Dakar Rally icon Marc Coma will serve as Fernando Alonso’s co-driver at Toyota Gazoo Racing as the two-time Formula 1 champion gears up for an assault on the legendary rally-raid. Coma, 42, won the Dakar title on two wheels five times for KTM between 2006 and 2015 in a career that spanned the event’s African and South American eras and stood down from active competition following his final title.
An exciting new prize has been created for the 2019 FIA Junior WRC Rookie Award. The highest placed rookie in the 2019 FIA Junior WRC Championship will receive a prize of €15,000 to go towards their 2020 FIA Junior WRC campaign. The same prize will be available for the winner of the 2020 Rookie Award, to contribute to their budget for the 2021 FIA Junior WRC Championship.
Jordan Gronkowski clinched his first Scottish FF1600 title at Knockhill, while Neil Broome claimed a pair of thrilling wins on the circuit’s reverse layout. A low entry of five cars forced organisers to merge FF1600 with the guesting Formula Junior grid for the weekend, with the latter playing a key role in the outcome in both races.
Jan Kopecky survived a final stage puncture to hang onto the lead of WRC 2 pro at the ADAC RALLYE DEUTSCHLAND on Saterday Night. The Czech carried a comfortable lead of more than a minute into the final marathon speed test on the intimidating Baumholder military ranges in his Skoda Fabia. However, he limped to the end of the 41.17km special stage with a rear right puncture.
The 2017 SUPER GT Series champion will race a Ligier-Gibson JSP217 for the Philippine-based Eurasia Motorsport squad in the four-round series, which runs from November through to February next year. Red Bull-backed Cassidy will share the car with fellow New Zealander Daniel Gaunt, a sometime Indy Lights and Australian Supercars driver, and European Le Mans Series LMP3 regular Nobuya Yamanaka. Eurasia boss Mark Goddard said that the signing of Cassidy was a “real coup for the team” and that Yamanaka, who is backing the programme, had “really shown his intent to succeed by adding Nick and Dan to the car”.
FIA Junior WRC Rally Finland leader Tom Kristensson finished Saturday with a comfortable 25.2-second lead over Dennis Rådström after an action-packed day of thrills and plenty of spills.
INDYCAR, in partnership with Chevrolet and Honda, will implement a single-source hybrid system in its race cars for the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season that will provide key enhancements ranging from competition to safety. In keeping with INDYCAR’s history of integrating innovation into the sport, the hybrid powertrain will mark the first time that the vehicles will depart from the traditional, manual hand-held electric starters to a hybrid component that can be activated by the driver from the cockpit.
The WRC heads to Argentina for round five, only the second on gravel after Mexico, where the Citroën Total World Rally Team crews Sébastien Ogier – Julien Ingrassia and Esapekka Lappi – Janne Ferm will once again enjoy the huge, passionate crowds typically found in Latin America. Both crews will be determined to show the same speed they had a month and a half ago on the roads around León and maintain their run of podium finishes.
M-Sport Ford World Rally Team’s Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson will make a return to competition at next week’s Rally Argentina – taking to the wheel of their EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta R5 in the FIA World Rally Championship’s premier support series, WRC 2 Pro.
Hyundai Motorsport has its sights set on victory as the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) moves overseas to Argentina for the first of two consecutive events in South America. Rally Argentina will see crews return to tough gravel stages with soft and sandy roads in the valleys contrasting with rockier, punishing stages high up in the mountains. The event is popular with crews and fans alike with around a million spectators lining the routes to cheer on their WRC heroes.
