Category: Athletic

According to a report from the First Place Telegram group, Nikita Mazepin is expected to make the jump from Formula One to rally raiding beginning with the Silk Way Rally on 6–16 July. Although not yet confirmed, a source close to race organisers revealed the likelihood of his entry is “close to 100 percent.” Should things work out, he will likely race in the T4 SSV category for Snag Racing Team.

Mazepin lost his Haas F1 ride after just one season following his country’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Penalties from the FIA have limited his racing plans for at least 2022; while he could compete internationally under a neutral flag, Russian nationals have faced a multitude of sanctions (Mazepin and his father have been sanctioned by the European Union) to the point where he could feasibly only race within Russia or ally Belarus.

With no other options, he … Read the rest

ERX Motor Park in Elk River, Minnesota, is a popular spot in the region for snowmobile and off-road racing, the latter of which includes annual stops by Championship Off-Road and Nitro Rallycross. However, complaints have hampered hopes of expanding the facility and potentially placed its existence on the line. The Elk River City Council held a meeting on Monday to discuss whether to grant changes to the track’s conditional use permit (CUP), though debate has delayed a decision until the COR race weekend on 15/16 July.

Much of the resistance concerns noise or upgraded facilities encroaching on private property, both of which are not uncommon reasons for race tracks in populated residential areas failing to see much further development and/or the arrival of larger racing championships, a concept that is commonly dubbed NIMBYism (“Not In My Back Yard”). Perhaps the most notable example in recent American motorsport comes at … Read the rest

As many drivers suffered tyre failures, Toyota thrived in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway. All six Toyota cars finished in the top ten, with Kurt Busch leading the way as he held off Kyle Larson to win his first race as a member of 23XI Racing.

Entering Kansas, 23XI Racing had been slugging through a challenging season as Busch and team-mate Bubba Wallace were outside the top twenty in points. Both broke through on Sunday as Busch led 116 of 267 laps, more than any other driver, while Wallace consistently ran in the top five-to-ten range and ultimately finished tenth, despite suffering an uncontrolled tyre penalty on a late pit stop.

“[W]e have to clean up our messes on pit lane and at least keep the 23 where it runs when they pit,” team president Steve Lauletta tweeted about Wallace’s woes on pit road. “Working … Read the rest

Zane Smith is the only driver with multiple wins in the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. A dominating performance in Friday’s Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway means he now has a two-win advantage over everyone else with a victory. He led 108 of 134 laps in the race, with Corey Heim having the second most with just eighteen.

Heim won the opening stage after taking the lead from Smith, who in turn claimed the spot from pole winner John Hunter Nemechek, on lap 22. However, Heim’s hopes of winning came to an end when his engine started to randomly shut off, causing him to hit the wall and forcing a late pit stop.

Smith won Stage #2. While the first two segments ran caution-free, Niece Motorsports trucks were responsible for cautions in Stage #3 when Kris Wright spun on lap 92 while Dean Thompson did … Read the rest

Will Power winning the pole at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course is like grass being green. While much of the hype for Friday’s NTT IndyCar Series qualifying for the GMR Grand Prix revolved around Conor Daly and Callum Ilott‘s impressive runs, Power walked away with his sixth pole on the road course.

Power’s time of 1:09.76 topped Álex Palou‘s 1:09.80. He previously won the IMS Road Course pole in 2015, 2017, 2018, and two of the three races in 2020, while he has five total IndyCar victories on the layout including the August date in 2021.

Palou was the lone non-Chevrolet driver in the Fast Six, a group that surprisingly contained Indiana native Daly. Daly qualified fourth behind the two mentioned and Josef Newgarden for his best run of the season and tied 2020 at Mid-Ohio for his strongest career road course qualifying effort. It is also … Read the rest