz and stand-in Filipe Albuquerque, but the Omani…

GT CUP David Brabham will contest a first full season of racing since 2012 in this year’s GT Cup aboard one of the trackday cars bearing his family’s famous name. The ex-Formula 1 driver and 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours winner will race a Brabham BT62 Competition run by Kendall Developments alongside Paul Bailey. The 58-year-old will be attempting to help Bailey retain the GT Cup GTO class title he won last year during a campaign predominantly at the wheel of a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO. Brabham’s previous full-season campaign came in the inaugural year of the reborn World Endurance Championship with the JRM Acura LMP1 squad. His race outings since have included a couple of events in the BT62 and BT63, as well as appearances in the historic ranks.…

PORSCHE SPRINT Junior Saloons race winner Oskar Dix will step up to the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB with Team Parker Racing. Dix finished fifth in last year’s JSCC standings and has since conducted several tests in a Porsche Cayman with Stuart Parker’s squad as he evaluated options for his graduation to senior racing. “I am hugely excited for the step up to the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB and can’t wait to show everyone what I can do,” said Dix. “I was first introduced to the series through my coach and mentor, who put us in contact with Team Parker Racing. “From there on, it was obvious that the team has been very successful and is able to extract the best from their drivers, so it was a simple choice to…

HISTORICS Cooper drivers dominated the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association features within South Africa’s recent Passion For Speed events. Charlie Martin was victorious in Paul Waine’s T53 at Zwartkops, but hit trouble at Killarney, where Michael Gans triumphed in his T79. The latter venue hosted grands prix in the HGPCA’s pre-1966 era, and featured rousing battles between Gans in the 1964 car, raced by Bruce McLaren and John Love, and Scot Mark Shaw in his ex-Jim Clark 1961 Springbok series-winning Lotus 21. Gans prevailed in the 2.7-litre machine in which Love won three SA F1 crowns, but Shaw chased hard in the 1500cc car in which his compatriot finished second at Killarney in the 1962 Cape GP, directly behind Team Lotus partner Trevor Taylor’s sister car. Richard Smeaton (Wainer Formula…

CLUBMANS Interest in the Clubmans Sports Prototype Championship is booming in the 60th year of the front-engined sportscar category, with more than 50 drivers already registered. The significant interest comes despite there still being two months before the MotorSport Vision Racing-organised contest kicks off at Silverstone. “We are well ahead of last year’s numbers at this point, which is very encouraging,” said coordinator Pete Richings. “It’s looking very exciting, with several changes in the [frontrunning] CSP1 division. “Multiple Classic Clubmans champion Mark Charteris has reconfigured his Mallock Mk20/21 from Ford pushrod to Vauxhall red-top engine to renew his rivalry with Clive Wood’s Mallock Mk23. “Alan Cook has switched from the works Mallock team into the works Phantom team, driving the PR22 in which James Clarke won the majority of last…

The Jaguar E-type shared by Roy Salvadori and Paul Richards, Lola Mk6 GT of Richard Attwood/David Hobbs, and the Ninian Sanderson/Peter Bolton AC Cobra skirt the wreckage of the Rene Bonnet Aerodjet LM6 (who needs flag marshals when there’s a gendarme trackside waving a white-gloved hand? – ed) that flipped on lap five of the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours, Roger Masson emerging unscathed. The race was marked by accidents, the most severe of which resulted in serious injuries to Salvadori and Jean-Pierre Manzon and claimed the life of 28-year-old Brazilian Christian Heins. For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…