Drag racing’s first Funny Cars weren’t called “Funny Cars.” They were factory experimental (FX) cars—stripped down two-door coupes fitted with lightweight parts and big engines. In 1964, give or take a year, these special hot rods were given to the favored race teams of a few Detroit manufacturers. Other racers cobbled together their own versions of an FX racer. There were Fords, Mercurys, Chevys, Pontiacs, Dodges, and Plymouths of the most recent vintage. The racers who campaigned them in match races hopped them up, first with fuel injection and later adding superchargers and, ultimately, nitromethane fuel. Seen as the bad-boy class of drag racing, the most heavily modified FX cars—and the supercharged S/FX cars—weren’t welcome at the events of drag racing’s sanctioning bodies. But they were embraced by track owners who just wanted to offer a show that would put butts in seats. And put butts in seats they did, with loud, rocking radio ads that promised Ford vs. Chevy, Dodge vs. Pontiac, and David vs. Goliath, at speeds Detroit’s passenger cars were never meant to achieve.

“I’m gonna put that Pontiac-driving farmer right back on his tractor,” screamed a voice on the radio that was supposedly Gary Dyer, driver of Mr. Norm’s Grand Spaulding Dodge S/FX car. And the fans came out in droves to see Arnie Beswick—an Illinois farmer—and his Pontiac take on Dyer and his Dodge.

“Factory experimental” was somewhat of a misnomer in that only a few of the cars on the match race circuit were genuine factory efforts. Among the factory-supported cars, however, were Mercury Comets along with Dodges and Plymouths with Chrysler’s new 426 Hemi V-8 engine. Chevy didn’t officially sponsor cars, but it has been said that trucks left the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan, loaded with blocks, crankshafts, and cylinder heads for that maker’s big-block engine, before dropping off said iron at the garages of racers. So too, Pontiac, which covertly supported a few favored racers.

Chrysler Corporation invested in FX racing by producing short-wheelbase, lightweight clones of its street cars for select racers. Because the altered wheelbase made them appear odd, they were disparagingly dubbed “funny cars” by GM and Ford racers. The name eventually stuck.

And it was a battle royale, as no maker wanted to be left in the dust. Dodge took advantage of stock-body drag racing’s popularity early on with a pair of blown and injected cars running on gasoline that raced each other at various tracks in 1964. Ford got serious about FX and provided modified Mercury Comets to numerous racers, including Jack Chrisman, a former top fuel dragster racer. Chrisman was not impressed with the performance of the normally aspirated Comet, and he built a second Comet with a nitro-burning, supercharged engine. 

In 1965, Ford upped the ante and installed its newly developed single-overhead-cam (SOHC) V-8 in several Comet FX cars. The engine had originally been developed for NASCAR and was meant to run carbureted on gasoline. When NASCAR banned it, Ford turned to drag racing, giving it to select FX racers and top fuel dragster teams.

At first, the SOHC Ford-powered cars dominated, and Ford performance management responded by asking a local builder of dragsters, Logghe Stamping Company, to build tube chassis underpinnings for its best Mercury Comet race teams. Another maker produced a fiberglass replica of the Comet body, and the first “modern” Funny Car was born. The SOHC Ford engine made good power on moderate loads of nitromethane, and the “flip-top” Comets were kings of the quarter mile. But durability would eventually become a problem.

Ed Pink, who developed Ford SOHC engines for top fuel teams, struggled with the engine. In a 2015 Motor Trend article he said, “This engine was meant to handle maybe 750 horsepower, and we were getting 2500 horsepower out of it. We would be lucky to get four runs for qualifying and four for eliminations from a block. If we did, the crank would be laying in the bottom of a broken-up block.”

By mid ’65, a number of Dodge and Plymouth racers were matching the Ford upgrades piece for piece, bolting on blowers and tipping the nitromethane can. Gary Dyer, who had raced one of the factory Comets in ’64, teamed up with Norm Krause of Chicago’s Grand Spaulding Dodge to build a supercharged Dodge Funny Car on a mildly modified standard-issue two-door sedan body and chassis. At first, he ran high-9-second ETs on gasoline, but midway through the season he switched to nitromethane fuel and was soon equaling the numbers of the Mercury cars. 

Toward the end of the ’65 season, Dyer and Norm purchased a lightweight altered-wheelbase car that Chrysler had built for Dodge racer Roger Lindamood. Dyer installed his engine in the Lindamood car, which had been normally aspirated, then he bolstered the unibody chassis, pushed the nitro percentage up a bit, and was soon running eights. At the end of the season, Dyer towed the car out to California for a big Funny Car show at Lions Drag Strip in Long Beach. While most match race teams were stuck in the nines and tens, he put down an 8.653-second, 163-mph pass in the modified steel-body Coronet.

The gauntlet had been thrown down, and to be competitive in Funny Car match racing you had to make big power. Arnie Beswick and his Pontiacs were staying close to Dyer, occasionally beating him in their frequent match-race appearances. Numerous Ford and Chevy racers were running big numbers, too, and a Ford vs. Chevy match race guaranteed a big draw for the track owner and, more often than not, a lot of oil and chunks of aluminum on the dragstrip

As the 1967 season got underway, it became obvious that a modified steel-bodied production car wouldn’t cut it on the match-race circuit. Soon, fiberglass-bodied, tube-chassid Funny cars were sprouting like weeds. By late ’67, the best cars had broken the 8-second quarter-mile barrier, and competition became heated. Mopar racers in their Dodge and Plymouth cars were faring well, making plenty of power with Chrysler’s Hemi. Those with good mechanical skills could do so without a lot of carnage. For example, the “Chi-Town Hustler” team of Farkonas, Coil, and Minick ran the same engine for all of ’67 and ‘68 in their ’67 Barracuda Funny Car, recording mid-7-second ETs, setting track records, and winning consistently on the match race circuit.

“Jungle” Jim Liberman campaigned a ’67 Chevy II with a big-block engine and had to settle for 8-second ETs to avoid expensive engine failures. The Chevy engines were stout enough and were very good powerplants in normally aspirated form, but they didn’t like big loads of nitro and a supercharger. Austin Coil, who is considered one of the best supercharged nitro-fuel engine tuners of all time, explained why. 

Like most V-8 engines, he told me, the Chevys have ports that are offset from the valves and curve a bit on their way to the combustion chamber. So when fuel enters the chamber it swirls around the circumference. Fuel mixture swirl is generally an advantage in a normally aspirated engine because it enhances combustion. But in a supercharged nitro-burner, it’s a distinct minus because fuel is forced down to the ring lands as the piston comes up on compression. With lots of cylinder pressure and a high percentage and volume of nitromethane, the resulting violent explosion lifts the ring lands, effectively destroying the piston. Make another run without swapping in a new piston, and the damaged part could escape through the side of the block, igniting a fire as oil hits the exhaust pipes.

As fierce competition led to racers pushing their engines harder, the Chevys destroyed pistons regularly. The same was largely true of Pontiac engines, but they were also plagued with head gasket problems. Pontiacs had only 10 head bolts per bank, while the Mopars had 17, and the big-block Chevies had 14. All builders of supercharged nitro-fuel engines augmented the seal of the head gaskets with copper-wire O-rings in a groove around each cylinder. Because of the bore spacing on the Pontiacs, it was impossible to install separate O-rings for each cylinder. Instead, racers “siamesed” the O-ring grooves between cylinders. Installing the wire perfectly was difficult to say the least, and even when installed correctly that fix wasn’t as effective as two distinct O-rings. So head gasket failures were common on the supercharged fuel-burning Ponchos. A failure usually meant a destroyed engine block as combustion heat and pressure burned away the block deck.

Some racers were able to make Chevy fuelers work well into the 1970s by limiting fuel loads and exercising extreme caution with boost and other tuning variables. Most notable was Dick Bourgeois, who drove and tuned the Doug’s Headers car. Bourgeois was running 6.60-second ETs as late as the mid-70s. But long term, running a Chevy engine supercharged on nitromethane was a losing battle.

Although the Ford SOHC engines weren’t designed to tolerate supercharging and big loads of nitromethane, they ultimately disappeared from lack of support. Ford stopped manufacturing the engine because it couldn’t use it in NASCAR and probably deemed it too expensive to produce for passenger cars, as Chrysler had done with its 426 Hemi. But Ford had another engine waiting in the wings: the Boss 429 “Shotgun” motor.

In 1971, Mickey Thompson, with support from Ford, built a Pinto Funny Car with a titanium chassis and a Ford Boss 429 engine, supercharged and on nitromethane. After running very well at times with Dale Pulde in the driver’s seat but also encountering breakage and numerous fires, the team eventually switched to a Chrysler 426 Hemi. Asked why they gave up on the Ford 429, Pulde said, “The aluminum heads fell apart, the valvetrain was weak. The deck was short, which made for a less-than-ideal connecting rod angle. We built 1-inch spacers and sleeved the engine all the way through the spacers to enable longer connecting rods, but it was a losing battle. There was great parts availability for the Chrysler Hemi, so we eventually made the switch.”

Most other Funny Car racers who were running engines that matched the brand of their car’s GM or Ford fiberglass body eventually gave up on the maker’s powerplant as well. Arnie Beswick, for example, who had gained a large following with his Pontiac-powered GTOs, Firebirds, and Tempests, finally threw in the towel and switched to a Chrysler 426 Hemi in 1972. 

If there was competition to become the dominant engine in Funny Car racing, Chrysler won going away. But the 426 Hemi wasn’t bulletproof. When competition and the resulting horsepower race led to more fuel volume, more supercharger boost, and increased displacement, cracked main webbings became a significant problem for the cast-iron Chryslers. High-strength aluminum aftermarket blocks addressed that issue, with Ed Donovan introducing a block based on the 1958 Chrysler 392 Hemi and Keith Black producing a stout aluminum version of the ’64–’71 426 Hemi. 

The Keith Black 426 clones proved far more popular than the Donovans, likely because most racers were already running cast-iron versions of the later-model Hemi. By this time, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) had welcomed Funny Cars and the crowds they drew into the national event ranks. To standardize specifications for professional Funny Car and Top Fuel racing, NHRA developed engine specifications based on the Chrysler 426 that would dictate the design of aftermarket manufactured engines. 

Those specs still define the basic design of the 11,000-plus horsepower fuel motors that thrill fans today. Several companies make cast aluminum or aluminum billet versions of the Hemi drag racing engine, but they’re all made to the same specifications, and the aluminum two-valve cylinder heads atop them are nearly indistinguishable from those used in the late ’60s 426 Chrysler Hemis. If you walk through the pits at a national NHRA event you’ll see Hemi valve covers emblazoned with Dodge, Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota logos, to match the branding of the race car’s fiberglass body. But deep down inside, they’re all direct descendants of Chrysler’s 426. 

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If you’re a fan of this site, or if you’re a racing nerd, you probably know about the first time a Cadillac raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That was in 1950, when American millionaire Briggs Cunningham entered two Caddies into the legendary endurance race in France. One was a stock model, the other a weird-looking wedge the locals dubbed Le Monstre. (Cadillac the company wasn’t involved; Cunningham entered on his own dime.) You probably also know that Cadillac returned to Le Mans last year, got onto the podium, and is back at it in 2024 with its eyes on the top step. What you might not know is the chapter of the Cadillac and Le Mans story that’s set in the early 2000s. 

Two things come to mind when looking back at early-aughts Cadillac: The original Escalade, and grandparent-era (as the kids might say now) coupes and sedans designed primarily for comfort. Either way, neither screamed performance. (The V-Series was just about to become a reality, and hadn’t yet begun to define at least part of the brand as a sporting alternative to BMW). So why did GM decide that Cadillac should go race sports cars—and internationally? 

At first blush, it made sense given GM’s existing footprint in racing, and due to its existing relationships in motorsport. GM was already represented in almost every major motorsports discipline, promoting its brands wherever it thought the money would do the most good: NASCAR, NHRA, IndyCar, and the GT class of sports car racing. One of the few places it wasn’t racing was in the top echelon of sports-cars, in which the cars are built from scratch rather than based on production models (as in the GT levels). As of 1995, however, GM had a connection to a prototype constructor, Riley & Scott, which was the first team to compete with Oldsmobile’s 4.0-liter Aurora V-8. (Beginning in ‘96, it would supply the same engine to IndyCar’s IRL series.) With Olds power, Riley & Scott’s Mk IIIs won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. They had even raced at Le Mans, in 1996, though a gearbox failure cut their time short. Why not use the elements that already existed—Riley & Scott, the Mk III, and the familiar engine architecture—to put GM into prototype racing, with the Cadillac brand? 

In 2000, Riley & Scott was back at Le Mans, backed by GM, with not one but four cars—two campaigned by Europe-based DAMS, the other two by Team Cadillac. The model was called the Northstar LMP and was adorned with a grille to look like a Cadillac.

“The return from 50 years was a big deal and I would say from a marketing perspective it succeeded because back then ‘Arts & Sciences’ was the Cadillac marketing theme and this was the bridge from the vinyl top Cadillacs to the CTS-V, which 2003 was the first year of the production car,” Jeff Kettman, GM’s manager for the Northstar LMP program, told Daily Sports Car last year. “The whole reason that Cadillac got involved in motorsports was to shift the public perspective of Cadillac to more of a sporty vehicle.”

The problem? GM showed up to Le Mans with a design and a budget that was four years out of date. “Back in 1996–97 you didn’t need tons of money to run well at Le Mans,” Bill Riley told Gary Martin of Autosport in a 2021 interview. “By the time the car rolled out on the grid, the game had changed dramatically.” The Cadillacs finished 19th, 21nd, and 22nd overall, with one DAMS car a DNF. 

Obviously, something needed to change. They needed a new car. GM began to shop around, chatting with the likes of Prodrive and Dallara, and ending its relationship with Riley later that summer. Months passed. GM eventually decided to rely on a new team headed by Wayne Taylor, Nigel Stroud, and Jeff Hazell, a key figure behind McLaren’s jaw-dropping win at Le Mans on its first try.  By the time GM made a decision, however, there was no time to build a new car. Taylor, Stroud, Hazell, et al. tried anyway, putting “80 percent” of the design team into rehauling the old car while the rest worked on the new one. It wasn’t ready by the 2001 running of Le Mans: Only the two DAMS cars ran, with new bodies on cars built to 2000’s spec. They finished eighth and twelfth overall. The new car, dubbed the Northstar LMP-02, was ready in time for the 2003 event, and then GM cancelled the program. 

The sad irony is that since Audi (the 2002 winner) did not run Le Mans in 2003, Cadillac would have been favorites to win along with Bentley (who did win in their Speed 8, a car that shared much with Audi’s prototypes of the era). 

Though it campaigned the CTS-V and subsequently an ATS-V Coupe in the Pirelli World Challenge series through 2017, Cadillac took a lengthy respite from the top level of sports car racing, particularly international competition. In the meantime, a lot of history’s been written: Audi’s era of dominance (including Le Mans wins in 2002, 2004–08, and 2011–2014), the revenge of Porsche (2015–17), and the recent establishment of Toyota (2018–22) as the somewhat unexpected king of Le Mans.

When IMSA made a rules pivot for the 2017 season, Cadillac decided it would return to prototype racing. The Cadillac DPi-V.R, a Dallara-built prototype with a Cadillac-developed engine, debuted in November of 2016. 

Off the bat, the effort was more successful. For its first year back, Cadillac fielded three cars in partnerships with three different teams: Mustang Sampling, Whelen Engineering, and a familiar name—Wayne Taylor Racing. Sponsored by Konica Minolta, the Wayne Taylor car won its first-ever outing, which was also the longest race on the calendar: The 24 Hours of Daytona.  

Like the Northstar LMP, the DPi was powered by a V-8, and made a subtle nod to Cadillac’s street cars with similar wheel and headlight designs. Unlike the LMP, this new car won—a lot. During its six-year lifespan, the teams running DPi-V.Rs posted 27 wins and 80 podium finishes across 60 races. The cars also took home three manufacturer’s, three driver’s, and three team championships in that time.

Cadillac had mojo like it never had before in racing. In June of 2021, the FIA, ACO, and IMSA announced new regulations the prototype class, outlining a “Hypercar” with a hybrid powertrain that would be eligible for competition in both IMSA and World Endurance Championship (WEC), with minor changes. The crown jewel of the WEC is Le Mans, and Cadillac quickly declared its intent to return.

Unveiled in June of 2022, the Cadillac Hypercar prototype was beautiful, and more strongly visually related to production models. Why Cadillac bought into the regulations, says GM sports car program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser, is that the rules “allowed us to keep the styling of the bodywork to make that car uniquely a Cadillac.” The car’s hybrid V-8 heart is a bespoke design that shares nothing besides a displacement figure with that in GM’s GT-class competitor, the Corvette C8.R. 

Cadillac headed back to Le Mans in 2023. As the checkered flag brought the rain-soaked race to a close, Cadillacs crossed the finish line in third and in fourth, the brand’s best-ever results at the most prestigious endurance race in the world. Both cars, #2 and #3, were fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing. Ganassi is back for 2024, joined by Action Express.

Change is coming, though: Cadillac will no longer be partnering with Ganassi for its prototype efforts in IMSA or in WEC after this season. Action Express, who fielded the Whelen-sponsored IMSA car for Cadillac in 2023–24, will likely take up the mantle of Cadillac’s primary racing partner in that series. DSC reported in March that multiple teams are already bidding for Ganassi’s space as Cadillac’s partner in WEC, an encouraging sign of the maturity of the program.

What does the lackluster 2000–02 program illuminate about the current effort? By way of contrast, it shows just how much GM has to prove at the 2024 Hours of Le Mans. The podium finish last year shows that Cadillac has remedied its worst missteps of the earlier era; clearly, it has gotten wiser and more efficient when making decisions alongside its partner teams, and it has handily run cars in two series simultaneously. Speaking of the podium finish, Klauser says: “We got a couple minutes to be just completely blown away—Hey, we had this success—and then the hunger set in, and the only answer from here on out is first place.”

Can a Cadillac win Le Mans in 2024? For now, the brand finally has everyone asking the right question. More than ever, Cadillac has skin in the game—and that’s what makes for good stories, and great racing. 

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Most race cars retire without fanfare; their exploits quickly forgotten for the latest round of quicker machinery. The cars that weren’t winners are often scrapped, forgotten, or scavenged for spare parts in service of their successors. Lucky ones get a more relaxed second life in historic racing series.

But what of would-be motorsport machines that never arrived at the starting line in the first place? They’re lucky to end up with a few lines in a listicle a decade after their stunted chance at glory.

The racing version of the eighth-gen Volkswagen GTI was headed down a similar path after Vee-Dub pulled the plug on all factory motorsport programs in 2020, midway through the GTI touring car’s development. The Volkswagen Motorsport staff was split up and reassigned to work on other projects within the company, and the prototype they’d been working on—the Mk8 GTI TCR—joined the brand’s museum inventory, unfinished.

The one-of-one work-in-progress subsequently traveled to the United States as a marketing and PR asset, trotted out to local circuits to reel off routine demonstration laps instead of traveling the world and angrily banging doors with the Hyundais, Hondas, and other competitors in TCR-class racing series. But fate had another path for this special GTI, and it would soon be yanked out of obscurity and onto one of the biggest stages in motorsport.

As part of the 50^th birthday celebrations of the Golf nameplate in 2024, VW decided to honor its hatchback’s venerable racing history with a special project that evolved into a plan to compete at the Nürburgring 24 Hours (N24). With just months until the race and without a factory racing division, building a new car was out of the question—but what about that old Mk8 GTI TCR prototype that’d been kicking around in America?

And so began the fast-tracked process of turning a half-finished racer into a world-class competitor. The Volkswagen Motorsport engineers who’d formerly been involved with the project the first time around were willing and eager for another go. They knew the car well and were champing at their bits to pick up where they’d left off, but they’d have to work at night after their day jobs, and they needed a little extra help.

And Max Kruse Racing was there to provide it. Co-founded and run by Volkswagen development driver, brand ambassador, and professional racer Benny Leuchter, the racing team complemented VW’s in-house engineers by providing invaluable experience with setting up and running a car in a 24-hour endurance race. Leuchter’s familiarity with Volkswagen Motorsport made the partnership even stronger.

The Mk8 GTI TCR prototype was shipped back to Germany, where it was immediately routed to Max Kruse Racing’s HQ in Duisburg. With a four-month countdown to the N24, time was of the essence.

The powertrain package was largely left as-is, with the most significant changes occurring on the software rather than hardware side. Namely, the ECU was adapted to run the newly developed Shell E20 fuel that would power the GTI in the N24. “The engine is the stock GTI gen-four 888 engine [a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder],” VW spokesperson Martin Hube told us at the Nürburgring. “We are competing in the alternative fuel class, so it’s running E20 that we are using together with Shell, [which is] capable of getting rid of nearly 50% of CO2. We wanted to show that a stock engine is capable of competing with this new [bioethanol] fuel under the hardest conditions. [The car] also gained some power because the fuel is a bit more than 100 octane.” The total output in the rechristened Mk8 GTI TCR—now called the Volkswagen GTI Clubsport 24h—is 348 hp, which is just about 50 more than the recently unveiled road-going version.

The GTI Clubsport 24h’s most noticeable augmentation, though, is its redeveloped aero package. Marketing is one reason for the revamp, seeing as the prototype featured the pre-facelift Mk8 GTI’s styling cues and would need to be updated to match the current model’s look. Win with a one-off car on Sunday, sell more base Golfs on Monday, or something like that . . . However, those with extra keen eyes for GTIs will notice that the Clubsport 24h has a mix of pre- and post-facelift design elements.

That said, the main impetus behind the aero makeover was performance-focused, with the engineers incorporating the latest principles into their old car’s new fenders, wings, splitters, diffusers, and every other wind-shifting bit and bob. The resulting look is the meanest looking widebody ever worn by a factory-backed Volkswagen. Like the prototype, the finished Clubsport 24h completes its silhouette with a chunky rear wing hung from swan-neck supports attached to the hatch, and a single very purposeful-looking center-exit exhaust.

With the bodywork buttoned up, it was time for the new roll cage and safety structures to be homologated with just a few weeks before the green flag, so the Clubsport 24h was flat-bedded to a testing and certification center in Spain to make sure everything was in order. With its up-to-date safety compliance in hand, it then headed back to Germany for last-minute shakedowns at Volkswagen’s test track in Ehra-Lessein. The VW engineers and the Max Kruse Racing team had just enough time to define the parameters and tolerances of their car’s systems—for example, how hot the gearbox oil could get without leading to mechanical failure, and which shift points to use to maintain the appropriate operating temperature—before it was time to put all their efforts to the test at the Clubsport 24h’s first-ever race.

There are less daunting debuts than a day-long trial by fire (and fog) at the Nürburgring, but the Clubsport 24h was immediately impressive upon its arrival in Nürburg. Before the race proper, the car set a new front-wheel drive racing car record at the track (which combines the shorter and more modern Grand Prix circuit with the infamous Nordschleife for a total lap length of just under 16 miles) during qualifying: With Benny Leuchter at the controls, the Clubsport 24h clocked a 8:53.239 lap to start the race at the front of its class.

On race day, the #50 car was to be driven by Leuchter, Johan Kristoffersson, Nico Otto and Heiko Hamme over the course of the 24 hours. Mother Nature had other plans however, and the dense layer of fog that immobilized the emergency services helicopter saw the race halted after 7 hours and 22 minutes. Track conditions were closely monitored as hundreds of thousands of fingers were crossed for a restart that never came. To the disappointment of nearly a third of a million people who’d come to compete at, watch and camp out next to this year’s race, the 2024 edition was the shortest in the N24’s 52-race history.

Despite that, the team behind the Clubsport 24h wasn’t upset with taking home the class win. The car finished in 43^rd overall, conquered its category, beat more than half the overall field of finishers, and fulfilled its purpose. “We wanted to show the people in the woods, the people around the track, that this car is really capable,” Hube said, “and now we have the fastest museum car ever made by Volkswagen.”

It still is a museum piece, after all. With one race and one class win under its belt, the Clubsport 24h’s next job is back under the marketing and PR umbrella, where it will be attending the annual GTI Treffen—the world’s largest hot hatch VW celebration—in Wolfsburg during the last weekend of July. But its time as a contemporary racer may not be over, either…

On that topic, Hube told Hagerty, “We have huge motivation now. We expected to be competitive, but we haven’t expected to come to the ‘Ring and record a record lap time. That shows the capabilities of this car, and the engineers have so many ideas for further development. We’re really inspired and there is an idea to use [the Clubsport 24h] as a development car for the next years. We have two more things to celebrate: in 2026 it will be 50 years of GTI. 2027 will be 25 years of R.”

Could this car’s successful second chance revive the defunct Volkswagen Motorsport department? “Now we have to convince the board that it’s necessary to be here [at the Nürburgring], that it’s necessary to present the Golf in front of the fans here. We have to come back.” Asked how they will convince the board, Hube smiles and says with typical German playfulness masked in straightforward phrasing: “It’s better to argue our case with a good result than with a bad result.”

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BMW has two factory entries in the Hypercar class at this week’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of which will be adorned with the art of Julie Mehretu. BMW revealed this M Hybrid V8, its 20th Art Car, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris on May 22nd and subsequently shared it at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como, Italy later that week. Mehretu met with media at Villa d’Este and talked about her first rolling work of art and how the process gave her a new appreciation for the automotive world.

Mehretu, a New York-based contemporary artist, originally declined BMW’s offer to create the latest Art Car. She was unanimously selected by an independent jury of international museum directors for the role in 2018. During the Covid pandemic lockdown in spring 2020, she reconsidered: I was checking in with a lot of the people that I went to for guidance . . .  I think all of us were doing that around the world to make sense of this time when we [had been] hypermobile. And then the next thing you know, we’re all sheltering in place and under strict quarantine. I was thinking these are the times where you push yourself, and so while we’re all sheltering in place to think about mobility became a really interesting space. I thought, just take this [commission] and open up a new door.

She knew nothing about racing but became a racing fan: I really enjoyed going to the pit stop [at the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona] and seeing the numbers of people who work in there that are all communicating in some way or another with the vehicle itself and with the drivers [and realizing] that it is a team sport in that way. Going to Daytona was exhilarating—it was so much fun.

Although the Art Car debuted in May, Mehretu says it will not be done until after it races at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: The car will go through many transformations. Even the drivers you see going in and out of the car will mark up the car, and I made marks in that area thinking about that. There’s all the debris from the [track], the exhaust on the back, the car comes out just looking very different and we’ve discussed leaving it that way—you know, we’ll see what it looks like. If there are too many insects, we might have to do a little bit of hand washing, but we’ll see. I think with all of the [BMW Art] cars, the car has gone through the experience of the painting. The painting has transformed and marked up the car and then the painting—the car—will go through the race as the second major project [the first project being the wrap], and then it will be finished.

Her nephew, a car geek, was instrumental in helping her decide to take the BMW Art Car commission: My brother loves cars, and since my nephew was a child, tiny cars, toy cars, were always in his hands. That would be his meditation: Parking about 100 or 150 different toy cars in different configurations. He’s here with me [in Europe, for the Art Car’s debut] and he’s part of the reason I’ve done this project. He really was like, “please don’t say no, don’t say no. This is one of the things you should do!” And he’s loved it.

How she conceived the BMW Art Car in her studio: I had a scale model [of the BMW M Hybrid V8 race car] in the studio for a long time. I would just push the model around on a cart and it would go in front of different paintings at different times. And I just kept it there while I was working for the whole year. And then, about six months in, I saw this painting in front of it and then just thought of them together—I felt like the car could actually experience the painting. At first, I didn’t know how we were gonna approach that. [My assistant] Jackie Furtado worked with me on the digital sketches that [BMW] gave us, the vector files and the 3D model. And we were able to simulate how the car could go through the painting as a portal.

Mehretu also designed the racing suits and helmets that the three drivers— Sheldon van der Linde (South Africa), Robin Frijns (Netherlands), and René Rast (Germany)—will wear at Le Mans; she is an honorary fourth driver. I worked with another person who used to work at my studio, Minnie, who is now working on her own in fashion and apparel. She came back and we worked together on the driver’s uniforms, or overalls, and then the helmet as well. I know the helmets are very special, so we had a meeting with the drivers on Zoom. Each driver, from the different places that they live, showed their own helmets. And we tried to do something different on each helmet according to who they were.

Mehretu wanted to change the appearance of spare body parts for the race car, but Le Mans regulations prohibited it: One desire I had, and BMW tried really hard to get this to happen, was for the spare parts for the car—I wanted to do them in the ghost of the painting. So, they would be the negative of the car. If a part of the car had to be replaced, it would be replaced by its ghost, so the car would also shift and [change] shape through the race. We couldn’t do that; we tried hard. [It would have made it] part of this active performative painting, but in that sense, it’s ok. I mean, the point is to win, not to be disqualified.

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British race car driver Jamie Chadwick continued her American invasion last weekend with a history-making win in the Indy NXT Series, which used to be called Indy Lights. It’s the developmental feeder series for IndyCar, and many of its graduates have gone on to solid IndyCar careers, recently including Kyle Kirkwood and David Malukas, and in less recent history, Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Pato O’Ward, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, Colton Herta and Tony Kaanan.

Chadwick, who drives for Andretti Global, qualified on the pole for the Grand Prix of Road America, a 20-lap race on the tough Wisconsin road course. She is only the third female driver to win in the NXT/Indy Lights series, with the first being Ana Beatriz, who won in 2008 and 2009, and Pippa Mann, who was the most recent winner in 2010. Those wins were on oval tracks, so Chadwick becomes the first female driver to win on a road course.

“I have no words,” Chadwick said after her victory on Sunday. “Honestly, I’m a bit emotional. We’ve had an unbelievable car this year and just haven’t been able to do anything about it. I’m just so happy we held on there.”

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She beat Andretti Global teammate Louis Foster by 0.82 seconds, with Jacob Abel in third. Foster and Abel already have two wins each this season, and are the top two in the points, with Abel leading.

This is the second NXT season for Chadwick, 26, after winning three championships in the Europe-based, all-female W Series. That series was cancelled after three seasons for lack of finances, and last ran in 2022, when Chadwick returned with support from Caitlyn Jenner to win her third championship, this time for the newly-formed Jenner Racing team. The W Series was essentially replaced by the female-only, F1-backed F1 Academy in 2023. F1 Academy is on the Formula 4 level, considered a step down from the competition in the W Series.

Prior to racing in the W and NXT Series, Chadwick competed mostly in Europe, but she had several starts in the F3 Asian Championship. She has also been a development driver for the Williams F1 team, and a test driver for the NIO Formula E team. Chadwick co-drove an Aston Martin to a win in the Silverstone 24 Hours in 2015, and to fifth in class in the 2019 running of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. She’s also competed in Extreme E, the electric off-road series.

Additionally, Chadwick is also the official advisor for 17-year-old Lia Block, daughter of the late stunt driver and rally racer Ken Block, as she competes for Williams in the F1 Academy series this season. After four of the scheduled 14 races, Lia is 14th in points out of 17 drivers.

Chadwick moved to the NXT series in 2023, where she had a best finish of sixth, and ended the season 12th in points. It took her a while to get acclimated to U.S. tracks and the NXT car, which is a Dallara chassis with a turbocharged 2.0-liter Mazda-AER four-cylinder, with six-speed gearbox. The series is owned by IndyCar, which means it’s owned by Roger Penske. Her best finish this season had been third on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

While Chadwick led Sunday’s race from the pole and never gave up the lead, it wasn’t easy. A crash on lap 16 caused officials to fly the red flag, stopping the race to allow for a clean-up and ensure that it wouldn’t finish under a caution flag. It was restarted with two laps to go.

“With the red flag at the end, I was like, ‘Come on!’” Chadwick said. “We started to lose the tires a little bit. I just knew I had to be aggressive. I knew they [Foster and Abel] have a championship to worry about, and I just had to get my head down. I really wanted to win today.” The victory moved Chadwick up to ninth in points.

This was the sixth race in a 13-race NXT season. Next up is a doubleheader at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on June 22-23.

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Germany’s Eifel Mountain region is perfect for early-summer camping and hiking. The forested peaks rise and fall through the fog and are populated by charming hamlets and farms, the edges of which are often lined with shocks of wildflowers. Rain clouds and bluebird skies trade places throughout the day before the sun sets about 10 p.m.

Peaceful.

That is, unless you arrive at any part of the Nürburgring Nordschleife during the Nürburgring 24 Hours (N24) race weekend, where a quarter-million fans show up, dedicated to a schedule that’s dominated by three things: drinking beer, grilling sausages, and watching cars hurtling up, down—and occasionally off—one of the greatest circuits in the world. The chirp of songbirds is replaced by the thrum of generators, a half-dozen Eurobeat tracks thumping out of temporary discotheques, and the constant doppler effect of racing engines near redline.

Unlike this year’s shortest-ever N24—red-flagged for nearly 17 hours due to dense fog that wouldn’t let up—the party rages at all hours, impervious to foul weather. The peace is thoroughly disturbed. 

In the weeks leading up to the ‘Ring’s premier endurance race, dedicated fans descend on the countryside to stake out their plots along the nearly 13 miles of asphalt. There they erect temples to Bitburger, Jägermeister, Paulaner, and Warsteiner.

Their plywood scaffold creations sometimes include mud-stained living room couches draped in Christmas lights. One setup even had an assisted-mobility chair on an electric track to ferry guests up and down. Plastic banners span these double- and triple-decker structures, broadcasting motorsport allegiances and beverage brands of choice.

On the trampled ground below, empty alcohol bottles and cans are stacked into pyramids, or unceremoniously piled up, or just flattened into the earth. Cigarette smoke wafts through the leafy canopies, joining the plumes of bonfires and barbecues that still linger in your clothes Monday morning. 

It is a wonderful place to be, and not just as a racing fan. The camaraderie is infectious, regardless of what team you’re rooting for. And believe it or not, it can be very family-friendly: Toddlers are perched on their parents’ shoulders, heads lolling, all top-heavy thanks to the comically oversized earmuffs that mom and dad insist upon. Little hands furiously wave cheap plastic flags adorned with car brand logos with the same enthusiasm of older diehards who’ve made this race an annual tradition. The kids are alright. 

And so are the adults. I lost count of the number of beers I had to politely turn down as I tromped around the perimeter of the circuit, pulling at my photographer’s credential to show that I was, despite my senses telling me otherwise, at work. In addition to watching one of the official Nürburgring-owned jumbotrons, I popped my head into a few tents to check out the race feeds to see what was happening on the rest of the course. Without fail I was offered some form of hot food, a shot of liquor or another bottle of beer.

After miles of trudging and eight hours of holding stiff photographer stances, my feet ached and my stomach pleaded, so I broke down and accepted an offered plate of currywurst. I was grateful for the kindness that endurance racing seems to foster.

On Sunday morning, the bonfires were fed with the wooden frames that provided the prior night’s grandstands. Some people were still drinking, some slowly packing their cars and campers, hot coffee in hand. It was quieter this year as the red flags for weather left the track empty since before midnight. People grumbled about that, but you know they’ll be back next year, just like they were the year before. The traffic jam to leave the ‘Ring is thick but quickly disperses once you get clear of the main parking and camping zones. They come from every direction and leave the same way. 

With the race over, the countryside quickly returns to its idyllic natural state. Sounds from the forests and farmland take up where the cars and crowds left off. Cleanup crews stab bits of trash with their pokers and a few service trucks prowl the circuit to make minor repairs to the guardrails.

We’ll all be back next year, weather permitting or not. See you there.

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If you plan to win one of the two inaugural Ford Mustang Challenge races this weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, you’ll have to beat one of the biggest names in Ford Motorsports.

No, not a professional race car driver, but the chief executive officer at Ford, Jim Farley. It shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise that the company CEO wants to compete—Farley is no stranger to racetracks, especially historic racing, competing in cars from his collection that include a 1965 Ford GT40, a 1966 427 Cobra, and a 1978 Lola 298.

“This is an amazing time for Mustang as we grow our family to include grassroots racing all the way up to the Mustang GT3 which will compete at Le Mans next week,” Farley said. “Like all the racers this weekend, I have a lot to learn in a short amount of time, but I can’t wait to get out there and enjoy some close battles with like-minded Mustang racing fans.”

He’ll be racing the number 17 Mustang, with a livery that recalls the first Mustang to win a race at Mid-Ohio—Jerry Titus’ Trans Am victory in 1967 in a Terlingua Racing Team entry.

The new Mustang Challenge series was created last year by Ford, and sanctioned by IMSA. The one-make series features the Mustang Dark Horse R, powered by a 500-horsepower, 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 with a Tremec manual transmission, racing on 19-inch Michelin slicks. The engine has been upgraded with enhanced cooling and oiling, and has a Borla racing exhaust. The track-only Dark Horse R starts at $145,000.

There are two 45-minute races per weekend. Besides Mid-Ohio, the series will also travel to Watkins Glen International, Road America, Circuit of the Americas and the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

There are 26 entries for this weekend’s series kickoff. Farley will be driving a car owned and prepared by MDK Motorsports, which also has two additional cars in the field for drivers Tom Tait, Jr., and Gabe Tesch. MDK is owned by Mark David Kvamme, a venture capitalist based in Ohio and an experienced competitor. He has raced in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The original Mustang Challenge series launched in 2008, using the Mustang FR500S. It was the brainchild of the late Larry Miller, a Ford dealer in Salt Lake City, Utah, who built the Miller Motorsports Park outside the city. The cars, which sold for $75,000, were turn-key racers powered by a 4.6-liter V-8 and a Tremec manual transmission. You can watch a race here.

As with the new Mustang Challenge series, the original featured two 45-minute races per weekend. It was sanctioned by Grand-Am, which became IMSA, and it lasted for three seasons.

For information on the new Mustang Challenge series, click here.

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We’ve known for quite some time that Formula 1 is changing the rules, beginning in 2026. The cars themselves, as well as the engines, will be significantly different, and now we have the answer to just how different the F1 future will be.

Formula 1 has released many of the details, condensed into this 15-minute, 48-second video. In short, says F1, the cars will be “lighter, safer and more competitive!” That’s part of the caption on the video, titled “The Future of F1.”

You’ll also hear “more nimble” several times in the presentation, as well as multiple references regarding the new car’s ability to close up behind another car, something “dirty air,” generated by the lead car’s extensive aerodynamics, prevents in the 2024 F1 field of cars. You’ll also hear “more sustainable,” including the use of renewable fuel and an increased reliance on hybrid electric power.

These 2026 rules are set to be approved on June 28 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. None of it comes as a surprise to the teams, the manufacturers, or the powertrain suppliers, as they have been kept in the loop, and have even run some of the proposed configurations on their simulators.

The FIA is estimating that the new car’s less-aggressive aerodynamics will reduce downforce by 30 percent, which is expected to reduce cornering speeds. But a 55 percent reduction in drag will mean higher straightaway speeds. Both front and rear wings will be cockpit-adjustable.

Pirelli, the tire manufacturer, will make the tires narrower by 25mm (almost one inch) in front, and 30mm (1.18 inches) in the rear. The cars will still use 18-inch wheels.

The new cars will be about 66 pounds lighter, with a wheelbase nearly eight inches shorter and a width about four inches narrower. Replacing the DRS (drag reduction system) on current cars is a “manual override” that will provide more electrical boost to a following car. F1 has been stung by complaints that there isn’t enough passing, and they are seeking to change that for 2026.

The cars will still be hybrids, with a far greater concentration on the electric aspect. The internal combustion engine will still be a 1.6-liter turbocharged V-6, though its power will be reduced, while the electrical end of the power unit will be increased by about 300 percent. F1 claims a record six future “power unit” suppliers—Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault, Honda, Ford and Audi. No mention of Cadillac, which hopes to power the proposed Andretti entry.

While the cars will be smaller and lighter, F1 says they’ll be safer, too. The rollover hoop has been strengthened, and the new nose will be recast as a two-piece unit, with the forward piece designed to give way in the event of a collision, while the second piece will still offer protection in the event of a subsequent impact.

“The key features of the 2026 F1 Regulations are advanced sustainability, technology, and safety,” said FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem. “Our aim, together with Formula 1, was to produce a car that was right for the future of the sport’s elite category. We believe we have achieved that goal.”

We’ll see.

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Parnelli Jones—who died Tuesday at the age of 90—was the avatar of steely-eyed, crew-cut oval-track racing in the 1960s. Yes, he also won a hard-fought Trans-Am championship in 1970, famously outbrawling Mark Donohue, aka Captain Nice. But Parnelli didn’t have much use for road racers back then. As he told his car owner, NASCAR stalwart (and D-Day veteran) Bud Moore, “Ain’t none of those fruitcuppers gonna outrun me.”

So I was a bit worried about the reception I was going to receive when I sat down in his office to interview him for a magazine called Sports Car International, which was written, edited and published by a small band of devoted fruitcuppers. This was 30-something years ago, when Parnelli was long retired from a driving career that had seen him win everything from the Indy 500 to the Mexican 1000. He’d shut down his Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing team, which had been the King Kong of American motorsports in the 1970s, and he’d sold off the extensive portfolio of Firestone tire shops that had made him a very rich man. By then, he spent his time managing his Southern California real estate empire and puttering around local golf courses.

Close friends called him Rufus—his given name—or Rufe. The rest of the world knew him simply as Parnelli. He’d mellowed over the years, but he wasn’t soft. He still had the arctic-blue eyes, the granite jaw, the thrice-broken nose. Unlike his great friend and even greater rival, A.J. Foyt, he was still trim enough to climb into a midget and sling it around for hot laps, and there was nothing that tickled him more than outrunning his sons, P.J. and Page, who were embarking on careers as professional racers. “He always had to lead,” Al Unser, who won Indy twice while driving for him, once told me. “If he’d ever settled down, he probably would have won twice as many races as he did. But he just couldn’t stand running second. It’s not just racing either. If you’re playing pool or golf, or if it’s just arm wrestling, the man has to win.”

Parnelli greeted me with a firm handshake and a chilly smile, and I figured the interview would last about as long as a heat race in one of the many USAC sprint car shows he dominated in the early 1960s. Much to my surprise, he spent the rest of the afternoon with me. He squired me around the museum he maintained upstairs, passing along loving histories of each of the cars. Then we sat down with his partner, the large and expansive Vel Miletich, and longtime right-hand man Jimmy Dilamarter.

A few weeks earlier, Dilamarter said, he’d been out with Parnelli when another driver tried to cut in line at a freeway onramp. Parnelli ran him onto the shoulder and off the road, and he would have driven him into a bridge abutment if the guy hadn’t backed off. Then, with a big belly laugh, Miletich recalled how Parnelli had terrorized the NASCAR regulars in a Ford stock car at Darlington, repeatedly pulling slide jobs that forced the other drivers to stand on the brakes to avoid a wreck in Turn 3. After the car went several laps down due to mechanical issues, Miletich put driver Marvin Porter in the cockpit. After the race, a perplexed Porter told him, “These guys sure are polite. Every time I reach a corner, everybody backs off for me.”

Of course, these stories fit squarely into the Parnelli mythology. What I didn’t expect to find was that the man was genuinely funny. Whenever I saw him, he’d regale me with stories from a treasure trove of hilarious anecdotes. One of his (and my) favorites was about how he got involved in the relatively new sport of off-road racing.

“That was Bill Stroppe’s doing,” he said. “He asked me to do a race in Las Vegas. I wasn’t interested, but Bill said, ‘I guess you’re not man enough to do it.’ Well, that was like waving a red cape in front of a bull. So I agreed to do it, and I told the guy riding with me, ‘Alright, you tap my leg if you think I’m going too hard.’” Parnelli snorted. “That guy plumb beat me to death. And I beat the shit out of the car. I mean, I knocked the front tires clean off of it. And I ran it on the rims for so long that they had to take a torch and cut them off.”

But what was so refreshing—and surprising—about Parnelli was his humility. Well, maybe humility is the wrong word, because he was clear-eyed about his skills. Once, when I asked him which drivers he’d feared back in the day, he was silent for a long time before saying, “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging. But I always felt that other drivers were there just to be beaten.” That said, he wasn’t what he called “an ego guy.” He gave credit where credit was due, and he wasn’t always the hero of his own stories.

He admitted that he pushed his cars too hard—he’s the all-time leader of the Broke While Leading category—and he blamed himself for the failure of the STP turbine whooshmobile that crapped out within eight miles of winning Indy in 1967. He acknowledged that he was terrified by running sprint cars on Midwestern high banks, which was a major reason he quit racing open wheelers while he was still in his prime. And when he made a mistake, he owned up to it.

In 1972, VPJ went to Indy with Al Unser, who’d won the 500 for the team the previous two years. “Penske was there with the McLarens,” Parnelli recalled. “Donohue set on the pole, but they kept puking engines. At the last minute, we sold them one of ours. Well, Donohue won the race, and our cars finished second and third. That’s when I designed a belt that goes around your waist, and it has a boot on the back and a push button, and you can kick your own ass.” He roared. “Al would have won three years in a row if we hadn’t sold Donohue that engine.”

But the more I talked to Parnelli, the harder I found it to reconcile the many contradictions he embodied. He grew up poor—and poorly educated—and did a long, painful apprenticeship running jalopies on Southern California bullrings. Yet despite racing during what was statistically the most dangerous era in motorsports history, he was never seriously injured, and he ended up as one of the wealthiest drivers in the world.

On ovals, whether the rutted dirt of Langhorne or the smooth pavement of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he was uniquely relaxed and precise. “He never looked like he was going fast,” said Johnny Rutherford, who raced against him on both tracks. “He made it look effortless.” But in road racing, he was a wild man, infamously punting John Surtees halfway to Salinas during a Can-Am race at Laguna Seca (which he won). And as his one-time Trans-Am teammate Dan Gurney recalled, “When you were following right behind him, he’d carve the edge off [the corners] and throw rocks at you. He did that to me once at Kent and broke my windshield.”

And then there was the man himself. Away from the track, he was too tightly wound to be truly avuncular, but there was nothing about the way he carried himself that hinted at his legendary combativeness. I mean, this was a guy who punched out another driver after winning the Indy 500. As Bobby Unser, who’d been mentored by him, once told me, “Parnelli’s a very gentle person, but he can be extremely ornery. Extremely ornery. He was one guy Foyt never picked on. Foyt might have been able to whip him, but Parnelli was like a wolverine. He would have chewed on his ears and bitten his nose off. And even if he’d gotten whipped, he would have waited until he healed up, and then he would have come right back at him.”

Parnelli didn’t exude the swagger of A.J. Foyt or the charisma of Mario Andretti. He wasn’t as sunny as Dan Gurney or as quotable as Bobby Unser. But he was one of one, and what a great one he was.

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The 52^nd edition of the day-long endurance race through the Green Hell was the shortest in history, clocking a total of just 7 hours and 22 minutes of racing over the course of 50 laps. The stunted duration of the “N24” was thanks to the Eifel region’s infamously inclement weather, which draped the course in a dense layer of helicopter-immobilizing haze that compromised emergency safety services and wafted through the forested hills as if pouring from the devil’s very own fog machine.

The red flags flew at 11:23 PM local time, and the nearly 130-car field was rendered stationary until a handful of formation laps were run behind the safety car in the final hours of the race weekend—a small but welcome concession for the soggy fans. The #16 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Scherer Sport PHX claimed the big trophy, local favorites Manthey Racing snatched silver in their #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R, and BMW M Team RMG’s #72 M4 GT3 filled out the podium’s third spot. 

The result marked the seventh overall victory for the Audi R8 and Scherer Sport PHX at the N24, which sees the team now tied for the record with Manthey Racing. But it was a bittersweet moment for the blue-and-white R8, as this was the first year that it raced without Audi’s factory support. It will also likely be the model’s last chance at winning the event due to Audi’s withdrawal from GT racing, and a Scherer team that is readying itself to compete with a new car next season. There are worse ways for a competition car to age into retirement than winning at the Nürburgring, even if it was under weather-shortened circumstances.

Despite the race’s record-breaking brevity, there was still sufficient time for motorsport drama. Cars caught fire, were flung into the air, and fiercely fought for position on the Nordschleife’s narrow and undulating asphalt. It might not have the same prestige as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but there’s nowhere but the Nürburgring where you can see a top-spec GT3 Porsche getting airborne before weaving through a bunch of 3-Series sedans—and a Dacia Logan!—and clipping a moving apex in the form of a flatbed truck hauling the carcass of a wrecked race car. At the N24, the recovery vehicles share a live track with the racers, making for some spectacular displays of adaptive driving and adding another bit of flavor to this singular event.

When combined with the Grand Prix circuit, the full course for the 24-hour race is a memory-testing 15.77 miles long, and during the race weekend it was lined with over 240,000 spectators and their architecturally questionable homebrewed grandstands, sausage-sizzling barbecues, and bountiful beer bottles. Like the infield at Talladega and the ritzy balconies of Monaco, the atmosphere during the ‘Ring’s premier race weekend is its own spectator sport. More on that in a story to follow—in the meantime, enjoy the sights of the shortest-ever Nürburgring 24.

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After September 24, 1994, it was always about Page. Most every conversation I had with Parnelli Jones, the racing legend who died Tuesday, was about his son, Page, who was 22 and racing in the famous 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway in Ohio, a famous dirt oval track now owned by former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart.

Page was driving his black number 26 sprint car when he hit the wall and flipped, then was struck by another car. Page suffered a traumatic brain injury, and for three days, as he was in a coma, doctors feared for his life.

It took years, but Page recovered to an unexpected degree, eventually becoming a husband and a father. “He’s doing better,” Parnelli would say, and then tell me about Page’s latest small step back.

A documentary, Godspeed: The Story of Page Jones, was made about Page’s life. He was 37 when he said this: “I had just won the race and I hit the wall and flipped on to my side,” Page recalled. It is his last long-term memory. “I remember looking through the window of the car at the flag guy and he was throwing the yellow flag up and I thought, ‘Throw the red flag up so they stop.’ But it was too late. The guy that had crashed with me hit my roll cage and I was (unconscious).”

That day, brother P.J. was racing in Tucson; IndyCar team owner and STP CEO Andy Granatelli offered his Learjet to fly the family to see Page. P.J. boarded the plane in Phoenix, flew to Los Angeles to pick up mother Judy, flew to Utah to pick up Parnelli, then headed to Dayton, Ohio, where Page was in the hospital, still not out of the woods. It was a month before Page could be flown to a rehabilitation center in California.

It was 18 months before Page could speak, and then it was just one word at a time. It was two years before Page could get out of his wheelchair and begin the long process of learning to walk again. “He was like a six-foot-tall baby,” Judy said in a 2004 story posted by USAC, the sanctioning body for the 4-Crown Nationals and for the Indianapolis 500 when Parnelli won it in 1963.

At the beginning of rehabilitation, physicians painted a dark picture. “One of the doctors told me that he was going to need 24 hours of help a day the rest of his life, as well as a special training table, a handicapped bathroom, wheelchair, the whole shebang,” Parnelli said. “He gave me the worst scenario in the world.”

Rehab was frustrating for Page, who Parnelli said tore up nearly 150 T-shirts. “He would reach down, grab them and put them in his mouth and just rip them right off his chest,” Parnelli said. “He was just nervous; it was just unreal. But he never ran out of T-shirts because his friends kept sending them to him. One of his friends sent him a T-shirt that had a dotted line across it, and it read, ‘Tear here, Page’. His friends really, really stuck by him.”

“It was like being born again,” Page said. “The simplest things were difficult. Instead of being a baby two or three feet off the ground, I was six feet above the ground.”

After two years in rehab in California, Page was sent to Indianapolis, then New York City, for more specialized rehabilitation. Page continued to improve. He married Jamie on April 14, 2001, and they have two sons.

“He’s just a little bit different than he was before,” Parnelli said. “What he might have lost he gained in a lot of other ways.”

Older brother P.J. went on to an uneven but generally successful racing career, the highlights being a win at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona sports car endurance race in 1993, co-driving Dan Gurney’s All American Racers Eagle MkIII Toyota. He also made two Indianapolis 500 starts, 60 IndyCar starts and 33 starts in the NASCAR Cup series.

As for Rufus Parnell Jones, born August 12, 1933: His racing career began in 1950, at age 17, and ended in 1974, when he was 41. As he was easing out of the driver’s seat, he became co-owner of Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, and won the Indianapolis 500 in 1970 and 1971 as a car owner, with Al Unser driving. Then he built a Formula 1 car for Mario Andretti; it was called the Parnelli VPJ4. He helped develop a turbocharged version of the Cosworth DFV V-8, which went on to win every Indianapolis 500 for the next 10 years. Parnelli was an astute businessman, investing in real estate and maintaining a close relationship with Firestone, which began in 1960 when he became their test driver. He owned a Ford dealership, 47 Parnelli Jones Tire Centers in four states, and was a Firestone racing tire distributor in 14 states.

Decades after he hung up his helmet, his name still resonates. In 2021, at a Mecum Indianapolis auction, Parnelli’s Baja 1000-winning 1969 Ford Bronco, named Big Oly, sold for $1.87 million.

So, there was never a shortage of topics to cover. But he always wanted to talk about Page, and how P.J.’s racing career was going.

Just seven months ago, P.J. posted this on Facebook: “Parnelli is still hanging in there at 90, driving my mom crazy!” But yesterday, P.J. confirmed that his father had died with a sadder Facebook post. “My father, Parnelli Jones, passed away today at the age of 90. He had battled Parkinson’s for the last few years. I will miss him greatly!”

Acclaimed motorsports journalist Bones Bourcier is the official biographer of Parnelli, titled As a Matter of Fact, I AM Parnelli Jones, named for the answer to multiple traffic cops who, at the time, would pull drivers over for speeding and ask, “Who do you think you are, Parnelli Jones?”

The day Parnelli died, Bones posted this on Facebook: “If you love racing of any kind, you understand that this is a great redwood falling in the forest. He was among the very best in an era when the very best drove any vehicle they could climb into. Parnelli won Indy Car races in front-engine roadsters and rear-engine Lotus creations; won in NASCAR and USAC stock cars; won in USAC, CRA, and IMCA Sprint Cars on dirt and pavement; won in USAC Midgets on dirt and pavement; won in SCCA sports cars and Trans-Am sedans; won in Baja off-road trucks; basically, he won in everything he sat in, all the way back to the 1950s heyday of the California Jalopy Association, where it all began for him. ‘There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it,’ A.J. Foyt said of his old pal and rival. ‘Parnelli was a great race driver.”’

We’ll leave the last word to Roger Penske, who owns IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a NASCAR Cup team and an IMSA GTP team, and, at 87, is a contemporary of Parnelli: “The racing world has lost a great competitor and a true champion. Parnelli Jones was one of the most accomplished racers in history, and his determination and will to win made him one of the toughest competitors I have ever seen,” Penske said. “I was proud to call Parnelli a good friend for many years, and our thoughts are with his family as we remember one of the true legends of motorsports.”

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There are seemingly endless secrets in land-speed racing, which makes sense considering we have been running cars as fast as possible in a straight line for over a century. Beyond the obvious wisdom about adjusting for the environment (temperature, air pressure, race surface) and minimizing aerodynamic drag, there seems to be a very deep well of knowledge filled with solutions to other problems unique to land-speed racing. Case in point is the video below, which dropped into my feed a few days ago.

Sometimes the YouTube algorithm is terrifying. It knows me better than I know myself, and I see the proof when it serves up a video with just a few thousand views from a channel that has only posted that single video. I won’t pretend I haven’t wasted a lot of time-consuming piles of content on the internet, but low-view videos aren’t typically what draw me. But the thumbnail image of a massive chunk of billet aluminum with the text “555mph” sang a siren song. I clicked, expecting the video to be clickbait.

It wasn’t.

The video was posted by Traction Products, a business started in 1963 by Peter and Albert Weismann to engineer and produce solutions for high-performance drivetrains. One such problem is the transaxle for a car that is about to attempt a land-speed record. That component is exactly what is discussed here, from the mechanical sequential shifter to the extremely narrow axles to the fascinating reason Traction Products chose not to use a ring-and-pinion setup to turn the power 90 degrees.

The common solutions for multiplying torque and transferring power work really well up to a point, and that point is well under the sort of output and top speeds that this team is working with: 500 mph and thousands, not hundreds, of horsepower. No, that wasn’t a typo: It takes big power to get a vehicle most of the way to Mach 1 on the ground. Multiplying that power through a dozen gears that can be power-shifted is an interesting solution in itself, but even more interesting is that the gearbox serves as the mount for the steering rack, which does not transfer power ring-and-pinion style to the axles.

A ring and pinion setup creates a lot of force and, as I learned from this video, that force is transferred to the chassis of the land-speed race car. That means the car would be fighting itself just as much as the conditions of the race course. So the Weismann transaxle uses a bevel drive to turn the thousands of horsepower, a decision that keeps the twisting force inside the billet case of the transaxle. Voilà: the chassis works like it should rather than fighting itself.

There are all kinds of problems in racing, yet few people get to chase solutions with the mad scientist minds that Traction Products does. It’s fascinating to see a company share its ideas and experiences so freely and we can only hope for more videos and stories from this shop in the future.

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Despite Honda sweeping the podium at Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix, it was a Chevrolet that paced the field for most of the afternoon. The series’ Corvette Z06 pace car, to be exact, spent 47 laps in front of the pack, as the race was slowed for a total of eight cautions throughout the 100-lap affair.

Tight confines, a bumpy temporary track surface, and one hellacious hairpin set up for an entertaining sophomore attempt at Detroit’s 1.7-mile street course.

Motown has a rich history of open wheel racing: Formula 1 first visited in 1982 on the streets of downtown. IndyCar took over after F1 departed after 1988. The contest moved to Belle Isle, a neighboring island park out on the Detroit River, in 1992 and stayed until IndyCar returned to the heart of Detroit’s downtown in 2023.

The new nine-turn course, which includes a three-quarter-mile straight, encircles the Renaissance Center, General Motors’ global headquarters since 1996.

In the shadow of the towering RenCen, the Detroit course features another oddity: A split pit lane. Cars are serviced on either side of pit road, depending on the team’s stall selection. This year, the track layout remained largely unchanged save for some smoothing and widening of certain portions of the track. Still, it proved treacherous for many, including a gaggle of drivers involved in Sunday’s biggest wreck in the first turn of lap one.

Perhaps the biggest change was the inclusion of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar racing on the weekend slate. Prototype racers (GTP) as well as GT cars kicked off the weekend, serving as an epic opening act. Manufacturer diversity was on display as Cadillacs and Corvettes attempted to defend their home turf in their respective classes to no avail. Acura took home GTP victory and Porsche was triumphant in GTD Pro.

Sunday’s race was dominated by Scott Dixon in the Chip Ganassi Honda. The six-time champ pitted early and saved enough fuel throughout the yellow-laden race to make it back to the checkers a few car lengths in front of fellow Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson.

Many were critical of the on-track action, labeling the race as a demo derby. It was easier to list the cars not involved in the opening lap pile-up, and the seven flags that slowed action throughout the rest didn’t help erase that first impression. Post race, a few drivers took to social media to vent. “I miss Belle Isle,” wrote this year’s Indy 500 runner-up Pato O’Ward.

The drivers’ frustration is understandable, but the dance in downtown Detroit is way better than any Belle Isle battle for a few reasons. First, the new location is second to none for spectators. For a series that is in dire need of new fans, Detroit’s street course brings the action to the people. Attending Belle Isle required planning and execution. You had to take a shuttle across a bridge to the island just to get to the course.

Second: Visibility. The island park was flat with not enough decent views of the track. Detroit’s downtown course has plenty of perches, as numerous parking garages allow for different bird’s eye views—not to mention an incredible view of cars racing along Detroit River waterfront.

And finally, the most important aspect for your humble author: The new course is a photographer’s dream. There are infinite places to shoot from, whether you have photo credentials or are just attending as a fan. This year was the first time I donned a photo vest for the event, shooting all three days. Check out some of my favorite shots below.

Still, at the end of the weekend, I felt like there were vantage points that I missed. Oh well, there’s always next year. Fingers crossed it will still be downtown.

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The Bugatti Type 35 may well hold the most wins of any race car in history, but it had to overcome one major obstacle along the way: the Alfa Romeo P2.

Vittorio Jano, recently poached from Fiat, was personally tasked by Alfa founder Nicola Romeo with its design.  “Listen,” Romeo said.  “I am not expecting you to make a car which will beat all others, but I’d like one which will make us look good, so that we can make an identity card for this factory, then later, when it has a name, we’ll make the car.”

It’s fair to say that Jano exceeded expectations. He began by assembling a two-liter straight-eight engine with a double crankcase design, fixed steel heads, and gear-driven twin camshafts. At Fiat, Jano had been an early adopter of the supercharger so he added a Roots-type blower, complete with a pioneering intercooler. At 5500 rpm Jano’s engine produced 140 horsepower.

The P2’s chassis didn’t break any new ground with its traditional ladder frame, but the elongated tail aided aerodynamics and the staggered two-seater layout gave the driver a little more elbow room to twirl the big steering wheel.

The first P2 was completed on June 2, 1924, and driven immediately by Giuseppe Campari and Alberto Ascari, even before it was painted in Alfa’s trademark racing red. A week later it lined up at the Circuito di Cremona for its first true test over five laps of the 40-mile road course. Ascari took the checkered flag almost a minute ahead of his nearest rival, Alete Marconcini, in the Chiribiri 12/16, with Roberto Malinervi’s Bugatti T22 in third.

At Lyons, just a few weeks later, Bugatti brought five of its new Type 35s to attempt to steal Alfa’s thunder. It was not to be. Campari stormed to victory after five hours of hard racing, with the first of the Bugattis, driven by Jean Chassagne, a distant seventh place.

With a third win at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Alfa Romeo confirmed the P2’s pace. In the 1925 season it won two of the four rounds of the first-ever World Championship for Grand Prix Cars, securing the title for Alfa Romeo.

The dominance was short-lived, however, as a new rule for 1926 saw a change of engine displacement to 1.5 liters, favoring Bugatti. The P2 battled on in other categories and, in 1930, secured its most memorable success at the Targa Florio.

Achille Varzi somehow managed to complete the grueling 335-mile event around Sicily in six hours and 55 minutes, despite suffering from a fuel problem that could not only have ended his race but also his life. A broken bracket holding the spare wheel caused the fuel tank to leak. On the last lap of the 67-mile road layout, his mechanic attempted to add more gas to the tank while the Alfa sped on. It spilled onto the hot exhaust and immediately ignited. The mechanic tore out his seat cushion and frantically beat at the flames as they crossed the finish line. Louis Chiron’s Bugatti Type 35 B was almost two minutes behind. Another one-in-the-eye for Alfa’s rival, just before the P2 was retired from service.

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Cadillac’s history with the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race goes back to 1950, when millionaire Briggs Swift Cunningham entered two Cadillac-based cars to take on the motoring world. Fifty years later, in 2000, and then again in 2002, Cadillac returned to Le Mans with an LMP prototype racer powered by a 4.0-liter Northstar twin-turbo V-8.

Cadillac decided to return to the Circuit de la Sarthe for the 2023 running of Le Mans, and you can go behind the scenes as the team prepares for and competes in the race, thanks to No Perfect Formula, the exciting new film that documents the journey. The film debuts Friday, May 31 at 7 pm ET on the Hagerty channel #2545 on the Samsung TV Plus app on Samsung Smart TVs.

The film opens with scenes from the 2023 race. Shots of the crowd intercut with shots of the cars as they blast through the rain, then of the Cadillac team nervously looking on; all manage to capture the visceral thrills and palpable tension. 

Then the #311 Cadillac car spins out in the rain and crashes into a barrier.

Cut to Brian Scotto, co-founder of Hoonigan, who sets the stage: “As people, we love a good story. Nobody loves the story about the team that won last year wins again. They want to hear that story of the team that upset everybody. Stories come from struggle. You gotta give people a reason to care.”

By that metric, we as viewers come to care very much through a series of interviews with many of the members of the Cadillac team. We meet Laura Wontrop Klauser, sports car racing program manager; Vince Tiaga, sports car racing regulations; Kalvin Parker, assistant program manager; Aaron Pfeifer, vehicle technical lead, and Jim Igrisan III, engine build technician, to name just a few. Putting faces to names and hearing their stories, we become invested in the team members and can’t help but cheer them on.

Other cool, behind-the-scene highlights include sitting in with Tiaga, Parker, and Pfeifer as they discuss the reasons the team chose to go with a naturally aspirated V-8 rather than a turbocharged V-6. We get to join Igrisan as he accompanies the newly assembled LMC55.R V-8 to its first test on the dyno. Exhaust headers glow fiery red as the engine roars through its test cycles. As Igrisan sums it up, “Competitors, in my mind, took the easy way out. It’s easy to make power with turbos, easier to manage power with turbos. To compete with naturally aspirated engine is pretty cool. And who’s got the best-sounding car out there?” It’s a rhetorical question, of course. Igrisan is right: The Caddy sounds terrific.

The rest of the film follows the team through the testing of the Cadillac in the fall of 2022 and then on to opening of the 2023 racing season at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, then to the 12 Hours of Sebring, and culminating in June at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. No spoilers here—whether you know how the races turned out or not, you don’t know the stories behind them. For those, you’ll have to tune in on the Hagerty channel #2545 on the Samsung TV Plus app on Samsung Smart TVs. If you don’t have a Samsung Smart TV, you can watch on Galaxy Devices, and on the web. Global audiences can view on Hagerty’s Facebook.  After its premiere, No Perfect Formula will run all night, as well as every Friday at 7 p.m. ET in the weeks leading up to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 15–16. It’s also available on Cadillac’s YouTube channel.

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The lust for days past is something that no generation seems to be immune from, especially when viewed through the lens of recreating a certain scene. Hot rods racing on the beach will always be cool, and the Race of Gentlemen has captured the hearts of Americans, but some Australian enthusiasts are giving us a run for our money with a vintage racing event called Rattletrap.

Fortyone30 customs, a hot rod shop in Toowoomba, Australia, posted this video of Rattletrap VII, which took place earlier this month. Hundreds of vintage cars and motorcycles gathered, along with a healthy crowd that turned out just to see the show. It’s all put on by the Drag-ens hot rod club. The group started in 1962 with just five members and has not only grown but stood the test of time, much like the cars the group loves. In fact, the group loves hot rods and building them so much that if you have a project car that doesn’t make progress at an appropriate rate, your membership could be in jeopardy. Harsh, but fair.

Especially when you consider the group is putting on such cool events as Rattletrap. What use is a large membership of cars sitting on jack stands when you have a whole weekend on the beach to drive fast?

Rattletrap was started in 2015 on the excitement brought from watching videos of other similar events. The idea to create a period-correct event for Australian hot rodders was born. A location in Crowdy Head, Australia (partway between Brisbane and Melbourne on the country’s east coast) was selected, and during a scouting mission the club was met by a group of surfers who kindly told them they were in the wrong place. Happily, though, they took the gear heads down to the right spot, and the event has flourished since.

As someone who lives in a very sandy environment and has to deal with cleaning and repairing the damage caused by the infinite amount of tiny rocks that blast paint and break down into a grinding paste on any moving part, the thought of building an era-correct hot rod and then taking it out to do burn-outs on the beach is a little tough, but then a video like this makes me think the clean up and wear would probably worth it for the experience. After all, who can put a price on time travel?

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On Tuesday, NASCAR team owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas made a joint announcement that Stewart-Haas Racing would be closing at the end of the 2024 season, leaving six NASCAR drivers and hundreds of support personnel out of a job.

What went wrong? Why is one of NASCAR’s most prominent teams leaving the sport? We’ll explain. But let’s start with a brief look at how Stewart-Haas Racing reached the breaking point.

In 2002, beyond-wealthy businessman Gene Haas decided he wanted to enter the world of NASCAR. He started Haas-CNC Racing as a way to promote the company he owns, Haas Automation, which manufactures CNC (computer numerical control) machines, which use computers to operate tools, such as lathes and grinders, with far more precision than an operator can manage on his or her own.

Haas-CNC Racing was, at best, a mid-pack runner, and by 2008, its drivers were averaging a 27th-place finish. Haas knew he needed to make some changes, so he made two-time NASCAR Cup series champion Tony Stewart an offer he couldn’t refuse: Leave Joe Gibbs Racing and move to Haas-CNC Racing, and Haas would give Stewart half the team. Thus was born Stewart-Haas Racing. In 2009 the team brought aboard Penske Racing driver Ryan Newman, the year after he won the Daytona 500.

The team matured and grew. Stewart won his third Cup championship in 2011. In 2013, with great fanfare, Stewart-Haas Racing hired IndyCar driver Danica Patrick who, despite lackluster performance on the track, consistently made headlines as the only female driver to make an actual living in the NASCAR Cup series.

Fast forward to the 2024 season: Tony Stewart quit NASCAR Cup racing in 2016, and his interest in NASCAR gradually faded. Also in 2016, Gene Haas, who had bought what was left of the bankrupt Marussia Formula 1 team, started his own F1 effort, called Haas F1 Team, which is still looking for its first win, having never finished higher than fourth. This year, Haas’ two F1 drivers are presently 13th and 17th in points out of 21 drivers. Haas, 71, is still running Haas Automation, has been sick for much of 2024, and is still struggling to make Haas F1 into a contender, or at least improve on 2023’s dead-last finish in the standings.

Other factors are at work here, too. Stewart-Haas driver Kevin Harvick retired from full-time racing at the end of 2023, which meant the end of his lucrative Anheuser-Busch sponsorship. Driver Aric Almirola also left Stewart-Haas after the 2023 season, meaning the loss of his Smithfield Foods sponsorship.

Still, Stewart-Haas entered the 2024 NASCAR season with four Cup entries for drivers Noah Gragson, Josh Berry, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece—none of them household names in the world of NASCAR. Stewart-Haas also has a pair of NASCAR Xfinity series drivers: Riley Herbst, who has one win in the series and sponsorship from Monster Energy, and Cole Custer, who is the 2023 Xfinity champion, and the son of Joe Custer, Stewart-Haas Racing president, and the man who has mostly been running the day-to-day operations of the company.

None of the Stewart-Haas drivers have won this season. Among its Cup drivers, only Chase Briscoe has won a race, and that was in 2022. In addition, Stewart-Haas’ deal with Ford ends this year; it had been one of the top Ford teams since it switched from Chevrolet in 2016.

It hasn’t helped that Ford has had a terrible 2024 season in all three NASCAR series. By the time Ford won its first and only Cup race of the season, which was Brad Keselowski’s victory on May 12, Chevrolet had already won seven races, and Toyota five. Besides inexperience in the Stewart-Haas Cup driver lineup, that has been a crippling factor for the team.

Finally, Stewart, who has been spending less and less time at NASCAR races, discovered drag racing when he began dating NHRA Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett in 2020, and they got married on November 21, 2021. He promptly founded Tony Stewart Racing, fielding a Top Fuel car for Pruett, and a Funny Car for four-time champion Matt Hagan. Stewart, 53, began drag racing himself, competing in the second-tier Top Alcohol Dragster class in 2023, scoring two wins and a runner-up finish in the season championship. He and Pruett, 36, are trying to start a family, which led Pruett to quit driving in 2024, turning over her 330-mph Top Fuel car to drag racing novice Stewart. He has yet to win a race, but he is a legitimate contender.

Bottom line: Stewart and Haas have lost interest in NASCAR. In a joint statement issued Tuesday confirming the long-standing rumors that they would close shop, the pair said, “Racing is a labor-intensive, humbling sport. It requires unwavering commitment and vast resources, with a 365-day mindset to be better than everyone else. It’s part of what makes success so rewarding. But the commitment needed to extract maximum performance while providing sustainability is incredibly demanding, and we’ve reached a point in our respective personal and business lives where it’s time to pass the torch.”

That torch will be passed to the highest bidders. The relatively modest Stewart-Haas shop is rumored to already be sold to Front Row Motorsports, which currently has two full-time Cup teams with drivers Michael McDowell, who is moving on after 2024, and Todd Gilliland.

Along with a lot of cars and parts, Stewart-Haas also has four valuable NASCAR Cup series charters to sell, which are essentially guarantees that no matter how poorly a charter team qualifies for a race, it is always awarded a starting spot. It’s invaluable when trying to attract sponsors to be able to assure them that their car will always be in the race, and should spend at least some time on the TV broadcast. There are 36 charters and 40 starting spots available, meaning non-charter teams have to try to qualify for one of just four open positions.

The price for a charter has varied wildly the past few years, with the high coming last year when Spire Motorsports reportedly paid $40 million for another team’s charter. The four Stewart-Haas charters won’t bring that much, but $25-$30 million apiece is not out of the question. Rumors suggest that Trackhouse Racing wants one of them, as does Denny Hamlin’s 23XI team, and maybe Front Row. The fourth charter might go to Joe Custer, as he tries to create a job for his son Cole in 2025.

All six Stewart-Haas drivers are talented, and should be able to land a job in one of NASCAR’s top three series. Still, pending unemployment is a bitter pill. Tweeted driver Chase Briscoe: “Stewart-Haas has been home to my family and I for the last 7 years and at the end of the year myself and the entire organization will be looking for a new home and new opportunities in the Cup series.” Tweeted Josh Berry: “Today was a tough day for all of us. It is pretty hard to find the right words.”

We’ll leave the final word to the two, with this comment from their Tuesday statement: “We’re proud of all the wins and championships we’ve earned since joining together in 2009, but even more special is the culture we built and the friendships we forged as we committed to a common cause—winning races and collecting trophies.”

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The field at the 1973 Press On Regardless rally (POR), held in the sandy terrain of backwoods Michigan, could not have been more varied. The Datsun 510s, Volvos, and Subarus were to be expected. Likewise privateer and subsequent rally legend John Buffum and his Ford Mk1 Escort RS 1600 were right in their element. More surprising was a hulking Jeep Wagoneer driven by 1972 POR winner Gene Henderson, a friendly bear of a man who was also a fierce competitor.

But at the end of 345 grueling miles of special-stage rallying, with the total course totaling 1700 miles, the unlikely victor was a little white mud-spattered Toyota Corolla 1600, campaigned by two privateer Canadians on a shoestring budget. It was Toyota’s first World Rally Championship victory.

“It’s like I would say to my students when I was coaching ski racing,” says Walter Boyce, driver of that Corolla 1600 Coupe. “All you’ve got is your own gravity—so just don’t ever slow down.”

Boyce and co-driver Doug Woods beat the 56 other entries handily, finishing 24 minutes ahead of the next-closest team. Further, POR was known as a serious car-breaker, billed as “America’s longest, richest, oldest, meanest car rally.”

Boyce disputes the rally’s reputation somewhat, though that year’s results tell a different tale: 57 entrants, 34 retirements, just 23 finishers. But by 1973, Boyce had built a reputation as a driver who was smooth as well as quick behind the wheel. More importantly, despite his philosophy of staying off the brakes and keeping momentum up, he had that all-important quality so needed in privateer racing: Mechanical sympathy.

“I’d always been good at getting the car to the finish,” he says. “You didn’t want to break things like the factory teams could afford to. It was my car, after all.”

Boyce started seriously rallying in Canada in the late 1960s, taking advantage of a generous contingency program offered by British Leyland. Campaigning an MGB, he placed high enough to earn bonuses that allowed him to buy a Datsun 510—and an engagement ring for his future wife. (That turned out to be an excellent move, as Mrs. Leslie Boyce appears to have been quite understanding of her husband’s motorsports obsession, as we will see at the end of this story.)

Datsun was a logical next step, as the company was also paying out contingency money on wins with its products. Partnered with Doug Woods as a co-driver, Boyce won the Canadian national championship for the first time in 1969. He’d go on to win it four more times.

When the money dried up at Datsun, Boyce approached Toyota. Then known in Canadian markets as Canadian Motor Industries, Toyota Canada was about 10 years younger than its U.S. counterpart, but executives were willing to take a risk on rallying. Especially with import brands like Volvo and Subaru, rallying was a popular sport with a broader following than it enjoys in modern days, and wins could burnish a brand’s reputation.

Thus, in 1971, Boyce bought his first Corolla. It was not an immediate success. The engine mounts weren’t up to the task of rallying, and when the car launched over a frost heave during the 1971 B.C. Centennial Rally, the engine lurched forward on landing and put the fan blades right through the radiator.

At this point, the spirit of MacGyver surfaced, 14 years before the show would air. A cable was run from the back of the transmission tunnel and looped around the firewall to prevent the engine from further forward lunges. Boyce and Woods had been forced to retire from the B.C. Rally, but they went on to win the Canadian championship.

By 1973, this Corolla was somewhat worn out by its repeated rally wins. That’s literally worn out—the floorboards had nearly been ground off by abrasive gravel. A new Corolla was purchased and modified with twin downdraft carburetors and an electric fan.

With the assistance of a few friends, the T-50 four-speed clamshell transmission was split open and a kit was installed to give the car a fifth gear. Power was still modest at a little over 100 horsepower, but Boyce says that reliability rather than outright punch was of far greater concern.

Woods headed down to POR ahead of Boyce and set about developing a set of pace notes with another driver. Unlike European rallies, where they were an absolute necessity, pace notes were unusual for North American rally drivers, and indeed Boyce had never used them. But he says navigator Woods was brimming with confidence that the conditions would favor his driving style.

The first bit of luck for the Corolla was a piece of bad luck for the Wagoneer team. While the Jeeps had muscled their way through the previous year’s rally, with V-8 power and four-wheel drive trouncing the lightweight sportscars, this year they’d come to the starting line with specially prepared racing engines. Unfortunately, the factory oil pickups didn’t match the larger oil pan sumps, and engine failure caused early retirement. That meant it was up to the Corolla to beat the Datsun 240Zs, RS Fords, and even the actual Alpine A110 1800 that had won the Sanremo rally in Italy that rear, clinching the overall WRC championship for Alpine.

But from the start, the Corolla flew. On the first night, it had set nearly all the fastest special stage times, and was convincingly in the lead. The only real reliability issue was a leaking heater hose with just a few stages remaining, but Boyce was able to swap it for a spare and keep his foot down. He won, Toyota’s Canadian contingent were beside themselves with delight, and somebody got on the phone to headquarters in Aichi, Japan, and let executives there know that the littlest Toyota for sale in North America was now a bona fide WRC winner.

A telegram of congratulations arrived immediately, followed by an invitation to Japan. The Boyces were fêted by Toyota’s brass, and had a chance to visit the company’s Toyota Racing Development workshops. Like any smart privateer racer, Boyce filled his luggage with every TRD part he could get his hands on, then headed back to Canada to start building his next car.

That car was a Celica, and it was in fact Mrs. Boyce’s Celica, the same car that had brought their daughter home from the hospital. Boyce and a few friends tore it apart, choosing a reliable T-50 transmission again, fitting the car with fiberglass fender flares, and building up a potent twin-cam engine good for around 180 horsepower.

“I’m not sure what I bought my wife, but I’m sure I had to get her something,” Boyce laughs. “I suppose it helps that a Celica wasn’t the most convenient car for carrying a baby around in.”

He continued to contest North American WRC events with this Celica, finishing third in the Rideau Lakes Rally behind two factory Lancias, one of them a Stratos; not bad for a four-cylinder Toyota. Boyce rallied into the mid-1980s, winning Group A championships. He was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2003.

The Celica was sold to Toyota Canada, and went on to win Canadian championships with Finnish-Canadian Grand Master rally driver Taisto Heinonen at the wheel. Boyce also sold off the plucky Corolla that gave Toyota its first WRC win, but it’s unclear what happened to the car after that.

Toyota’s official rally team would notch its first WRC win 1975, at the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland. In the 1980s, it would win the Safari Rally several times, before the ascendancy of Carlos Sainz and the all-wheel-drive Celica GT-Four. In 1993, Toyota won its first WRC manufacturer’s title, and repeated the feat in 1994. The year after that, the Sega Rally Championship arcade game brought Toyota rallying to fans of all ages.

To date, though, only one Canadian driver has ever won a WRC race, and Walter Boyce did it behind the wheel of the most modest of cars. But the momentum he and co-driver Doug Woods started for Toyota has continued all the way to today’s modern GR Corolla. It’s easy, Boyce would say: Just don’t ever slow down.

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This should be much-needed shot in the arm for rallying, and specifically the FIA World Rally Championship: Lancia, a legendary brand within the sport, is returning the WRC.

Lancia quit rallying, all forms of motorsports for that matter, in 1992. This past year, the rumor mill has run at full tilt that the company would have a new entry in rallying, something that parent entity Stellantis confirmed on Monday.

The vehicle will be loosely based on the Ypsilon HF, which Stellantis calls “a high-performance version of the first car of the brand’s new era, a 100-percent electric model that will be launched in the market in May of 2025.” Which is kind of confusing, because the rally car, the Ypislon Rally 4 HF, is decidedly an internal-combustion vehicle. It will be powered by a 1.2-liter turbocharged, 212-horsepower three-cylinder engine, mated to a five-speed manual transmission and a mechanical limited-slip differential.

Lancia also announced the revival of the high-performance HF designation with both the new electric model and the rally version of the Ypsilon. Lancia will be introducing an HF version for each of the brand’s new models.

The Ypsilon Rally 4 HF “is the ideal solution for all rally enthusiasts to enjoy,” Stellantis claims, “but is also a serious candidate for drivers aspiring to victory in the Rally 4 class and in the two-wheel drive championships.” The Rally 4 class is essentially an entry point into pro rallying, populated by “young drivers beginning their careers with a passion to become the professionals of the future.”

The Rally 4 class was created in 2019 as part of the “rally pyramid”—a clear blueprint of how a driver and team can climb the pyramid up to Rally 1, the elite class in the WRC.

The Lancia will be competing with models from manufacturers that include Stellantis-owned Peugeot and Opel, as well as Renault. The announcement was made during the WRC Rally Italia Sardegna, Lancia’s home rally and the sixth event on a 13-event calendar.

Despite not competing for more than three decades, Lancia is still the most successful brand in the sport, with 15 World Rally Championships (11 constructor’s titles and four driver’s titles), as well as wins in the Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio and the Carrera Panamericana. Martini Racing teamed with Lancia in 1982 for the then-new Lancia 037 and drivers Attilio Bettega and Markku Alén, creating the famous red, white and blue exterior color scheme.

This could be just the start of a serious effort on Lancia’s part to return to glory on the rally circuit. According to DirtFish.com, it’s possible that Lancia could absorb Citroën’s C3 Rally 2 effort, which is plausible since that company is also controlled by Stellantis. Its customer racing manager Didier Clements “was one of the masterminds of Citroën’s generation of world championship domination with Sébastien Loeb.”

Regardless, it’s a happy day for Lancia enthusiasts, said company CEO Luca Napolitano, in this slightly awkward translation: “Lancia has always been in people’s hearts, also thanks to its competitive soul represented by some iconic models from a past that made the brand the most successful one of all time in the rally world. And that sporty heart is starting to beat again today!”

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Racing at El Mirage is not much of a spectator sport. The 1.3-mile course is in the middle of the Southern California desert at an elevation of about half a mile. It’s not difficult to get to, but the scenery is exactly what you’d expect of a dry lake, and so are the concession options. That’s all to say that the racers are in it for the racing, not the glory.

Despite that, the engine-building duo of Pete Aardema and Kevin Braun, along with driver Cal Rothe, deserve lots of praise. They won the 2023 championship at El Mirage by setting records—and running at least 225 mph—at every meet. This year’s racing is also going well for the team, who just set a 244-mph record running their streamliner with the 920-horsepower V-12 they built pretty much from scratch. You can read all about that engine in a story we wrote back in 2021 when it was just wrapping up development.

After Aardema made it back from the lake bed, we congratulated the team and asked what was next for the car. “It’s really not a good streamliner,” Aardema said, noting that the car’s original lakester layout required wide bodywork to cover the front wheels and convert it to a streamliner. They note in the video that the bodywork didn’t help increase the speed over a previous run when it competed as a lakester. That’s fine though, as it was enough to get the C/GS record. Nitrous is on the menu for the next trip to El Mirage. The car will be converted back into a lakester when it runs next at Bonneville Speed Week this August.

While we love the 369-cubic inch V-12 and the glorious noise it makes, we’re also excited to see the next powerplant Aardeman and Braun have in store for the lakester. We don’t need any more reasons to make it to Bonneville, but in case you did, the team is currently working on a four-valve big-block Chevy engine for Speed Week. We can practically hear it tearing across the salt already.

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Cadillac’s beautiful, sleek LMDh race car has been tearing up the track at endurance events around the globe, racking up plenty of podium finishes since its racing debut in 2023. While the car’s cutting-edge design is gorgeous, many of us at Hagerty wanted to know what was behind its blistering performance, so we sought some background information on its rowdy V-8 powerplant.

We got to speak with Adam Trojanek, the lead propulsion engineer for Cadillac’s LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) entry about the development of the LMC55.R V-8. Without revealing too many secrets, he shed some light on the engine and the team’s decision-making process as the raucous V-8 came together.

Trojanek has spent his entire automotive career with GM, taking a job on the performance small-block V-8 calibration team after getting a bachelor’s degree from Kettering University. After that, he spent four years as a program specialist on Chevrolet’s IndyCar team, before rotating into a role in engineering for production engines, where he led the small-block development team on the dyno. Back in racing once again, Trojanek put his V-8 expertise into the unique dual-overhead-cam 5.5-liter V-8 that provides the performance and soundtrack for Cadillac’s successful endurance racer.

The first thing we got out of the way is that the LMC55.R isn’t the same V-8 used in the Corvette C8.R. “The only thing that we share with the GT3 motor is the fact that it’s 5.5 liters in displacement,” noted Trojanek. The deeper you dive in, the more you’ll find to back up that sentiment.

“For this LMDh/GTP car and for the hypercar rules we live under . . . we all have to meet a specific power band that’s based off a declared maximum engine speed that we refer to as an nMax,” said Trojanek. The race series measures that power using torque sensors on the axle. The propulsion development team had to keep in mind that the engine would have a hybrid assist, but Trojanek and the rest of the team wanted the engine to be able to provide the necessary power on its own so that the driver could count on the output, “regardless of ambient condition and regardless of fuel strategy.”

Cadillac’s race entry didn’t turn out to be a naturally aspirated V-8 by accident—many options were on the table. Cadillac’s competitors use turbocharged V-8s and turbocharged V-6s with less displacement, but the engine had to be true to the brand. “The engine is easily identified as a Cadillac . . . the best way to do that is how it sounds,” said Trojanek. That made the decision for a naturally aspirated V-8 easy, but they still had to make it perform at a high level.

“One benefit, for sure, is that we have no turbo lag,” explained Trojanek. “That’s one reason why we didn’t go with turbos—because we knew that whatever the driver wanted, it would be there, instantly, or nearly instantly, compared to a turbo.” Of course, a turbocharger also means more moving parts, more plumbing, more weight, and additional cooling demands. Rather than worry about all that extra mass, packaging it, and tuning the right boost curve, the Cadillac team could spend time improving other aspects of the car.

“I think the propulsion system allows every OEM, including Cadillac, to make a unique experience for fans and for drivers. It’s turning into a kind of software war in terms of how we control the propulsion system to meet what the drivers request and need.”

—Adam Trojanek, Cadillac LMDh Lead Propulsion Engineer

“There are always opportunities to find more power and more efficiency with a new engine versus something that is already homologated,” said Trojanek. “We took advantage of that.” The team focused on ways to increase combustion efficiency and reduce frictional and pumping loss. One way to eke out extra efficiency is by squeezing the intake charge using a high compression ratio. An efficient combustion chamber is a must, and direct injection is another big factor that helps sustain a higher compression ratio. We asked about the specifics of the compression ratio. “I can’t say, sorry. It’s high,” Trojanek added with a laugh.

Variable-length runners and swapping intakes based on track configuration are not allowed, so tuning the intake was critical. “ITBs (individual throttle bodies) are a good choice for a naturally aspirated engine just in terms of allowing good throttle response. They also allow you to tune as you see fit for the ultimate power curve, as well as allowing good low-end response for transient conditions getting off the corner,” said Trojanek. ITBs let each intake runner breathe from the atmosphere, and placing the throttle bodies close to the cylinder head improves throttle response. If you’ve ever driven a car with a huge intake, like a tunnel ram with a lot of plenum volume, these things are the opposite. Because it’s at the top of the engine, any additional mass in the intake would raise the center of gravity, so engineers went through a lot of work to ensure the intake system was as light as possible, while still being durable.

“What we call ‘pens down’ in terms of we’re snapping the chalk line,” Trojanek said, was mid/late 2021. That’s when they started building the parts they’d been designing. “Our first engine was running on the dyno in Q1 of 2022.” That’s a fast turnaround. “We had about a year of in-vehicle and on-dyno development before homologation during Q4 of 2022.”

Trojanek said the engine is a structural member of the car. “That drove us to utilize a lot of advanced materials and design practices so that we could be as light as possible but as strong as possible while also maintaining durability and reliability for the engine, since it is an endurance series,” said Trojanek. “‘To finish first, you must first finish’ that’s always the mindset.”

He told us that the engineering team tried to limit how many times a component was split into multiple components. That helps with strength and weight, and it can also reduce the number of fasteners needed. Every bolt is added mass, and a bolt can’t work itself loose if it’s not there in the first place. The team employed that mindset on construction throughout the car, but the biggest pieces of the engine are an excellent example. The top half of the block is cast from a high-strength aluminum alloy, but the sump half is billet, machined from a single piece of aluminum. The block and sump are machined together, as a matched pair, with the bottom billet piece carrying the main caps and acting as a main girdle to add rigidity to the bottom end of the V-8.

Other ways of minimizing mass included employing the best methods of 3D printing currently available. “That really allowed us to explore different materials that might not be available outside of additive manufacturing,” said Trojanek. Nearly 30 parts designed for the engine are built using additive manufacturing, including the oil tank and the oil cooler shell both printed in sintered aluminum. Some of the parts 3D printed for the cooling system would be very difficult to fabricate using traditional methods while also minimizing flow restriction within the packaging constraints of the engine bay. In many cases, 3D printing is quicker and also produces a lighter part.

“We knew the goal we had to hit, we knew the timeline to get the job done, and we pushed like mad until we got there.”

—Adam Trojanek, Cadillac LMDh Lead Propulsion Engineer

The team also did its homework when building the engine’s dry-sump oiling system. “We drew upon a lot of our other GM racing engines and families to help guide us in the latest and greatest technology that was on the market,” Trojanek said. “We ended up with a configuration that offered that best pumping efficiency, scavenging efficiency, and was also the lightest-weight option on the market at the time.” The dry sump scavenges oil from six locations in the engine: one in each bay of the block that houses a pair of cylinders, with two additional pumps that pull oil from elsewhere in the engine. Trojanek wouldn’t say specifically, but it’s important that oil pumped to the top end of the engine makes its way to get recirculated, so you can guess that it’s from either the cylinder heads or somewhere in the valley of the block. “We use DLC (diamond-like coating) on various components to help with wear, but it’s not as much as people would think,” Trojanek said. “The engine is very reliable and has good wear, because we did our work ahead of time to make sure that we didn’t necessarily need the DLC.”

Besides a high-speed flyby, the best way to experience the Cadillac V-8’s signature sounds is to hear it leaving the pits. “We have a strong enough electric motor to give us, honestly, really good 0–60 times,” noted Trojanek. When he says 0–60, he’s talking kilometers per hour, as 60 kph is the pit lane speed, governed by the series. Time spent getting up to the max pit lane speed is wasted, and penalties for exceeding the limit can also cost the team. Cadillac’s strategy seeks to eliminate those inefficiencies. “We can achieve that quicker, smoother, with the appropriate amount of energy to the tire to get up to speed, a lot more accurately than we can by slipping the clutch in an ICE engine.” Once the car leaves pit lane, an electronically controlled clutch manages the blend to internal combustion power. That’s when the engine snorts to life.

The results speak for themselves. “Everyone recognizes the Cadillac sound,” said Trojanek, especially the characteristic roar it makes as it leaves pit lane under EV power and fires up the V-8 in an instant.” It’s won the hearts of many, and terrified some,” he joked.

We asked Trojanek if the team experimented with different exhaust configurations besides the four-into-one arrangement that made it onto the car. “You look at how small our headers are and the exhaust system as a whole. To fit a Tri-Y into that added unnecessary mass. We didn’t really need it to make the power or the torque curve. In terms of efficiency, it was kind of negligible. The four-into-one is what suits us best,” Trojanek said.

GM’s host of engine development tools enabled engineers to simulate exhaust tubing lengths to try exhaust options virtually before any actual tubing was bent, or printed, in this case. Each of the collectors is made from 3D-printed Inconel. There weren’t any surprises turning the combustion calculations into a high-flowing reality.

We asked Trojanek if Cadillac’s engineers placed any Easter Eggs into its parts, like logos or emblems hidden in castings. “No, we talked about it, but I think we were just so focused on making sure that all the performance metrics were met.” Casting a Cadillac logo into parts was a topic of discussion. When you’re sweating fastener size and fastener material looking for every gram you can, it’s tough to justify extra aluminum mass that’s not making the car any faster. “The exhaust is our easter egg!” Trojanek joked.

We also asked about any nicknames the engine or car had during development. He won’t outright say that the engineers nicknamed the prototypes “Batmobile,” but Trojanek did admit that the test cars were black and the propulsion system software that powers the cars has a customizable background where the engineers have placed an image of a very recognizable 1990s movie car. If a buttoned-up Bruce Wayne drove a CT5-V Blackwing, it’s not a stretch to imagine the Caped Crusader prowling Gotham in Cadillac’s sleek, low-slung race car.

Cadillac put its bespoke V-8 to good use in 2023, capturing the team and manufacturer championships in IMSA GTP/DPi. The 2024 racing season is going well, too, as Cadillac is tied for first early in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

You can see the cars in action on track and hear that famous Cadillac V-8 sound all around the world, but you can also bring it into your living room with the documentary No Perfect Formula, which premieres May 31 at 7 p.m. ET and takes a look at the team’s 2023 Le Mans effort. You can find it on the Hagerty channel #2545 on the Samsung TV Plus app on Samsung Smart TVs, Galaxy Devices, and on the web. If you’d like to watch it on any other device, you will also find it on Hagerty’s Facebook page.

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Alexander Calder was best known for his sculptures, not for his painting, but near the end of his career some of his paint jobs were hard to ignore. In 1973 he was contracted by Braniff Airways to paint one of its four-engine DC-8 jets. The bright, cheerful result was dubbed “Flying Colors.”

In 1975, Hervé Poulain, a gentleman race car driver, commissioned Calder to use his imagination and paint a BMW 3.0 CSL that Poulain would race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year. It became the first of 20 official BMW Art Cars. It was also one of Calder’s last works; he died in 1976.

BMW Art Car number 20 debuted on Tuesday at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Designed by New York-based contemporary artist Julie Mehretu, the 640-horsepower BMW M Hybrid V-8 racer will compete in the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 15-16, carrying the number 20. Drivers will be Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns and René Rast.

Mehretu, 53, was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2020. Last October Mehretu, who was born in Ethiopia, broke the auction record for an African artist at Sotheby’s Hong Kong when her piece Untitled sold for $9.32 million.

Mehretu attended the Rolex 24 at Daytona last January, and watching the BMWs race provided some inspiration. “Designers, engineers, aerodynamicists and so many other creative minds are working on taking this vehicle to its extreme,” she says. “When it goes out on the racetrack now, so many dreams will be fulfilled.”

The car’s abstract visual form is the result of digitally-altered photographs, which are superimposed in several layers of dot grids, neon-colored veils and the black markings characteristic of Mehretu’s work.

“In the studio, where I had the model of the BMW M Hybrid V-8, I was just sitting in front of the painting and I thought: What would happen if this car seemed to go through that painting and becomes affected by it?” Mehretu says. “The idea was to make a remix, a mash-up of the painting. I kept seeing that painting kind of dripping into the car. Even the kidneys of the car inhaled the painting.” She employed 3D mapping to apply the artwork to the contours of the car.

Art Car artists are chosen by a panel of international judges. Perhaps the most famous BMW Art Car is number 4, created when artist Andy Warhol applied the paint himself, rather than do what most Art Car artists do: Paint a model of the car, and have the full-sized BMW colored separately. “I attempted to show speed as a visual image,” said Warhol, who died in 1987 at the age of 58. “When an automobile is really traveling fast, all the lines and colors are transformed into a blur.” Warhol took the speed aspect literally, as he applied 13 pounds of paint to the BMW M1 in just 28 minutes. The car went on to finish sixth overall at the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Indeed, the first four Art Cars all competed at Le Mans, a trend broken in 1982 when Austrian artist Ernst Fuchs painted flames on a stock BMW 635 CSi for Art Car number 5. The Le Mans tradition was revived for Art Car number 15 in 1999 when American artist Jenny Holzer, known primarily for her words, applied some to her artwork. The BMW V-12 LMR went to Le Mans with PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT emblazoned on the top of the race car, LACK OF CHARISMA CAN BE FATAL on the rear wing, and THE UNATTAINABLE IS INVARIABLY ATTRACTIVE on the driver’s side bodywork.

Leading up to this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, Mehretu’s Art Car will make an appearance at the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este in Italy’s Lake Como on its way to the track in France. As part of the exhibition for historic vehicles organized by the BMW Group and the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este, Mehretu herself will present the 20th edition of the BMW Art Car Collection.

It will be on the grounds of the Villa Erba, also on Lake Como, together with the BMW Art Cars by Calder (1975), Frank Stella (1976), Roy Lichtenstein (1977), Warhol (1979), Holzer (1999) and Jeff Koons (2010), which all made their race debuts at Le Mans.

For a look at all the BMW Art Cars, click here.

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For Rick Hendrick, owner of the Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR racing team, it represents a milestone. “I never thought I’d get to have an entry in the Indy 500 in my life,” he said. But he does, and his car will start Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 from fifth place on the grid.

It began when one of his NASCAR drivers, Kyle Larson, expressed a persistent interest in adding IndyCars to the list of vehicles he has raced. And that’s a long list, ranging from IMSA prototype sports cars to dirt late models. “Everybody knew that Kyle wanted to run the Indy 500,” Hendrick said, so he started talking to Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, about entering Larson in one of Brown’s Arrow-McLaren IndyCars. “We put a deal together,” said Hendrick, and so far, “It couldn’t have gone any better.”

“Yeah, it’s been awesome from day one. Mr. H and his entire organization are absolutely legendary in motorsports,” Brown said. He and Hendrick met the media Tuesday on a Zoom call.

Larson is doing “the double”—racing at Indianapolis early Sunday, then jetting and helicoptering to Concord, North Carolina and the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600. He’ll be the fifth NASCAR driver to attempt the feat. Only Tony Stewart, in 2001, completed all 1100 laps. Larson will be the first driver to try it since Kurt Busch’s attempt in 2014.

And yes, it’s hard to imagine that things could have gone any better—so far. Larson, 31, took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway quickly, increasing his speed as he practiced for last weekend’s qualifying. As mentioned, Larson qualified the HendrickCars.com Dallara/Chevrolet fifth out of 34 cars, with a four-lap average speed of 232.846 mph.

“Nervous as I’ve ever been watching qualifying,” said Hendrick. “The pressure of running four laps is something I’m not used to. One lap maybe at Daytona, or two. It’s just biting your fingernails. But Zak and his whole group have just done an amazing job, and we’re very fortunate to be partners with him and his team.”

Still, “I’m not used to watching a car go into the corner at 241,” Hendrick said.

Brown said that prior to qualifying, “I would have said the front half of the field would have been an awesome result. I wouldn’t have put much money on qualifying fifth. I think that’s a testament to Kyle’s ability and the collective effort of both teams to give him a race car and an environment to compete at the front.”

Well, true, but he hasn’t exactly competed yet. But given Larson’s raw talent, a very fast car and hopefully a competent pit crew, he may indeed run at the front. That said, there may still be obstacles ahead. Larson is the NASCAR Cup series points leader, so it’s important for him to make it to Charlotte on time. Driver introductions are at 5:25 p.m. ET.

But what if there’s a rain delay at Indy? This is Weather.com’s forecast for Sunday in Indianapolis, as of Wednesday morning: “Thunderstorms likely. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High around 75F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%.”

Would Hendrick pull Larson out of the Indy 500 and insist that he head to Charlotte? “It would be very hard,” Hendrick admitted. “It would be very tough. It would be very disappointing because of all the effort that everyone has put in.” Not to mention the fact that Hendrick is flying in a huge number of guests—five airplanes’ worth, he said.

“It’s going to be pressure all day,” Hendrick said. “How does the race go? Is it going to rain? What time do we have to leave to get back to Charlotte? This is going to be a tremendous amount of pressure, but we signed up for it.”

The one thing Hendrick and Brown are not worrying about is Larson. “He’s just a die-hard racer,” Hendrick said. “He’ll race in this race just like he would when he flies somewhere and gets in a sprint car or a midget. He just wants to get in the car and race. I think all the racing he’s done has kind of built his confidence so much that he believes in himself and he believes in the team and what the team tells him the car will do, and then he figures it out on his own, and he’s off to the races.”

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Further cementing the contention that he is America’s most versatile race car driver, Kyle Larson turned in the fastest qualifying lap by a rookie in Indianapolis 500 history Saturday with a pass of 233.453 mph. He formally qualified fifth of 34 drivers on Sunday with the second-fastest four-lap average at 232.846 mph, just shy of Tony Stewart’s record rookie run of 233.100 in 1996.

After qualifying, Larson jumped on a private jet and flew to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina, where he ran as high as third before finishing fourth in Sunday night’s NASCAR All-Star race. Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup series champion, is currently leading the series in points.

Larson will be the fifth driver to attempt “the double”—racing in the Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 about 430 miles away at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina on the same day. The other drivers who’ve done the double are John Andretti, Robby Gordon, Kurt Busch, and Stewart, who is the only one to complete all 1100 miles of racing.

At Indy, Larson will be driving a Chevrolet-powered Dallara jointly entered by his NASCAR team owner, Hendrick Motorsports, and Arrow McLaren. Larson’s resume already includes wins in a dirt-track midget at the Chili Bowl, in a sports car at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and he won the Knoxville Nationals twice in a sprint car. As his schedule permits he continues to race 800-horsepower dirt sprint cars in the World of Outlaws and the High Limit series, which he co-owns with brother-in-law Brad Sweet.

The pole winner for the Indianapolis 500 is Scott McLaughlin, who averaged 234.220 mph for his four qualifying laps, a new track record. It is the first Indy pole for McLaughlin, whose previous best start was 14th. “Indy hasn’t been kind to me,” McLaughlin said, “and a lot of it was my doing. I need to work on things. This is the first step.”

The entire three-car front row is Team Penske, with Will Power starting second and defending race champion Josef Newgarden starting third. Team owner Roger Penske also owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the sanctioning body, IndyCar. The three front-row cars are powered by Chevrolet. Starting fourth is former winner Alexander Rossi, an Arrow McLaren Chevrolet teammate to fifth-place starter Larson.

The Sunday before the race has long been called “Bump Day,” because there are typically more entries for the 33-car field than can be accommodated. This year, there were only 34 entries, so one team had to go home. That was decided late Sunday, between British racer Katherine Legge, former winner Marcus Ericsson, 19-year-old rookie Nolan Siegel, and veteran Graham Rahal, who was the only driver bumped in 2023.

This year, it’s Siegel who will be watching from the sidelines. His Dale Coyne Racing car failed in a last-minute qualifying attempt, when Siegel crashed into the Turn 2 wall. He was uninjured. “I’m fine but I don’t really care if I’m fine at this point,” he said. “That’s somewhat irrelevant.”

Rahal ended up with the final spot. He knows how Siegel felt. “I’ve been there—last year, it still stings,” Rahal said. “It’s not much better being 33rd, I can tell you that. At least we’re in the field, and we’re going to go racing.”

Both engine manufacturers—Chevrolet and Honda—faced problems in qualifying. With Chevrolet, the problem was plenum fires. With Honda, it was simply trying to make a little more speed. The top eight qualifiers were Chevrolet-powered, and the four cars that had to run on Sunday in last-chance qualifying were all Hondas.

Chevy’s plenum-fire issue shouldn’t be a problem for the race. The plenum is a carbon-fiber box atop the engine. It’s fed by fuel and pressurized air from the twin turbochargers. Under pressure, the fuel/air mix is crammed into the injectors. If an engine valve stays open for a millisecond longer than it should, a spark can climb back up into the plenum and ignite the mixture before it reaches the injectors. On at least six Chevrolet-powered cars, a plenum fire occurred on Saturday. An article at Racer.com has a comprehensive explanation.

Really, it isn’t as serious as it sounds—the engine loses power very briefly, then picks back up where it left off. But it is a big deal during qualifying, where it is more likely to occur due to the high level of turbocharger boost being used. At Indy, the plenum fires mostly happened when the driver was shifting gears at near 12,000 rpm. With the milder engine tuning used for the race itself, it isn’t likely to happen, although it has: In last year’s season opener in St. Petersburg, Pato O’Ward was leading when his car suffered a plenum fire with three laps to go. The momentary loss of power was enough to let Ericsson get by and take the win.

At Indianapolis, it was important enough for Chevrolet to address the issue in a press conference late Saturday, where GM motorsports head Jim Campbell said he would have engineers around the world work around the clock to investigate the plenum fires.

As for Honda, there was no report of plenum fires, but for a company that qualified on the pole for the last four years straight, Indy qualifying was a bitter bill. The fastest Honda, driven by Felix Rosenqvist, had a four-lap average of 232.305 mph. Pole winner McLaughlin’s Chevrolet ran, as mentioned, 234.220 mph, nearly 2 mph quicker than Rosenqvist. Honda will need to find a bit more power before next Sunday.

Speaking of which: The 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place May 26, with coverage beginning at 11 a.m. on NBC. Here’s a link to the starting lineup.

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Retard the ignition, give it a smidge of hand throttle, and a thumbs up to engineer Dietmar Krieger. He braces and swings the starter for this supercharged four-cylinder race car and it explodes into stentorian cacophony. The single oval exhaust under my elbow jets out against the concrete walls of the Mercedes test track in Sindelfingen and straight back into my ears. Really should have worn those ear plugs…

I grip the big wooden wheel and press the leather cone clutch, wait a couple of seconds for things to calm in the four-speed crash ’box and push the soup-ladle–sized lever down by my right leg into first with a tiny graunch. Lift to the engagement point, press the center throttle and then straight up with the clutch. With a jerk and a growl, we’re off. You don’t slip cone clutches and my riding mechanic, museum engineer Manfred Oechsle, nods his approval. 

Second gear almost immediately, then double declutch into third with just a bit of rattle from the gears and smoothly into fourth; now we’re travelling and the square-set bonnet lifts like the snout of a hunting hound at the sound of the horn. This is where it wants to be, on a racetrack, giving its all, but it’s been a long time since it was last caparisoned for battle—100 years in fact. 

So many ways into this story: The winner that wasn’t; the red paint matched from a black-and-white photo; the power of research; the benefits of never throwing anything away; the perils of looking too closely… 

For 20 years, this car, an ex-works Mercedes (not Benz, though, as it was built just before the merger of the two companies) was displayed on a piece of fake concrete banking in the legendary Mercedes-Benz museum. The display card said this battered old warrior was the winner of the 1924 Targa Florio, driven by Christian Werner, the first non-Italian to win the Sicilian classic. None of it quite true…

To begin at the beginning, Werner’s “winner” was part of a team of five cars all driven down from Germany to Italy and across on the ferry to Sicily for this important race. Mercedes had won in 1922, but in 1924, the team was determined to consolidate its success. The 2-liter supercharged cars were fast, with fine handling and narrow bodies to suit Sicily’s narrow roads. The works team consisted of Werner in car no. 10, Christian Lautenschlager in car 32, and Alfred Neubauer—who went on to become the feted Mercedes-Benz racing team manager—in car 23. The fourth car was a spare used for training and reconnaissance, and there was a 1914 Grand Prix car there for show. 

The Targa Florio was created in 1906 by industrialist and auto enthusiast Vincenzo Florio, who had also created the Coppa Florio in Brescia. As an impresario he didn’t muck about, employing local artists to create driver’s medals and publishing a magazine, Rapiditas, which promoted the race and its entrants. 

The original course length was 92 miles on treacherous mountain roads, with over 3600 feet of elevation change and more than 2000 corners per lap, many of them hazardous hairpins with sharp drops. The weather could be highly changeable, the roads were unsealed, and the cars would slide around and create columns of dust. In those beast-like cars, drivers needed pluck and skill, and the first-ever race was won by Alessandro Cagno, an experienced racing driver in an Itala.

By the mid 1920s, the course had been changed in length, but if anything the event had gained in popularity. This was a time when the motor industry was still in its infancy. Big-ticket races were scarce. The 24 Hours of Le Mans was only inaugurated in 1923 and the Italian Mille Miglia was started in 1927. Grand Prix racing was nothing like the current Formula 1 championship, and hill climbs and speed trials were equally as important. Yet the public had an insatiable appetite for the spectacle of these early automobilistes, wrestling their huge, unwieldy, aero-engined brutes. 

By 1924, the Targa Florio was actually two races: the 268-mile Targa Florio, comprised of four laps of the bumpy, 67-mile course; and the Coppa Florio, a 336-mile race that was simply five laps of the same course.

Werner’s was the first victory by a non-Italian since 1920, and he led race from the start against fierce opposition from Giulio Masetti’s Alfa Romeo. He set the fastest laps in both races, and if you add in the Coppa Termini, the prize Mercedes claimed as the best team, then 1924 was a clean sweep for the Stuttgart firm. The extensive Mercedes archive reveals old files with the original gushing press reports of victory, as they praised the team’s practice strategy, running the length of the course several times and honing its pit work with well-drilled tire changes and refueling, which had reduced each pit stop to under three minutes. 

And it mattered. At this time, private car sales volumes were exploding and the development of reliable, high-speed engines and electrics in racing really did improve the breed—and also sold cars. 

What better automobile would there be to celebrate a century of Mercedes’ racing prowess than this red winner? So, in 2022, it was taken off its banking and rolled into the museum workshops. 

And why was it painted red? The international convention of the times was that German cars were white, British cars green, Italian cars red, and French cars blue. On the Targa Florio, however, there were tales of skullduggery, with partisan locals throwing rocks and other hazards in front of non-Italian, non-red entries. Red paint was Mercedes’ way of trying to confuse the issue; from a distance, its cars would look like Italian entries. 

“It’s not a disadvantage in an Italian street race to have your car painted red,” says Marcus Breitschwerdt, the boss of the museum. And you can see how last-minute this decision was, from the fact that in the original pictures, Werner’s car used mudguards borrowed from another car with the underside left in the traditional Mercedes white.  

Despite the importance of the victory, Werner’s “winning” car didn’t stay long in the works. In 1925, it was sold to privateer Wilhelm Eberhardt. It was entered for various races, but Eberhardt so loved driving it on the road that he had the narrow body widened to better accommodate his wife as a passenger and fitted a full windscreen and lights. Thus modified, it was repurchased by the factory in 1937, displayed in various museums, and then moved to the factory museum in Untertürkheim in 1961. 

Two years ago, once it had been moved into the museum workshops, the research began in earnest and it soon became clear that what was hoped to be just a “freshen up” would in fact be an extensive rebuild, as the car hadn’t run for many years. The archive also revealed a surprising and not entirely welcome discovery… 

Poring through the records it became clear that this wasn’t Werner’s winning car; it was the tenth-placed Lautenschlager car, number 32. The fate of Werner’s car is still unclear, but the archive revealed photographs of it smashed almost beyond recognition, so it seems likely it was scrapped. Was Eberhardt sold a ringer? No one seems to know.

Notwithstanding its marginally less glorious history, the museum decided to continue with the restoration of the Lautenschlager car. The body and drivetrain were removed from the frame and the body was placed in a full-length hot box to re-anneal the metal so it could be worked on without it cracking. The drivetrain was carefully stripped and the archive found the original engineering drawings and contemporary reports. 

“We never throw anything away,” says Breitschwerdt.

Repainting the car posed its own set of problems. For a start, the paint was a turpentine-oil–based coach enamel hardly used these days. The second issue was that, although the car was still red, it had been repainted at some point long ago. That paint had weathered over the years, and all the original photographs were in black and white. What, exactly, was the original’s proper shade? 

Experts were hired from the art conservation departments of local universities and paint samples carefully examined and analyzed. “We looked in places where the painters don’t like to sand,” says Volker Lück, a master furniture restorer who was charged with hand-painting the little racer with original-style paint of the correct hue.  

Trouble was, the turpentine-based paint had to be mixed by hand with the pigment, then applied and laid off with a brush, and there were 10 layers, each taking a couple of days to dry.

“Of course, on the days I did the job, there were squadrons of suicidal flies,” says Lück, “but in the archive there were stories of Mercedes having the same problems.” 

The engine had been designed by Paul Daimler, known as the “the king of kompressors” and his replacement, Ferdinand Porsche, who had joined Daimler in April 1923. This two-liter, twin-camshaft four-cylinder was lighter than the six-cylinder equivalent and with forced induction, it produced a healthy 125 hp. The clutch-actuated Roots-type blower merely needed a refresh, as did the roller-bearing crank, but one of the cylinder liners was damaged, the water jackets were badly corroded, and the camshafts had to be metal sprayed and ground back to original spec, together with new pistons and bearings and much hard work. 

“We had to do a lot,” says Krieger, a museum engineer. “It was a sobering experience.”

That was my first introduction to the car, stripped and battered, with much still to do, and with a clock ticking, for a serious program of appearances had been planned for the old racer in its centenary year. 

There were several false starts, but I finally got to meet the car for a drive at Sindelfingen on May 8. It felt like an appointment with destiny, no public relations fanfare, no pomp and circumstance, just this red car and a team of engineers from the museum. Truth be told, I felt as if I were Werner testing the machine for the first time over 100 years ago. 

A mizzle sweeps across the track and through the circular pits. The Mercedes looks millimeter perfect, with proportions straight out of a child’s picture book. Spattered with droplets of water, the claret-red coachwork undulates gently, showing every brush stroke and blow and scrape of the old charger’s life. 

“No build-and-block and no filler,” says Gert van der Meij of Dutch specialists MCW, which has done a fair bit of the heavy lifting in this restoration. They retained as much of the original car as possible. 

The museum engineers greet me like an old friend as I pull on overalls and a flying helmet. They’ve warmed the engine but it’s so cold they’ve had to blanket half the radiator to keep the heat in. 

A century on, it feels every inch a Mercedes works racer, from the reverence the mechanics show it to the obvious care and love that has gone into its restoration and conservation, without overdoing it. This was, after all, a race car. 

Frames back then were smaller, and they have to take the entire seat padding out to accommodate my generous six-foot build. I’m sitting on bolt heads in a bare aluminum seat shell. Apparently, former F1 ace Karl Wendlinger had to do the same, so I’m in good company. 

First job is to get the photographs, and while it’s geared down for the tight Sicilian corners, the old Mercedes hates the speed-restricted running, pulling and hunting at the leash anxiously to escape the attentions of Max Balazs’ Nikon. 

Then we’re on our own, Oechsle and I, a whole test track to ourselves. The old car exits one of the banked turns and as I enter the straight, it’s now or never…

“What amazes me is how responsive this car is,” Oechsle yells in my ear as I open her up on the long straight. He’s so right, this little Mercedes feels every inch a thoroughbred as it tears up the concrete, the engine rasping, the car vibrating and twisting, almost alive in my hands. 

It feels far from vintage—anything but a hundred years old—as I push the brakes into the banking and the nose dives toward the apex. There’s progression and precision here, with little lost movement, and the wheel can be minutely adjusted with none of the see-sawing required of some of its contemporaries. On the wide track it feels tiny, but as I push the throttle again for the next straight, it’s so eager, every inch the racer as it noisily dashes between the curves. Back on the race circuit after so many dormant years. 

“You won’t leave it to rot again, will you?” I ask Oechsle as we go for a cheeky next lap (it’s that sort of car). He shakes his head. Not at all.

You’ll see this amazing survivor, the winner that wasn’t, at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed and then again at Pebble Beach. Before that, it’s headed to Italy for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, where Mercedes-Benz F1 driver George Russell will take the wheel. 

As I write, thinking back to the drive, Oechsle is right. The little car belies its 100 years and feels really quite modern in the way it drives. I hope he’s right and Mercedes does keep this Targa Florio racer in good running condition, if only to remind us where we’ve come from and the peaks of what we’ve attained. 

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The latest episode of Hagerty’s Barn Find Hunter, just posted on YouTube, took me back to some joyful memories, and I highly recommend it. Host Tom Cotter, a racer himself, visits the home of late racer and automotive writer Linda Sharp, and buys the historic number 22, 1968 Datsun 2000 roadster that she raced.

I knew Linda. You know how some people look better in a fire suit than others? I don’t mean more attractive or more stylish, I just mean more natural—like the Nomex just suits them.

That’s the way Linda Sharp was, which is fortunate because she spent a lot of her life zipping up her one-piece. I noticed that when I met her 28 years ago at Talladega, where Saab had gathered some 900s and a bunch of auto writers; she appeared a lot more at ease than most of the journalists wearing new white Saab fire suits, many of whom spent a lot of time in front of the mirror and taking what then passed for selfies.

Linda had a lot of experience behind the wheel of race cars, in SCCA and various club racing and some pro series, like the IMSA Kelly American Challenge. She had been introduced to racing by her then-boyfriend of 20 years, Jim Fitzgerald. Yes, the same Jim Fitzgerald who won 350 SCCA races as well as multiple Runoffs, and was also a NASCAR Winston Cup driver. He also helped Paul Newman get started in racing, and eventually became his teammate. Fitzgerald had a deal with Datsun, and typically raced their sports cars. Consequently, so did Linda.

Back to Talladega: In 1986, Saab had set a bunch of world speed and endurance records at Talladega in 9000s, and a few journalists were invited to come watch, and in a limited role, take part. There were not many of us there in 1986 available to return in 1996, when Saab set even more records, this time in 900s. And this time, journalists would play a larger role, actually helping set some records, too.

Linda and I gravitated to each other; I was amazed at the breadth and depth of her motorsports and production car knowledge, and being from Tennessee, her Georgia-bred accent sounded like home. On track, we paired up as often as we could get away with it. We were told not to draft, but we did anyway, running nose-to-tail as we tried to get as much speed as possible out of the Saabs.

At one wonderful point, for an hour, we had identical cars, and were running right at 160 mph. Drafting, we could hit 162. I led for a while, and kept trying different lines—high, low, high-then-low, looking at the speedometer for feedback. This line got us 163 on the back straight; that line got us 161. It might sound daring but Talladega is such a nice track, and the Michelin-shod Saabs handled the 33-degree banking with aplomb. Occasionally Linda and I would hear over the radio, in an invariably polite Swedish accent, “Cars 4 and 5, kindly separate,” and we would, until we hit the back straight again, front and rear bumpers drawn together like magnets.

That’s when I knew I had a friend for life: Linda and her husband, Bob, who built engines for NASCAR teams, moved up to that list of people you can count on two hands that you know are kindred spirits, bolstered when I learned that Bob and Linda, like me, couldn’t turn away a stray animal.

A few years later Linda and I, along with a third journalist who never really got comfortable, were invited to run a two-race weekend at Lime Rock in the Neon Challenge series. Our Neons were painfully slow—we had one of the regular drivers test Linda’s car, and the driver came back and said, “Huh. Apparently there’s stock, which are our cars, and REALLY stock, which are your cars.”

It was good to hear that because we were questioning our own ability, but let’s face it: If we were right on the tail of Chrysler hotshoe Eric Heuschele’s Neon coming down the hill onto the front straight of Lime Rock, and then Eric ended up 150 feet ahead at the first turn—well, Linda and I were pretty confident in our ability to shift and floor the accelerator, so it had to be the cars.

So basically we raced against each other, seldom more than a few yards apart. At the end of the first race, Linda finished a car length ahead. For the first time in my life, I was beaten by a girl. Not that there aren’t millions of girls who can outdrive me, but it had never happened before, and as enlightened as I think I am, it was a blow.

So onto the next race: Halfway through, Linda and I were side by side, and here comes the lead pack to pass us. I gave them room on the left, and Linda gave them room on the right, but somebody still body-slammed Linda’s car, giving me about a hundred-foot lead on her. I won that race, and she very generously told everyone then and since that we split the races, but if I’m present, I correct her: You won the first race, and got crashed out in the second one. Slow-talking, Southern-drawlin’ Linda Sharp is a better driver than me. Can kick my ass at will.

Soon after that, Linda, who worked as a driving instructor, and as a columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, started a dirt-track magazine called Muddslinger. I wrote for it, and she and Bob paid me more than the stories were worth. Linda and Bob semi-retired to a farm outside Mount Airy, North Carolina, the town that Andy Griffith’s Mayberry was modeled after, where they took in even more stray animals. Linda and I emailed several times a weekend about racing, about politics, about dogs and cats.

One of her longest and uncharacteristically angry emails came after she watched “Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman,” the Adam Carolla-produced documentary that aired in 2015. With Fitzgerald—who was killed in an awful crash in a Trans-Am race at St. Petersburg in 1987, a race that Newman was also in—Linda was there for Newman’s racing career, and she was upset about how many people in Carolla’s documentary talked about how close they were to the action when, as Linda wrote, “Paul never knew they existed.”

One of my favorite passages from that email: “Robert Redford is also a very present ‘interview’ in the film. Paul would sometimes speak of Redford, but he never came to a race to my knowledge.  I can recall Paul saying, ‘Never go to dinner with Redford, because he eats off of everyone else’s plate before he touches his own food.'”

The last week of December in 2016, Linda went into the hospital for a minor surgery. Something went wrong. On December 30, she died. Leaving Bob, the nicest guy in the world, a widower, a couple dozen dogs and cats and horses nobody else wanted without a benefactor, and hundreds of friends like me stunned and saddened and ready as hell to get 2016 over with.

Cotter’s Barn Find Hunter brings all that back. Good memories of a friend taken too soon.

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If you’re a fan of high-powered street cars or Pro Mod drag racing, then you’ve probably heard of Steve Morris Engines. If not, you might be surprised at the kind of horsepower that Morris and his team can coax out of a boosted big-block Chevy while still making it reliable for thousands of miles on the road. His latest YouTube video takes a look back at some of the channel’s dyno tests, and it’s interesting to see the power levels grow from 1500-hp centrifugal-supercharged 540s to 3000-hp twin-turbo Pro Mod setups and beyond. What’s even more fascinating is seeing that kind of power level making its way to street-driven cars that compete in drag-and-drive events across the country.

One of our favorite engines is the 3000-hp SMX V-8 Morris built for Tom Bailey for Drag Week. Morris designed and machined a billet block with water jackets to provide cooling on the 1000-mile street drive portion of the five-day event. It debuted in 2016 and had teething issues, but it powered Bailey to overall wins in the event in 2018 and 2019, where Bailey was also the first driver in Drag Week history to run a 5-second elapsed time. Morris shows an early version of the engine and then revisits it to explain its three-injectors-per-cylinder fuel system.

Morris also developed the V-16 for the Devel 16 hypercar. The car project might be dead in the water, but the quad-turbo V-16, which Morris developed based on Chevy LS architecture, was the real deal. You can see it in action churning out just over 5000 hp.

Although there are lots of little bits of engine info to pull from this compilation video, it’s mostly just a showcase of brutally powerful engines doing their thing on the dyno. If you’re a fan of high-horsepower V-8s—and one very impressive Lamborghini V-10—you’re going to enjoy it. Be warned, though, you may have the urge to throw some turbos on your project car when you see the flat torque curves and ridiculous power output from these Morris engines.

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In May of 2019, IndyCar announced that it would be moving to a hybrid powertrain. That August, IndyCar finalized its plans, confirming that the hybrid system would debut in 2022.

The new system was expected to do three things: First, it would allow drivers who stall out on track to re-start their cars and rejoin the race, rather than have to bring out a caution flag and summon a safety team to drive to the stalled car and re-start it. Second, it would boost the powertrain’s total output to over 900 horsepower.

And third, certainly having the real-world relevance to hybrid power in passenger cars would attract a much-needed third manufacturer to sign up for the IndyCar series, joining Honda and Chevrolet.

On Tuesday, five years after that original announcement, IndyCar said that the hybrid package would debut at the Honda Indy 200 race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which is set for July 5-7. Obviously, it has been delayed multiple times.

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Addressing IndyCar’s expectations of the new hybrid systems: The drivers will indeed be able to re-start their cars without the aid of the safety team. This will mean fewer caution flags.

Second, in Tuesday’s announcement, IndyCar said the hybrid system would boost horsepower to “800+ for the first time in two decades,” and though it did say more power might be possible down the line, it’s still short of the promised 900.

That 800-horsepower figure will be achieved when the driver presses two buttons: One will deploy the available electricity to supply additional power. The other is the existing Push to Pass feature, which lets the turbochargers briefly increase the boost, itself worth about 50 hp. (Push to Pass has been around since 2004, when the competing ChampCar series introduced it on its Ford Cosworth engines.)

The two power enhancers come with different rules. Push to Pass will still have a restriction on amount of time per use and total time used over the course of a race. Rules for the hybrid power unit will limit the amount of energy deployed per lap based on track length. Drivers will be able deploy the electric boost on all the circuits that the series visits. They will be able to combine it with Push to Pass on road and street circuits, but not ovals since Push to Pass is not available on those tracks.

The new hybrid system, jointly developed by Chevrolet and Honda, was more of a challenge than they were expecting, but the end result is a low-voltage, 48-volt unit that stores energy in 20 ultracapacitors instead of batteries. Capacitors work well for storing energy for brief periods, but aren’t great at long-term energy storage, which is fine for this application.

The hybrid equipment, called the ERS for energy recovery system, weighs in at about 120 pounds, a significant increase given the cars weigh 1630 pounds on most tracks, slightly less on ovals. It is contained in the bellhousing, located between the 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine and the gearbox. IndyCar has done 23,518 miles of testing on hybrid-equipped cars, with more planned at the Milwaukee Mile in June.

Oh, and that third thing the hybrid system was supposed to do? Attract at least one more OEM, or original equipment manufacturer, besides Honda and Chevrolet to the IndyCar series? Hasn’t happened.

“This technology is very important to our current OEM partners, Honda and Chevy,” IndyCar President Jay Frye told the Indianapolis Star in 2019, “so if it’s important to them, then you can logically conclude it’s important to other OEMs.”

Perhaps, but it seems only IMSA, the sports car series, has been able to attract many new manufacturers, as it currently has 18. The competing SRO series, in the GT3 sports car class alone, has nine.

So we’ll see if another manufacturer will sign up for IndyCar. Regardless, the series is pretty strong now, and excitement is building for the 108th Indianapolis 500 on May 26. Maybe the hybrid system will keep IndyCar in the conversation well after its biggest race.

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The 1991 Jordan in which seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher made his Formula 1 debut is changing hands once more.

Jordan 191 chassis number six is one of the most significant cars in F1 history thanks to Eddie Jordan’s decision to give a young German driver the chance to prove himself at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix. Jordan, unexpectedly, had a spare seat thanks to Bertrand Gachot being imprisoned for spraying CS gas at a London taxi driver and, rather than put an established pilot alongside Andrea de Cesaris, he called in the 22 -year-old Schumacher.

“Schumacher was available this weekend, he had no other commitments. I’ve seen him in Formula 3 and I have this, well the team has this attitude, to give youth a chance. We think it’s a progressive way to see what the potential of Schumacher is for the future,” said Jordan at the time.

It immediately proved to be a wise move, with Schumacher seven tenths of a second faster than de Cesaris in pre-qualifying in a car he’d never driven before at a circuit that he’d never lapped. de Cesaris wasn’t happy and swapped into the spare car, but was still unable to match the young gun, who finished the day in eighth position.

Schumacher didn’t actually race this chassis, with it being handed over to de Cesaris who had placed 7th in the previous Hungarian Grand Prix. He then ran as high as second around Spa before being forced to retire. Schumacher, meanwhile, managed less than a lap in chassis number five after destroying the clutch at the start.

Chassis number six served as the spare car for the rest of the season having done its job of launching Schumacher’s stellar career. In 2021 it was brought out of retirement and driven by his son Mick in an emotional piece for TV’s Sky Sports F1. “Feeling and knowing that my dad raced this car as his first race car, is very special,” said Schumacher junior.

Despite its incredible provenance previous buyers haven’t held on to the car for long, and it doesn’t appear to have been the profit machine that they may have hoped for. In 2021 it sold for £1.2m ($1.65m) and then again in 2023 for €1,495,000 ($1.63m).

Schumacher’s Jordan is now for sale with the price on application at DK Engineering in Hertfordshire, U.K.

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It’s one thing to win a competition with an unlimited budget. It’s quite another to bring home top honors when you’ve got a strict cap on what you can spend. In this circumstance, it’s usually the most innovative and creative competitor that prevails, and Material Girls Racing proved that in this year’s Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge. The team, made up of four high school seniors, evolved their vehicle over years of competition and came up with a winning formula that just happens to wear a Ford Ranger body.

This pink pickup actually sits on a 2013 Ford Taurus Police Intercepter chassis and is powered by a twin-turbo V-6 that sends power to all four wheels. The team says in a forum post that the police interceptor’s Ecoboost factory turbos and fuel pump are maxed out, which means there’s somewhere in the range of 400 hp on tap. It’s no slouch.

The project came together for the Grassroots Motorsports $2000 challenge, which pits builders against each other with a budget cap of $2024 (it goes up $1 each year to match the calendar). The event scores participants by quarter mile and autocross times, along with a concours presentation that allows judges to discuss how the cars are built with the people who turned the wrenches.

Material Girls Racing are repeat participants in the $2000 Challenge. Their ongoing pursuit of speed was the impetus for the body swap—they maxed out the heavy stock Taurus in last year’s competition. Budget constraints made finding more power in the Ecoboost difficult, and suspension tuning would have been another heavy spend. Tight purse strings meant the team had to get creative, so they took a page from Colin Chapman’s book and focused on adding lightness. Even after last year’s competition where the car ran almost fully stripped and only sporting the driver’s door, there was still a lot of weight that could be trimmed and still fit inside the rules for the competition.

After figuring out what models could match the Taurus’ wheelbase, the team found a $300 Ford Ranger on Facebook Marketplace. They got to work with sawzalls and other cutting implements, trimming away the Taurus’ unibody until a tractor could help drop the shell of the truck on top of what was left of the chassis. A roll bar tied to the Taurus chassis adds stiffness back into the structure. After lengthening a few panels and relocating the radiator to the bed of the truck, the team sprayed the Ranger in a coat of pink paint. According to the team, their efforts ended up shaving an impressive 900 pounds from the vehicle’s weight.

The team says they were inspired by Shirley Muldowney and other female legends of motorsport, and we think these Material Girls would have made Shirley and others proud by building a truck that not only looks pretty sweet but also performs incredibly well. The truck ran a 12.1-second quarter mile (enough for sixth overall out of 53 competitors) and completed the autocross with a 44.3-second time (good for ninth overall). It also posted with a solid “concours” score, and their performance across all disciplines was enough to put these high school seniors atop the leaderboard, narrowly edging out a 1990 Nissan 300ZX and 1985 Chevrolet Corvette.

As all four members of the team are about to graduate high school, squeezing in a first-place build in among schoolwork, college applications, and the rest of their busy schedules had to have been quite a feat. With the creativity, speed, and skill they showed with this project, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see one or all of these young women on a Formula SAE team in the near future—it’s probably a safe bet that this isn’t the last time we’ll see them in motorsports.

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NASCAR is hoping to drive fans to some new television partners in 2025 by instituting a mid-season bracket tournament, with the winner taking home $1 million.

The sport’s new TV deal has the first 12 NASCAR Cup series races of the season televised by Fox Sports. The final 14 races will appear on NBC Sports. It’s the 10 races in the middle of the 36-race season that figure into the bracket tournament—the first five will air on Amazon Prime and the second five on TNT.

The drivers will compete for race wins and points as they do now, with the bracket tournament being a separate component. Here’s how it will work: The bracket will feature 32 drivers. They will be determined by how they do in races 15 through 17, aired on Amazon Prime. The actual competition among those 32 drivers will take place in races 18 through 22, aired on TNT. Drivers will compete head-to-head, with the top-finishing driver of each race advancing over five rounds.

NASCAR has not yet announced its 2025 season schedule, so it isn’t known what tracks will be represented in the 10 races airing on Amazon Prime and TNT.

“With the launch of our new media rights partnerships in 2025, we were excited to partner with Prime Video and TNT Sports to collaborate on fan engagement concepts that drive storylines in our sport and innovation from a production perspective,” said Brian Herbst, NASCAR senior vice president for media and productions.

“The idea of an in-season tournament has been discussed within the NASCAR industry, and as we started to focus on adding promotional elements that drive interest throughout the season, we were excited by the opportunity to leverage the marketing weight of Amazon and TNT Sports to bring this concept to life,” Herbst said.

The new seven-year TV deal is reportedly worth $7.7 billion, which includes an agreement with The CW network to air the entire 33-race NASCAR Xfinity season each year from 2025 to 2031.

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What’s a company like Cadillac doing in sports car racing?

Winning, mostly.

Since Cadillac joined the International Motor Sports Association series in 2017 in the top prototype class, it has earned four championships and won the Rolex 24 at Daytona four times. 

But changes have come to sports car racing—In 2023, IMSA introduced a total redesign of the cars eligible to compete in its premiere GTP class, including a new body, chassis, and revolutionary hybrid power.

An added incentive came with that new GTP package: The specifications for IMSA’s fastest class meant that the cars were now eligible to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most prestigious sports car race in the world. Manufacturers from all over the globe come to Le Mans each June to compete, and Cadillac received three invitations to enter the 2023 race, celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the event. Three teams were dispatched to France to race the Cadillac V-Series.R in the Hypercar class.

A documentary team followed Cadillac as they embarked on their ambitious return to Le Mans, and the result is “No Perfect Formula,” which premieres May 31 at 7 p.m. EST, on the Hagerty channel 1194 on the Samsung TV Plus app on Samsung Smart TVs, Galaxy Devices, and on the web. Global audiences can view the documentary on Hagerty’s Facebook page.

Want a sneak peek? You can view the official trailer for “No Perfect Formula” below.

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Frank Stella, the abstract painter and sculptor who was the second artist after Alexander Calder to design a BMW Art Car, died Saturday at age 87. The New York Times said that Stella had been battling lymphoma.

Stella loved racing—both automobiles and horses—and had many friends in both communities. His 1976 contribution to the BMW Art Car Project was a white BMW 3.0 CSL overlaid entirely by small black checkers, resembling graph paper. Over that base he painted thin geometric outlines in black. The car, driven by Brian Redman and Peter Gregg, raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but didn’t finish the race due to an oil leak in hour five.

Stella also designed the exterior of an “unofficial” art car—it is not considered one of the official works commissioned by BMW—in 1979 at the invitation of his friend Gregg, the sports-car racer who had a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and five victories at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Gregg bought a BMW M1 Procar, used in the one-make racing series created by the automaker, and had Stella paint it. The car was displayed in the Guggenheim Museum.

Stella considered the M1 part of his “Polar Coordinates for Ronnie Peterson” series, which he created to commemorate his friend Peterson, the Formula 1 driver who died in a crash at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix, when his Lotus collided with the car of James Hunt. Gregg and Stella, who often traveled to races together, were present at the Grand Prix to watch Peterson and his Lotus teammate, Mario Andretti.

Stella was the passenger in a car driven by Gregg in 1980 en route to the Le Mans circuit when they collided with an oncoming car outside Paris. Both were injured but recovered, but there was damage to Gregg’s vision, which never improved and ended his racing. Seven months later, Gregg took his own life.

Stella was considered a major contributor to the freewheeling abstract expressionism movement that began after World War II, swirling around mostly in the art community of New York City, where Stella lived. In its definition of abstract expression, the Guggenheim points to Jackson Pollock as the movement’s leading artist, “who placed his canvases on the floor to pour, drip, and splatter paint onto them and to work on them from all sides, which set him apart from the tradition of vertical easel painting.”

Stella’s “Black Paintings” are his most famous work. They consist of mostly geometric shapes on a white canvas, using black paint.

“Stella was courtly, charismatic and formidable,” wrote Washington Post art critic Sebastian Smee, in Stella’s obituary. “Even when he wasn’t speaking, a terrific intelligence came off him like steam.”

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One-hundred and fifteen years ago, with automotive fever sweeping the country and car manufacturers looking to stand out from the crowd, three Indiana communities were preparing to host the greatest automobile race that the “west” had ever seen.

No, it wasn’t the Indianapolis 500. The first running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Sports” was two years and 135 miles away. 

It was 1909, and northwest Indiana was gearing up for its own version of the East Coast’s famed Vanderbilt Cup. Chicago investor, entrepreneur, and auto enthusiast Ira Cobe, president of the Chicago Automobile Club, admired the success of the Vanderbilt road races, which were held annually from 1904 to 1910 on New York’s Long Island. Cobe wanted to bring that excitement to the Windy City, but when it became apparent that Chicago’s heavily traveled railroad lines impeded the design of a safe road course, Cobe looked to neighboring communities for help. Residents of Crown Point, Lowell, and Cedar Lake, located just across the state line in Lake County, Indiana, raised their collective hands.

A deal was struck after Cobe promised to make road improvements, and the Cobe Cup was born. Technically called the Western Stock Chassis Races, the weekend event actually consisted of two races: The 232-mile Indiana Trophy, open to automobiles with engine displacements of less than 300 cubic inches, was set for Saturday, June 18, followed by the 396-mile Cobe Cup, open to larger-displacement engines, on Sunday, June 19.

Preparations

With help from Ira Cobe’s Chicago Automobile Club, a 23.37-mile course was mapped out along Lake County roads and small-town streets. It included an S curve, some hairpin turns, and two long straightaways: a 5.7-mile stretch between Cedar Lake and Lowell, and a 7.1-mile section to the start-finish line near Crown Point. The course was held entirely on unpaved roads, most of which were essentially loose gravel covered in tar. Although the conditions weren’t exactly ideal, they were seemingly perfect for what the Chicago Examiner referred to as “bronzed and brawny men, nerves stretched to the utmost tension, anxiously awaiting the sound of the starter’s pistol, which will send them on their perilous, nerve-racking, and history-making drive.”

According to longtime Lake County historian Richard Schmal, whose father, Fred, owned a hotel in Crown Point and hosted race fans during the event, two walking bridges were constructed over the raceway, along with an even larger viaduct for horses. “Owing to the immense crowd of people and autos,” a notice in The Lowell Tribune warned, “it will be found necessary to blindfold horses coming in from the country, especially when crossing the viaducts.” 

A large grandstand was built near the start-finish line in Crown Point, along with press boxes and a staging/pit area, while two smaller grandstands were constructed in Lowell. 

“The (Crown Point) stand was an immense structure in length: 864 feet, in depth: 60 feet, and in height: about 25 feet,” Rev. Timothy Ball wrote in a letter that was later shared in Richard Schmal’s weekly “Pioneer History” column in the Lowell Tribune. “The number of seats: 10,000. Amount of lumber used: 400,000 feet (with) 59 kegs of nails. Contract price for construction: $10,000.”

Advertisements promised patrons that the bleacher seats were “free from the dangerous racing machines … with a two-mile view each way.” Cost of admission was $2, equal to nearly $65 today.

Nine telegraph stations were built to relay standings from one checkpoint to another, and National Guard soldiers were stationed at 40 locations along the route.

With large crowds expected, round-trip train tickets were offered from Chicago, about 50 miles away, aboard the Pennsylvania Railroad. Hotel rooms could be had for $4 a night, and guests could rent chairs to sit on the front porch and watch the races. Farmers offered hitching posts for horse teams, at 35 cents each, and locals looked to make a killing by selling a variety of concessions in and around the grandstands.

“Three hundred men, women, and boys will be ready to pass out 400,000 sandwiches to the automobilists,” The Lake County Times wrote. “There will be no necessity under the present arrangement for anyone leaving his seat in the grandstand during the races, because lunches will be served them at any time.”

The day before the first race, the Times gave a preview of what attendees could expect. “It will be the greatest thing ever seen in the west, and the town and countryside quivers with excitement … You will see a faint tremulous speck in the distance. A red flag flutters in the breeze. You hear the cry ‘car coming,’ and in your veins—as you see the speck get larger and larger, swerving from side to side—the blood burns and the thrill of expectancy grows on you. Nearer and nearer comes the wicked looking machine, half in the air, hurtling, leaping, shaking, containing two weird, goggle-eyed dusty demons strapped in, hanging on for dear life. It hurricanes along in a cloud of dust, spitting like musketry and bounding toward you. The earth vibrates as the demon car hurls itself on, palpitating, swerving from side to side, growning, rattling, chug-chugging and coughing, and you hold your breath as the cheering from thousands rocks the air.”

Race Day Reality

Surprisingly, as the sun rose on race day and the cars got underway, the grandstands were nearly empty. Perhaps the newspapers, despite playing up the thrill of the action, were to blame, scaring away fans by questioning whether there would be enough food and rooms to accommodate the expected throng. Elmer Ragon, editor of the The Lowell Tribune, certainly thought so, and he lamented that fewer than 50,000 people attended both races.

The Lake County Times, perhaps stretching the truth a bit, reported that the towering Crown Point grandstand “held a single paying customer and a brass band.” Another story claimed, “All the grandstands were crowded—with emptiness.”

Maybe there was a lack of paying customers simply because they realized they could watch the race from other points along the course—for free, and in the shade. Instead of paying $2 to sit in undercovered grandstands and purchase the food and drink on sale, many decided to park, sleep, and picnic along the race course, where trees provided shade and, for some, a better view high in the branches.

Different Story on the Track

Although attendance was a disappointment, the competition in the two races was not. In Saturday’s Indiana Cup, Joe Matson was the last of 19 drivers to launch from the starting line—cars started at one-minute intervals—but when the dust and smoke cleared, his 25.6-horsepower Chalmers-Detroit Bluebird placed first. Matson, who the newspapers referred to as the “Durable Dane,” completed 10 laps in 4 hours, 31 minutes, 21 seconds, an average of 51.5 mph. He also had a top speed of 78 mph. (Earlier in the week, Matson scared the living daylights out of Chicago Examiner reporter Delaney Holden, who occupied the mechanic’s seat during an exhibition run, an experience Holden vowed never to repeat.)

A dozen drivers took part in Sunday’s race for the Cobe Cup Trophy, which included cars built by Buick, Apperson, Fiat, Knox, Locomobile, and Stoddard-Dayton. Again, the final race car off the line also became the champion. Louis Chevrolet, who the press nicknamed the “Demon Frenchman,” drove his Buick to victory, covering nearly 400 miles in 8 hours, 1 minute, 30 seconds. He finished just 1 minute, 5 seconds ahead of Billy Borque’s Knox. 

(Two years later, on November 3, 1911, Chevrolet co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company with his brother Arthur Chevrolet, William C. Durant, and investment partners William Little and Dr. Edwin R. Campbell.)

The Cobe Cup course was in such rough shape during the second race that every one of the larger cars averaged less than 50 mph. Chevrolet managed to push his Buick over 80 mph on one stretch, but he had to overcome a blown cylinder to hold off Borque, a feat that the Chicago Examiner applauded by declaring that Chevrolet “won the race on his nerve.”

“The race was run over roads that were in terrible condition,” the newspaper reported. “There were patches on the course that were hardly in shape for travel, and yet the dozen daredevil drivers who faced the starter willingly took their lives in their hands and sent their cars tearing around the course at mile-a-minute speed, turning sharp corners and ploughing [sic] up the rough places with never a thought of the danger that was theirs.”

Driver Herbert Lytle, whose Apperson broke a rear spring and completed only 11 of the 17 laps, told the Chicago Daily News: “The course is in awful shape for a short stretch. If I could have saved the machine in any sort of shape I would have kept running on three springs. [One spot on the course is so bad that] all the cars are slowing up as they strike their running gear … Other parts of the course are fine. This bad spot must be built over if the race is to be run again.”

The Lake County Star didn’t mince words about a potential return. A headline on the front page trumpeted: “THE GREAT RACES ARE OVER. The Crowds Have Dispersed. Thank God.”

A Change of Venue

With the lack of paying customers, promoters lost an estimated $25,000–$40,000 (about $780,000–$1,262,000 today). Although Cobe stated publicly that he planned to give the Cobe Cup another go in Lake County—“I believe we can repeat our races next year … We are going ahead with our preparations”—he soon changed his mind. The Indianapolis News reported in October 1909 that the Crown Point grandstand was being torn down. The newspaper added that the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which opened in August 1909, was interested in the lumber.

The Chicago Automobile Club later announced that it would move the Cobe Cup to Indy for 1910. Joe Dawson, driving a Marmon, averaged 73.423 mph and won the 200-mile race, which was held on Independence Day.

The following year, the Indianapolis 500 was held for the first time, and the Cobe Cup was no more.

Indiana Remembers

It has been more than a century since Indiana hosted its first major car race, and although the later Indy 500 has received much more fame and adulation, the three Lake County communities have never forgotten the Cobe Cup. In fact, the Regional Streeters Car Club will retrace the original racecourse when it hosts the commemorative Cobe Cup Car Cruise on Saturday, May 25, the day before the 108th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Sports.

“It isn’t exactly the same route,” says first-year Regional Streeters president Bob Schroader, “but it’s close.”

The cruise doubles as a fundraiser for local charities. Beneficiaries have included Shriner’s Children’s Hospital in Chicago, automotive education scholarships, Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, and Community Health Network’s “Buddy Bags” program, which provides school children take-home meals on weekends.

Last year’s Cobe Cup Cruise included 105 cars, up from 80 the previous year. That’s an encouraging sign for Schroader, who is hoping to add younger members to the club’s membership. While Bob owns a 1947 Ford F1 pickup, and his wife, Susan, the club’s secretary, owns a 1979 Chevrolet El Camino, they say classic car ownership is not a requirement to join the club.

“If you enjoy them and want to be part of it,” Bob says, “we’d love to have you.”

The Schroaders say the annual Cobe Cup Car Cruise requires the cooperation of the Crown Point, Lowell, and Cedar Lake Police Departments, as well as the Lake County Sheriff’s Department and all three communities.

As the 1909 Cobe Cup proved, it takes a village. Or, in this case, three.

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Thomas West and the crew at Renegade Racing made a valiant effort to win the Stick Shift/Banger class at LS Fest West, qualifying at the top of the field while rowing through a T-56 six-speed manual. Their racing plans were derailed, however, when a rogue rod decided it was done with racing and caused some serious carnage in their Honda S2000’s 427 LS V-8. Only slightly deterred, the team decided to press on and see if they could get the car ready for Saturday’s race.

LS engines have been swapped into an array of cars, trucks, boats, and even aircraft. They are certainly doing well carrying the mantle of the original small-block Chevy. Despite its stellar reputation for compact, lightweight performance, you still might be surprised to see an LS under the hood of an S2000, a car renowned for its spirited, high-revving four-cylinder and balanced chassis. However, if you plan to hit the dragstrip, then a twin-turbo 427-cubic-inch LS engine makes sense.

During a quarter-mile pass on Saturday, the engine’s aftermarket block cracked and the wayward #8 rod broke, battering the fabricated aluminum oil pan and sending shrapnel through the engine. It managed to take out the timing chain, allowing the remainder of the rods to send pistons into the open valves, causing further havoc. Rather than pack up for the weekend, the Renegade Racing crew pulled the shattered engine and put out an APB for a replacement bottom end. They found a 408 short block locally and spent Saturday night and into the early morning on Sunday tearing the old engine down and buttoning up the new 408 with the same twin-turbocharged induction as their shattered 427.

We got to see some of the carnage first-hand, and the team was still in good spirits as connecting rod shrapnel was cleaned up and the long wrenching session loomed. We can’t say for sure if the team’s attitude remained jovial, as we had other plans (sleep), but when we returned early on Sunday, the car was up and running with its new engine and ready to take on the competition.

Although the all-nighter got the car ready for Sunday’s Stick Shift/Banger class racing, West got a bad launch and the engine bogged down, allowing his opponent to earn the win. Speaking with West on Sunday, he was proud of his team’s accomplishment, noting that despite the massive setback they got the car to the line and lost the race “fair and square.” It sure beats giving up a forfeit.

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It’s official: Adrian Newey is leaving the Red Bull Formula 1 team next year to do—what? Now that he has made his departure formal, that’s the big question: Where will the greatest engineering mind in F1 go next?

According to Red Bull, Newey will pack up and go sometime in the first quarter of 2025. Newey is not a job-hopper—he has spent 19 years at Red Bull and has presided over up and downs, with substantially more triumphs than disappointments. Since he joined the team in 2006, Red Bull has won seven F1 Drivers’ and six Constructors’ Championship titles, with 118 race victories and 101 poles. There’s no question Red Bull driver Max Verstappen is a genius behind the wheel, but an unknown percentage of his winning equation is that he is driving an Adrian Newey car.

Until he leaves, Newey, Red Bull says, will focus his attention on the two-seat, 1100-horsepower hybrid RB17 track-only hypercar that Red Bull is developing. Production is expected to begin for 50 well-heeled customers in 2025. Reportedly, the car’s price will be about $6.4 million. “The final stages of development of RB17 are upon us,” Newey said in a statement, “so for the remainder of my time with the team my focus will lie there.”

After that, the motorsports world is Newey’s oyster. Every F1 team on the grid would love to have him, and some heavy hitters have made it known that they’d be willing to pay him big bucks for a contract. At the top of the list is Ferrari, which would be delighted to pair Newey with the newly hired Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time champion hoping to reinvigorate his career.

Not far behind Ferrari in the Newey lottery is Mercedes, which is on its own rebuilding program after losing Hamilton to Ferrari. And then there’s the perennially rebuilding Aston Martin, helmed by the uber-wealthy Lawrence Stroll, who, like Ferrari, has ostensibly made Newey an offer.

Somewhat less likely is that Newey, 65, would simply hang up his calipers and retire, a suggestion bolstered by the news that he has special-ordered a sumptuous yacht. Or, given the obvious pleasure Newey has taken in designing the world-beating RB17, there’s a chance that he could sign with an automobile manufacturer to build more road-going vehicles.

If you take one of his departing statements literally—“I feel now is an opportune moment to hand that baton over to others and to seek new challenges for myself,” he said—retirement doesn’t seem to be in the cards quite yet.

The smart money seems to be on Ferrari. Joining them in early to mid-2025 would arguably put him there too late to have much of an impact on the 2026 F1 car, which will be built under a new set of regulations, but he may be there in time to leave some famous Newey fingerprints on the car.

The F1 community waits with bated breath.

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Five races into the 2024 Formula 1 season and Red Bull has already shown blistering pace—again. In the RB20, Max Verstappen picked up where he left off last season and has claimed four wins from the series’ opening rounds. But news this week that chief technical officer Adrian Newey is leaving the team at the end of the season has sent shockwaves up and down the paddock, with any number of rivals hoping to land him.

The British engineer has a history of crafting some world-beating machinery and has experience well beyond F1 when it comes to race car design. From sports cars to Indy, Newey has a knack for blueprinting success. Let’s take a look at the race cars that have defined his 40-year career.

11. March 82G GTP

Win rate: 0 percent

Designed for IMSA’s then-new GTP class, the March 82G was the first racer to come from Newey’s now-prolific pen. The car was based on an existing BMW design, and since Newey worked alongside March boss Robin Herd, it’s difficult to estimate Newey’s impact in the program.

Even so, the 82G enjoyed success. Powered by a 5.7-liter Chevy V-8 between the rear axles, it started in pole position for its first-ever race, the 1982 Daytona 24 Hours. Then, the wedge-shaped racer followed up its success on the high banks with a runner-up finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

10. March 881

Win rate: 0 percent

The March 881 was Newey’s first Formula 1 car, and it hinted to the paddock that he might be a design superstar in the making.

During the 1988 season, the 881 was typically the fastest non-turbo car in a field dominated by turbocharged McLarens and Ferraris. In the Japanese Grand Prix, it briefly led—the only non-turbo to do so that year and the first since 1983. The 881 did land on the podium twice, recording second- and third-place finishes.

9. Red Bull RB5

Win rate: 35 percent

After threatening to leave McLaren numerous times, Newey finally did so in 2005.

In 2006, he landed at the new team in town, Red Bull Racing. Newey’s first creation to win a grand prix under the new banner was the RB5, in 2009. The achievement meant so much to the soft-drink company that it gave the designer an RB5 as a “thank you.” He occasionally runs it at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Fun fact: The first Newey car to win a title was the RB6, in 2010. This kicked-off a four-year stretch of dominance for the Bull.

8. McLaren MP4/13

Win rate: 56 percent

Irritated at Williams’ unwillingness to give him shares in the team or more input in driver selection, Newey took his drawing board to mighty McLaren for the 1997 season.

His arrival coincided with a rule change mandating narrower cars and tires and, surprise, surprise, Newey’s car suited the new regs better than anyone else’s racer. The MP4/13 won nine of 16 races in 1998, with Mika Häkkinen ultimately taking the title. Remarkably, the feat still stands as McLaren’s last constructors’ championship.

7. March 85C

Win rate: 67 percent

Newey’s first Indy car was also his first race winner. The 85C was designed to utilize either a Ford or a Buick engine. During the 1985 IndyCar season, the 85C won 10 of 15 races and earned 12 pole positions. It’s the first, and only, Adrian Newey design to win the Indianapolis 500—though the victory didn’t come without drama. Danny Sullivan, aboard a Miller-liveried 85C, famously completed his “spin and win” in 1985.

6. Red Bull RB9

Win rate: 68 percent

By 2013, Newey was chief technical officer at Red Bull and put in charge of the design team. His inspiration clearly remained undimmed. After a slow start (well, slow by Newey’s standards), Sebastian Vettel found his stride and ended the season by winning nine consecutive races in the Renault-powered RB9. The successive wins record set by Vettel still stood until 2023, when Verstappen scored 10 in a row.

5. Williams FW14B

Win rate: 62 percent

After the 881, Newey’s next two March designs weren’t nearly as successful, and the British team eventually fired him. According to legend, he left his designs for a new March behind. Supposedly, his successor threw them in the trash.

Bad decision.

The blueprints were of the FW14, an incredible design that Newey ended up building for his new employer, Williams.

Featuring active suspension, the Renault-engined car stormed to the 1992 F1 world championship in Nigel Mansell’s hands. While other Newey cars are more statistically successful, the FW14B’s margin of victory over rivals was dramatic. The new car also spawned a line of winners.

In 1993, the FW15C won 15 of 16 pole positions and helped deliver Alain Prost his fourth championship. Appropriately, Prost calls Newey “the best.”

4. Aston Martin Valkyrie

Win rate: N/A

Okay, so it’s not a racing car, but one tester described it as “the most extreme factory-built car ever to wear number plates.”

The Valkyrie, otherwise known as the AM-RB 001, was the result of Aston Martin’s sponsorship of Red Bull. Newey took time from his day job to design the car, which is aimed at use on road and track.

Old habits die hard, and even road cars deserve epic downforce. Using underbody aerodynamics, the 1140-horsepower monster creates 4189 pounds of tire-squashing downforce at high speed.

Production is limited to 150, but if you want this piece of Newey’s historic handiwork in your garage, tough luck; they’re already sold out.

3. Williams FW18

Win rate: 75 percent

The mid-1990s were golden years for Williams, culminating in the Newey-designed, Renault-powered FW18 of 1996. Newey’s aero work lifted the bar to a level that main rivals Ferrari and Benetton couldn’t stand. The FW18 won 12 of the season’s 16 races, with Damon Hill taking the title ahead of teammate Jacques Villeneuve.

2. Red Bull RB18

Win rate: 77 percent

Following years of Mercedes dominance, Newey got his title-winning mojo back in 2021.

Then, in 2022, the group won with the RB18, a novel car built for F1’s newest generation of grand prix racer. One of F1’s rule changes led to the return of ground effects—where air rushing under the car creates negative pressure and sucks the car to the track. Unfortunately for his F1 opposition, Newey is an ace at ground effects; one of his final projects in college was “ground-effect aerodynamics on racing cars.”

The resulting RB18 was masters’ degree work, making Newey’s rivals look like they were still in high school, smoking behind the bike sheds. The 2022 Honda-powered racer won 17 of the year’s 22 grands prix, handing Max Verstappen his second drivers’ championship.

1. Red Bull RB19

Win rate: 95 percent

When the Red Bull RB19 hit the track in 2023, it was clear to all that Newey was a master at moving from strength to strength. In the hands of Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez, the RB19 won an astounding 21 of 22 races, with Perez taking two victories and Verstappen the rest, including those 10 in a row. A 100 percent win rate is theoretically possible, but, given the many variables and hurdles posed by competing in a full F1 season, it’s difficult to imagine any car—or designer—ever bettering the 95 percent of Newey’s RB19.

Where will the RB20 land after the 2024 season? More importantly, given the news that Newey is departing Red Bull at the end of the season, where will he land? Chime in below.

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Today, May 1, marks the 30th anniversary of the fatal accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix that took the life of Brazilian Ayrton Senna.  Who knows where his Formula 1 career would have taken him? How many more wins would he have and what F1 records would he still hold today?

Even without the what-ifs, the Brazilian left an incredible legacy. In just over a decade at open-wheel racing’s highest level, Senna amassed 65 pole positions, 41 victories, and numerous legendary drives. How do we narrow it down to his five best? With great difficulty.

5. Japanese Grand Prix, 1988

Up until 1988, Senna had shown flashes of mastery but was never able to put a full season together. Ahead of the season finale at Suzuka, he stood at the brink of his first F1 title. All Senna needed to do was win the Japanese Grand Prix. Easy, right?

Things got off to a rough start. Firing from the pole position, he nearly stalled the Honda V-6 in his McLaren Mp4/4. By the first corner, he had slipped to 14th place in the running order.

Those who watched the grand prix that day witnessed one of the greatest comeback drives. Ever. Ayrton dispatched six cars in less than a lap, and by the time he came back around to the front stretch he was in eighth. By lap four, he was up to fourth.

Meanwhile, Senna’s championship rival—and McLaren teammate—Alain Prost was under pressure from Ivan Capelli in March. Once Capelli faded, Senna inherited second place. It only took him another 10 laps to catch Prost and even less time to pass the championship hopeful. Momentum and adrenaline launched Senna past the Frenchman.

A light rain fell over the track in the final laps. It didn’t matter. Senna was on a mission. He stormed across the finish line, capturing his eighth win of the season and his first championship.

4. Monaco Grand Prix 1984

Ok, so Senna didn’t win the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix. Rather than putting a notch in the win column, the Brazilian opened a few eyes to his brilliance in wet conditions.

Another race in the wet. Senna in only his sixth grand prix was driving the low-budget Toleman-Hart entry. He qualified 13th in dry conditions.

After 20 laps, his Candy-liveried ride was the quickest car on the track. Between laps 22 and 31, his gap to leader Alain Prost shriveled in the rain, dropping from 34 seconds to a meager seven. An upset was brewing.

On lap 32, Senna surged ahead of his Prost’s McLaren. Unfortunately, the race was terminated on the previous lap due to torrential showers.

If it weren’t for the stoppage, would Senna have won? Perhaps. Stefan Bellof’s Tyrrell was closing him down on the duo when the race was called. And Senna’s Toleman had suspension damage that might not have lasted a full race. Even so, it was an eye-catching performance. Senna would make Monaco his personal playground, winning six times at the street course, including five in a row from 1989 to 1993.

3. Brazilian Grand Prix 1991

In 1991, Senna claimed his third and final F1 world championship, driving a McLaren-Honda V12 that was inferior to its Williams-Renault rivals. The Brazilian Grand Prix, Senna’s home race, best encapsulated the season’s struggles.

Senna started from pole position and rocketed into the lead, initially fending off Nigel Mansell before his Williams car suffered gearbox trouble. As the race wore on, Senna began experiencing shifting trouble, too. First he lost fourth gear, followed by third, and then fifth.

As Ayrton started his final lap, he put the car in sixth gear and left it there. It meant he had no engine braking but at least he was still going and still in the lead.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, it started to rain. And Senna was on slicks.

By the time he crossed the line, Riccardo Patrese’s Williams had closed the gap to less to than three seconds. Still, Senna claimed a home grand prix win for the first time in his F1 career. Keeping his car straight amid the rain and gearbox issues had sapped so much energy from Senna that he had to be lifted from the cockpit to attend the podium ceremony.

2. Portuguese Grand Prix 1985

Senna’s first pole position came in only his second race for Lotus. In that era, Lotus was in its dying days as an F1 superpower. On that rainy day in Portugal, driving the iconic black-and-gold John Player Special machine, Senna simply drove away from the opposition.

As with many of his other wet weather performances, Senna was in his own zip code. By the finish, he was more than a minute ahead of second place  Michele Alboreto in a Ferrari. The rest of the field was a lap down.

Unlike some of Senna’s drives in the wet, this was entirely undramatic. His self-assurance in the treacherous conditions made his rivals look ham-fisted. Yet out of the car, he had the look of a man who had simply done what he’d expected.

The triumph in Portugal was Senna’s first F1 victory and a bellwether for future rain-soaked heroics.

1. European Grand Prix 1993

In 1993, the United Kingdom hosted two Formula 1 Grand Prix. The first race was held at the historic Donington Park in England. On a soaked track, Senna started fourth in an orange and white McLaren MP4/8. Even worse, he momentarily dropped a place after Michael Schumacher muscled him onto a curb in the first corner of the first lap.

Schumacher’s move ruffled the Brazilian. Senna quickly dodged round Schumacher’s Benetton to take fourth, then scythed past Karl Wendlinger’s Sauber for third. Damon Hill’s Williams-Renault was Senna’s next victim followed by its sister car of Alain Prost. Four passes, one mesmerizing lap.

It was all the opposition saw of the McLaren man for the rest of the afternoon—unless, of course, he was lapping them. His team changed tires four times to suit the wet-dry weather and Senna almost lapped the entire field. The only driver to finish on the same lap was Damon Hill, who finished nearly two minutes behind.

It was a performance that made the world’s best drivers on the F1 grid look like complete amateurs.

Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments below.

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You may not be aware that history was made last weekend, but apparently quite a few techno-geeks did: It was the inaugural event of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League at the Yas Marina road course, with eight driverless formula cars from around the world competing, or trying to, as the event revealed that autonomous racing isn’t quite ready for prime time.

That said, the Autonomous Racing League claims that 10,000 spectators watched the event in person, while over 600,000 watched it online. Since the broadcast was more than three hours long, and the actual race was just eight laps among four cars, with two that actually finished, it took some stamina to watch the whole show.

That broadcast was decidedly of the rah-rah variety, including contributions from American broadcaster Amanda Busick, absent from her usual role as pit reporter for the NHRA drag racing. It was a “stupendous weekend!” for the Autonomous Racing League’s inaugural event, Busick posted on her Instagram account. “Hard to verbalize how professionally satisfying this experience was.”

Competing were modified versions of the Dallara Super Formula SF23 car, which is described in the press release as being “the fastest open-wheel race car in the world after Formula 1,” which is probably surprising to IndyCar given these SF23s are powered by a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine.

In one time-filling segment, former Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat raced against one of the autonomous cars, provided by the Technology Innovation Institute, and beat it by 10.38 seconds. That would normally be a substantial margin, but the Autonomous Racing League described it as “a narrow victory.”

There were multiple qualifying sessions, in which one autonomous car simply turned right into a barrier along a straightaway, and another car locked up all four wheels and braked to a dead stop as it approached a left-hand corner. “It appears to be a coding error,” we were told repeatedly when a car misbehaved.

By the time the eight-lap race was ready to run, only four cars made it to the starting line, and two of them seemed to disappear from the broadcast, as cameras concentrated on the race between TUM, the car entered by the Technical University of Munich, and an Italian entry named UNIMORE. TUM passed it on the last lap when UNIMORE simply stopped on the track, right in the racing line.

Still, the organizers were jubilant. Said H.E. Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General of the Advanced Technical Research Council: “Through the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League, we’ve sparked a race revolution … This event isn’t just a race; it’s a transformative moment where technology, imagination, and ambition converge.”

Much can be excused for an inaugural event of this sort: The technology, though unreliable, was impressive, and it’s easy to imagine it improving dramatically over the next few years. But the question remains: Can you get excited by a race with cars driven by AI instead of a person?

You can watch the three-hour, 12-minute Autonomous Racing League broadcast here.

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Complain about journalism in America if you want to, but compared to journalism in Europe, we are the arbiters of accuracy and fair play. That’s why it is so much fun to see what publications across the pond are saying about the apparent departure of Adrian Newey—the man who began working as an engineer and designer for Red Bull in 2006 and has guided the team to Formula 1 greatness. Driver Max Verstappen, undeniably, has aided his success.

According to the European F1 media, Newey is either leaving Red Bull tomorrow, or at the end of 2026, or someplace in between.

Regardless, there’s no question that Adrian Newey is Formula 1’s current prom queen, apparently being asked to the big dance by a variety of well-heeled suitors.

There’s Lawrence Stroll, head of Aston Martin, who reportedly (these Newey stories use the word “reportedly” a lot) offered Newey $100 million to leave Red Bull.

There’s Ferrari, which reportedly is willing to match Stroll’s offer to have Newey come to Maranello and reinvigorate the career of driver Lewis Hamilton.

And there’s Mercedes, which is the quietest of the key suitors, but there’s no question it would welcome Newey with open arms and an open checkbook.

Since Newey is 65, the subject of outright retirement has come up. What does he have left to prove?

A little background on Newey for readers who aren’t F1 geeks: In 1980, after he graduated from college, he began working in Formula 1 for the Fittipaldi Formula 1 team. The next year, he moved to March, and began designing race cars. His initial project was the March GTP car, which won the IMSA championship twice.

In 1984, he went to work on the March IndyCar. His design won the 1985 and 1986 IndyCar championship and the Indianapolis 500 both years. He returned to March’s F1 design team, but moved to Williams in 1991, where Newey’s star really began to rise. In 1992, Nigel Mansell drove Newey’s FW14 chassis to a constructor’s championship, Newey’s first of many.

His time with Williams ended in 1997; he departed with a solid record, though, of 59 wins for his cars, and four world championships.

Next up was a long stint with McLaren, from 1997 to 2005 with titles in 1998 and 1999, and very nearly in 2000. The later years were less productive, and Newey departed for Red Bull in 2006. His influence was felt early on, but the team did not become a genuine contender until 2009, with Red Bull finishing a close second in the constructor’s championship.

In 2010, Red Bull won the constructor’s championship with driver Sebastian Vettel. In 2011, Newey’s car took 18 of 19 pole positions, and won 12 races and the constructor’s championship. Repeat championships came in 2012 and 2013.

Starting in 2014, Newey’s car suffered from using Renault’s turbo V-6 engines, and it wasn’t until the 2019 switch to Honda power that the team became competitive; in 2020, Red Bull was second in the constructor’s championship.

In 2021, it all came together again. Newey’s design, paired with driver Max Verstappen, won the driver’s championship, and they’ve been dominant ever since. At this point in the season, Verstappen and team driver Sergio Perez lead the standings in driver’s points, and Red Bull leads Ferrari 195 points to 151 in the constructor’s standings.

So why would Newey want to leave Red Bull? Reportedly—there’s that word again—he is upset about the internal handling and investigation of a complaint lodged by a female employee against team principal Christian Horner for alleged inappropriate behavior. An internal inquiry dismissed the charge. Is that so upsetting to Newey that he would leave a place he was worked, with great success, for 18 years?

According to the European media, yes. Apparently Newey is under contract with Red Bull until the end of 2025, and there are multiple reports that there’s a 12-month no-compete stipulation included in that contract, so Newey wouldn’t really be available to work for a new employer until the 2027 season.

Yet “Wow! Adrian Newey is reportedly leaving Red Bull,” reads the headline on Top Gear. And “Red Bull stunned by shock news F1’s top designer Adrian Newey to leave,” in The Guardian. And “F1 rumor: Adrian Newey decides to leave Red Bull ahead of formal resignation.”

Oops, that headline is from Sports Illustrated.

Regardless, the F1 media must have some sort of soap opera underway 12 months out of the year, and it’s Adrian Newey’s turn under the microscope now. No one denies that his departure, imminent or otherwise, is Big News in racing, but until he decides his next move, it’s just fodder for dozens of talented headline writers.

Stay tuned, bloke.

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April 17 marked 60 years since the Ford Mustang’s public debut at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The original pony car immediately became a pop-culture and automotive phenom, and it remains one of the most impactful cars in history. We’re celebrating with stories of the events surrounding the Mustang’s launch, the history of the early cars, and tales from owners. Click here to follow along with our multi-week 60 Years of Mustang coverage. -Ed.

On the Wednesday before the new Mustang debuted at this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, Ford presented its Spirt of Ford Award to the team behind the Mustang’s first-ever racing victory 60 years earlier.

That inaugural win wasn’t scored on American soil, nor even by an American team, but at the 1964 Tour de France and contested by British outfit Alan Mann Racing (AMR)—a team that had been established only that year by racer and subsequent team manager Alan Mann.

Mann passed away in 2012, but his sons, Henry and Tom, collected the award at the American Muscle Car Museum, and they continue to run AMR to this day. We spoke with them at Daytona a few days later about how an unknown British team from Byfleet, Surrey, got a big-time Ford contract, about what happened next, how their involvement with the original Mustang continues, and the mystery that still surrounds that winning car’s whereabouts.

Alan Mann was still a young man when the Ford connection began. “My dad worked for a Ford dealer on the south coast called Alan Andrews, which had a successful racing operation, and Ford of America invited a couple of British Cortina teams over to race in the Marlboro 12 Hours [at the now-defunct Marlboro Motor Raceway in Maryland] and at Bridgehampton in 1963,” says Henry. “My dad was running one of them with his British drivers, and Holman-Moody were running some Falcons with their NASCAR guys.”

When the Brits beat domestic Falcons it caused quite a stir, but rather than bristling at the unwelcome competition, John Holman saw an opportunity—his team disliked competing in European events with Galaxies and Falcons, so he introduced Mann to Ford management.

With Mann aged just 27, Ford suggested he establish his own company and run the European arm of its Total Performance program, which involved racing in various categories across continents. Things moved quickly.

“That led to them running Falcons in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally,” says Henry, noting that the Falcon shares much with its pony-car sibling. “The cars were all built at Holman-Moody, then brought into Lincoln Cars Ltd. in the Great West Road, which was Ford’s British distributor for American vehicles at the time.” Ford’s trust was repaid when the Falcon Sprint driven by Swede Bo Ljungfeldt came second to Paddy Hopkirk’s Mini Cooper S that January.

“After they got back from the Monte,” says Henry, “Ford shipped over an early pre-production Mustang, number 3 I think, with a 260 V-8 and a three-speed gearbox. It was fairly standard and not quite the spec it would end up being—there were still some Falcon bits on it—but they did testing and homologation work. It had to be very secret. When a photographer got some shots of them testing at Goodwood, he had to be persuaded to destroy his film.”

Come June, Ford shipped over four Mustangs with Hi-Po 289 engines for the Tour de France—a 10-day, 4000-mile marathon that lapped France like a boot pointing out to the Atlantic, taking in race tracks, hill climbs, and sprints as it moved clockwise from Rennes in the northwest and eventually back to Paris.

Three Mustangs would compete, the fourth acting as a support car driven by Alan Mann and cannibalized as necessary. All wore AMR’s new red-and-gold livery—much like a British postbox and now synonymous with the team—after Mann had struggled to distinguish his Lotus Cortina at the Nürburgring in 1964 from a number of others all wearing white-and-green war paint. “Ford would supply bodies in white or red, and red helped him tell them apart,” Henry says. “Then it was a case of ‘What goes with red?’ The first car in red and gold was a 1964 Lotus Cortina.”

A previous Hagerty story on AMR’s efforts covers Peter Procter and co-driver Andrew Cowan’s Tour de France win of the Touring class in-depth, but Henry notes that, along with exceptional driving, two other factors in particular contributed.

“They’d been a bit unsuccessful in the Marathon de la Route [a series of long-distance European road rallies] with two other cars, which was a pretty intensive event, and they went off the road in Yugoslavia but learned a lot,” he explains. “My dad was also lucky, because there was a Vickers [engineering] plant near AMR’s base in Brooklands, so there were a lot of really talented metalworkers and mechanics in that area, and a huge part of the job in those days was to keep the cars running.”

Not only did the Mustang win the Tour de France to end Jaguar’s long-term dominance, but another AMR Mustang placed second. Had the final Mustang not been disqualified for a push-start, it would’ve been a 1-2-3.

Alan Mann Racing went on to further success with the Mustang, winning the British Saloon Car Championship in 1965—50 years before the Mustang would officially arrive in dealerships in the UK—while Jacky Ickx contested some rounds of the 1965 European Touring Car Championship with one.

“After that there were no more Mustangs run by my dad in period,” Henry says. “It had kind of had its day in frontline competition, but AMR moved onto other things—the GT40s, Escorts, Shelby Cobra Daytonas…”

In fact, AMR won the 1965 World GT Championship with the Daytona, the 1965 European Touring Car Championship with the Cortina, and then took the Falcon and Escort to consecutive British Saloon Car Championships in ’67 and ’68. AMR even contested Le Mans with the GT40 in ’66 and ’69, though a finish eluded them.

Then Ford wound down its Total Performance program. “Once Ford pulled the plug in 1970 and went more into rallying, my dad withdrew from racing, didn’t see his old friends, and concentrated on his aviation business,” says Henry.

That was that—for a quarter of a century. Then a Cobra reunion at Sears Point in 1995 reignited interest, and when Goodwood’s historic events started to take off, Alan was invited to drive some of his old cars, apparently surprised that people remembered him.

Tom Mann adds that during their childhood, the two youngsters had no real appreciation of how successful their dad had been long before he started a family. They were startled when fans began approaching him for autographs at Goodwood.

The return of Alan Mann Racing proper came in a roundabout way in 2004. The brother of Henry’s school friend asked what he should campaign in historic motorsport, and Mann senior suggested a Mustang, citing strength, parts availability, power, and affordability. He soon found himself project-managing the build.

“He sourced a car in the U.S., contacted Lee Holman at Holman-Moody, and thought ‘Well, if he’s having one, I might as well have one too,’” recalls Henry. “He persuaded some of the mechanics from back in the day to prepare the car and started to get back into racing big time. It was like a switch flipped in his brain.

“Historic racing was quite clubby back then, and I think he just enjoyed spending time with [fellow racers] John Whitmore, Jack Sears, and Frank Gardner,” Henry remembers. “I was about 13 and started tagging along at races, going to get diff oil and coffee for mechanics, things like that. As he got ill, he said I should drive—he got me a driver coach and I started to get more involved.”

When the founder passed away in 2012, Alan Mann Racing was handed down to the brothers. Today it remains synonymous with Ford, being particularly renowned for its Mustang builds. It is still based on the same Fairoaks airfield site that has been AMR headquarters since 1970, and the brothers are currently finishing off a 1957 Fairlane and a Mk II Cobra, among various Mustangs. Occasionally they undertake road-car restorations, including the Mustang ePower that Hagerty recently tested, but mostly it’s about prepping ’60s Fords for historic motorsport, with Mustangs a particular speciality.

“My dad was a good development driver,” says Henry, “so we had a good spec sorted out on a historic Mustang by the time he passed away, and we’ve stuck with that ever since.”

At the Goodwood Members’ Meeting in England earlier this month, five of the 30-car grid contesting the Ken Miles Cup were AMR-prepared. Ford boss Jim Farley even shared an AMR Mustang with legendary touring car racer Steve Soper.

None of the four cars that entered the 1964 Tour de France were on the grid, but in this 60th year of the Mustang, Tom and Henry are keen to track down the long-lost winner. The fate of the three other cars, however, is known. The car disqualified from third position—registration DPK 5B—has already been restored by AMR and now appropriately lives in France. The second-place DPK 6B won the British Saloon Car Championship in 1965 and was then sold to a club racer, who suffered a fatal accident at Silverstone. The brothers believe it was subsequently crushed. And the support car driven by their father has been “in a leaky lock-up in north London since 1972, still with the Holman-Moody race engine in it, but it’s sadly not very good,” says Henry. “If the owner’s going to do anything with it, this is the year.”

The winning car—DPK 7B—remains the biggest mystery of all. “It was air-freighted back from France to America at the end of the rally and did a press tour, but no one knows where it is now,” says Henry.

“When we received the Spirit of Ford award, a guy introduced himself to us who’s writing a book about these cars, and he has a theory it started in the first Trans Am race, but it’s almost impossible to prove,” adds Tom.

There is, apparently, a concerted effort within Ford to find that car this year. Sixty years after a little British team gave the Mustang its first win a long way from home, nothing would make the brothers happier.

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Motorsports has long been a high-stakes industry, backed by major auto manufacturers and underwritten by hundreds of corporations, some of them Fortune 500 companies. But despite ever-rising levels of professionalism, cheating still occurs on the highest levels.

How that cheating is treated by the major sanctioning bodies, though, differs. Minor infractions are typically addressed promptly, with a loss of finishing position, a fine, or a points penalty, or all three. When a major infraction occurs—well, that’s where it gets interesting.

For years—decades, actually—NASCAR maintained a tacit policy of allowing winners that did not pass post-race technical inspection to keep the win, sometimes despite rather egregious violations. Example: The 1983 Miller High Life 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which was won by Richard Petty.

In post-race inspection, it was found that Petty’s car had left-side tires installed on the right side of the car, which supposedly gave the car an illegal advantage. But worse, after tearing down the engine, it was found that the V-8 in Petty’s Pontiac measured out to nearly 382 cubic inches. NASCAR’s limit was, and is, 358 cubic inches.

NASCAR officials met for three hours and determined that Petty should be fined $35,000 and docked 104 points, but he would be allowed to retain the win. The decision was in keeping with NASCAR’s unspoken opinion that fans should be able to go home Sunday knowing who the winner of the race was, and not learn that he had been disqualified in Monday’s newspaper.

It was not always that way. In NASCAR’s very first race, apparent winner Glenn Dunaway was stripped of the victory after officials found illegal rear springs on his Ford. The win was given to the car that came in second, Jim Roper.

That was in 1949. Between then and 1960, NASCAR took the wins away from seven drivers for violations that ranged from a fuel tank that was too big, to illegal cylinder heads.

It was not until July of 2022 that NASCAR would strip another Cup series winner of a victory, when Denny Hamlin, driving a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, was disqualified from the M&Ms 400 at Pocono Raceway for having a front spoiler that had been bolstered by illegal tape. Kyle Busch, who finished second, was also disqualified. His Joe Gibbs Toyota had the same tape treatment. This gave the win to Chase Elliott, who had finished third.

We mention this because on Tuesday, IndyCar took away Josef Newgarden’s win in the 2024 season opener at St. Petersburg. Scott McLaughlin, who finished third, was also disqualified. Both drive for Team Penske, owned by Roger Penske, who also owns the IndyCar series as well as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Very disappointing,” Penske told the Associated Press. “Very embarrassing.”

The gutsy call was made by IndyCar President Jay Frye after it was found that Team Penske had manipulated the “push to pass,” or PTP, system that allows drivers, under certain circumstances, to push a button and get a 50-horsepower boost from the turbocharged engine. The gimmick, similar to what Formula 1 uses, is supposed to make the racing more interesting.

The problem in St. Petersburg was that PTP cannot be used on starts and restarts. In fact, the PTP system is literally disabled then by IndyCar. But somehow, the Penske Chevrolets had managed to enable the system, and Newgarden, the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion, and McLaughlin used it. Teammate Will Power did not, and IndyCar just fined him 10 points and allowed him to keep his fourth-place finish. Pato O’Ward, who drives for Arrow McLaren, was elevated from second to first place.

So how did the Penske team circumvent the PTP shutoff? In a statement, Team Penske President Tim Cindric said that the “push-to-pass software was not removed as it should have been, following recently completed hybrid testing in the Team Penske Indy cars.

“This software allowed for push-to-pass to be deployed during restarts at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix race, when it should not have been permitted,” said Cindric, regarded as Roger Penske’s right-hand man. “The car driven by Josef Newgarden and the car driven by Scott McLaughlin both deployed push-to-pass on a restart, which violated IndyCar rules. Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by IndyCar.”

Also interesting is that it took 45 days for IndyCar to bust Penske. That’s because they didn’t find out about the breach until a practice session for last Sunday’s race at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. IndyCar did not activate the electronic PTP system during the early part of the session, but noticed that it was activated in three of the 27 cars on the grid—the three Penske cars. An immediate investigation followed. Two days later, the Penske penalties were announced.

According to Racer, the PTP system is activated under all circumstances when there is a test of the hybrid system on IndyCars. Cindric said that by mistake, PTP software left on his cars after the hybrid test was not removed. They have the option to protest the penalties, but instead are pleading guilty.

It is reminiscent of the last major motorsports cheating scandal, which occurred at the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona, the opening race of the season for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The cars race on Michelin tires, and in the then-new GTP class, the tire company suggests a minimum tire pressure. When a GTP car’s tires fall below that minimum, it is electronically broadcast to IMSA’s race control. As a penalty, IMSA requires the car to drive slowly through the pits while the race is on.

But for the winning car, the Meyer Shank Acura, the team managed to jam the telemetry that broadcast the low-pressure message back to IMSA, presumably allowing them to lower their tire pressures, which is a distinct performance advantage. It appears Meyer Shank, which was celebrating its second straight Rolex 24 victory, may have been ratted out by a competitor, who reported it to Honda Performance Development, which reported it to IMSA. The sanctioning body investigated and found it was true. It took six weeks.

In a controversial move, IMSA, which is owned by NASCAR, did not take the win away from the Meyer Shank Acura, but chose to penalize the team heavily with a loss of points earned, a fine of $50,000 and the loss of the winner’s purse, an amount that IMSA has not disclosed. Acura pulled its sponsorship of the Meyer Shank team, taking it to the other Acura team, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, which is now fielding two cars instead of one for 2024.

Does it pay to cheat? Not when you get caught. But that’s the only time in racing we learn who’s really breaking the rules.

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I’ve stormed down the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans, taken laps at Sebring, and clipped apexes at Lime Rock, Virginia International Raceway, and Road America. Almost all of this heroic driving was in… minivans. As an automotive magazine art director, the job of piloting a Town & Country around raceways—at lofty speeds of 25 or 35 mph—while a photographer hangs out the open hatch, clicking away at a pretty car behind, usually falls to me. Directions inevitably crackle over the radio: “Let’s follow the racing line for a couple laps.” Back in the paddock, my boss strolls over with a cocked eyebrow, claps me on the shoulder, and quietly says “Todd, that was not the racing line. But nice try!”

Eventually, the boss man decided I needed some professional instruction, so I headed to Chandler, Arizona, just a few miles from the Phoenix airport, for the two-day High Performance Driving course at Radford Racing School. Radford is the former Bondurant Racing School, and while the name and ownership have changed, the curriculum still is firmly based on the instructional philosophy that Bob Bondurant originally implemented in 1968. Some of the older instructors worked for decades under Bondurant’s guidance and are very proud of that heritage. From the moment you enter the classroom for orientation, you feel like you’re in the absolute best hands.

Radford offers programs for all levels of drivers and aspiring racers alike. I was placed in the Performance Street Driving class, which is about 75 percent aimed at street driving, with the rest dedicated to track-driving basics. Radford also offers programs for advanced racers, Formula 4/open wheel, drag racing, and even karting and teen driving instruction.

Like every driving school, Radford begins instruction in the classroom. My classmates were two amateur racers refreshing their skills and a mother-and-daughter team. Mom had taken the same course before and now wanted her daughter to benefit from the same training. Classes are kept small to retain a 3:1 student-to-instructor ratio. After a brief history of the school from chief instructor Danny Bullock, we were given the outline of our course: car control and vehicle dynamics training, accident avoidance and safety techniques, and track driving fundamentals. About 80 percent of the course is spent behind the wheel, out on the track. First, though, we learned some academic basics.

Performance driving, we learned, is all about weight management. Acceleration shifts weight to the back of the car; braking moves it to the front. Simple, but key to everything we’d be doing. Also essential: Always be looking ahead—a longer distance in front of you, not just at the hood of the car. Several of our on-track exercises were built to practice these two concepts. For example, the slalom helped us learn to keep our weight balance even, while the “go, lift, squeeze” exercise helped us look far ahead without automatically slamming hard on the brakes. The point is that even in a full accident-avoidance situation, looking ahead will have you braking and turning earlier to avoid the crash.

With the preliminaries done, it was time to get fitted for a helmet and head out to the course. Radford partners with Dodge SRT, so we were given Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcats. I chose to drive a manual transmission, which put me in a maroon 392 Scat Pack edition Challenger instead. I really appreciated that I was in the same car for the entire school, so I could set all the seating and other adjustments to my liking and have them dialed in every time I got in.

First up were the braking exercises. For the first few, the objective was not to touch the brakes at all. The paddock was lined with cones, making a three-lane roadway scenario. Above each lane was an instructor-controlled traffic light. Red and green. Our challenge was to accelerate to a set speed, which increased after each stage was complete. As we approached the point where the three-lane split emerged, the instructor would light only one path green. The driver was to lift, abruptly turn into the only available path, hit the gas again and drive through. This obviously got harder as the speed increased with each pass, but it really gets you in touch with the vehicle’s weight balance. Avoidance, without braking.

Then came some exercises employing that middle pedal. Cones were rearranged and we set off at the same three traffic lights, this time applying the brakes after the lane switch to stop within a predetermined “cone box” built on one side or the other. This, too, was a level-up challenge as the approaching speed increased. Initial exercises were done without initiating a full-on ABS stop.

This graduated to the final task of the morning, hurtling the Challenger toward a line of cones, with a braking point marked. Success was measured here in being able to stop the car with the nose just at the cone line. I really got a feel for how the car’s weight shifts, and the brake pedal pressure needed. The last few runs were full anti-lock pedal mashes as we sped toward the cone wall. It was both exhilarating and nerve-wracking.

The afternoon of Day One was for drifting. This was the only time we used a car other than the one assigned to us for our course. This unique Challenger was set up with wheels attached to a metal frame built outside the car. These were controlled by a computer with switches and levers on a control box inside the vehicle. This way, the instructor could adjust the amount of “slidability” the car would have.

I was fairly intimidated by this exercise, imagining myself in infinite 360 spins all over the paddock. As I got behind the wheel, instructor Spencer Buckman took me through the apex points where I was to slide and control by opposite steering through a figure-eight setup. My nervousness faded quickly as I slid the car around the paddock. The instructor explained how the different settings he was applying were changing the performance of the car as we modified the direction and speed. Damn, that was a lot of fun. Drifting distilled is merely weight transfer control. Who knew?

Day Two: After a bit more classroom briefing, we headed out to the 1.6-mile raceway. Spencer gave us a track tour in a Charger SRT, carefully explaining the art of corner apexes and the all-important racing line. Then we got to put our new cornering knowledge, and the skills we’d practiced the day before, to use on the Maricopa Oval. It was a perfect space to lap and test two corners, finding the apex point and accelerating out of the turn as we continued to the next.

Finally, I had learned the elusive racing line and was gaining confidence as I picked up speed working this section of track for an hour. Stops to evaluate were encouraged, as were moments to just catch your breath. Spencer would often jump in the car with us, sometimes taking the wheel or riding along as a passenger and providing encouraging feedback.  

Then we did a lead-follow exercise on the entire raceway, all 15 turns of it, at a controlled speed. What an exciting experience to just take lap after lap in the Arizona sun in a great performance car with fresh skills.

My program at Radford culminated in the slalom. Back on the paddock, an autocross course was laid out. Spencer took us on practice runs through the tight series of turns, first in a leisurely manner, and then at full chat, flicking the SRT Charger here and there effortlessly. The first few student-driven laps were practice. Getting a good feel for the layout. The corners. The braking points. Gradually building up speed.

Then, the instructors’ stopwatches came out. Timed runs. I’d done well after I’d settled down in the practice sessions, but being timed brought out the competitor in me. It was a challenge to stay focused and not try to manhandle the Dodge around the course. I couldn’t find a smooth path through a hairpin corner: It was either too much brake on the approach or… not nearly enough. Both slowed me down. Focus. The younger woman of the family pair in my class had it on lock. She continuously made great times, shaving a few seconds off every run. Kudos, miss.

The slalom was a great aggregator for all we’d been taught. Our course was not really about racing, but simply making us better road drivers. Valuable skills, whether you’re a teen or a seasoned racer.

Radford was an exciting, super-informative experience, one every driver should have. Once home, I was proud to apply my gold “High Performance Driving Graduate” sticker to the window of my Focus ST.  A shiny reminder of two days spent meeting great people and the unadulterated fun I had on that raceway in the desert, with not a single minivan in sight.

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April 17 marked sixty years since the Ford Mustang’s public debut at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The original pony car immediately became a pop-culture and automotive phenom, and it remains one of the most impactful cars in history. Click here to follow along with our multi-week 60 Years of Mustang coverage. -Ed.

The world’s fastest Mustang lined up on the far left at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, one of two drag strips in the country configured to race four cars at once. Besides Bob Tasca’s Ford, there was Austin Prock’s Chevrolet, Matt Hagan’s Dodge, and Ron Capps’ Toyota—every brand that races in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Funny Car class.

For Tasca, it was a point of honor to beat the other three manufacturers. Tasca Automotive Group was founded in 1943 by Bob Tasca, Sr., and in 1953 he opened the original Tasca Ford in Bristol, Rhode Island. Just one year later, this dealership was destroyed by Hurricane Carol. Bob Sr. ultimately opened up the new Tasca Ford in East Providence, Rhode Island.

It was here in the 1960s that Bob Sr. and his team became the second largest Ford dealership in the world. This was also the birthplace of the Tasca Racing program and multiple historic muscle cars such as the Ford Cobra Jet, the Tasca Street Boss, and the Mystery race cars. Bob Tasca III carries on the Ford racing tradition, working at the family dealership when he isn’t at the track.

On the afternoon of April 14, those four cars lined up on The Strip. The starting lights flashed, and Tasca was off first, with a 0.34-second reaction time. Even though his top speed of 329.75 mph was only second-quickest to Capps’ 333.00, his quick reaction time was enough to get Tasca’s Mustang to the finish line first. It was Tasca’s first win of 2024.

“When you put together a final round where there’s one Ford, one Dodge, one Toyota, one Chevy, that is why we do it,” Tasca said. “It’s the only reason we come out here to win for all our Ford fans all around the world. That’s going to go down as one of the best final rounds in Funny Car history.”

But it wasn’t in NHRA competition where Tasca earned the honorary “world’s fastest Mustang” title. Since Tasca’s 341.68 mph record run didn’t come at an NHRA event, the sanctioning body still recognizes Robert Hight’s 339.87 mph mark, set at Sonoma Raceway in 2017, driving a Chevrolet Camaro SS.

Where Tasca made history was at Bradenton Motorsports Park, located in Manatee County, Florida, about an hour south of Tampa. Founded in 1974, it’s a quarter-mile asphalt drag strip and considered one of the nicest, most competitive grassroots strips in the country.

Though it may not host any major NHRA races, the Bradenton track held the inaugural PRO Superstar Shootout last February 8–10, an independent competition with a $1.3 million purse, making it the richest drag racing event in history.

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A post shared by Bob Tasca III (@tasca3)

As you would expect, the three-day show attracted the top professional drag racers in the country, including regulars on the NHRA circuit in the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes, which race from a standing start to 1000 feet. With speeds well over 300 mph, the Top Fuel and Funny Cars used to race the full quarter-mile—1320 feet—but some drag strips don’t have enough real estate in the shut-down area for the cars to come to a safe stop.

The official distance was shortened to 1000 feet in 2008, following the death of racer Scott Kalitta after his engine blew during a qualifying run in Englishtown, New Jersey. His Toyota Solara Funny Car’s twin parachutes were damaged by the explosion, and Kalitta’s car vaulted a concrete retaining wall at the end of the strip and hit a steel post, and then a piece of heavy equipment. Kalitta, 46, died as the result of blunt trauma injuries.

It was thought at the time that trimming the competition distance by 320 feet likely meant that Top Fuel and Funny Car records would be frozen, as it would be impossible to go faster in 1000 feet than the cars had gone in 1320. That logic sold short the ingenuity of drag racing crew chiefs and Goodyear, and many major quarter-mile records have been eclipsed by runs on 1000-foot tracks. That includes the world’s fastest Mustang.

Which brings us back to Bradenton.

A perfect run for a nitro-powered Top Fuel or Funny Car is dependent on so many factors: Track preparation, temperature, dew point, prevailing wind, and, of course, the driver’s ability to launch the 12,000-horsepower car and keep it in the dead center of the lane. Worth noting is that the record is for “wheel-driven” cars, which leaves out the handful of jet-powered dragsters out there.

There was something in the air on opening night for the PRO Shootout, a Thursday; it was obvious to the veterans there that the atmospheric conditions were right. Multiple cars had easily topped 330 mph, and fans were speculating which of the rear-engine Top Fuel cars, which are typically a bit faster than the front-engine, full-bodied Funny Cars, would go the fastest.

So it was a bit of a surprise when Funny Car driver Tasca went 339.87 mph in his PPG-sponsored Ford Mustang Dark Horse that Thursday at Bradenton. And it was even more of a surprise when Tasca came back Friday night and went 341.68 mph.

That’s not only a record for Funny Cars and Ford Mustangs—it was the fastest pass in the history of drag racing.

That it happened at a little country track in Florida, and not at one of the major NHRA events at a premiere facility, shocked everyone.

But there’s no argument that it is legitimate, and it makes his car the world’s fastest Mustang. Of course, it’s lost on no one that there are very few parts on Tasca’s car that would fit on a stock Ford Mustang Dark Horse, but that’s to be expected by any vehicle that can go over 340 mph in 1000 feet. That said, Tasca credited Ford Performance for his record pass. “Their support and Ford’s aerodynamic and engineering expertise were crucial in breaking the 340-mph barrier,” Tasca said.

Of course, Tasca, 48, would like to set the NHRA record, but in his opinion, it’s a done deal already. “Now, doing it officially at an NHRA national event, I’d love to do it, but it’s already been done, and I’ve made this point very clear to everyone who’s asked me. It’s already been done,” Tasca told Autoweek. “Whoever does it is going to do it for the second time, not the first time. The first time at a national event, I’d love to do it—but we already did it.”

Tasca went on to say that the next big milestone, 350 mph, probably won’t happen in his lifetime. After all, Tony Schumacher broke the 330-mph barrier in 1999, and it has taken 25 years to creep up to 340.

Regardless of whether it is “official” by NHRA standards, Bob Tasca III did it in the world’s fastest Mustang.

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For five months—6 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week—Derek Drinkwater’s life was consumed by a race car that competed only once, in the 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans, where it finished a middling eleventh. Drinkwater could never own it: It’s worth too much money, and happily resides in a museum in Naples, Florida, while Drinkwater and his wife, Pat, live in Chiddingfold, England, where he wears several hats—a truck mechanic, a caterer, a race car driver, a popular television host.

The car he’s so taken with is called Le Monstre, French for “the monster,” so named by fans and the media at Le Mans, because the car’s styling is somewhere between cartoonish and hideous.

If Drinkwater couldn’t have the monster, he’d just build one. He told Pat that he’d be eating in the garage for a while. She begged him not to do it. “I have to get it out of my system,” he told her.

It’s all the fault of Briggs Swift Cunningham II, who was the sort of man who could make the average Joe feel good about millionaires. Born in 1907, family money funneled into Cunningham’s bank account from a variety of sources: A growing company named Procter and Gamble, the Pennsylvania Railroad, Citizen’s National Bank, the meat packing industry and multiple other businesses. And this was before he married Lucie Bedford, granddaughter of the founder of Standard Oil.

Cunningham didn’t smoke or drink or carry on like the rich people in The Great Gatsby. He preferred to spend his money in competition: He built a boat and sailed it to victory in the 1958 America’s Cup, and—along with college chums he met at Yale, brothers Miles and Sam Collier—he built and raced cars.

Cunningham was already an established racer when a pair of entries for the 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans fell into his lap. You’d think he would just buy a pair of Ferraris or Talbot-Lagos, but Cunningham was different: If he was going to France, he wanted to take something American.

But what? Cadillac was building a potent 5.4-liter, 160-horsepower V-8; stuff that into a short-wheelbase Cadillac Series 61 two-door, and at least you’d have something that might go the distance.

That wasn’t quite enough for Cunningham and his cohorts: Sure, they sent a stock-appearing Series 61 with an auxiliary 35-gallon fuel tank and twin carburetors as one entry, but for the second, Cunningham noticed the rule book said modifications to the body were allowed. He removed the steel body completely and had an engineer at Grumman Aircraft design something in aluminum that would be lighter and more aerodynamic. It looked like a bar of Procter and Gamble soap. The French dubbed it “Le Monstre.”

Technical inspectors at Le Mans scrutinized Le Monstre, rule book in one hand, fine-toothed comb in the other. No, the rules didn’t say you could replace the entire body, but they didn’t say you couldn’t. It was judged legal. Cunningham, along with tuner Phil Walters, drove Le Monstre. The Collier brothers drove the other Cadillac, which the French were calling “Petit Pataud,” which translates to “Little Clumsy.”

Little Clumsy finished tenth, while Le Monstre was 11th, a victim of Cunningham stuffing the car into a sand bank early on in the race. It took him about a half-hour to dig the car out by hand.

For some reason, all this resonated with Derek Drinkwater, who usually works on and sells Diamond T trucks, known mostly for the rugged six-wheel vehicles built for use by the military in World War II. He uses vintage trucks in his high-profile catering business, and he also appears on several auto-related TV shows.

This may not be the first time he has been obsessed with a famous vehicle: He was profiled in a documentary about director Steven Spielberg’s first film, the low-budget, made-for-TV Duel, about a sinister Peterbilt truck that chases a hapless traveling salesman (Dennis Weaver) driving a Plymouth Valiant. In the documentary, titled The Devil on Wheels, Drinkwater says he “fell in love” with the 1971 movie. He found a vintage Peterbilt attached to a tanker like the one in Duel, bought it on eBay, drove it 2700 miles from Portland to Houston, put it on a boat and had it sent on a four-week cruise to England.

So maybe spending five months building a replica of a car that raced once, years before Drinkwater was born, is not that out of character. After all, he had already built and raced a Cadillac like Little Clumsy, but that wasn’t enough.

It was Pat who actually got the ball rolling: She located a short-wheelbase 1950 Cadillac in Arizona. “We bought that and used its chassis,” Drinkwater said. It would not be easy. Le Monstre and Little Clumsy both remained in Cunningham’s considerable car collection, along with subsequent Cunningham-built cars, many with Cadillac engines. That collection fell into the hands of Miles C. Collier, son of Cunningham’s Yale friend and Le Mans team driver, who houses the collection at the Revs Institute in Naples, Florida. The Revs Institute was of great value to Drinkwater, supplying all sorts of photos and measurements of Le Monstre.

But what they didn’t have was any sort of blueprint. So Drinkwater built a big projector and a huge screen, on which he projected a life-sized side photograph of Le Monstre. He outlined the entire car on the screen, matching the appropriate measurements, and effectively made his own blueprint of the car he would build.

Gradually it took shape. Inside, it used the same Cadillac V-8 engine, down to Le Monstre’s odd five-carburetor fuel system with a Carter carb in the middle, surrounded by four Holleys. The same three-on-the-tree shifter and transmission that, incidentally, made downshifting for sharp turns at Daytona a challenge. The same drum brakes. Drinkwater resisted the urge to update the suspension.

Outside, Drinkwater formed the aluminum panels himself, which he admits is not his specialty. The panels were affixed to a tubing framework by airplane-style Dzus fasteners. Rear lights, like the original, come from a 1948 Ford. The factory Cadillac steering wheel was replaced. A small engraved plate placed on Le Monstre’s dashboard, just left of that steering wheel, read “Custom built by Frick-Tappet Motors Inc.,” of Long Island, New York. A nearly identical plate in Drinkwater’s car reads, “Custom built by Derek Drinkwater Motors Inc.” of Chiddingfold, England. The car was painted white with a big blue stripe down the middle, which was a Cunningham staple.

On Facebook, a growing number of people watched Drinkwater’s build take place. He let it be known that he was in search of a special gauge like one used on Le Monstre: Two people responded. The first guy had one he’d sell Drinkwater for $3000. The other guy also had one. He wrote, “I’ve been following you on Facebook. You can have it for what I paid for it 20-odd years ago: $200. I’m honored to be part of the build.”

Drinkwater finished his monster in 2018, and began driving it at some racetracks in Europe, including Brands Hatch and at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. He also raced it at Le Mans, in the Le Mans Classic, a series for vintage cars.

At Goodwood, both the original Le Monstre and Drinkwater’s tribute car showed up, and he had the opportunity to compare them side by side. The tunnel behind the driver’s head, containing the roll bar, is two inches taller and wider than the original, because, Drinkwater said, that’s what the rules require now. And the white on Le Monstre’s body has turned to more of a cream color, likely due to age. Otherwise, they appear to have emerged from the same factory.

Last November, he drove his car at the Classic 24 Hours at Daytona, an annual event patterned after the Le Mans Classic. The event was designed for cars raced in 1965 or newer, but Drinkwater asked the organizers, Historic Sportscar Racing, if they would allow him to come, “and they said, ‘Of course, we’d love to have you.’” His car hit 142 mph in practice, faster than Le Monstre went at Le Mans.

This month he returned to Daytona—his car wintered in Florida—and Drinkwater fabricated a trailer hitch for the car, hooked up a teardrop camper, and he and wife Pat hit the road, leaving Daytona and bound for California. He spoke to Hagerty during a quick stop, about 40 miles east of Austin.

“No roof, no windshield wipers, no heater—what could go wrong?” Drinkwater said, laughing.

“So far, the trip has been fantastic. We’re taking the scenic route.” He and Pat have basically taken a year off from work, so there’s no hurry to get home. Surprisingly, there’s no chase car full of parts and a mechanic following them—“We’re on our own, just me and Pat in the little camper. Tonight, though, we’re getting a hotel room. The camper is great, but a hot shower, you know…”

So far, only one thing has gone wrong: A couple of days before our conversation, Drinkwater said he received an email from the vaunted Monterey Historics, held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca each August. Drinkwater had asked to race there, but he was turned down because his replica of Le Monstre wasn’t, well, Le Monstre.

“They said the car’s not original, and I know it’s not the original car, but underneath, everything is a 1950s short-wheelbase Cadillac. It’s still an historic car, there’s no new aftermarket parts or anything else.” He said there are multiple well-positioned automotive enthusiasts advocating for him, “So I hope we still have a shot.” After all, he said, the event’s first race is even called “The Briggs S. Cunningham Trophy.” Even if he’s refused an entry, he plans to park it in the spectator lot.

Drinkwater’s car is scheduled to return to England in November, and he and Pat have a lot of America to see between then and now. A couple of days ago, he checked in to their Instagram account from the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. It was colorful.

Taking a year off doesn’t mean they’ll be relaxing. On the morning we spoke, Drinkwater and Pat had spent nearly two hours using the free internet at McDonald’s updating their social media accounts and returning texts and emails.

“The response has been fabulous,” he said. “The way people slam on the brakes to take a video of us on the freeway, I’m sure there’s going to be an incident.”

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Editor’s Note: The 29^th annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, held last March on Amelia Island, Florida, named Rick Hendrick its 2024 honoree. As you likely know, Hendrick is the owner of the Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR team, chairman and CEO of Hendrick Automotive Group, and a major classic car collector. Hendrick brought a sample of his collection to the Hagerty-owned Amelia celebration, including the Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro that ran at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans and was built by Hendrick Motorsports.

Last weekend was the 40^th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports’ first NASCAR Cup win, at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. That race was to be the last for the team, because supporting it was draining Hendrick, putting his car dealership business in jeopardy. They put driver Geoff Bodine in the car, planning to shutter the team after the race. All that could save them was a win.

Against all odds, the team did just that. A major sponsor signed on as a result, and Hendrick’s NASCAR team, as well as his dealerships, flourished. Hagerty’s media team prepared a story for the Amelia’s program, in which Hendrick pinned most everything good that has happened to him and wife Linda on that first victory.

Last weekend, Hendrick’s initial victory was celebrated at Martinsville with over 1500 of Hendrick’s employees in attendance. (Rick and Linda stayed home in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was having knee surgery.)

What did they miss? A remarkable 1-2-3 finish for Hendrick Motorsports, with drivers William Byron, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, in that order, claiming the podium. Jeff Gordon, presently the vice-chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, where he earned four championships as a driver, stood in for his boss. “Sunday was awesome,” Gordon posted on X. “Thank you to our friends, family, teammates and all of the fans for celebrating with us.”

For the first time, we’re publishing the Amelia Concours cover story here. If you’re not a fan of Rick Hendrick now, we think you will be after reading it.

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Rick Hendrick, the 2024 Amelia Concours d’Elegance honoree, has a car collection that now numbers more than 300 vehicles. But it had an unassuming start 60 years ago when Hendrick, now 74, was barely 14.

“I was going to a drag race in Virginia with my dad, and we pulled over into a service station to get gas. Sitting on the side of the building, painted in primer, was a ’31 Chevrolet.”

Hendrick, the Charlotte auto megadealer and NASCAR team owner, had never seen one. “So we approached the guy at the station about selling it, and he finally said he would for $250.” But Hendrick didn’t have $250.

Hendrick’s father, “Papa Joe” Hendrick, had a small tobacco farm in Palmer Springs, Virginia, where Rick grew up. “My dad gave my brother and me a quarter-acre of tobacco for working during the summer, and that would always bring us $250 or $300, so I asked him if he would buy the car and let me pay him back. So we bought it and brought the car home.

“My grandad had a general store that was a converted schoolhouse, so it had a girls’ bathroom and a boys’ bathroom, and he wasn’t using the girls.’ So we cut a hole in the wall, took the stools out and put a 55-gallon drum in there for heat, and that’s where my dad and I built that car. I ended up drag racing it.” That was Hendrick’s first experience with motorsports, and he was pretty good at it.

“The car stayed in the family all those years, but I hadn’t seen it since I left home. On my 40th birthday, my dad drove it into City Chevrolet,” Hendrick’s first major Chevrolet dealership, located in Bennettsville, South Carolina, “with my wife and two kids in the rumble seat. He’d converted it back to a street car and surprised me with it. So that’s the most important car in my collection.”

The second most important car is a Corvette, which Hendrick lost, and then found again. “I had this love affair with Corvettes, but I never thought I’d be able to own one. I was going to school and I was working in a gas station and a friend of mine said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a buddy who’s going to college and he’s got this 1963 Corvette that won’t crank.’ I went over to diagnose it and when I opened the hood, I saw water standing on top of the air cleaner.

“I took the top off the air cleaner and I saw a little bit of water in the carburetor’s butterfly. We put a battery in it and I couldn’t get it to turn over, so I said, ‘I think it’s locked up.’ The guy asked me how much it would cost to fix it, and I told him I don’t know—you’d have to rebuild the motor or put one in it.

“He said, ‘Well, do you know anybody who might buy it?’ I asked him how much he wanted for it, and he said $1000. I got my mother to get me a 90-day note from the bank where she worked and I bought it.”

They overhauled the carb, “but we still thought it was locked up. I pulled down on the crankshaft and it turned over. We put some gas in it and cranked it, but it had a knock. This was at night—when I turned the light off, I could see a spark down around the harmonic balancer. I shut the engine off, and I could see where the water-pump pulley was hitting the harmonic balancer.

“In true redneck fashion, I took a belt off it, cranked it again and held a file against it while it was running. And the motor ran pretty good. That was my first Corvette.” Both the Corvette and the ’31 Chevy will be on display at Amelia.

Hendrick had to sell the Corvette to buy his first dealership—more about that in a moment—“but I started looking for it and I found it about 25 years ago. Pulled it apart, put a new chassis under it—it was a pretty amazing deal, to be able to find it.”

Hendrick’s all-time favorite car is the Corvette, and his favorite Corvette is the 1967 model. “It’s the side pipes and the 427 motor, and the stinger hood. That was the model I remember seeing on a Chevrolet showroom floor, and I thought it was the prettiest car I’d ever seen.

“I started collecting them in 1977. I have every color they made in a big-block ’67 Corvette. Right now, if you include the newer ones, I have somewhere around 130, 135 Corvettes.” (It’s actually 147, nearly half of his collection.) “It represents a 40-year love affair with cars.”

He became especially interested in Corvettes with a “1” in the vehicle information number (VIN) years ago. “Jim Perkins, then the head of Chevrolet, got me the first serial number of a 1990 Corvette back when the first ZR1 came out.” Having the first car of specific models resonated with Hendrick, and he started seeking them out.

“I’ve got the very first 1955, the first ’56, the first ’57, and we just found the first ’58. It’s in bad shape but we’re working on it now.” Later-model “1” Corvettes are sometimes featured at major car auctions with the proceeds going to charity, and Hendrick has bought several of them. “I also found the only Corvette ever raced in NASCAR. We found it in a basement—a guy was pulling cable for a cable company, and he called and said, ‘There’s a car under all these boxes.’ It was a 1954 model, and it raced at Bowman Gray Stadium, and we’ve got it almost back together. I have 8-mm video of it racing, plus a story in the local paper about it, and I’ve got a picture of the lady we bought it from, when she was 17—the car had the number 17X on it—and I’ve also got a picture of her sitting in it a year or two ago. She’s about 90 years old now.”

Hendrick’s collection started with the Corvettes, “and then it was Camaros—I went through a period when I was trying to get different Z/28 Camaros, and then would come the COPOs and then the ZL1 aluminum-motor cars, then it jumped over to the first 2010 Camaro that came out, serial number one, then the first convertible, then the first new Z/28, then the ZL1 and the 1LE.”

Back to the story about Hendrick having to sell that 1963 Corvette, and almost everything else he and wife Linda owned, to afford his first dealership. Before that, things were actually going quite well for Hendrick. At 23, he convinced Raleigh, North Carolina, super dealer Mike Leith to give him a job running Leith’s import division. “Then I got recruited by General Motors and Chevrolet.” Hendrick wanted to own a dealership, and in true be-careful-what-you-wish-for fashion, Chevy said “Okay.”

The dealership GM had in mind was a failing store in Bennettsville, South Carolina, a tiny burg southeast of Charlotte. In the mid-1970s, Bennettsville’s population was around 7900. “My wife and I had just built a new house. I was driving a BMW, she was driving a Mercedes. This store in Bennettsville was a nothing deal, but GM said if you want a bigger store, you got to start there.

“So we sold our new house, bought a $28,000 house in Bennettsville, and sold everything else we had. That included our ’63 Corvette. Went down there—they were only selling 200 cars a year. There was no showroom.” Rent was a whopping $1700 a month. “They had two mechanics, who didn’t have tools. It was open, but it was out of business. That’s where I had to start.” He became the youngest Chevrolet dealer in the country. Hendrick dove in headfirst, working day and night to turn Bennettsville around. Turn it around, he did—soon it was the most profitable Chevy store in the region.

“GM lived up to what they had told me. They said if you can turn this one around, we’ll see you get a bigger opportunity. Eighteen months, three days, four hours and 46 seconds later, I got the call that City Chevrolet was available. Other opportunities started coming our way, and it just grew from there.”

He parlayed that little store in Bennettsville into Hendrick Automotive Group, the largest privately held dealer network in America, and the seventh-largest in the country. “We have about 11,000 employees, and we’re selling about 200,000 cars a year. We’re servicing about 2.5 million. From nothing, really. It’s been good.”

Hendrick has had opportunities to sell out, and he could have taken his company public. “But that’s not me. I want to take care of my people. You have to put people before profit. And I believe if you do that, you’ll make plenty of money. I don’t want to have to deal with analysts, I don’t want to have to attend board meetings. I like the private way, and I’ve grown to where I am today and I don’t need to be any bigger. The car business and the racing deal both started the same way, just a handful of people. I don’t really know how it happened. Good people, in the right place at the right time.”

Ah, the racing deal. He owns Hendrick Motorsports, a four-car NASCAR Cup team with drivers Kyle Larson, William Byron, Alex Bowman, and Chase Elliott. Previous drivers include Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Jeff Gordon, who now works for Hendrick as vice-chairman of the racing group. They’ve won 14 championships, including seven for Johnson and four for Gordon, and more total races than any other team.

But Hendrick Motorsports had a beginning that was every bit as modest and unlikely as Hendrick Automotive Group’s was. It was 1982, and Hendrick was racing drag boats. Hendrick drove one, his brother drove another one, and world-record holder Jimmy Wright drove a third one, named Nitro Fever. That September, the team was racing at Lake Lou Yaeger, a 5.5-mile-long reservoir in Illinois.

Wright was clocked at 213 mph when something went wrong, and Nitro Fever crashed into the embankment. Wright was killed. He was 47. It put an end to Hendrick’s drag boat racing. “After that, I went back one time and I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

Hendrick was always involved with auto racing, working on the crew for the legendary Flying 11 dirt modified driven by Ray Hendrick (no relation) when he was a teenager. In 1983, Hendrick had been helping out his friend Robert Gee, a dirt car racer who also owned a NASCAR Grand National series (now Xfinity series) race car, and who also happened to be Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s grandfather. “I became partners with Robert, and in our first time out, Dale Earnhardt, Sr., won a 300-mile race in Charlotte in our car. I thought, ‘Well, this is easy!’”

He’d learn soon enough that it wasn’t.

Hendrick had been keeping his drag boats at the shop of Harry Hyde, a NASCAR crew chief. The next step of the journey was a genuine twist-of-fate moment. Max Muhleman, a journalist who went on to be a noted sports promoter, “had been working to find a sponsor for one of the boats. For some reason, NASCAR called him.” C.K. Spurlock, who was singer Kenny Rogers’ manager, was looking to get into NASCAR, and had cut a deal with Richard Petty to drive for them. They were looking for a partner.

“Max called me one day and asked, ‘Hey, would you like to be partners with C.K. Spurlock and Kenny Rogers, and be part of a team that has Richard Petty driving?’ I thought it was a trick question. Who wouldn’t want to do that?” Hendrick had already been talking to Hyde about NASCAR, so it seemed like a logical step to have him involved with the team, which would be called All-Star Racing, recognizing the star status of Rogers and Petty.

On October 9, 1983, Hendrick and Hyde were in the garage at Charlotte Motor Speedway after the running of the Miller High Life 400 race. “Harry and I were waiting for Richard Petty. He was going to sign the contract to drive for us.” Petty won the race, but was caught in tech with a 382-cubic-inch engine (358 was the legal maximum). Still, he was allowed to keep the win, because that’s how NASCAR rolled back then.

But when it came time to sign the contract, Petty backed out. “He wanted to keep the STP sponsorship with him in Level Cross,” the North Carolina shop where Petty was based. “And when he did that, Spurlock said they didn’t think they could go forward.” That left All-Star Racing with no stars, and Hendrick and Hyde holding the bag. “There I was—no sponsor and no driver,” Hendrick said, “but we had built a couple of cars and had five people working for us, so Harry and I hired Geoff Bodine to drive. We started a few races, wrecked a couple of times. We were going to quit.” Hendrick couldn’t continue to fund the team out of his pocket.

“Harry said, ‘Well, let’s go one more time, to Martinsville, because Bodine is good there.’” Hendrick didn’t even make the trip to the half-mile Virginia track for the Sovran Bank 500. “I had promised my wife we’d go to a church service in Greensboro.”

After the services, Hendrick found a pay phone to find out how All-Star Racing had done. “I called my mother and she said, ‘You didn’t hear? He blew up.’ And I said, ‘Well that’s that.’ I told Harry we were going to shut the doors after that race.”

Then his mother laughed. “Naw, he won!” Recalls Hendrick, “So we went to Bodine’s house and wrapped his yard in toilet paper!

“You know, thinking back, what it took to get into racing then, compared to now—we were working out of Harry’s shop, we were renting the equipment from Harry, I was renting the Chrysler transmissions and rear ends, running them in a Chevrolet. It was a shoestring operation, but we made it, and actually won three races that year, which is unheard of for a new team.”

They made a movie in 1990 based on the story: Days of Thunder, starring Hendrick’s friend Tom Cruise as fictional driver Cole Trickle. Randy Quaid played Hendrick (the character’s name was Tim Daland), and Robert Duvall played Hyde (Harry Hogge). It was no coincidence that Cole Trickle drove a car with City Chevrolet on the side. That movie car is part of Hendrick’s Amelia display.

After Martinsville, the sponsor problem was solved when Northwestern Security Life Insurance stepped up. “It was a $400,000 sponsor, which was like $4 million today,” Hendrick said. “And before the end of the year, we got Levi Garrett. We won the last race of the season.” It was a trying time, obviously, but it was fun. Is it still as much fun as it was then? “No way. It’s too big, too much pressure, too much money… you have to have big sponsors. Back in that day, I would decide I’m going to drive a race, or Paul Newman, or Jim Fitzgerald, and we’d just pull another car out of the garage and go race. No, it was a lot more fun back then. It’s big business today.” Hendrick, as a driver, is credited with two NASCAR Cup starts, and one start each in the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series. He’s also driven in the Mille Miglia in Italy.

“Big” and “less fun” sound like it could apply to selling cars, too. Is Hendrick ready for the future in retail, which everyone tells us is electric? “I’m a dinosaur, man, no! But we’ll sell what the people want. The customers will decide what cars are built. You can only force so much on them.”

He’ll revel in hydrocarbons this weekend at the Amelia Concours d’Elegance. Has he been here before? “I’m embarrassed to say I have not. Ray Evernham,” Jeff Gordon’s longtime crew chief, “has been after me to go year after year, but between racing and everything else, I’ve just never been. This’ll be my first trip.

“I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been a car junkie my entire life.”

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This article first appeared in Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Click here to subscribe and join the club.

The first thing you should know about Snowball Bishop is that he was a racer. It’s also the second and third thing you should know about him. Don’t ask how Snowball got his nickname; nobody knows. The eldest of 10 children, he grew up in the hardscrabble hills of southwest Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, where Snowball’s daddy and his daddy before him gouged a living out of the lead and zinc mines of Wythe County.

Although they worked the mines for a living, the Bishops lived for racing. Snowball’s youngest brother, Biggen (nicknamed because of his stature; Snowball gave everybody nicknames) remembers their daddy taking the motor from an old washing machine, fitting it to a shaft with a drill bit, and using it to bore out the intake of an old flathead Ford.

Snowball inherited his daddy’s talents. One year, he took the rusted-out shell of a ’37 Ford coupe from the open field of his farm there on Major Grahams Road, stuffed a big Mopar engine in it, then headed out to the local dirt track and won—often. But after a few racing seasons, and for reasons nobody can quite remember today, Snowball hung up his helmet and parked the old coupe.

It sat for more than 30 years, until Tom Cotter, host of Hagerty’s Barn Find Hunter, entered the picture. Cotter first met Snowball in 2008, when he was searching for 427 Fords and happened upon Snowball’s field full of Galaxies. Five years later, while working on his book, Barn Find Road Trip, Cotter found his way back to Snowball’s farm again and met the old race car. In a drawl as thick as the fog that hangs in the Blue Ridge’s hollers, Snowball told the tale to Cotter:

“I was running a flathead in this coupe until the small-block Chevys got to be something I couldn’t beat. I decided I was gonna start running a Mopar engine. Richard Petty had started to run Hemis, and I found out he had a bunch of stuff left over at his place, 426 wedges and stuff. I thought maybe I had better learn more about that.

“When I pulled up in the driveway, Lee Petty [Richard’s father] was sitting on the front porch. Lee said to me, ‘Boy, can I help you?’ I said, ‘I’m looking for some parts. I’m thinkin’ about runnin’ Plymouth. I been runnin’ Fords and I can’t run with the Chevrolets.’ Lee yells back into the shop, ‘Hey Richard, how much do we want for that stuff?’ Richard comes out, wipes his hands on a towel, and says, ‘Would you give me 12 hunnerd for it?’ I said, ‘That sounds reasonable enough, but I ain’t got 12 hunnerd with me.’ Richard said, ‘How much you got?’ I said, ‘I got a thousand dollars, all my money right here.’ Lee said, ‘Richard, would you take a thousand for that stuff?’ Richard said, ‘Yeah.’ But I said, ‘Now wait a minute here. I got to have some gas money to get home. I’m a hunnerd and 50 miles away. And I’m gonna need a meal.’ Lee said, ‘Gimme nine hunnerd dollars. Load it up.’ And that started the ball rollin’. We won the championship in 1972. I run ’em and run ’em till we run outta 426 stuff and then I run 440s.”

Snowball always wanted to return his coupe to its racing glory. That dream started to become reality when Jordan Lewis, a cameraman for Hagerty Media, came up with the idea to bring the car back to Hagerty’s headquarters in Traverse City and have Davin Reckow restore it as part of our Redline Rebuild series. Snowball—after some convincing—agreed to the project. Reckow hooked up the trailer to Hagerty’s Ford F-350 and headed south to collect Snowball’s coupe. “I raced dirt track for almost 20 years, so that made the project appealing to me,” Reckow recounted to us later. “And being an old car made it even cooler.”

Once the car was in his shop, Reckow took stock of it. “It’s a ’37 split-window coupe with the rear-window divider and window center posts removed,” he said. “They used the frame from a ’55 Chevy and a front solid axle from a Ford. Leaf suspension all around.

They had a beautiful roll cage in it. I didn’t change a thing on that. You could tell they were very close to NASCAR country.”

The 440 engine, likewise, was a mix of vintages. “We could tell by the date code on the block that it had been cast on the night shift of January 3, 1972,” recalled Reckow. “One of the heads was from ’68 and the other was from ’78. I found a pair of ’68s, cleaned them up, and installed them.” Once the engine was back together, it was time for the dyno. Reckow was surprised by the numbers the stock motor made—403 horsepower and 489 lb-ft of torque—but knew he could do better. After tweaks and upgrades—long-tube headers, an MSD distributor, a new intake, and a Holley 750 carburetor—the engine cranked out 489 horsepower and 532 lb-ft.

With the engine installed and the car completed, it was time for the coupe to head home. But time had passed, and the checkered flag had dropped for the last time for Snowball when he died on October 14, 2021. He was there in spirit on the farm, though, and with the family and friends who had gathered for the coupe’s homecoming. “When Davin fired it up, it was just like back when Snowball would get the car ready for racing back in the day,” son Jimmy said, his voice breaking up from the memories. “He would rev that thing up and you could hear it for miles.”

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Having reunited with the family, it was time to reunite with the dirt—specifically, the dirt of the track at Wythe Raceway, where Snowball and the coupe had opened the racing season in 1970. “A static display of a race car is fine,” Reckow noted. “But to really enjoy it, it needs to run on a track.” And run it did, with Jimmy Bishop taking the first turn at the wheel. “Back then, I never did drive the car, I just warmed it up for Daddy,” he told us. “It was exciting. The adrenaline was up there—whew! You wanna go faster, but hey, I wanna take it home!” Jimmy’s younger brother, Ricky Joe, was next. “It wasn’t that bad for noise,” he said as he took off his helmet. “But it was right there where you know it was at.” Then Jimmy turned to his niece, Amanda—Ricky Joe’s daughter and Snowball’s youngest granddaughter. “Hey, you aren’t gonna be satisfied unless you go around here, girl.” Amanda hesitated at first. “It wasn’t even in my mind to drive it,” she recalled to us. “I was just happy to be there, to be honest.” After a few laps, she was glad she got a chance. “I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a 440 before, being around Fords all my life. I try not to cuss, but it was badass!”

That night at the track, Snowball’s coupe ran a few parade laps with Reckow behind the wheel and an American flag flying off the rear bumper in a holder he had modified for the purpose. Later that evening, the ’37 coupe ran as the pace car for the Modified feature race. “Having private time at the track was great,” said Reckow. “But putting it in front of the public and running some laps was really special, because there were people there that night who remembered the car racing back in the day.”

The fans will certainly remember when Snowball’s coupe came home, as will Jimmy, Ricky Joe, and especially Amanda. “After I finished my laps, I asked Davin, ‘Can I do a donut?’ And he was like, ‘Heck, yeah!’ So he showed me what to do, and I did a donut. That was the highlight of my life!”

Somewhere—probably where the cars are fast and the tracks are hot and the dirt-track racing never ends—Snowball Bishop is laying a smokin’ patch of rubber in celebration.

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Although people travel to the Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah to drive fast, there is really no place quite like it on Earth to make you feel slow. The broad, incredibly flat salt playa that hosts the annual Bonneville Speedweek (as always, weather permitting) is a featureless moonscape that has no reference points to indicate motion. The surrounding mountains are so distant that their bases are concealed below the arc of the horizon, and except for the course markers at every milepost that whisk past, there’s no sensation of motion save for the plink-plink of salt crystals spraying in the wheel wells.

Back in 2003, some sharp minds at Toyota figured out that of the 600-plus classes at Bonneville, none was for gasoline-electric hybrid cars such as its hot-selling Prius. Further, as long as the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), which hosts Speedweek, was willing to create a class, a car could go 300 mph or 30 mph and still set a record. I was then an editor at Car and Driver magazine and having drinks one night with Bill Reinert, then Toyota’s U.S. manager of advanced technologies. He let slip the Bonneville plan and I volunteered, without asking my boss, a full spread in Car and Driver if Toyota let us drive it.

While negotiations commenced with SCTA, a team in Los Angeles headed by Chuck Wade, who built special vehicles for Toyota including all of its Toyota Pro/Celebrity race cars, was tasked with modifying a stock 2003 Prius for Bonneville. Which involved gutting the car, lowering it, and fitting huge Mickey Thompson salt-flat tires and disc wheels.

It sounds simple enough, but it proved to be incredibly complex thanks to the Prius’s hybrid powertrain. The entire transmission had to be “clocked” relative to the engine to bring the driveshaft power-takeoffs lower, or else the CV joints would be eaten by the extreme angles. That created a rat’s nest of interference issues that had to be worked out. A large fluid tank in place of the passenger seat would be filled with ice and water just before the run in order to cool the car’s power electronics, and a bar was fixed to the back bumper so the Tacoma push-truck could nudge the Prius off the line.

Only a few months later we were out on the salt flats sweating under the intense sun as the lowered, gutted, and striped Prius was made ready for its first run. I would take the first pass, followed by Prius chief engineer Shigeyuki Hori, and then Toyota vice president Fumiaki Kobayashi. All three of us shared billing on the side of the car, above prominent Car and Driver logos. 

Belted in, I looked down the five-mile short course while I awaited our turn off the line. As we rolled up to take our run, the car suddenly refused to shift from neutral to drive. Our crew chief, Bonneville veteran and Toyota engineer Jim Leininger, yanked open the door and barked commands: “Press the brake once! Floor the gas three times! Press the brake again and try it!” Nothing worked, and while the starter grew impatient at this larval computer pod stalled at his line, we frantically rebooted the car and tried again. Finally, the Prius’s five-or-so computers reached agreement and the car shifted into drive. The Tacoma pushed me off the line and, when Jim honked the horn at 40 mph, I floored it.

While the stock Prius back then was computer-limited to 104 mph, the goal was to squeeze the Bonneville Prius over 130, a figure calculated based on its horsepower and very slippery drag coefficient. The car accelerated fairly lazily and without drama, and I had time to look around at the sun-drenched salt, the bustling pits that were passing way in the distance off to the left, and the mountains rising from the horizon. The narrow tires sounded like skis whisking through fresh snow, the salt clattering against the bottom of the car. Crossing the line, the in-car radio reported the speeds: 130 mph at the start of the measured mile, 131 mph a quarter of the way through, and 129 mph out the back door, for an average of 130.794 mph.

Later, for fun, because it was illegal for the purposes of setting a record, the team taped up the front-end openings and got 134 mph out of the Prius. Smiles and “banzais” all around. The Prius was shipped back to Japan, where Hori managed to crash it while showing it off on a racetrack (because of the oversized wheels, the steering was never able to turn more than a few degrees). Toyota thought it would crush it then, but back in Los Angeles, Wade volunteered to rebuild the car and it was shipped back to the U.S. Following the rebuild, the Prius lived a quiet life in Toyota’s museum in Torrance, California, before the company moved it to Texas.

The best part of the whole thing was that Toyota purchased full-page ads for its feat in all of the major car magazines, which meant that readers of our competitors at Motor Trend, Automobile, and Road & Track at some point came across a large Car and Driver logo emblazoned across the side of the Bonneville Prius in each of those magazines. Not that it got me a raise or anything.

Now the car has been marked for destruction by Toyota and spotted in a recycling yard outside Dallas. The conditions at Bonneville are extremely hard on a car, and corrosion has likely done a number on this racer. The Prius is also potentially un-registrable due to being built from a car that might never have been prepped to sell. Regardless, we say kudos to you, brave hybrid, and may you set a record on that first run at the salt flats in the sky.

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The thrill of lapping the infamous Goodwood Circuit during a Members’ Meeting is reserved for a relative few, and up till now, no one’s been allowed to ride shotgun. That’s about to change, and passengers will be getting in on the hot laps. Well, very specific and very engaged passengers only. That’s right, sidecars have joined the Goodwood race schedule for the upcoming 81st Members’ Meeting.

Motorcycle racing has been a part of racing at the Goodwood Circuit for some years as part of the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy, but until recently, sidecars had been left in the paddock. Goodwood organizers announced that a race between eight world-championship-spec machines will be on the April 13th event schedule.

These are top-level sidecar rigs that feature aluminum monocoque chassis and 600cc four-cylinder engines. With a slim rulebook, these mills often produce 130-140 horsepower while only having to push a roughly 460 pound chassis.

And two humans of course. While that power-to-weight ratio might not sound shocking, it’s not the outright acceleration that makes sidecar racing so thrilling, but instead the relationship between the rider and the passenger, known as the monkey. The monkey plays an active role in the motorcycle’s handling dynamics by moving their weight about to aid in turning, braking, and acceleration. It’s not an easy dance to learn.

The eight pairs of racers will take part in qualifying and head-to-head races over the weekend before the racing culminates with the top four teams racing for top spot in a Sidecar Shootout on Sunday.

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When the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg takes the green flag March 9 of 2025, two new cars will debut in the NTT IndyCar series. They’ll be fielded by PREMA, an Italian team that was founded in 1983 by Angelo Rosin.

PREMA, with more than 80 titles in multiple series, may be the best open-wheel organization that you’ve never heard of.

Though PREMA may not yet have raced in Formula 1 or IndyCar, graduates of the multiple ladder-type series that PREMA competes in certainly have. Those series include FIA Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula 4, the GP2 series, and other championship series that race in Europe and Asia.

And those drivers include F1 world champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve, and IndyCar racers like Ryan Briscoe, Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Armstrong and Callum Ilott. In F1, PREMA grads include Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. The team is the partner of choice for every Formula 1 driver development program.

PREMA already has a deal with Chevrolet for use of its new, 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged hybrid V-6 engine, and it’s building a “brand-new, state of-the-art facility” in the Indianapolis area. The addition of PREMA will increase the IndyCar grid to 29 cars, and the Indianapolis 500 entry list to probably 35.

No drivers have been selected, but you can bet resumes have been rolling in. PREMA has long had a good eye for talent: Members of its racing family include Rinaldo Capello, Kamui Kobyashi, Lance Stroll, Mick Schumacher, Daniel Juncadella, Arthur Leclerc, Jamie Chadwick, Robert Kubica, Renger van der Zande, Enzo Fittipaldi, Sebastian Montoya, Eddie Cheever III, Ben Hanley, this year’s IMSA Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring winner, Louis Deletraz, and the lone American competing in F1, Logan Sargeant.

IndyCar will become the 12th series that PREMA currently participates in. PREMA also operates Lamborghini’s new SC63 GTP program, which just debuted at the IMSA Mobil 1 Twelve Hours at Sebring.

“PREMA Racing, with their global reach and extraordinary presence in open-wheel racing, will be a great addition to our growing and highly competitive paddock,” IndyCar President Jay Frye said.

“This new chapter will also be beneficial for PREMA Racing and its people, producing amazing learning opportunities and know-how transfer,” said Rene Rosin, team principal. “We want to thank IndyCar for the warm welcome and Chevrolet for supporting this project. We cannot wait to start operating in our new Indiana shop and get on track as soon as possible.”

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Among the various one-make racing series offered by different manufacturers, the Porsche Cup is king. Now, Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA), the body behind that branch of Cup racing held here in the United States, has announced a new, four-race series aimed more at the endurance side of sports car competition.

The Porsche Endurance Challenge North America will consist of four races: three 60-minute battles and a culminating six-hour endurance race. Drivers of 911 GT3 Cup cars (the newer 992-gen cars and the slightly older 991.2-gen cars are both eligible) and those piloting 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport models can duke it out in this two-class, one-marque series.

The United States Auto Club, the sanctioning body behind the Porsche Cup races (known here as either the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama or the Porsche Spring Challenge USA West), will handle sanctioning duties for the new endurance racing series as well.

The series begins on Memorial Day Weekend, May 26, with a 60-minute battle at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. Round two will take place on August 11 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The final 60-minute duel will happen at Sonoma Raceway in California on September 29. Then, the series returns to COTA for the final six-hour mega battle.

Each of the shorter races will require one pit stop, while the longer six-hour race will require a minimum of four stops for fuel and other consumables like tires. The shorter races will allow a single driver to run the whole thing, with two drivers per car as an option. For the big finale, each car will require three drivers.

“The [Porsche Endurance Challenge North America] is designed to provide our one-make drivers—particularly those who don’t make racing their livelihood—and teams an endurance racing alternative with cars they know well: The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Club Sport,” said Volker Holzmeyer, president and CEO of Porsche motorsport North America. “We have focused on cost-efficient ways to go endurance racing and, as all cars are the same, a very equal competition between the drivers participating.”

If you’re looking to test your mettle in a longer race format, and especially if you already own an eligible car, the Endurance Cup may be exactly the challenge you’ve been hoping for.

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A surprise? Not so much. Monday’s announcement that Liberty Media, owner of Formula 1, would acquire 86 percent of Dorna Sports, which controls MotoGP, for an estimated $4.5 billion in cash, debt and F1 stock, was expected.

The central question was whether it would be Liberty Media or some other outlet, such as Qatar Sports Investments or the TKO Group, which controls the WWE and the UFC, signing the big check.

Wisely, Liberty is keeping Dorna CEO-since-1994 Carmelo Ezpeleta in place, as MotoGP management retains a 14-percent stake in the company.

“If Liberty has been looking for us, we have been looking for Liberty as well,” said Ezpeleta, 77, in an interview with a European sports publication. “It is important for us to have access to their resources and knowledge, to better tell the story of our championship. Liberty is happy with the way we have run the company, and we will continue with our own people, independent of Formula 1.”

MotoGP’s 21-race season began March 10 in Qatar, and ends November 17 in Spain, which is MotoGP’s home. Liberty says the company will remain headquartered in Madrid, Spain.

The Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas, held at the Austin, Texas, Circuit of the Americas, is scheduled for April 12-14. It will be the first look for U.S. fans at the new Trackhouse Racing MotoGP team, backed by the Aprilia factory. Trackhouse, known for its successful NASCAR entries, is the first U.S. team in MotoGP in over a decade. Riders are Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira.

MotoGP is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, tracing its history to a June, 1949 350cc motorcycle race on the Isle of Man. Thirty countries have staged Grands Prix, with the most recent being India, with Buddh International Circuit hosting MotoGP for the first time in 2023. This year, Kazakhstan is set to become the 31st country, with the Grand Prix of Kazakhstan taking place on June 16th.

The buyout is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Still, Liberty Media’s ownership of MotoGP is likely to face some scrutiny: The purchase will be subject to “the receipt of clearances and approvals by competition and foreign investment law authorities in various jurisdictions,” Liberty said.

Likely its legal team is ready for challenges, especially with the foresight that CVC Capital Partners was forced to sell MotoGP in 2005 in order to satisfy the European Union that it should be allowed to take over Formula 1. CVC had owned MotoGP since 1998. The Commission was concerned that owning both MotoGP and F1 would lead to television price increases and less choice for consumers.

Regardless, “We are thrilled to expand our portfolio of leading live sports and entertainment assets with the acquisition of MotoGP,” said Greg Maffei, Liberty Media President and CEO. “MotoGP is a global league with a loyal, enthusiastic fan base, captivating racing and a highly cash flow-generative financial profile.”

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The NTT IndyCar Series held a test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week for teams that had not yet experienced the new hybrid system that will be used in races during the second half of the season, following the Indianapolis 500 on May 26.

Participating were AJ Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing, Meyer Shank Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. With this test, all the IndyCar teams have now experienced the hybrid system. Reviews were mixed.

“It’s a complex system,” said Romain Grosjean, driver of the Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet. “It’s quite different. There are a lot of buttons to push.”

It’s the latest of many changes over the years to the venerable, long-lived IndyCar chassis. First introduced 12 years ago, the Dallara-designed DW12—“DW” for driver Dan Wheldon, who helped develop the car before he was killed in a crash at Las Vegas—ran its 200th race at the 2024 season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in March.

The DW12, used by both the Chevrolet and Honda teams, has undergone multiple body redesigns and safety adjustments. The addition of the hybrid system is considered a major update: Both the Motor Generator Unit (MGU) and Energy Storage System (ESS) fit inside the bellhousing, which sits between the new 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine and the gearbox.

One of the additional responsibilities for the driver is management of the regeneration system, which uses braking to supply more electricity to the ESS, to add more boost. There’s a manual and an automatic option for regeneration, and it will be up to the driver to fine-tune the system on track. “I think that it could change the racing, but at the same time, everyone has the same package to work with so it will be who uses it the wisest,” said Sting Ray Robb, driver for AJ Foyt Racing.

The central value of the hybrid system is that it will allow drivers to initiate a boost of power, similar to the existing “push to pass” feature, which is only allowed at certain times and on certain parts of the track. Another major improvement is that the hybrid system will allow the driver to re-start the engine should it stall, after a spin, for instance. Presently, restarting a car requires a caution flag to slow the race and allow safety crews to drive to the stalled car with a portable starter.

As you would guess, the hybrid system adds a moderate but undisclosed amount of weight. It’s expected that the car will need some new chassis tuning as a result.

The unit was developed jointly between the two engine suppliers. “The partnership between Chevrolet and Honda has been phenomenal,” IndyCar President Jay Frye said. “The IndyCar-specific hybrid power unit is dynamic and an engineering marvel, and we’re completely committed to its successful introduction.”

“I’m not fully comfortable with it, but I am very much enjoying it,” said Santino Ferrucci, who drives for AJ Foyt. “I can’t wait until we have it in the series full time.”

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The new Maserati MC20 GT2 is very cool, very new, and Henry Catchpole has driven it.

What’s more, it just might spawn a road car to rival a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. For the moment it is the freshest entrant to the Fanatic GT2 race series, competing against cars such as the Lamborghini Huracan, Audi R8, Mercedes-AMG GT and KTM X-Bow as well as a Porsche 911, obviously. It is also the successor to the legendary MC12 Corse.

With the same 621bhp, turbocharged Nettuno V-6 as the Maserati MC20 street car, the GT2 version is definitely not lacking in performance, but it is also intended to be more approachable than a GT3 car. Catchpole reports that it is designed to be approachable for an amateur as well as incredibly quick in the hands of a professional. To put this to the test, Catchpole was given eight laps to get as close as possible to the time of Maserati’s multiple championship-winning test and development driver, Andrea Bertolini.

Just to add to the pressure, the track is the Autodromo di Modena, a circuit that Catchpole has never driven before. And he had to talk to camera while driving. And, if you just turn to page 439 of the BIG Book of Racing Driver Excuses, you’ll know that a brioche for breakfast makes you slower. Thankfully, the MC20 GT2 has both adjustable ABS and traction control to lend a hand, and the secondary controls were all laid out according to the teachings of a certain Michael Schumacher.

The bodywork is carbon fiber but the brakes are steel. The GT2 category doesn’t prioritise aero like a GT3 car, but nonetheless it will generate over 1,000kg of downforce with its splitter, wing, diffuser and flat floor. The gearbox is still paddle-operated, but the ratios are in a six-speed sequential rather than a dual clutch ‘box. The dihedral doors remain from the road car and the GT2 can also be fitted with a second seat, to allow for training (or just very fun passenger rides). Catchpole shares that all in all, the MC20 GT2 is quite the balanced package.

So, how did Catchpole’s times fare against Bertolini’s? Not too bad, and the two shared a debrief to understand where our man could make up some time. See how he did in the video above.

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Jack Swansey holds a degree in anthropology with a focus on car culture, and he is the world’s leading ethnographic authority (by default, if you must know) on NASCAR fandom. His love of the automobile fuels him to discover what cars mean to the people who own, drive, and love them. —EW

After seeing Michael Mann’s Ferrari in theaters, what stuck with me the most was the gore.

Mind you, the motorsport history from which the film was adapted is familiar to me. I knew that Alfonso de Portago’s tragic crash in the 1957 Mille Miglia claimed the lives of 12 people—ten of them spectators, five of them children. Knowing it was coming, I still felt sick to my stomach as the red 355 blew a tire and launched into a telephone pole. The film did not cut away before the rubber projectile ricocheted into a nearby crowd. In the next scene, as the camera panned slowly along the visceral devastation, I wanted to look away but felt like I shouldn’t.

Francois Truffaut, theorist and filmmaker of the French New Wave, once wrote: “Every film about war ends up being pro-war. To show something is to ennoble it.” To Truffaut, even a critique of violence or immorality, by virtue of showcasing it on a screen, deems it worthy of the audience’s attention. Put simply: Movies make violence look cool.

That fateful, gut-wrenching scene in Ferrari begins with the family watching the Mille Miglia live on television. By the end, they’re all dead, killed by the very same race that made for exciting dining-room-table viewing just minutes before. Mann’s critique of auto racing doesn’t spare the spectators who represent its 1950s popularity, but that same violence provides an element of thrill to captivate us, the audience in the 2020s. Truffaut would argue that their real-life death is rendered somehow noble, in service of our entertainment.

In the modern era of halos, fire suppression, and HANS devices, danger means something very different in motorsports. You’re not likely to hear FOX Sports commentator Mike Joy remind viewers of the risks that NASCAR drivers take every time they strap in on any given Sunday. It is far more likely, as the feed plays a high-resolution, slow-motion replay of a crash, for Joy to draw viewers’ attention to the roof flaps and SAFER barriers working as they should to reduce the risk of harm.

Most of the auto racing audience follows the sport on TV or social media. Because fans overall visit the track at most a few times a year, broadcasters and hosts play a powerful role in initiating new fans into the sport and keeping veterans abreast of its evolving tenor. Their words have power, and their choice to emphasize safety advancements rather than valorizing the danger of days long gone is conscious. 

James Hunt, 1976 Formula 1 World Champion and icon of perhaps the most dangerous era of racing, said: “There’s a lie that all drivers tell themselves. Death is something that happens to other people and that’s how you find the courage to get in the car in the first place.”

We don’t talk about death in motor racing because it’s less common these days, but we also don’t want to think about it. We talk of racing tragedies—Dan Wheldon, Jules Bianchi, Justin Wilson—in terms of the safety innovations they brought about: the DW12 chassis, the Halo, the Aeroscreen. These are innovations meant to ensure that no driver ever suffers the ultimate fate again. Death is something we can beat with research, something that happened to people in the past. In some sense, this is true, but the risk remains. Many fans decry those who watch NASCAR races only for the crashes.

In anthropology, the word “taboo” is a linguistic relic born from an 18th-century mistranslation of a Polynesian word (tapu) and further misinterpreted by everyone from Captain Cook to Sigmund Freud. It most commonly describes anything that a community rejects so thoroughly that it becomes offensive to even discuss. (Freud is rich with examples on the subject.) 

Taboo reveals a culture’s morals. What do people consider so bad that they can’t even talk about it? Often, it’s tied to base biological functions like digestion, reproduction, disease, and death—basically, anything that reminds us we’re not so different from animals.

Niki Lauda was uncommonly forthright on the subject, quantifying the risk of death he was willing to accept at 20 percent. That candor contrasted starkly with other drivers of his era, who, both in real life and as depicted on screen in Ron Howard’s Rush, shied away from such blunt discussion. It’s an uncomfortably high figure. Hard to face. Better to lie, even to yourself, or say nothing at all. 

Which brings us back to Truffaut’s critique of violence in cinema. Merely by advocating for caution in the face of potential death, as Lauda did in Rush when he urged his competitors to cancel the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring over safety concerns, all the more “ennobles” the other drivers, like Hunt, who vote to go ahead anyway in pursuit of victory.

Maybe it isn’t surprising that YouTube’s algorithm continually serves me crash compilation videos. NASCAR’s own TV ads rely heavily on crash footage. And while there’s a more-or-less unspoken rule to not use fatal crashes in this manner, people outside the racing fan community don’t know the difference. A high-speed car wreck threatens violence, injury, and death—that much is clear. 

Death is taboo, but danger sells. And here’s a fun wrinkle: The Polynesian word tapu doesn’t mean “forbidden.” It translates as “sacred.”

British anthropologist Victor Turner is best known for his work on rites of passage. He identifies the in-between stage of a ritual: the literal or metaphorical liminal space on the very edge of social structure. By passing through it, participants of a ritual break down old social structures before adopting new ones. And there’s no better way to pull back from social norms than by facing base, biological functions—like death—that would otherwise be taboo. Think about the horror stories you’ve heard from fraternity pledge weeks; this stage is generally defined by “ordeals and humiliations” of a “grossly physiological” nature. 

Liminal spaces are edgy. Their absence of societal order gives people a sense of permission to break taboos in a temporary, controlled manner. Edgar Alan Poe called it the “imp of the perverse.” Looney Tunes figures it as the devil on Bugs Bunny’s shoulder. Smokey Yunick called it innovation. Whoever you are, human beings have a strange fascination with doing things we know we’re not supposed to do. It’s neurological as much as sociological—the hit of dopamine you get while you’re waiting for the dealer to turn over the next card, temporarily straddling the line between winning big and losing everything. Checkers or wreckers. 

To see a driver like Kyle Larson hold a stock car an inch from the outside wall at 170 miles per hour—“on the edge of out of control,” in the words of Days of Thunder’s Harry Hogge—is riveting. It’s spectacular. And it’s that edge that makes the difference, turning Larson from just another guy on the street to a special kind of person whose signature we call an autograph, whose face we want to wear on a t-shirt.

That edge is racing’s liminal space. There lives the power to compel, to thrill, to transform, and it requires risk. As much respect as I have for the skill required of professional sim racers and the Indy Autonomous Challenge, only real cars with real drivers get my blood pumping. Deep down in our animal brains, we know that big fiery crashes are scary, and we’re impressed by the people willing and able to face that danger and come out on top. It could be a NASCAR driver, an F1 pilot, or that guy at the go-kart track who always finds an extra tenth. 

Ultimately, I don’t have an answer for how to reconcile the mix of fascination and horror I felt watching Michael Mann’s Ferrari. Yes, it’s a good thing that sanctioning bodies have prioritized safety as much as they have over the last half-century. And I’ll always be in favor of erring on the side of caution when it comes to deciding when to wave that yellow flag. We should keep designing safer race cars. Make that line between life and death, crossed in every crash, as close to symbolic as possible.

That’s my rationalization, anyway. Hunt and his ilk surely had theirs, despite knowing the risks. Human beings are complex, imperfect, and often inexplicable; the societies and governments we’ve made are no different. Yet we always make room on the edges for liminal spaces, where we break taboos. Where the forbidden takes on an air of the sacred.

Confronting the reality of these spaces can mean accepting something immoral about them. Or something amoral, at least. For better and worse, that’s where that deep-down appeal of racing lies. 

The edge.

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Earlier this year we weighed in on the news of a lawsuit hoping to end racing at Monterey’s historic WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca. We poked fun at the absurdity of the lawsuit and also did some real journalism to bring the facts to light. Now we can pass on the news that Laguna Seca plans to operate its 2024 season as planned, as a settlement has been reached.

Those who brought the suit secured a commitment that a sound impact assessment will be conducted (though such an assessment had already been in the works), and that the track will make improvements to sound mitigation where feasible. Now that the suit has been settled, the County of Monterey may move forward with its agreement, authorized in July 2023, with the non-profit organization Friends of Laguna Seca for management of the facility.

In February, we spoke to Bruce Canepa, long-time vintage motorsports enthusiast, racer, restorer, and Vice President of Friends of Laguna Seca, the organization responsible for overseeing operations at the county-owned facility. At that time, he was confident that the law and the will of the public would both be in favor of continued racing at the storied track. After the settlement, Canepa was quoted in a story published on the track’s website:

“I grew up watching races at Laguna Seca and have raced there since the late 1970s, I have a lifetime passion for this facility and want to see it be preserved for future generations. With Friends of Laguna Seca, we’ve built a team of individuals who share the same passion, paired with business acumen, to make Laguna Seca the place we’ve always hoped it could be.”

This certainly seems like a win for the county as well as enthusiasts. We hope that this settlement brings stability to the venue, and that Friends of Laguna Seca can keep the beautiful and challenging track updated to remain a Monterey Car Week highlight as well as a bucket list destination for racers of all kinds.

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When Kevin Burke learned that his YouTube exploits had opened the door to a fully-funded season of time attack, he felt like he’d finally arrived. When he was told that the car he would drive was the one he once posted on the wall of his college dorm, he had to pinch himself. It all sounded like a fairy tale. Getting to drive and develop a 2010 Viper ACR Voodoo Edition in one of Southern California’s most competitive time attack series was a dream come true.

Fantasy Foray

Even though Torco, his sponsor, was footing the bill, Burke had obligations outside of rockstar driver duty. In addition to turning the wheel, Burke was responsible for determining which class would suit the car and Torco’s budget. That’s not as straightforward as it sounds—there are plenty of variables in play that can impact how well a car will perform in a given class. Ultimately, Burke elected to run the Viper with Toyo RR tires in NASA’s TT1 class. Even if they had to add ballast to meet the minimum weight requirement of 3,750 pounds, they still stood a chance of being competitive, since not every car in these fields boasts over 600 horsepower.

Turned out, competitive was an understatement. Burke dominated his first event, and soon the complaints came rolling in. “People accused me of cheating; saying the car was lighter than I had claimed. Nothing that heavy on medium-grip tires should be that fast through the slow sections, they believed.”

Burke’s initial success didn’t come without some fine-tuning, particularly to his driving style. The heavy, high-horsepower Viper required a different approach to the one he’d grown accustomed to. He’d cut his teeth in a Honda S2000, and that high-revving, lightweight roadster was a good bit different than the beast he was now piloting.

The Viper, despite being a surprisingly precise weapon for its size, was not as chuckable as the S2000. It almost had a split personality; surefooted and confidence-inspiring in the fast sections, but a bit clumsy in the slower stuff. That was partially explained by Dodge’s factory aero package, which the company says nets over a thousand pounds of downforce at 150 mph. The lower the speed, though, the more that the big car became reliant on mechanical grip.

He learned quite quickly that he’d have to drive the car in the point-and-shoot fashion through the second and third-gear sections. Even if it meant sacrificing some entry speed to ensure the car, doing what he could to straighten the Viper a tenth of a second earlier allowed him to deploy that power more efficiently. The sooner he applied the throttle, the better the delta on his lap timer got.

Despite figuring out how to make the most of the car as it sat, its handling was still a challenge. Burke continued to find success, but the reality was that the Viper was in poor form until the final event of that season. There, he began to understand why it was trying to bite his head off.

“We tried to change the alignment a few times, but nothing worked. It was just a handful everywhere we went. At the last event of the season, fellow Viper driver Shawn Romig showed me how Dodge had set the car up. After we made those changes, I could get in harmony with the car, but it was still far from perfect. It was finally semi-stable at corner entry, but it still had too much off-throttle understeer to commit completely.”

Seeing the effect of a few tweaks, Kevin had a hard time focusing on his day job over the following weeks. Daydreaming about improving on the halo car he’d fallen in love with was now a legitimate time sink. He could only look forward to the promise of the next season—until he received the call he hoped would never come. Despite their frugality and careful planning, the Torco coffers were empty at the end of the season. There would be no time attack in ’22.

The car’s owner offered to sell the car to Kevin, but the asking price was too steep. After that offer came and went, Kevin kicked himself for not taking out a loan. And so the car sat for a year. 

With all that frustration of not being on the track with the car he adored, Kevin didn’t hesitate when the owner reached out again and offered the car at a reduced price. This time, he’d stretch himself thin if necessary—he had to make it work. 

Shedding Skin

The first order of business, stripping the car’s red wrap to reveal its original black paint, felt like the kickoff to a new chapter for Burke. Armed with a better understanding of the Viper’s flaws (and having had time to think about solutions), he had an idea which direction he had to follow. At the outset, he declared that this next iteration had to be done in an exacting fashion.  

When word of his new acquisition made its way around the scene, several local shops offered free parts and support. However generous these shops were, Burke declined their offers, choosing to stay on his very specific path.

When it came to suspension upgrades, Burke pursued the right person rather than chasing what were regarded as the best top-shelf products. “I don’t shop hardware. I find a good tuner and buy whatever they know best, since they’re the ones who’ll be getting the most out of it.” 

At the recommendation of suspension guru Guy Akenny, Burke replaced his KW suspension kit with a set of Penske 8300 two-way adjustable coilovers. As Burke relayed his driving impressions on the old KWs, Akenny sketched out his ideas for valving and spring rates. Akenny assembled them in-house, turned a few knobs, and then put them on his shock dyno to verify the values were met. 

With the Penskes, he was afforded a chance to improve its on-track performance without any penalty on the street. “We went up in overall spring rate and also stiffened the fronts relative to the rear; 500/1000 to 700/1200,” he said. 

It still felt soft on track, though, and springs could only account for some of that. “It was either soft bushings or a flexing chassis,” Kevin deduced. To get to the source of the Viper’s sponginess, Burke spoke with Doug Shelby Engineering, who taught him about the car’s shortcomings and offered some bushing solutions. Though he found their metal spherical option intriguing, the added NVH, maintenance, and cost dissuaded him. This car still had to be reasonably civilized on I-405 and the odd canyon road. He made a compromise and installed a set of their capable yet more-comfortable delrin bushings.

The resulting crispness and control from the shocks and bushings transformed the car. Even the first backroad blitz was encouraging; even at apace somewhere between a trot and a canter, Burke could trust the car and place it much more precisely than before.

Preliminary suspension changes made, Burke turned his attention to the drivetrain hangups—the Viper’s gearing was far from optimal for road courses. The factory transmission ratios and 3.07 final drive were better suited to Texas Mile events than a fast lap around Buttonwillow Raceway Park. “They’re ridiculous,” he shares: “Third gear goes to 125 and fourth goes to 161!” 

A quick consultation with an online wheel speed calculator suggested a 3.55 final drive would keep the motor humming happily in the meat of its powerband more of the time and improve acceleration by effectively shortening every gear. The new final drive reduced each gear’s top speed by ten to fifteen miles per hour. Though this came at the cost of dropping the top speed from 187 to 175, he wasn’t concerned. At a medium-speed circuit like Buttonwillow, it’s acceleration that counts. 

To optimize the drivetrain without improving power delivery in such a traction-limited car would be silly, so Burke went to address the Viper’s wheelspin issues. “I knew the diff was broken the first year, but we made do with what we had. This time around, I went to Unitrax for a Wavetrac clutch-type diff. Honestly, I wanted an OS Giken LSD, but they were backordered with no ETA. This one time, I broke with my ethos; I had to choose an imperfect part.” 

Shakedown

After months of eager anticipation, the day of reckoning arrived. Kevin eagerly awoke and started the two-hour trek north for the first outing in the car since 2022. For all that the focused track mods promised, Burke wasn’t anticipating such an improvement in road manners, but Dodge’s recommended alignment, Nankang CR-S tires, and the new Penskes made his experience infinitely more enjoyable than similar drives on his prior setup. While he couldn’t call the ride comfortable, at least he wasn’t wincing any longer as he crossed over railroad tracks. 

After a comfortable drive from Temecula to Streets of Willow, he could see that all he’d been striving towards was getting closer. “The spring rates felt fantastic, the car was responsive and predictable, and the way it soaked up the bumps was a little shocking. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever driven on any shocks that were as supple as these Penskes were—out of the box, anyways. Yes, Guy turned a few knobs, but we’re still far off the right settings at this point.” 

Improved body control did not mean the driving experience was made dull by any stretch. It was even more eager than before, but the Viper now turned and planted itself with a sure-footedness that Burke hadn’t previously experienced. This additional precision was a good start—the more dialed-in suspension helped mechanically address some of the Viper’s slow-corner shortcomings while providing Burke a more communicative chassis with which to work.

That said, the burly-chested counter steering was still there. The car remained finicky with trail-brake application, and its stump-pulling grunt available off idle requires a surgeon’s precision to apply the power without converting the rear rubber into long, black stripes on the pavement. The latter task wasn’t made any easier by the recent gearing update. On top of that, the brisk 35 degree temps on his shakedown run further compounded matters—that’s well cooler than where track tires are happy. There weren’t many sections where Burke didn’t have his hands full, as witnessed below:

Even so, Burke came away happy from the shakedown run. A 1:18 around the Streets of Willow is plenty quick, and between the temperature and a bit more dialing in, he’s confident he’ll bring his times down more. He’s eager to get the Viper to Buttonwillow—the track that he’s optimized the car for, and one where Southern Californian time attackers make a name for themselves. 

Burke’s new role as a father leaves less time to develop cars, but nevertheless, from a time attack perspective, he’s in a better position now than he was in 2020. Having a knowledgeable shock builder on his side should expedite the setup process; Guy Akenny’s offered to join Burke on his next outing and help find the Penske’s potential. Plus, Torco still provides all his fluids for free. Burke’s in good hands to pursue his main aim: Beating the fifth-gen ACR’s record on street tires at Buttonwillow 13CW. That time is 1:47.7. 

It’s not perfect, and it probably never will be, but that’s OK—this raw character is so much of the Viper’s charm. It’s an experience that could never be called efficient or anodyne. “It’s a bear on bath salts. I don’t know how else to explain this glorious piece of engineering. I see lots of tweaks ahead, and I’ll enjoy it even in its unfinished state. There just isn’t anything out there that’s as rewarding or challenging as this car.”

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Williams Racing is returning to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and inside the team transporter will be an FW08, one of the Grand Prix machines that Keke Rosberg piloted to the 1982 Drivers’ Championship, edging out Ferrari’s Didier Pironi and McLaren’s John Watson. Rosberg’s sole victory, in the Swiss GP at Dijon, made him one of 11 different drivers to stand atop the podium in that 16-race season.

Accompanying the car to Goodwood will be Williams drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, team principal James Vowles, and F1 Academy prospect Lia Block. All four will share seat time driving the FW08 up the famous hill; Albon and Sargeant on the Thursday and Friday, Block on Saturday, and Vowles on Sunday. This will be first time behind the wheel of a Williams F1 car for both Block and Vowles.

The FW08 arrived in Formula 1 in the midst of the turbo era, and though its normally aspirated 3.0-liter Cosworth DFV V-8 was underpowered by comparison—making just 515 hp against the 570 hp put out by its 1.5-liter turbocharged V-6 competitors from Ferrari and Renault—reliability, aerodynamic efficiency, and consistent points finishes were enough to propel Rosberg to the title. He and teammate Derek Daly helped earn Williams fourth in that year’s Constructors’ Championship.

This year’s theme at the Festival of Speed is “Horseless to Hybrid: Revolutions in Power,” which will celebrate more than 130 years of the automobile in all its many guises. The event marks Albon’s second Goodwood trip with Williams, while Sargeant will be making his Goodwood debut. Though never an F1 racer himself, Vowles is an experienced hotshoe, most recently in the 2022 Asian Le Mans series. And Block, daughter of the late rally driver and founder of DC Shoes, Ken Block, is in her first year with Williams in the all-female F1 Academy single-seater series.

“We are looking forward to being at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed and sharing our passion for motorsport with fans from around the world,” said Vowles in a press release. “The Festival of Speed is such a beloved and unique event and gives us the opportunity to celebrate the rich heritage of Williams Racing and motorsport as a whole. It will be a dream come true for me to drive a title-winning heritage Williams F1 car. We can’t wait to take on the hill climb and put on a show for the incredible crowds that gather at Goodwood each year.”

The Festival of Speed takes place Thursday 11–Sunday 14 July.

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The top story of the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona, the season-opening race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in late January, was the nicely executed win by the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963. That victory notched team owner Roger Penske his first overall victory in the Rolex 24 in 55 years. At the second race of the season, Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours at Sebring, the Penske Porsches certainly figured into the race, with the No. 7 coming in third.

This time, however, the lead story was the intense GTP battle in the closing stages between the Acura ARX-06 of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, and the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

Acura’s Louis Deletraz and Cadillac pilot Sebastien Bourdais put on a racing driver’s seminar, fighting the very rough, dark track, slower-lapped cars, and each other. Deletraz made a brilliant move with just five minutes left to squeeze by Bourdais and drive on to a victory margin of just 0.981 seconds.

That was sort of the story of all four classes in the race: LMP2 was decided by 1.127 seconds; GTD Pro by 0.121 seconds, and GTD by 0.646 seconds: incredibly tight finishes before what IMSA said was, like Daytona, a record crowd, though IMSA, owned by NASCAR, quit announcing crowd sizes in 2013. The complete results are available here.

Deletraz, just starting his first full IMSA season, co-drove with Jordan Taylor and IndyCar star Colton Herta, while Bourdais co-drove with Renger van der Zande and IndyCar’s Scott Dixon. It’s worth noting that a week ago, Chip Ganassi and Cadillac announced they’d be ending their partnership at the end of 2024. No real reason was given.

The race was, according to Bourdais, a little too physical, with multiple contacts between him and Deletraz. “Definitely, that was way too many contacts,” Bourdais said. “Both sides of the floor, toward the rear, are significantly damaged. I think we were both be pretty lucky it didn’t rip a stem off a wheel because we probably could have picked up a puncture four or five times during the last few laps there. I’m not really accustomed to that and not a big fan of it. To be honest, I don’t think he needed it because he had so much pace. Hats off to them anyhow. They had the package at the end to make the difference. We just had to settle for second.”

The LMP2 winner was, like Daytona, the Era Motorsport Oreca. In GTD Pro, it was the Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RCF GT3, after a very disappointing Daytona. And in GTD, it was a repeat for the Rolex 24 winner, the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

What else did we learn at Sebring? Read on:

1: Two spectacular crashes, no injuries: If any one driver has owned Sebring the last 10 years, it’s probably Pipo Derani, currently a driver for the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac. He won in 2023 and set a fast time in qualifying this year. In the seventh hour, leading by a whopping 12 seconds, he was passing a slower car, a Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by Miguel Molina; they made contact. It was enough to upset Derani’s Cadillac and send the car onto the grass and head-on into the tire wall, and then the Cadillac flipped and landed upside-down atop that tire wall. Just like that, the favorite was done.

The other crash occurred on the final turn leading to the front straight. Katherine Legge, driving the Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3, was making the right turn when Fred Makowiecki, driving a Penske Porsche 963, took the turn to Legge’s inside rather than wait and make the pass on the straightaway, and appeared to boot the Acura into the wall, hard. She walked away, but the car was done.

2: Once again, the Corvettes and the Mustangs have teething pains: We expected it at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where the highest-finishing Mustang came in sixth in class and 31st overall, in a 59-car field. The top Corvette finished fifth in class and 30th overall. And while the new-this-year Ford Mustang GT3 and Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT.R benefitted from another seven weeks of testing and development time, the 12 Hours of Sebring finish saw the two Multimatic Mustangs finish seventh and eighth in class, but the Corvettes didn’t have much to show for a hard-fought day.

The top-finishing Corvette was ninth in the 22-car GTD class—one of the AWA-backed cars, not one of the favored Pratt Miller Corvettes, which finished tenth and 11th in GTD Pro, a class that only had 12 cars. The GTD Pro finishes don’t tell the story, as the No. 3 car was hit from behind and spun in the closing minutes of the race while running second. “It was very hectic out there and people were acting over-aggressive,” said the victimized Corvette driver, Dani Juncadella. “It gets dark here and there’s not much (camera) footage, so people start believing there are no rules.” The number 4 sister car battled clutch problems all day, with the crew eventually choosing to change the clutch, which cost multiple laps. The other AWA Corvette made it only two laps before being sidelined with electrical issues.

3: The dreaded BOP: No one much likes IMSA’s “Balance of Performance,” a formula the sanctioning body uses to level the playing field among the cars in each class, as well as level out the class itself. Let’s get to that one first: BOP ensures that the GTP class is the fastest, followed by the LMP2 class, followed by the GTD Pro and GTD classes, which use the same cars, but GTD Pro allows for additional professional drivers.

In the race itself, GTP cars averaged lap times of about mid-1 minute, 49 seconds, up to 1:50 or so. That kept them well ahead of the LMP2 cars, which are limited to spec-500-horsepower V-8s, and lap around mid-1:51s, up to 1.53. GTD and GTD Pro lapped in the low 2:01 range, up to 2:02.

It’s still remarkable that the rules allow such a wide variety of makes and models to fit in such narrow windows. It’s a combination of regulating horsepower, fuel flow, airflow, weight, aerodynamics, and other sophisticated factors. But balancing V-8s against V-6s, naturally-aspirated vs. turbocharged, and front-engine vs. mid-engine is a science, and sports car racing has it down.

4: The Lamborghini cometh. We initially saw the all-new Lamborghini SC63 the first week of last December at an IMSA open test at Daytona International Speedway, sort of a quieter Roar before the mandatory Roar Before the 24. Since the Lamborghini wasn’t racing at Daytona, it didn’t show for the official test but did for the preliminary one. There, surprisingly, it was the fastest GTP on the track.

We aren’t sure what happened between December and March, when the Lamborghini formally debuted at the 12 Hours of Sebring. It was now slower than most of the field. BOP, we’d guess. But it was a good day for the Lambo, finishing seventh out of 11 GTP cars and on the lead lap, thanks in part to an all-star driver lineup, including Romain Grosjean. Well done.

5: Youth is served, part 2: As it was at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in the LMP2 class, the winning Era Motorsport Oreca LMP2 07 featured 17-year-old Connor Zilisch, teamed with Era regular-season drivers Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel. But this time, Zilisch was tasked with finishing the race, taking over with about 90 minutes left. He drove like a veteran. If Connor Zilisch were on the stock market, I’d buy some shares. Zilisch spent most of his young pro racing career in the Trans Am Series, winning 10 times in the TA2 class, and winning his debut race in the top TA class. It was the first time in Trans Am history that one driver had won both the TA and TA2 race in the same weekend.

Zilisch signed a NASCAR development deal with Trackhouse Racing, and he makes his NASCAR Craftsman Truck debut this weekend with Spire Motorsports at Circuit of the Americas. Said IMSA co-driver Dalziel, himself an overall winner at the Rolex 24, on Zilisch’s final stint at Sebring: “You look at the list of drivers that were behind Connor on that restart—the talent and the guys with experience—and the kid just kept his head cool and brought it home.”

6: The Michelin Pilot Challenge series is healthy, too: Friday’s opening act for both the Twelve Hours of Sebring and the Rolex 24 at Daytona is the dual-class Michelin Pilot Challenge, a four-hour race at Daytona, and two hours at Sebring. The Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at Sebring was the usual rough-and-tumble affair, with 40 cars total in the GS class (such as the Aston Martin Vantage GT4, Ford Mustang GT4, Toyota Supra GT4), and the less powerful TCR class (Hyundai Elantra N TCR, Honda Civic FK7 TCR, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR).

First taking the checkered flag were Frank DePew and Robin Liddell in the Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo, 1.8 seconds ahead of the van der Steur Racing Aston Martin. In TCR, the winner was the JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS3 LMS TCR of Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor, over the Star-Com Racing Hyundai Elantra, which was elevated from third after the second-place Hyundai failed post-race inspection.

7. Two races in, two record crowds and large fields: Only IMSA starts its season with what are, by far, its two biggest races. Race three is pretty important, though: the 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 19-20. Eight more races follow, ending with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. In a surprise move, IMSA announced its 2025 schedule at the Sebring weekend, and it looks pretty much like this year’s. With 18 manufacturers paying to compete in it, pound for pound, IMSA may be America’s healthiest race series.

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Los Angeles is a town with a well-earned reputation for a short attention span. You’re only as good as your last 90 minutes, goes the old saying in the movie business, and the hook is always waiting to yank off stage anything or anyone who isn’t killing it. That rule applies to race tracks, too. The Los Angeles Motordrome, a board track erected in 1910, lasted just three years, and Beverly Hills Speedway, which opened in 1920, only four years until the real estate developers got it. Riverside Raceway managed an unforgettable 32-year run before it was plowed under to make way for a shopping mall. Perhaps the ghost of Ken Miles still haunts the place; after years of decline, the mall boasts hundreds of thousands of vacant square feet.

Given the long odds, Auto Club Speedway, aka California Speedway, did pretty well—26 years from the day the 2.0-mile D-shaped banked oval opened to host 240-mph Indy-car laps to the day the wrecking ball arrived. Drone videos surfaced in November of chomping excavators tearing away at grandstands. In posterity, it joins the “Indianapolis of the West,” the short-lived Ontario Speedway (10 years, ending in 1980) which was just up the freeway. Its land now hosts a CarMax, a Benihana, and an El Torito, among its other pearls of suburban banality.

Auto Club’s demise leaves a metro area of nearly 13 million with only one circular track within its environs: Irwindale Speedway, a strictly amateur venue, which somehow has dodged decade-old plans to convert it into a mall. Likely because the mall business, thanks to Amazon, etc., is in even worse shape than the racing business. Vows by NASCAR to eventually replace Auto Club with a half-mile oval on what remains of acreage that has mostly been sold off to a developer intent on building logistics warehouses (for Amazon, etc.) have no firm timetable.

It’s a sad fact that in places, racing struggles to pay the bills for the increasingly expensive land that it occupies, and the forces of redevelopment never sleep. To the north, Monterey County, the deed holder of Laguna Seca, was in December sued by locals aiming to curtail or eliminate the famed track. You can shout until you are blue in the face that the circuit, opened in 1957, predates all of the surrounding McMansions. But those people don’t care who was first, they really don’t. They have money and lawyers and they are game to try their luck in court.

It’s a challenge that race tracks share with local municipal airports. The airport where I keep my Cessna is a former U.S. Army Air Corps training base built in 1939, now under attack from a small but vocal clique of residents who wish it gone. They have already tasted blood in nearby Santa Monica, where an airfield that opened in 1923 and supplied thousands of Douglas Aircraft during World War II is set to close in 2028 so that developers can dine on its bones.

Once upon a time, a bolder America accepted and even celebrated these facilities as proof that the world’s greatest economy produced vital and thrilling pursuits that enriched our lives and supplied a creative outlet to our energy and industry. Now, a more flaccid nation that prefers to sit at home streaming and shopping foreign-made junk online sees nothing in these venues but noise, pollution, and risk. They are unwittingly being stoked by gimlet-eyed developers who are salivating over the land and willing to fund legal teams and sympathetic council candidates. Replacing a track or an airport with warehouses or 20 to 30 high-density housing units per acre will line the pockets of the developers, but it won’t do much for noise and pollution in the community. Everyone is bound to be disappointed—except the developers of course.

But the relentless demand for more housing drives cities to flatten anything in their path that appeals only to a minority. And like it or not, we are a minority. Unless we fight, unless we write letters and go to council meetings and support candidates who believe there should be recreational room for everyone, we will end up like the misfits in medieval times, hounded out the city gates and banished to the countryside so that we can continue enjoying activities that were once popular in an earlier, more energetic age. At least, until the city inevitably sprawls in our direction.

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One of the interesting bits of the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed is that the event is brand-, style-, and powertrain-agnostic. If a vehicle goes fast, it probably belongs on the grounds of Lord March’s estate come July in Chichester, England. Of course, fast is a relative term, and it opens the door for some interesting side attractions. From 2000 to 2004, “fast” included soapbox derby cars … but, of course, they were not just any soapbox derby cars.

The best-known event at Festival of Speed is the Hillclimb, in which race and street cars attempt to set the fastest time from the bottom to the top of Lord March’s driveway. That record is currently held by the downright absurd McMurtry Spéirling, which blistered the tires on its way up to a 39-second run in 2022. The hillclimb is uni-directional, though, and throughout the day, race cars will parade from the top back down to the bottom. We can only imagine their descent sparked the imaginations of a few racers, because in 2000, gravity racing entered the event schedule.

The idea was simple, and a low budget was mandated: £1000, or about $1275 as of this writing. Teams from legendary racing outfits like Prodrive, Bentley, Cosworth, and even Rolls-Royce entered, but as carbon-fiber wheels and high-performance bearings started showing up in builds, it became pretty clear that budgets were not staying meager. Crashes were relatively common also, even after the course was shortened a good bit. The Soapbox Challenge ran for just five years and now the cars only occasionally appear at the Festival of Speed.

Two of the racers that could make a return to the hill in the future are these two custom-built Rolls-Royces. Prior to the re-launch of the Rolls-Royce brand, these two gravity racers, known as RR-0.01 and RR-0.02, were the first vehicles produced at the Rolls-Royce headquarters in Goodwood. After being decommissioned in 2003, the pair sat on display for two decades before a team of apprentices completely restored them. These aren’t nearly as wild as other Soapbox Challenge racers, but instead mix retro and futuristic in a way that scales perfectly to the diminutive size. Even with less-than-ideal aerodynamics, RR-0.02 hit a massive 72 mph as it crossed the finish line at Goodwood in 2002.

We would love to see some gravity racing return to Goodwood. Maybe a rule could be devised to bring speeds into check, or to ensure appropriate safety equipment? If it’s possible to let that McMurtry Spéirling climb the hill at over 130 mph, surely there is a way to let some gravity racing happen. Until then, these two racers will be waiting at the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club in Northamptonshire.

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A pair of rare two-liter Porsche flat-six engines, discovered in a storage unit by Hagerty’s editor-in-chief Larry Webster, are up for auction.

Unearthed in Michigan, the magnesium-cased motors both came from 1968 U.S.-market 911s, although the same engine was also installed in the 904 and the 914/6.

These early engines produced around 130 hp at 6200 rpm, were designed to meet tight American emissions standards and were often mated with Porsche’s Sportomatic transmission.

That was certainly the case with the first of the engines uncovered by Webster, with its serial number showing it’s a 901/17 unit. The engine is said to partially turn over and comes with its fan assembly, fan shroud, and flywheel.

The second discovery is a 901/14, which was previously a restoration project for a pair of students at Rutgers University in New Jersey, although they don’t appear to have got terribly far with it. It also turns over, but there is some corrosion to the magnesium and steel studs and the air-injection lines have been cut.

Porsche built over 5500 two-liter 911s between 1965 and 1968 (4636 coupes and 986 Targas) but they’re a pretty rare sight today.

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In the high-stakes world of classic motor racing a spare engine or two would certainly come in handy, or perhaps they could help get another couple of classic 911s back on the road? The two engines are being offered without reserve on Hagerty Marketplace now. Click here and here for details.

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Whether it’s the Top Gear bit trying to kill a Hilux or the owners who proudly cross off 100,000-mile increments with apparent ease, the 1990s were an era that put Toyota on the map for its reputation for durability. Now, thanks to a partnership with Banks Powersports, one Toyota pickup can also say it’s crazy fast in a standing half-mile. Like, 173 miles per hour fast.

The truck was built by Chuckles Garage, better known as the outfit that built “Old Smoky,” the diesel-powered 1949 Ford F-1 that raced up Pikes Peak. After a crash put that truck back into project status, this Toyota entered and became a slightly smaller but just as beastly project.

According to the video it is built to run at the Bonneville salt flats in the stock body division, which is why it retains enough features to be instantly recognizable despite having a 2JZ inline-six stuffed under the hood. According to Scott Birdsall, the man who built the truck, it is making roughly 1200 horsepower with the wick turned all the way up. Since this test and tune was the truck’s first outing its output was never supposed to be that close to the edge. However, the electronics of the truck had other plans.

After a first pass to shake out any potential issues, the onboard data collection shows that the engine was making a righteous 42psi of boost. That is hardly a mild tune, and it explains why the 225-section tires on the rear were never really able to hook up and convert all that power into forward motion. Modern tuning can be incredibly complicated, but the data collection capabilities of modern sensors and ECU modules are amazing and enable us to learn more with less damage since we are no longer testing to failure to find the limit.

This truck didn’t get the luxury of a measured approach, though, and on its second trip down the track, Birdsall went for it and planted his right foot all the way through the timing stripe. With some tuning and sorting, we expect this truck to do something interesting should it make a few clean runs on the salt flats this year as it takes on the 189.460mph record set in 2020.

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Three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart’s professional drag racing debut lasted fewer than five seconds and was over before 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Leading up to the 55th annual NHRA Gatornationals, the opening event of the season, Stewart’s move to the pro ranks of Top Fuel got the top billing in the NHRA’s pre-race television commercials, over second-billed John Force. (Interesting that the sport, anxious to attract younger fans, focused on a 52-year-old rookie, Stewart, and a 74-year-old, 16-time Funny Car champion. But whatever works.)

Stewart’s 11,000-horsepower Dodge Direct Connection dragster faced Justin Ashley’s Scag Power Equipment car in Sunday’s first Top Fuel matchup. Both left the line about the same time, and both cars began to lose traction about halfway down the 1000-foot track.

Stewart and Ashley both “pedaled” the cars—getting on and off the throttle, trying to let the rear tires stop spinning without losing too much forward momentum—and the more experienced Ashley was able to resume racing a split-second before Stewart, beating him to the line with a run of 4.414 seconds, to Stewart’s 4.453.

But the reviews were good for Stewart. Ashley, 30, is the Top Fuel’s best “leaver,” shorthand for someone who is particularly adept at minimizing the time it takes them to get the car going after they see the green starting light, giving them a head start. In this case, Ashley turned in an excellent .031-second reaction time. Stewart took only .021 seconds, which was actually the best Top Fuel reaction time all day.

Stewart was buoyed by his performance. “I’m extremely pleased with my first Top Fuel weekend, even with the first-round loss today,” said Stewart. “I cut a 0.21 light against the best leaver in the Top Fuel division and beat him off the line. We were the first pair of cars down the track on Sunday morning, so we really didn’t know what to expect.” Indeed, the Gainesville asphalt proved very hard to get a handle on, even for the most experienced teams.

“I feel we showed a solid performance with the car and myself,” said Stewart, who qualified ninth with a 3.725-second pass at 310.34 mph. “There is zero shame in my eyes, even losing to Justin. Seven other guys went home after the first round, too.” The eventual winner was Kalitta Racing’s Shawn Langdon, who defeated Billy Torrence.

Stewart was not expecting to take over the driving duties of the Top Fuel car he owns, but wife Leah Pruett, the regular driver of the car, stepped aside for the 2024 season as she and Stewart try to start a family. He raced in the less-powerful Top Alcohol class last year. Stewart is also co-owner of a four-car NASCAR Cup team, Stewart-Haas Racing, which competed Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

“I’m not leaving here thinking I know everything about Top Fuel racing,” Stewart said. “I know it’s going to be a long learning process. It’s a tough situation for Leah not being in the car right now, but she has been the best coach for me. I would have liked to advance further today, but that’s racing and I’m still learning with each run down the track.”

The next NHRA race in the 20-event season is the Winternationals at Pomona Raceway in California on March 22–24.

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Michèle Mouton is the most successful woman ever to compete in the World Rally Championship. At the height of rallying’s fearsome Group B era, she won international rallies outright and placed second overall in the 1982 championship. Beyond WRC, she even smashed the Pikes Peak Hill Climb record and enjoyed success at Le Mans. Given this year marks 50 years since Mouton’s first rally in 1974, it’s an appropriate moment to revisit her incredible career highlights, hear recollections from the woman herself, now age 72, and learn how her achievements shifted perceptions of women in motorsport more widely. – Ed.

Michèle Mouton grew up in Grasse in the south of France and began codriving for friend Jean Taibi on the 1972 Tour de Corse. A switch to the driver’s seat came from 1974 in an Alpine A110—a sports car gifted by her father Pierre on condition she proved herself that year or called it quits.

In fact, Mouton ultimately proved so quick that male drivers pressed the FIA to tear the Alpine down and check for irregularities. Needless to say the car was legal. In 1975, Mouton also proved her mettle at Le Mans, winning the 2.0-liter class as part of an all-female crew sharing a Moynet LM75 chassis.

But rallying was her focus, and for 1977 she switched to a privately entered 911. She did enough to earn a Fiat France works drive the following season, but it was with Audi that Mouton achieved the most success, and their relationship began in the Quattro’s debut year of competition.

“I was called by Audi in 1980, June I think, but I can’t remember who it was,” she says. “English was hard for me then, so I went to Ingolstadt with a teacher who could translate.”

A test in Finland with [Quattro engineer and one-time Audi Sport team boss] Walter Treser earned her a works contract for 1981, but first Mouton had outstanding commitments with Fiat. She remembers how terrible the championship-winning Fiat felt in comparison on another test shortly after.

“I drove 500 meters then came back and said to the team boss, ‘The steering is wrong, something is wrong with this car. You try it.’ Then the team boss drove the car and said, ‘Michèle, the car is fine. I wonder if it is because you drove the Quattro…’” She laughs at the memory.

“The Fiat 131 was like a truck in comparison. The Audi had more power and power steering, so it was physically easier for me, but I had to get used to it. I didn’t like technical things so much, so I had to learn and adapt and understand how it worked.”

When Mouton lined up at the 1981 WRC season-opening Monte Carlo Rally with codriver Fabrizia Pons alongside, she knew the PR potential of an all-female crew was a bigger pull for Audi than any likelihood of her winning. She had it all to prove—and did so spectacularly.

Not at first, though. The Quattro was plagued by reliability issues and by the new team’s own operational problems in the early days, mainly because Audi took crew members from its production line, not other rally teams.

Nonetheless, Mouton finished the season eighth overall and won the 1981 Rallye Sanremo outright, the first and only woman ever to win a round of the WRC. It would not be her last.

A crash on the season-opening Monte Carlo got Mouton’s 1982 campaign off to a disastrous start, but she won outright in Portugal despite spectators crowding onto the stage and—at times—dense fog, and then followed up that success with wins in Greece and Brazil.

By the time she and Pons lined up at the Côte d’Ivoire—the penultimate rally and a notoriously tough African event covering 750 miles on gravel—it was a straight fight between Mouton and Rothmans Opel driver Walter Röhrl, the championship leader.

Devastatingly, Mouton was preparing to start the rally when news that her father had succumbed to cancer filtered through.

“My father died at 7 a.m., and the race started at 8:30 a.m.,” Mouton says. “I wanted to go home but my mother said to drive.” Without telling anyone of the news but Pons, she jumped in the Quattro and set out to win the world championship.

“I was 1 hour 20 minutes up on Röhrl, then lost 1 hour 15 minutes on a gearbox change, then had more problems,” she says.

Ultimately Mouton pushed hard in an attempt to recover the time and crashed out, losing the maximum 20 points she looked set to clinch in the process. Röhrl’s win put him beyond Mouton’s reach as her father’s death began to sink in. “I lost the world championship, but I missed my father more.”

Mouton was assured second place in the championship overall, however, and her second-place finish on Rally GB helped Audi clinch the manufacturer’s championship—a first for an all-wheel-drive car. No woman has ever achieved more in the WRC.

Mouton finished fifth in 1983 (teammate Hannu Mikkola won the title), was offered only a part-time drive for 1984, as Audi signed two-time champion Röhrl, and was entered in only one event for 1985.

However, in 1984 and ’85, Audi of America asked Mouton to represent it at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, a daunting 12-mile ‘race to the clouds’ on a dirt-and-gravel surface with huge drops off the side. Again she found success, taking a class win in her inaugural year despite engine issues and the ballast of codriver Pons, and going one better on the 12-mile gravel course for ’85—by now familiar enough with the 156 turns to go it alone.

“The Americans weren’t prepared for us at all at Pikes Peak—they didn’t know about turbo engines or European driving and I was a woman!” remembers Mouton, the indignation and determination still raw in her voice. “When I started to go quickly in practice [for 1985] they made life very difficult for me. The speed limit was quite low and I was over it by a small amount for five miles, and I had to go to the race director.

“He said Audi would have to pay a fine, plus I would have to run to my car at the start, like an old Le Mans race. So, they don’t mind if I jump into the car and don’t do the seatbelt up properly while I’m rushing to drive up the mountain?! I held a press conference to say how dangerous their idea was, and in the end I had to start with the car out of gear.”

Despite the penalty, Mouton charged up the Colorado mountainside in 11 minutes and 25.39 seconds, beating established names like Bobby Unser to the 14,110-ft summit to the win that year, and bettering the overall course record, set by Al Unser, by 13 seconds. “They didn’t know how determined I am!” Mouton sums up.

During her time with Audi, Mouton drove all iterations of the WRC Quattro, from a production-based Group 4 competitor to the far more radical short-wheelbase versions engineered specially for Group B. Which did she prefer?

“The first short-wheelbase Quattro [E1 S1],” she says, without hesitation. “It was the best and I really liked the twin-clutch PDK gearbox. The car only became too fast at the end with the second short-wheelbase car [E1 S2] with 530 bhp on asphalt. It was really hard to read the limit and, when you found it, the time to react was too short. Gravel always showed you the limit. You could feel it.”

The S2 was only keeping pace with the competition, of course, but things really were getting out of control; Lancia’s Attilio Bettega died on Corsica in 1985, then a Ford RS200 ploughed into a crowd during Portugal 1986, killing spectators.

By then driving a Peugeot 205 T16, Mouton was contesting the 1986 Tour de Corse when disaster again struck Lancia, and the sport as a whole: Henri Toivonen and codriver Sergio Cresto perished in a fireball that ultimately triggered the end of Group B.

“Henri was a very good friend, and I had retired two stages before the accident, so I was in the service park when we heard. It was terrible. Terrible,” Mouton recalls.

She went on to win the 1986 German Rally Championship that year and tackled various rally raids with Peugeot through to 1989 before retiring and raising a family (her daughter, in fact, was born in 1987). But Toivonen’s death never left her, and in 1988 she helped found the annual Race of Champions, in part to honor his legacy.

Initially conceived as a showdown between WRC champions in identical cars, Race of Champions continues to this day as the only event where drivers from multiple disciplines compete in such a format.

More recently, from 2010 until her retirement in 2022, Mouton served as president of the FIA’s Women in Motorsport commission, which encourages female participation in all aspects of the sport. In 2021, her career was chronicled in the Emmy-winning Queen of Speed documentary. It’s a compelling watch.

There were others before, and her legacy has inspired others since, but today Michèle Mouton remains not only one of the greatest female drivers of all time, but a woman who beat the best men when rallying couldn’t have been tougher.

***

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The first of anything often carries a certain cachet. Good, bad, or otherwise, first impressions are something that people only get one shot at. Bruce McLaren seemed to understand that truth, because this M1A race car made sure it was going to be remembered … only to have its connection to a rock and roll star be the thing for which most people outside the racing community remember it.

This gold over white livery car was built by Elva as the first production M1A, and the mid-engine design was still quite experimental in 1963 and keeping the side profile ultra-low required some interesting design choices: The fuel cell is split into four separate tanks held outboard of the driver’s compartment, and the spare tire is stored on the dashboard. (Is that considered an airbag?)

The small-block behind the driver’s compartment of the car you see here does not appear to be the original Oldsmobile V-8 that powered the car from new. Later iterations of the M1A featured even more power from big-block engines, but we can’t help but think that kind of power would be overkill in a car that weighs less than 1800 pounds. Don’t take our word, though; watch Jay Leno take one for a spin down the airport service road next to his collection:

The drive is at the end of the video, but the story that precedes it is pretty fascinating. The striking gold-and-white color combination was not Bruce’s original vision for this M1A. The car was originally white with a green stripe down the center, but when it was cast in a movie alongside Elvis, the gold hue was sprayed on and the look seems to have stuck. The movie, Spinout, debuted in 1966 and featured a whole host of awesome iron alongside the superstar lead actor.

“This car is a great example of how sought after early cars are by collectors and enthusiasts,” says Greg Ingold, Hagerty Price Guide editor. “While the luster of the Elvis connection is undoubtedly a plus, it is likely more of an interesting footnote compared to the racing and development history of the M1A.”

Regardless of what makes this McLaren cool to you, we can all agree it is cool. How could a race car designed by Bruce and powered by a small-block inhaling through quad Weber carbs not be cool?

***

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The F.A.T. Ice Race in Aspen, Colorado, must be the coolest car event on the planet. Where else could you hope to see the 1998 Porsche 911 GT1 that won Le Mans sliding around on snow alongside a genuine police Mini? At the inaugural running of the U.S. edition of the F.A.T. Ice Race, Henry Catchpole soaks up the atmosphere, hitches a lift in a Group B Audi Sport Quattro S1, and drives three very different cars… and a piste basher!

The F.A.T. Ice Race is the brainchild of Ferdi Porsche. In order to understand more about the event and the F.A.T. International brand, Henry jumps into the passenger seat of Ferdi’s rare 964 Carrera 4 Lightweight. One of just 20 cars ever produced, it is effectively a 964 RS with manually adjustable four-wheel drive. Needless to say, Ferdi drives it with gusto and no little skill.

First of the cars that Catchpole gets to drive is the Corvette E-Ray. It proves to be one of the quickest cars around the snowy course, thanks to its clever hybrid all-wheel-drive system that utilizes an electric motor on the front axle in addition to the 6.2-liter, naturally aspirated V-8 powering the rear wheels. It also has heated seats and a heated steering wheel, which is nice. Sideways, but snug.

Second on the driving list is NISMO’s Safari Z, which was created as a working concept for the SEMA show in 2023. Its classic front-engine, rear-drive balance was perfect for some snow drifting, and the spot lamps were perhaps only outdone by those on the Ford Escort WRC car that was also in attendance.

The last car on the list for Catchpole is also the most extraordinary—Ryan Tuerck’s 1966 Toyota Stout pickup. This is no ordinary Stout, with a custom chassis, a beautiful, exposed cantilever rear suspension, and a turbocharged four-cylinder under the bonnet that delivers 600 hp. All the considerable steering lock is certainly put to good use!

As well as driving cars, we also take time to interview some of the other entrants. We chat with Tuerck, obviously, but also with Le Mans winners Stéphane Ortelli and Emanuele Pirro, 911 guru Leh Keen, and all-round legend Jeff Zwart. Jo Scarbo is also quizzed about his brand-new creation, the SV Rover, which made its debut on the ice in Aspen. Paying homage to Land Rovers, but with a mid-mounted 1000-hp supercharged V-8, 30 inches of Baja-truck wheel travel, and movable bodywork, it is quite the piece of kit.

Strap in and hit the ice!

***

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It is 1986. Somewhere, on an unrestricted section of German autobahn, the speedometer of a BMW 5-Series clicks upward, hurtling toward maximum. Inside, two young computer programmers chatter excitedly as the revs rise, the top speed modest by European standards, but double the highest limits in their native Japan. There’s no ticking clock, no announcer shouting “Checkpoint!” But at the wheel is a renegade gearhead and Sega employee, and he’s in the process of creating one of the greatest driving games of all time: OutRun.

Note carefully: that’s driving game, not racing game. Released in 1986 to become almost instantly the most popular arcade game in the world, Sega’s OutRun was all about the feel of driving at high speed, rather than competing against rivals. At the wheel of their own convertible Testarossas, thousands of kids poured in quarter after quarter chasing that thrill.

Ferrari’s Testarossa is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and it has long been a staple 1980s poster car, rivaled only by the Countach. The most famous example has to be the white 1986 Testarossa that first showed up in the third season of Miami Vice. But the runner up, and arguably more important to a generation, was OutRun’s digitized Testarossa, and its Ferrari roots run deeper than you expect.

First, an introduction is needed to the Sega employee at the wheel of that BMW 520i. His name is Yu Suzuki, and his influence on video game design over the decades is so vast as to have his Virtua Fighter—one of the first games to use 3D characters—enshrined in the Smithsonian as the only video game on permanent display. But from the very beginning, he never had an interest in playing video games.

“The reason I started making games is I joined a video game company,” Suzuki told Eurogamer in 2015. “That’s it! It’s not like I wanted to be a game designer. I just entered the game company.”

That company was Sega, and Suzuki was about to hand it the first of a series of hit games. After successfully launching a boxing game, he turned his focus on pushing the limits of technology to create a gaming experience faithful to his love of motorcycles. At the time, Suzuki was mostly interested in motocross and Dakar, but he had expanded into watching circuit racing thanks to the success of American racer Freddie Spencer.

Spencer, who was born in Louisiana, started racing for Honda in the late 1970s, and gave the company its first superbike win in 1980. In 1983, he rode a viciously quick two-stroke Honda NS500 to the 500cc Grand Prix world championship, becoming the youngest-ever rider to do so (Marc Márquez would break this record, but not for three decades). The success of a Japanese motorcycle maker on the world stage came with an explosion of growth in new fans of the sport at home in Japan. Suzuki was among them.

His breakthrough arcade cabinet game was called Hang-On, and it was the first of Sega’s “taikan” games. These were a series of games with hydraulically activated controls, where the cabinet would actually move—action not just on-screen, but in real life. In the case of Hang-On, riders sat on a scale-sized motorcycle and leaned into the turns displayed on a screen in front of the handlebars.

Launched in three styles (a rideable bike plus two simplified versions with just handlebars), Hang-On was projected to sell a few thousand units. Instead, it exceeded expectations by four times, and became Sega’s bestseller. Obviously Sega executives wanted Suzuki to make lightning strike twice. He did, and then some.

Originally, the concept behind OutRun was 1976’s Cannonball Run. Suzuki’s plan was to head to the U.S. and drive from California to Florida, noting the terrain he passed through on the way. Instead, Sega sent him to Europe, along with a superior to keep an eye on things, and a video camera to capture the trip.

In that rented BMW, Suzuki and his project manager, Youji Ishi, started out from Frankfurt with no firm directive other than a need to depart from Rome for Japan in three weeks. They drove Germany’s Romantic Road through Bavaria, crossed into France, traveled through Chamonix to Nice and then Monaco.

And it was there, in Monte Carlo, that Suzuki found his hero car. After driving the F1 course, he stumbled across a street-parked Testarossa and instantly knew that this was the perfect fit for his game. On return to Japan, he and a small team of artists tracked down one there and photographed it exhaustively for reference.

All this effort to create a series of pixelated sprites may seem overkill, but game designers were pitting their imagination against the limits of technology at the time. Suzuki wanted the feel of high-speed driving to be as accurate as possible, and the exotic shape of the Testarossa would set things off.

OutRun was released in September 1986. By 1987, it was the highest-grossing arcade game in the world, and Sega’s best-ever performer for the entire decade.

In the game, which features a style influenced by digital artist Hiroshi Nagai, players start off on a California-style stage, just as Suzuki had initially planned for his trip. The terrain then transitions to a more European look, heavily based upon the Romantic Road. Tires screech as the terrain rolls and the scenery blurs past. It’s hardly a simulator, but it’s still a thrill to play even now.

With two knockout hits under his belt, Suzuki was a rockstar at Sega. This was handy, as he was hardly a corporate drone, not the kind to keep to early morning starts and a regimented work week. He formed his own sub-studio, called AM2, away from Sega’s main offices, and he was known for keeping night-owl hours.

Suzuki’s success through the 1980s and 1990s and beyond extended to the point that he was able to buy his own Ferrari, to add to the Ducati and Hayabusa motorcycles he kept in his garage. It wasn’t a Testarossa, but a F355, one of the best-looking cars Maranello ever made.

He would go on to use it to develop another standout automotive arcade game, 1999’s F355 Challenge. This racer was a lot more hardcore simulator than lighthearted OutRun, and it was developed with on-track data collected in Suzuki’s own F355. There are rumors that then-Ferrari F1 racer Rubens Barrichello was so impressed by the game’s accuracy that he even used it to practice a little.

In addition to titles like Daytona and Virtua Racer, F355 Challenge and OutRun cement Yu Suzuki as one of the greatest automotive video game designers of all time, which is to say nothing of the best-selling games in other genres he created. He still says he doesn’t have much time for actually playing games, despite enjoying the work of designing them. He’d rather be riding or driving for real.

But because he tried to make OutRun feel authentic to his genuine passions, Suzuki gave many a kid their first taste of driving freedom. Maybe that kid never grew up to be able to afford a Testarossa, but perhaps an old Alfa Romeo wasn’t entirely out of reach.

So, grab your keys, because that clock never stops ticking. Get out there and hit those checkpoints.

***

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Low sun flickers through straight rows of evergreen firs. In the air there is a song of rustling branches and snow crunching under the weight of winter boots. The Rocky Mountains look painted on the horizon in pale whites, blues, and browns. The whole scene is a Bob Ross piece come to life.

A race car slices through the canvas, sliding, snorting, shifting. Hold on to your brushes, Colorado, we’re going ice racing.

Earlier this month, a bunch of people who like cars and don’t mind the cold gathered for the F.A.T. International ice race in Aspen, Colorado. Fans and racers were greeted by an invitation-only car roster that contained everything from the Le Mans-winning Porsche GT1 to a Meyers Manx dune buggy. And the competitors were equally eclectic, with stunt drivers, road racers, circle trackers, influencers, engineers, and even Hagerty’s very own YouTube video host of The Driver’s Seat, Henry Catchpole, charging out onto the snow.

The temporary track, which was constructed along with a paddock and clubhouse on a sprawling tree farm, was a technical series of twists and turns with plenty of opportunities to get sideways. For three days, drivers tackled the slippery snow-ice surface, sending clouds of the white stuff sky-high.

The festival, held just outside of America’s winter-skiing mecca, was the first of its kind in the United States. The affair has plenty of history overseas. Its roots harken all the way back to 1952, in Zell Am See, Austria, where several skiers tethered themselves to the back of motorcycles and raced around a frozen lake. This sport, called skijoring (look it up later on YouTube), marked the beginning of Porsche’s ice-capades.

Zell Am See is a winter sports utopia in the Austrian Alps and served as the location of Porsche’s family estate. The first ice race was held to honor Ferdinand Porsche, who was laid to rest in the town a year earlier.

After the first go in 1952, Austria’s frozen speed fest became an annual tradition, and for over two decades, glove-wearing thrill-seekers gathered to compete on the frozen surface of Lake Zell. Then, in 1974, the event was canceled after a snow plow fell through the ice and its driver drowned. Zell Am See’s ice racing scene went dark for over four decades.

In 2019, the great-grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, Ferdi, championed the event’s revival. Along with college friend Vinzenz Greger, Ferdi brought the ice race back to life.

“We studied together at the University of Vienna and wondered why only a few young people of our generation are as interested in motorsport as we both are,” Ferdi said in a Porsche press release. “One day, when we were skiing in Zell am See, we noticed the studded tires on my father’s Porsche 550. I knew a little about the events that had taken place there many years ago—but unfortunately far too little. It was incomprehensible to me that ice racing had not taken place for many years.”

The two joined forces, with former F1 driver Hans-Joachim Stuck and ex-Porsche factory driver Richard Lietz also on board to launch the rebirth.

The first three years of the GP Ice Race, as it was initially called, were a hit. However, the ensuing events were delayed due to the pandemic. By the beginning of 2024, Ferdi and friends had reloaded and rebranded: GP Ice Race became F.A.T. Ice Race.

Motorsport history buffs might recognize the brand as a sponsor that adorned the side of Porsche’s fiercest race cars. Hello, 962! Back then F.A.T. was a German logistics company. Now, F.A.T. International is a projects and events company, co-founded by Ferdi.

“The name F.A.T. International caught our eye,” said Ferdi, who was searching for a name to reestablish the event. “The brand wasn’t there anymore so the intellectual property was up for grabs. We felt that it was the perfect roof brand for the whole event going forward. And because it said ‘international’, we decided to go beyond Austria.”

First stop: America. Aspen, Colorado, specifically.

In its first year, the Aspen ice race brought the heat. “If you ain’t sliding, we ain’t providing,” said Ferdi. Indeed, the on-track action was awesome, and set against Colorado’s scenic backdrop, it was a photographer’s day dream.

Mobil 1, Chevrolet, VW, Ford, and obviously Porsche got in on the fun. The result was a group of cars that looked more like a Gran Turismo selection screen than a race paddock: a Baja-suited Land Rover, a Mercedes Gullwing, two Ford RS2000s, and a school of safari-style 911s, just to name a few.

“The amount of amazing race cars and road cars that were brought in was something to drool over,” said Ryan Tuerck, who supplied two rides for the exhibition: a V-10-powered Supra and a 1966 Toyota Stout drift truck. “The Toyota Stout, being a proper drift car with a lot of steering angle, really allowed me to throw it around and not worry about hitting an icy spot which would normally spin you out.”

Most of the runs were timed, though fast laps were probably the last thing on everyone’s mind (aside from Tanner Foust who laid down an absolute heater in a stock VW Golf R). “It’s not so much about like split seconds or being the fastest,” says Ferdi. “It’s more about enjoying the time together, sitting in the sun, having a beer after discussing cars.”

Drivers swapped notes and cars, creating some uncommon pairings along the way. Stéphane Ortelli, the French driver who won Le Mans in the GT1-98 R that was supplied for the event, hopped in a Porsche 991 GT3 Cup car, and Henry Catchpole borrowed the “keys” to Tuerck’s drift truck.

The final two days ended with an awards ceremony and, of course, an electronic dance DJ set. “The car is the centerpiece, what brings us all together, but in the end the people bring the party,” said Ferdi. Consider it brought.

We’re already looking forward to next year’s slippery festivities.

***

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Most forms of auto racing have seen only limited participation from Black Americans. Drag racing in my hometown of Chicago, on the other hand, is a whole different story. The toddlin’ town has bred many Black racers who competed on both strip and street. Black History Month is a good time to share fascinating chapters of this history, especially those that people still living today can recall.

Raylo Riley, a successful Black drag racer and the unofficial historian of the Chicago scene, speaks with reverence about the early days. “Frank King was among the first black drag racers that I know of,” Riley told Hagerty. “In 1962, King’s Chevy-powered Henry J was the car to beat at street races late at night. So when a race promotor named Bill Schade organized an indoor drag race at Chicago’s International Amphitheater, Frank was there. Clyde Hopper was there too. He was a Black drag racer who ran some badass Mopars on the street and at the track. I’m not sure if there were other Black racers at the Amphitheater drags,” Riley continued, “but Messino might know.”

Dick Messino is an octogenarian Chicago drag racer who was featured on the Hagerty site last year. He’s a white guy who did business with Black drag racers for many years and has a near-photographic memory. He told me that Hopper and King weren’t the only Black racers at that first indoor drag event. “There were at least half a dozen Black guys,” Messino said, “and most of them were fast and making big-dollar side bets.” According to Messino, Hopper died in a long-ago street race on South Chicago Avenue—a lightly traveled artery that was the scene of many races back in the day.

Messino recalls another successful Black racer known to him simply as “John Junior.” In the late ’60s, Junior put together a ’67 Camaro race car with an engine from Simonsen’s Auto Parts, a speed shop on the South Side that built motors for pro drag racers. The Camaro sported a 427 Chevy with high-compression pistons, a racing camshaft, and other goodies, all backed by a Clutchflite transmission—a then-popular mating of a Chrysler TorqueFlite and manual clutch.

“Junior raced a moonlighting pro drag racer on Interstate 57 for $1000,” Messino recalled. “The highway had been completed but wasn’t open to traffic. Hundreds of people lined the sides of 57 to watch the race, which Junior and his Camaro won going away.”

Another early hotspot of street racing where Black racers were the majority was a McDonald’s restaurant on the South Side’s 71st Street. Messino recalls that dozens of Black racers would gather there every weekend night. “White or Black, you could count on getting a race there,” Messino said. “There were very few posers.”

Not far from there, on 69th and State Street, was Sammy Scott’s New Tuff Rabbit Lounge. Scott was partners with a drag racer of renown named Ed Burrell. They campaigned a series of potent cars that wore the Tuff Rabbit name and were the pride of the community, dominating their class at local tracks. Scott’s bar was a busy watering hole where many drivers hung out, but it’s best remembered as the focal point of some of the most outrageous and dangerous racing ever to take place on Chicago streets: the flying mile.

I heard about the flying mile from pro drag racer Austin Coil and his pal, Merle Mangels, in the mid ’70s. They built motors for some of the Black racers who pursued this extreme, illegal sport. When I asked how I could learn more and maybe photograph the races, they sent me to the Tuff Rabbit and told me to ask for the Rabbit. That would be Bobby “Rabbit” Parker. Coil and Mangels had built a 500-horsepower small-block for Parker’s Corvette. They were among only a few people other than the racers who knew that, late at night, when there was virtually no traffic on the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge, very hot street machines would race for a full mile from a rolling start.

I made my way to the Tuff Rabbit one summer night, armed with a camera and hoping to get a story about the mile-long drags for High Performance CARS, the only magazine of the day that was either foolish enough or courageous enough to cover street racing. When I walked through the bar’s front door, many eyes found me and conversations turned muted.

That initial quiet quickly broke: “It’s that magazine guy,” said a friendly voice from the back of the bar, which I would later learn belonged to Harry “Dawg” Cannon, buddy to Parker who was seated at a table wearing a Blue Max hat and a diamond-studded rabbit pendant. Cannon wore an Orange County International Raceway jacket with a Black American Racers Association patch. Next to him was a huge man named Big Fred, invoking images of Bad Leroy Brown. Years later, I learned that Dawg, Rabbit, and Fred were highly successful drag racers at local tracks but were best known for their street racing exploits.

“We’re gonna show you how mile racing goes down,” said Big Fred. “Frog here will drive you up to the starting line.”

Ronald “Frog” Williams and I followed Parker, Cannon, and Fred onto the seven-mile-long Chicago Skyway. There, high above the city streets, two Corvettes with loud, loping exhaust and fat tires left the starting line just north of the 87th Street toll booth, racing pedal to the metal for a full mile, braking only at a finish line about half a mile before the State Street exit, which was just a few blocks south of the Tuff Rabbit Lounge. The Skyway wasn’t smooth, and at high speed the cars bounced violently—a frightening scenario I witnessed while clinging perilously to the side of the bridge.

Such craziness is part of the city’s past, although I hear it still happens occasionally despite the danger and illegality. I do not endorse such activity, though the guys who raised hell 50 years ago helped build a movement that ultimately inspired many Black Chicagoans to formally compete at nearby dragstrips. First, it was at US 30 in Gary, Indiana, which closed in the ’80s, and today at multiple tracks in the Midwest, including US 41 Motorplex in Morocco, Indiana; US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan; Byron Dragway in Byron, Illinois; Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin; and Cordova Dragway in Cordova, Illinois.

Raylo Riley, who told me about some of the first Black drag racers in Chicago, has raced at every one of those tracks. He is, however, best known as the online historian and #1 fan of Gary’s US 30 drag strip. “I try to keep the memory of US 30 alive,“ said Riley. “I organize reunions, post about the old track regularly, and sell US 30 T-shirts that feature some of the stars of that great old track.”

Riley is also a successful bracket racer. He tours nationally with his ’95 Camaro. It’s a full-tilt race car with a 421-cubic-inch small-block Chevy under the hood, a roll cage, and a complement of top-shelf racing components. He runs only bracket races with big-dollar payouts and has won $10,000 twice at national bracket-racing events. In the quarter-mile he runs 10.20 at more than 125 mph; in the 1/8th mile, the track length at which almost all bracket racing is contested, his car covers the distance in 6.40 seconds. Consistency, a product of both car preparation and driver skill, is key to success at bracket racing, where each racer dials in their projected elapsed time and the start is staggered to reflect those numbers. Get to the other end too soon or too late, and you lose.

Drag racing is a family thing for the Rileys. “My father, Edward Riley, started racing at U.S. 30 more than 50 years ago,” said Riley. “I remember he bought a new ’70 Camaro and was taking it to the track before the little rubber dingles had worn off the tires. He was very successful running ET 5 at U.S. 30, a class for cars running in the 11s, much faster than the muscle cars of the day.”

Raylo’s brother Kyle was successful in racing, both in the highly competitive NHRA Stock Eliminator class and as a bracket racer. Today, his SFG Promotions is prominent in the sport. SFG paid a record $1.1 million to the winner of a July 2023 bracket race at US 131 Motorsports Park. That’s far more than Top Fuel and Funny Car winners were awarded at the recent PRO race in Bradenton, Florida, billed as the richest race in drag racing history. I’m comparing apples to oranges here, but Kyle Riley’s achievements with SFG Promotions are beyond impressive.

Raylo Riley introduced me to Richard Davis, known to his compatriots as “Big Drag.” Davis has been drag racing since 1976. Among his stable of nice machines are a Jerry Bickel Camaro that he runs in Pro Mod, a ’63 Split-Window Corvette that is primarily a street-race machine, a ’57 Chevy wagon that can easily lift the front wheels at launch, and several others. He got the drag racing bug from his dad, a Mopar guy who hung around Grand Spaulding Dodge back in the Gary Dyer/Mr. Norm days. He grew up loving Mopars but switched to Chevys for the availability and ready access to tuning information.

In the 1970s, Davis was one of Chicago’s most successful street racers. Parker, aka Rabbit, put him in his first car and taught him to shift a four-speed. “Rabbit had a brother that we called CW—his real name was Charlie Wilson,” said Davis. “He had a black Chevelle called ‘Bullet’ that won a lot of races, a Pontiac called ‘The Judge’, and a ’66 Chevelle called ‘Do It Any Way You Want’.” He got in trouble and died young. Rabbit died young, too.”

Both Davis and Riley remember a guy I knew well: Freddy Kemp, a Black drag racer who was paralyzed from the waist down. He got around on crutches and was razor-sharp, kind, and gentle. He owned a potent Dodge called “Breaking Point.” He had outfitted it with home-built hand controls for braking and throttle and competed successfully at local dragstrips.

In the late ’70s, I was teaching high school English and sponsored an auto shop club on the side. The students and I were building a dragster that we planned to race locally. Kemp would come by from time to time to lend a hand. I left for a New York journalism job in March 1980 and lost track of Kemp. Davis told me Freddy was allegedly killed by police in some kind of altercation long ago. I have no way of verifying that, but I’m dumbstruck.

Today, Davis, who is now 61, organizes races, including events that are known as gambler races: Entrants buy their way in and the lion’s share of the pot goes to the winner. Davis says he takes nothing but just wants the guys to have a good time and make some money. He also sponsors grudge races, which are essentially street races at the track. In those, competitors arrange private bets (my car vs. yours) frequently for big money. The “Christmas tree,” or electronic starting system, makes everything fair and square. With an electronic start, a car can be given a handicap by staging the slower car on the rear tire rather than the front. Thus it begins the race almost a full car length in front of its competition. It’s much more accurate than trying to stage such a competition on the street.

“Who are the best of Chicago’s Black racers today?” I asked Davis.

“That depends if you’re talking South Side or West Side,” he said. “On the South Side, you got Forgiato Zae. He does all the wrench work on his car and builds his own engines. His uncle was a street racing legend known as Starchild Mike. Another guy called Von is darn good. On the West Side, you got a young guy named Petey, and a racer they call Peanut is up and coming.

In all, there are hundreds of fast racers in the parts of town where most of the people who look like me live. It’s a good time to be a Black drag racer in Chicago.”

***

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Downtown Detroit in February is a crisp cold. The parking deck across from Ford Field is empty and quiet. A small line of people has formed outside the main entrance to the stadium. I sneak past the lines and use my press credentials to pass through a chain link fence, then a metal detector, operated by a surprisingly chipper security guard.

The silence is broken by the powerful thump of a 450cc four-stroke engine as it zips down the alley inside the stadium. The rider wears a puffy coat over his riding gear and a mechanic is hanging on the back, his feet dangling off to the sides. As they turn down the ramp that leads to the floor of the field, the rider thumbs the kill switch in observance of the “dead engines only” sign. It’s silent again, though the smell of race gas lingers. 

Supercross has arrived in Detroit.

A string of mild winters in Michigan has produced a relative drought of motorsports events. Since it isn’t cold or wet enough for ice racing or snowmobiling, those seeking a horsepower high are left either to travel or to enjoy their favorite sports through a screen. Which is why I’ve come four hours south from Traverse City to appreciate the Detroit round of AMA Supercross.

Supercross has been a highlight of the motorcycle race season for decades, with a big rise in popularity in the 1990s and again in recent history. With a schedule of 28 events for the 2024 season, this race series functions unlike any other. Tons of local dirt is trucked in and these tracks pop up nearly overnight in sports stadiums and concert venues, often the biggest in town: When Taylor Swift came through Detroit in 2023, she played at Ford Field. Motorcycles from nine manufacturers—many fielded by teams with factory support— are at the starting gate every event, and the commentator booth is occupied by James Stewart and Ricky Carmichael, some of the greatest to ever compete in the sport. (Imagine if Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart announced the Coke 400.) All the races are streamed live on NBC’s Peacock app with race recaps and highlights arriving on the NBC Sports YouTube channel for free in the days that follow.

This marks my second year making the journey south to join and if there was one thing I learned last year, it was that I showed up far too late in the day and felt as though I missed part of the action despite being there for the heat races and main events. This year I showed up early—at 8 a.m., before the doors opened to the public—and poked around to see just how relaxed it might be without the laser show, fireballs, and big-screen replays.

At the end of the tunnel stands a cadre of mechanics with spotless Hondas and Kawasakis leaning on their hips. They look downright bored. T-handle wrenches clink softly as they hang on the backpacks and tool pouches, and the dull chatter of the riders is the only noise, until a rider walks by, each step a squeak—new boots. The riders jump and dance, attempting to stay warm and break the 32-degree air. They begin to look around. None has a watch, but their sense of timing is impeccable. Practice was supposed to begin at 8:00 a.m.; it’s now 8:06.

In the eyes of several racers, Detroit is “the first real main event” of 2024. It was round 10 last year, and by then, multiple parts of the championship were starting to settle down. This year, the traveling octane festival made the Motor City its fifth stop. The races thus far have been tales of survival due to open-roof stadiums and inclement weather, muddy, sloppy situations that produced four different winners. In a 28-race championship, there’s plenty of time for a clear winner to emerge, but, five races in, that fact is not stopping anyone from enjoying the way it is all up for grabs right now.

The practice rounds click off like clockwork, despite starting a little late. The stands are near-empty as the riders from the two classes, 250cc and 450cc, cycle through 15-minute time slots designed to allow them some time to learn the track. A bit of extra high-viz gear stands out on the sidelines. While a normal team might have a single mechanic per rider standing beside the track during practice, one bike is surrounded by a huddle of people. A few hold clipboards. All have looks of focus on their faces. Emblazoned in yellow on the back of their black jackets is one word that represents who they were and what they want to do tonight: Triumph.

The focus on the team’s faces makes sense. Today is the debut of Triumph’s all-new TF 250-X motocross bike and the first time it has turned laps on anything other than a practice course. Riders Evan Ferry and Jalek Swoll are attempting to overcome the highly competitive field and also the teething problems that come with any new machine—all at once. As the practice rounds wear down, team Triumph appears to have potential … but potential is not what wins races.

The 65,000 fold-down seats that rise from the track level are starting to fill up: The heat races are set to begin at 2:30 p.m. The dull roar of tens of thousands of enthusiasts chatting amongst themselves in the seats, plus the growl of heavy machinery re-shaping and repairing the track surface, define a new normal for the noise level, one that is quickly eclipsed as the PA system fires up and the commentary begins.

The crescendo builds as the lights go down and a deep voice announces the feature class 450 riders just before the big show of heat races and of the main events. The lights, flamethrowers, and big screens all dance as the riders make quick circles of the floor while waving to the 52,000 fans that now fill the stadium. The week prior, the stadium had broadcast the Lions’ game that ended Detroit’s Superbowl bid; today, a crowd goes wild as Haiden Deegan, one of the 250 class favorites, circles the floor with a Jared Goff jersey over his riding gear. Every rider on the starting gate has on a riding jersey, and a good portion of those in the stands do, too. Everyone stands for the national anthem before watching as the first waves of riders line up behind the tubular gate that holds riders on the start line. The revs rise on all the bikes, ready to launch into turn one, and the night reaches its peak.

Thousands of hours of testing and computer simulations cannot guarantee a race win. The surface of the track changes lap by lap, and racers must place in the top nine of a heat race—or in the top four of the last chance race—to make it to the big show at the end of the night. Both Triumph riders find themselves in the same heat race. Luck doesn’t go in the direction of rookie Evan Ferry; he takes the long way into the main event by competing in the drama-filled last-chance qualifier.

As the main events get underway, the whole venue fills with energy. Standing at track level, you feel the tension that underscores the Herculean nature of the feats these riders are about to perform. The largest jumps can send riders flying nearly 70 feet, a height that puts them even with spectators halfway up the stadium seating. The racing is tight and at times chaotic: Lap times under one minute mean the leading riders deal with lapped traffic early in the race, along with the changing track conditions.

Two riders lock handlebars going into turn one of the 250 class’s main event, sending bikes and riders tumbling to the dirt. One of those is Evan Ferry and his Triumph TF 250-X. Fellow Triumph rider Jalek Swoll fought his way to sixth place overall; not the high note Triumph wanted to sound. But other, more established brands fail to get a bike and rider into the top ten, too. With the sixth-place finish, Triumph has proven it can be a contender. Hopefully, with the data provided from this first race, the team will arrive at the round in Arlington, Texas, even more capable and better sorted.

Only after the last bike rides up the tunnel, the commentators sign off, and the crowds herd out onto Brush Street does the stadium feel still and quiet again. Well, almost quiet. The team building the whole show is already using heavy machinery to move signs and equipment, preparing to load the tractor trailers that will roll the whole spectacle off to the next venue.

Supercross has been very carefully walking the fine line between entertainment and sport. After starting to watch a little more seriously in the last few years, I can see how a casual observer may easily define it as one or the other. Those who take the time to pay attention during the quiet parts of the show can easily pick up on more, though. In a world where many motorsports are turning into speed parades or races full of gimmicks, Supercross is something special.

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Nowhere were the good times of the Fabulous Fifties more evident than in Detroit, the town that ate, drank, and slept cars. If you drove northeast on Gratiot Avenue from the heart of Detroit, you would pass the under-construction interstate highway that Eisenhower had ordered and the numerous new car dealerships that dotted the avenue before coming upon Gratiot Auto Supply. The big parts store and speed shop had opened just a few years previous and was growing exponentially as it tried to supply the burgeoning ranks of hot rodders who were hungry for more of everything that made cars go fast.

You would pass shops where young men were building race cars and storefronts where ordinary folk were creating businesses that would help supply parts and equipment for the rapidly growing auto industry. If conditions were right, you might hear the roar of racecars doing battle at Motor City Speedway. For a car guy in the ’50s, there was no better place to be than here, in the capital of the automotive universe—and Al Bergler was a car guy.

At a used car lot on Gratiot, in 1952, the 16-year-old Detroit native was cleaning and polishing automobiles for 50 cents an hour. It was his second job; his first was selling peanuts and popcorn at the speedway. At the lot, Bergler was close to the action and loving it. Occasionally, he’d get behind the wheel, too: To stock the lot, the owner bought trade-ins from new car dealers all over the city, and Al was part of the crew that would herd the new rolling stock to the lot. “I always looked for the coolest car,” he said, “and then I would drive that one back to the lot.

If one of the new acquisitions showed signs of having been driven by a teen, like fender skirts, a spinner knob, or mud flaps, Al would remove the offending parts and add them to his personal hoard of car goodies. When a ’41 Ford convertible rolled into the lot, Al took a shine to it. After borrowing $75 from his grandparents, he bought the car. Thus began a personal love affair with automobiles that still keeps him busy today at a spry and very lucid 87.

When he wasn’t at the used car dealership or cruising with friends, the young Bergler was a student at Pershing High School. However, while the teacher was explaining subordinate clauses, Al was thinking about cars he would build. With his parents’ blessing, he left Pershing and enrolled at Washington Trade School in Detroit, where he studied academic subjects in the mornings and learned to weld and straighten damaged sheetmetal in the afternoons. During his last semester, he chopped the top of a ’36 Ford for a teacher. The result was far better than one would expect of student work in a shop class.

It soon became obvious that shaping metal was Al’s art and calling. After graduating from the trade school, he went to work in a body shop. In between making damaged customer cars new again, he set about building a car for himself. The first one he built was a ’34 Ford Coupe. Hankering for a street-rod roadster, Al cut the top off the Ford, prettied it up, and planted a stock Chrysler Hemi under the hood. Not yet fully aware of the physics of internal combustion engines, he mounted six Stromberg deuces atop the bone-stock engine. It took that gasping Chrysler a while to catch its breath under full acceleration, but the build was a start.

Bergler’s next build was a rear-engine Crosley drag car, powered by that same stock Hemi. Al ran it for a short time, including an appearance at the ’59 US Nationals in Detroit. However, “I didn’t have the money it would have taken to make that car right,” he said.

Without a major investment, the Crosley would never be competitive, so Al set about building his first competition coupe, using a long-extinct design that was never common but always exciting: essentially dragster frame rails with a body at the rear and the driver draped over the rear axle.

Of course, no passenger car body was ever meant to be mounted on a narrow dragster chassis with the driver moved far to the rear, but some small European cars could be modified to serve that purpose. The Austin Bantam was among the more popular choices. Of minimal weight and modest proportions, the Bantam was a nice fit for a dragster chassis.

Unfortunately for Al, whose sole source of income was his body shop job, a finished dragster chassis would have been a stretch. Instead, he ordered a Chassis Research kit, essentially a box of cut and bent tubing from which an aspiring racer might build a copy of the dragster chassis that was selling robustly on the West Coast. Al built his car using gas torches and an arc welder.

Around about this time, Al met Ron and Gene Logghe at a Michigan Hot Rod Club event. The Logghes were just getting their feet wet in the race-car-building world, turning out accessory parts like front axles. Al mounted one of their axles on his Chassis Research frame. His venerable Chrysler engine was now sporting a supercharger, and the blower moved the little coupe with some urgency, although with the engine’s near-stock internal parts, the car was still not capable of beating the top dogs on a national level. Always game, Al and his coupe—which he had named Aggravation—gave it a try, competing at NHRA’s 1960 U.S. Nationals, which were once again held in Detroit.

Active duty with the National Guard gave Al some time to think about what was next. Once free of that obligation, he got together with the Logghe brothers to build a first-class competition coupe on a brand-new chassis. For power, he purchased a long-stroke, highly modified blown Chrysler engine from Connie Kalitta, another Logghe customer. Again, Bergler chose a Bantam body. Like every car Bergler has built, this one was beautifully finished, with the Bantam body seamlessly joined to the dragster, lots of chrome, flawless paint, and every part finely detailed. He named it Aggravation II. 

Back then, many racers would premier their new drag cars at Detroit’s Autorama rod and custom show. Even though it competed against many purpose-built show cars, Bergler’s pretty coupe won the first Ridler Award in 1964, the nation’s most prestigious award for custom cars.

With its stout Logghe chassis and potent stroker Hemi, Aggravation II was a winner on the drag strip as well as on the show floor, and Al demonstrated that by winning Super Eliminator and the Best Appearing Car award at the 1966 NHRA SpringNationals. The car set AA/C records numerous times and recorded a best of 8.10 seconds at 184 mph on gasoline. Aggravation II appeared at Metro Detroit’s Woodward Dream Cruise a few years ago and is now in a museum.

At some point in the mid-’60s, Al decided Aggravation II needed a nose piece that would cover the front of the chassis, a look that was becoming common on the most attractive Top Fuel dragsters. He asked a guy who had done aluminum work for Logghe how much it would cost. $300 was the answer. At the body shop where Al spent his days, that was three weeks’ pay, so he decided to do the work himself, bending the aluminum over a four-inch pipe. Soon he was doing almost all the aluminum work for Logghe-built dragsters and funny cars. Hundreds of aluminum race-car bodies and interiors later, he’s still using the 4-inch pipe to bend metal.

“I made a bench on which I could clamp the pipe down. Still have it. Still using it.”

Al built one more competition coupe, a ’23 Model T roadster on another Logghe chassis, powered of course by his big-inch blown Chrysler motor. Ahead of its time, this “coupe” sported a canopy much like those used on today’s Top Fuel cars. At the ’67 Winternationals in Pomona, California, he won the competition coupe class and another Best Appearing Car award. The ’23-based coupe would later win Super Eliminator at the .67 SpringNationals in Bristol, Tennessee.

Bergler didn’t always work at the same body shop; for a brief period, he ran his own outfit. “During the late ’60s, I had a shop on Gratiot,” said Al. “One day, ‘Diamond’ Jim Cavallaro of Diamond Racing Engines called and said that Tom Ivo was in town and needed a place to work on his car. I told Jim he would be welcome at my shop. Ivo is a great guy but he likes to sleep days and work nights. While working at night, he played loud music. Neighbors complained, and I lost that shop.

“But that started a thing where guys on tour with their race cars would stop by for some aluminum work or just to service their car and hang out. I learned a lot from other racers, and I think they benefited as well.”

For 1970—now working from a shop on Groesbeck just around the corner from Logghe—Al remade the AA/Comp car as an AA Gas Dragster (AA/GD) with a digger-style body on the same underpinnings and raced to the runner-up spot at the 1970 NHRA Summernationals.

But the writing was on the wall. You couldn’t make much money with a gas dragster, and the fuel dragster boys with their faster, nitro-methane-burning cars weren’t doing much better. Funny Cars, on the other hand, were getting substantial appearance money from track operators all over the country, so Al teamed up with Tom Prock and built a Vega flopper on a Logghe chassis. Prock took the driver’s seat and Bergler handled the wrenches and build. A generation-two 426 Chrysler Hemi replaced the venerable gen-one Chrysler motor.

At first, Bergler and Prock drew blanks when trying to come up with a name for the car. Having previously rented out a corner of the shop to Pete Seaton and his funny car, named Seaton’s Shaker, they drew inspiration from that team. Thus was born the Motown Shaker, a funny car that would serve Bergler well for years to come. Prock, however, got an offer he couldn’t refuse—a chance to drive the Castronovo family’s Custom Body funny car—and left for the East Coast. Butch Maas then took the driver’s seat of the Motown Shaker, with Al filling in from time to time.

Most of the team’s appearances were match races, because that’s where the dollars were in the early ’70s, with the occasional national event rounding out the schedule. The Motown Shaker was a regular at the storied eight-car flopper shows held Wednesday nights at the U.S. 30 drag strip in Gary, Indiana. At one of those events, the blower exploded at half track, breaking the roof supports and leaving Al blinded. He recalls trying to spin the car out. Instead, it made a hard right turn and headed off between the light poles and out into a field. It continued across the field, which tore up the car a bit before it rolled to a stop. The track safety people couldn’t find Al and the car. He recalls standing up next to the broken car, shouting and waving his arms until he got their attention.

At some point during those profitable days of funny car racing, Al’s son Ron Bergler came on board as a wrench and crewman. In ’73, Al took over the driver’s seat full time and a Mustang body replaced the Vega’s. In ’77, the Mustang gave way to a Corvette, and in ’80 a Firebird became the last Motown Shaker.

“The match race money was drying up,” Al said, “and it was time to focus on my business.” Al brought the curtain down on his career as a pro racer, but his contributions haven’t gone unnoticed. He’s a member of both the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame and the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame. NHRA has also recognized his work, honoring him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Racing a funny car full-time in the ’70s meant you would spend far more days on the road than at home, leaving little time for anything else. So with those days behind him, Al decided that in addition to focusing more on his race car fabricating business, he would devote more time to his personal life, and he soon married his high school sweetheart, Nancy, who has now been Mrs. Bergler for some 40 years.

Al and Nancy bought a beautiful home in a forested neighborhood in Shelby Township, Michigan. A large pole barn behind the house serves as Al’s shop. Touring racers still stop by. Bob Pacitto, who worked for Logghe and has driven top drag cars including some for Connie Kalitta, stops by every day to hang, do some bench racing, and lend a hand on a job when needed. Although Al, at 87, is taking on less work, he’s still building race car bodies. When this reporter stopped by to see Al just after Christmas, Al was building a nosepiece for a customer’s dragster.

Although he hasn’t raced in over 40 years, All has done a lot of cackle tests, events where nitro-burning supercharged cars are started so the fans can hear the wonderful sound of the monster motors. At many events, dragsters and competition coupes are push-started, just as they were 60 years ago, adding an extra bit of old-time flavor. Al has cackled the Ridler-winning Aggravation II, along with various dragsters.

Al credits Ed Golden, a former Ford designer, with getting him involved. Golden had purchased the Probe AA/FD and took it to Al’s shop for restoration. When NHRA staged a cacklefest at the 2003 Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Golden asked Al to sit in the car and start it as it was pushed down the track. Al managed to wiggle into the seat of that old fueler and took the wheel. At the right moment, he clicked on the magneto switch and the fuel-burning supercharged Chrysler engine roared to life.

“It was an emotional experience,” said Al. “It’s like I was young and taking on the best at 200 mph with the sound of the exhaust pounding in my eardrums and flames shooting skyward to either side of me. I was overcome by memories of great times.”

“I was awe-struck; it was like I had been reborn,” he says. “When it was over, I was crying. I tried to call Nancy to tell her about it, but could barely speak.”

“’Call me back when you get yourself together,’ she said.”

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NASCAR Cup driver William Byron’s victory in Monday’s Daytona 500 was a welcome anniversary present for his team owner, Rick Hendrick, who formed Hendrick Motorsports 40 years ago to the day.

Hendrick, 74, is now one of the nation’s largest automotive dealers. In 1984, he was struggling to pay the bills for his fledgling one-car NASCAR team, then called All-Star Racing. He had hired driver Geoff Bodine after a deal to have Richard Petty drive for the team fell through.

Let's throw it back to our first win @MartinsvilleSwy in 1984! Geoff Bodine led 55 laps during the race to bring home a big victory for Hendrick Motorsports. #TBT pic.twitter.com/dYvD64Vz8A

— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) April 8, 2021

“I think about the day when we came down here [to Daytona International Speedway],” Hendrick said last week. “Geoff Bodine and I were talking about it. I think we had six full-time people and a bunch of volunteers. We finished eighth in that race.

“When I walked down pit road and I saw the Wood brothers and Richard Petty and Junior Johnson, I thought we shouldn’t even be here. It brings back a lot of memories. Daytona is a special place.”

It was made more special when Byron crossed the finish line in the number 24 Chevrolet Camaro Monday night, with Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman a close second.

It was the ninth Daytona 500 victory for Hendrick Motorsports, tying it with Petty Enterprises for the most wins. It had been 10 years, though, since a Hendrick car won the Daytona 500, with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., taking the checkered flag in 2014.

“You couldn’t write the script any better, 24 in ’24,” Hendrick said after the race. “We win this on our 40th to the day. And we tied a record now, so that’s awesome.”

Hendrick is the honoree at the 29th Amelia Concours d’Elegance, held February 29 through March 3 at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida. Many notable Hendrick Motorsports cars will be on display, including the Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that ran in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year.

On Saturday, March 2, Hendrick will take part in a seminar titled “40 Years of Hendrick Motorsports,” moderated by former Hendrick crew chief Ray Evernham, and featuring past Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Terry Labonte, and Kenny Schrader. It will be livestreamed on Facebook, courtesy of Chevrolet.

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So here’s the headline news from the NASCAR Daytona 500, held Monday due to storms that dumped three inches of rain on the track on Saturday and Sunday. As you are likely aware, the season-opening Daytona 500 was postponed by one day, to be followed by Saturday’s rained-out the Xfinity series United Rentals 300, essentially creating the Daytona 800 for the fans willing to sit there from 4 p.m. to almost midnight, whether their seats were in the grandstand or at home in front of the television.

With temperatures dropping to 49 degrees by the end of the evening’s races, the grandstands were pretty empty by the last few laps. We’ll have to wait for the TV ratings to see if fans at home made it through all 800 miles of racing.

William Byron, the 26-year-old, under-the-radar driver of the #24 Chevrolet owned by Hendrick Motorsports, won his first Daytona 500. With six victories in 2023, he was the winningest driver of the season, but a major victory had eluded him until now.

Byron didn’t start racing until he was 15, perhaps 10 years later than other NASCAR drivers his age, who typically start out in karts shortly after they can walk. Byron began his racing career at the computer, on the iRacing game that allows you to compete against drivers all over the country who use the platform.

“I’m just a kid from racing on computers and winning the Daytona 500,” Byron said after the race. “I can’t believe it.” Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman was second, Christopher Bell was third. The complete results are here.

You’ll notice a lot of big names are far down that list, such as polesitter Joey Logano, finishing 32nd in the 40-car field, and 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., who finished 31st, or 2023 NASCAR Cup champion Ryan Blaney, who came in 30th. Those drivers, and plenty more, were caught up in multiple crashes, including a 23-car pileup with nine laps to go. Victims of that one included three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who finished 19th.

As soon as Byron’s victory celebration was completed, NASCAR pivoted to the Xfinity race, scheduled for 9 p.m. It took the green flag at 9:04. It was arguably a better race than the Daytona 500, and certainly wilder; it was also a crashfest, with Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill winning in his Chevrolet for the third straight year.

Hill, 29, will be running the full Xfinity season for Childress, who plans to put him in some select Cup races this year, and likely full-time in Cup in 2025. “I don’t even know what time it is,” a jubilant Hill said in Victory Lane. “I know it’s past my bedtime, but we’re about to party tonight.” Sheldon Creed came in second, Parker Retzlaff was third. The complete results are here. As with the Daytona 500, plenty of contenders fell out of the running due to wrecks, causing nine caution periods.

Five drivers raced in both the Daytona 500 and the United Rentals 300, with John Hunter Nemechek having the most to show for his long day: A seventh-place finish in the 500, and a matching seventh in the Xfinity race. Also (maybe) worth noting for fans of the Malcolm in the Middle television series: Star Frankie Muniz, in his first NASCAR Xfinity race, finished 35th after being caught up in a crash not of his making.

In all, it was an interesting if disjointed weekend. NASCAR controls virtually everything that goes on at its track, except the weather, and it has caused more shuffling of races so far in this very early season than typically happens in a full year. First the NASCAR Busch Light exhibition race, scheduled to be run Sunday, February 4, in the Los Angeles Coliseum, was moved to Saturday with very little notice because of storms that were headed to California. Not surprisingly, TV ratings were far worse than they were in 2022 and 2023 because a lot of fans didn’t get word of the move.

This year, only one of the weekend’s four races ran when it was originally scheduled to: the Daytona NASCAR Craftsman Truck race on Friday night. Saturday’s ARCA race was moved to Friday after the truck race due to the gloomy forecast. As predicted, Saturday was a washout, except for Xfinity qualifying. NASCAR gave up and called the Xfinity race when the rain resumed after qualifying. Sunday’s weather was even worse, with the Daytona 500 called at 9:30 Sunday morning.

Once the final TV ratings are in for this year’s two main Daytona races, they are expected to be a disappointment for NASCAR. (The least-watched Daytona 500 on record, according to Sportico.com, was in 2021, when the race was also delayed by rain.) Ratings are especially important to NASCAR given its new seven-year TV deal with Fox, NBC, TNT, and Amazon Prime, reportedly worth $7.75 billion, signed last November and due to start with the 2025 NASCAR season. Both NASCAR and the TV partners rely on advertising, which appears to be reasonably strong.

A racing website, Cawsnjaws.com, has tracked NASCAR broadcasts since 2018 and logged the television coverage for Monday’s Daytona 500. In 195 minutes, which is how long the actual race broadcast took, not including the opening ceremonies, there were 129 commercials, for a total time of 57 minutes. Fortunately for NASCAR, there were plenty of wrecks, plus the two made-for-TV “stages” that interrupt the races at set intervals, to get all the advertisers in.

Exactly how the revenue from the new TV deal will be split among the teams has yet to be decided, and the lack of resolution resulted in a story by the Associated Press on Sunday that added another cloud over the weekend. The story said that NASCAR teams have hired Jeffrey Kessler, one of the country’s top anti-trust lawyers, to advise them “in their ongoing dispute with the family-owned stock car series over a new revenue-sharing model.”

“We want to make a deal, we are just looking for a fair deal,” Curtis Polk, a part owner of 23XI Racing and member of the teams’ negotiating committee, told the Associated Press. “There is no give and take. We’ve been told, ‘This is all there is; there is no flexibility.’ That’s not a negotiation.”

Kessler, according to AP, “most recently successfully represented Division I college football and basketball players in a landmark antitrust case that led to financial stipends for athletes. He also led the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team in its successful fight for equal pay as well as litigations for current free agency rules in the NBA and the NFL.”

NASCAR’s 15 chartered teams represent 36 cars and drivers in a typical race lineup of 40 cars. There was a meeting on Saturday, the AP reported, attended by high-powered team owners Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, Michael Jordan, and Roger Penske, to discuss revenue sharing and the charter system, which is set to expire at the end of this season.

The charter system is hard to explain, but here goes: At one time, the field for a NASCAR race was set purely by qualifying. If you weren’t fast enough, you didn’t race. But this meant that if top drivers like Dale Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon had a bad qualifying day, a great many fans of those drivers would be profoundly disappointed. So in 2016, NASCAR handed out charters to the teams that, over the previous three seasons, had participated in the most races. The charters guaranteed that their cars would be in the race regardless of qualifying. That meant fans would always see the stars race, and teams could court sponsors more easily, because the sponsored cars would never miss a race.

Here’s where it gets complicated: NASCAR allowed the teams to sell charters to other teams. A team with four cars, and four charters, might cut down to three cars and sell the fourth charter. Each year, it seemed, the value of a charter grew; one charter reportedly sold for $40 million late last year.

With charters set to expire at the end of 2024, teams are scrambling for answers from NASCAR on what sort of arrangements will be made for the future. So far, it appears that the sanctioning body has not been forthcoming. Add that to the TV revenue-sharing dispute, and it seems likely lawyers may be involved.

Stay tuned. This could get interesting as the season progresses. Which it does this weekend, with NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck races scheduled at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

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As fool’s spring winds down and second winter descends on some of us, we keenly anticipate driving season, which, we just have to trust, is right around the corner. When the roads finally do clear up and the weather is right, do you know where you are headed this year? Nothing wrong with a humble road trip but this is the time to think ahead and make plans to do or see something cool in 2024.

It’s also the time of year when many motorsports venues announce their schedules, so now is the perfect time to pick something and start making a plan for how to make it happen. That’s why we rounded up five under-the-radar motorsports events that are worth your consideration. As a bonus, most of these events do not require the top-tier budget of more popular events, like F1 Grands Prix or Goodwood or Le Mans.

SCCA Runoffs

SCCA Runoffs comprise a full week of racing that includes competitors of all various skills and budgets. Want to cheer for an underdog? Easy to find one. Want to see the bleeding edge of engineering a car to fit within the rulebook? You’ll find that too, along with just about any other racing trope or technique you can think of. SCCA Runoffs is the peak for many hobby racers and a jumping-off point for aspiring pros. It makes for great racing with a great atmosphere, and this year’s event will be held at Road America in Wisconsin. What more could you want?

Vintage weekend at Road America

There are multiple big vintage events in America throughout the year, but there is something about the charm of Road America in July that just can’t be beat. The track has remained relatively unchanged since 1955 so sitting on the hill above turn five and watching the drivers brake deep into downhill braking zone into the tight left could be the closest thing to time-travel you can easily experience. Add in the ability to walk the paddock and enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of vintage iron as it warms up and cools down between track sessions, and you have a great weekend. Plus, there are great cheese curds.

25 at Thunderhill

Endurance races have a certain mystique to them. The heavy hitters of Le Mans or Daytona are obvious bucket-list events, but if you want to get closer to the action and are also on the wrong coast for the Florida races, the 25 Hours of Thunderhill at Thunderhill Raceway Park just outside Willows, California, might be the perfect adventure. You have a little bit of extra time to plan as the organizers have elected to suspend the 2024 event and instead put more effort into the 2025 race. Mark your calendars for November 2025 and dress for any weather. It can get cold, and that makes the racing that much more interesting.

Barber Vintage Festival

If you like motorcycles, block off the first weekend in October. Held at the manicured facility of Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama, the Barber Vintage Festival has multiple racing disciplines running at once, along with a large swap meet and plenty of other wonderful attractions. The vintage motorcycle racing is run by the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association and from a spot in the shade overlooking turn two you can watch everything from hand-shift Harley Davidsons of the 1940s all the way to brand-new Euro supermotos dice it up. A pavement oval race takes place up on the test track portion of the grounds, and off-road trials and cross-country races take place in the woods just off of one of the camping lots. A little bit of everything—and that’s before you go through the facility’s world-class museum or join one of the seminars.

24 Hours of Lemons

When racers and teams are encouraged to lean into the absurdity of racing, a weekend at the track gets wild. Sure, there are teams working to go as fast as possible for as long as possible, but the vocal majority of Lemons racers are there to conquer the challenge of making some less-than-ideal race car finish the race.

The attitude of a Lemons race is unlike that of so many other motorsports events. People are working to solve automotive problems that should basically never exist. There was no reason to put a diesel turbocharger on a Mopar slant-six, for example, but there is no shortage of people excited to not only see such a thing exist but to make it work and work well. Lemons racing is a different kind of fun. Before you pass judgement, check it out for yourself.

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The post 5 Under-the-Radar Motorsports Events You Should Attend appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Consigning interesting and varied live auction lots can be a tricky business these days, especially in the mid-range of the market that has been so dominated by online sales over the last few years. Which is why Iconic Auctioneers’ Race Retro sale catalog is so refreshing.

The sale takes place February 22–23  at Stoneleigh Park, Coventry, in the UK, and Rob Hubbard and team have brought together a fascinating collection of cars both on day one, which focuses on competition vehicles, and on day two, which caters to mainstream classics.

For anyone still looking for an appropriate car for the Hagerty Hillclimb on May 11, there are some tempting prospects. A 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI with hillclimb championship wins in 2017–18 looks like a lot of car for the £23,000–£27,000 ($29,000–$34,000) estimate, but if you have a little more in the bank, a 1987 ex-works Peugeot 309 GTi (estimate £70,000–£80,000, or roughly $88,400–$101,000) that gave Richard Burns his first “factory” seat at the 1991 RAC Rally would certainly draw the attention of the Shelsley crowd.

If fast Fords are your thing, Iconic is offering a great selection, from a seemingly very usable 1972 Escort Mexico fitted with a red-top Vauxhall 2-liter engine mated to a Quaife five-speed gearbox (estimate £18,000–£22,000, or $22,700–$27,800), right up to an ex-Valentino Rossi/Henning Solberg 2007 Focus M-Sport WRC (estimate £340,000–£380,000, or $429,350–$479,850).

If you’re more inclined toward Hagerty’s RADwood, a celebration of 1980s and ’90s turbo-era cars, the Saturday sale is for you. There are a couple of Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworths and even an unused factory engine to go with them. Estimated at a strong, although not unexpected), £120,000–£140,000 ($151,500–$176,800), there is also an extremely low-mileage, one-owner 2004 BMW (E46) CSL that could easily set a record. One of the five Mitsubishi Evo VI RS Tommi Mäkinen Monte Carlo Edition cars, possibly the ultimate Evo, is also for sale, with an estimate of £100,000 to £120,000 ($126,300–$151,500), as is one of Hagerty UK’s 2024 Bull Market picks: a low-mileage 2002 Honda S2000 GT that Iconic believes may hit £40,000.

But they’re only the teasers. The 1998 Subaru Impreza 22B-STI, number 29 of 400, may have been given a tempting low estimate of £190,000 ($240,000). For those whose pockets are not quite so deep, there’s also an Impreza P1 and an STi 555 Version 2 on offer. There are famous cars, too, including an ex-Richard Burns 1998 Mitsubishi Lancer GSR Evo V with fewer than 800 miles on the odometer (estimate £100,000, or $126,300) and a 1996 Honda NSX-T that was the UK press car. It is described as being in excellent condition, but its high estimate of £85,000 ($107,350) is still lower than the top Hagerty Price Guide value.

Then there’s an ultra-rare 1984 Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 (estimate £235,000–£275,000, or $334,650–$347,300) and—for me—the star of the show, the #002 1987/2001 BMW E30 M3 Enhanced and Evolved by Redux. As anyone who follows Redux on social media knows, these cars have been re-engineered to a phenomenal level, and this is the very first time one has hit the open market. Currently the lone UK-registered road version, this may be the only opportunity to buy one (estimate £200,000–£250,000, or $252,550–$315,700) given that Redux’s order book is reportedly full. Stoneleigh Park may be a busy place.

But in amongst these modern-day collectible icons, a very unusual car also caught my eye. Tucked away in the competition sale is a kit car, a Formosa 120GR, estimated at a fair £22,000 to £26,000 ($27,800–$32,800). Based on a 2-liter 1963 Triumph Vitesse and clad with a fiberglass body, “kit car” seems unfair, as the lines on this thing are superb, reminiscent of an HWM Jaguar or even a Ferrari 750 Monza. Created by a team who cut their teeth building Sunseeker yachts, it’s the sort of car that would draw attention whenever you drove it, for all the right reasons. I love the look of it; we’ll see if bidders agree.

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The post Iconic’s Race Retro Catalog Is Full of Dreams appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The PRO Superstar Shootout, held last Saturday at Bradenton Motorsports Park south of Tampa, Florida, was the richest drag race in history, with $250,000 payouts to the Top Fuel and Funny Car winners and $125,000 to the Pro Stock winner.

A beyond-capacity crowd, drawn by big names and perfect weather, saw current NHRA Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta take down Clay Millican in the final with a healthy 3.70-second pass at 325.14 mph. Millican had problems and slowed to 4.22 seconds at 196.39 mph.

“We’ve never really seen this kind of money, and the whole deal was it was pretty cool,” Kalitta said. “I know a lot of people worked real hard to make this happen.”

The biggest surprise was the Funny Car victory by Austin Prock, driving the John Force–owned car usually piloted by Robert Hight. Hight is having health problems and stepped away from driving for the 2024 season, leaving Prock, who has been racing Top Fuel, to take over Hight’s ride. This was his first race in a Funny Car, and he not only won the $250,000, but he qualified first. In the final round, Prock made a pass of 3.845 seconds at 332.42 mph to defeat defending NHRA world champion Matt Hagan, who ran a 3.872 at 329.75.

“I don’t even know what to say, I’m stunned. We just won the biggest payout in drag racing history,” Prock said.

In Pro Stock, the $125,000 check went to six-time NHRA season champion Erica Enders, who beat Dave Connolly in the final round with her run of 6.531 seconds at 210.05 mph to Connolly’s pass of 6.577 seconds at 208.81 mph.

“Dave Connolly and I have a lot of history and in that final round, I’d be lying if I told you my heart rate wasn’t a little bit higher than normal,” said Enders.

Still another surprise was Funny Car driver Bob Tasca III, who in Friday qualifying made a pass of 341.68 mph. It was the first time in history that a wheel-driven dragster (as opposed to a jet car) has ever topped 340 mph. That also makes the little Bradenton track, which has never hosted an event of this size before, the fastest drag strip in the county.

The PRO Superstar Shootout, organized jointly by PRO, which is the Professional Racers Organization, and the staff of Drag Illustrated magazine, was by almost any measure a success. It is the first genuinely major drag racing event in decades that wasn’t sanctioned by the NHRA.

The NHRA gets its season going at the Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in Florida. It’s set for March 7–10.

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In just over a week, NASCAR will take to the high banks for its “Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing”—the Daytona 500. More immediately, this coming Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will grace the gridiron in Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII. What would happen if you put these two events in a cocktail shaker? A high-profile race set inside a stadium?

Well, somebody already did, and the results were mighty sweet.

Here’s how the 2023 Castrol Gateway Dirt Nationals went down: Last December, more than 200 race teams filed their way into downtown St. Louis’ stadium for the big event, arriving in a parade of semis, trucks, and trailers. Every winter since 2016 (aside from 2020’s cancellation due to the pandemic), the Dome at America’s Center has welcomed the nation’s top dirt late-model and modified drivers for a weekend of dirt-slinging and door-banging on a temporary fifth-mile banked clay oval. In its short history, the show has grown from an experiment to one of the discipline’s most renowned affairs.

The first-ever midget race was held in 1933 at Loyola High School Stadium in Los Angeles. Crowds grew quickly, and before too long, purpose-built arenas like Gilmore Stadium across town hosted races. (Hagerty Media editor-in-chief Larry Webster even sampled indoor dirt at the famous Chili Bowl midget contest.) Stadium racing is not limited to pint-sized roadsters, though. NASCAR has turned laps at venues like Chicago’s Soldier Field and Bowman Gray Stadium remains a bucket list attraction for stock-car thrill seekers. The idea of racing on an arena floor is not new. However, the idea of racing inside a football stadium in the middle of the NFL season—that’s a whole different ball game.

Football fans will recall that, in the early Nineties, St. Louis was in the market for an NFL franchise. The city’s beloved Cardinals left for sunny Arizona in 1988 and America’s gateway to the west was searching for a team to fill the void. Public bonds helped fund a newly proposed stadium to be built next to the city’s convention center. By 1995, a full-size football arena capable of holding over 67,000 fans was complete. Midwest football fans eventually got their wish as the Los Angeles Rams were moved to St. Louis later that year.

The new St. Louis Rams developed into a high-flying, high-scoring squad, earning the nickname “The Greatest Show on Turf.” The move lasted for twenty years, resulting in one Super Bowl win in 1999. Before the start of the 2016 NFL season, St. Louis Rams relocated from their home at the Dome to L.A. (the franchise’s home city from 1946–1994). The Rams were back in California, leaving the St. Louis dome with plenty of vacant dates on its event calendar.

Enter Cody Sommer, a fresh-faced mover and shaker within the dirt world. The 36-year-old has a history of big projects with varying degrees of success, from a three-year partnership with the dirt racing’s most popular driver, Scott Bloomquist, to an indoor midget race in the Indiana Pacer’s field house. In December 2016, Sommer and a crew hosted the inaugural Dirt Nationals in Gateway. While other projects have come and gone since then, the Dome has remained a staple on the dirt track calendar.

Part of its staying power has come from the incredible finishes and unlikely heroes. Tyler Carpenter comes to mind—a blue-collar from West Virginia who bested a roster of cars with better equipment to take consecutive titles in 2019 and 2021, winning $30,000 in his most recent triumph. His brash attitude and aggressive driving style are perfect for the track’s tight confines.

And he’s consistently good at providing a decent soundbite.

“It’s either make the move or be moved,” Carpenter told reporters in 2021. “I don’t want to crash them guys. Hell, I like ‘em all. We’re here to race … they’ve had their opportunity to win big races. This is the only shot I got as of right now. I ain’t got the backing they got (to win at bigger tracks).”

Indeed, indoor etiquette differs from the typical farm field dirt oval. “There’s definitely a different code of conduct at the Dome,” says Minnesota modified driver Jake Timm. “Everything happens so fast and the races are so short, you don’t have any time to waste. If you are faster than someone you need to be willing to throw an elbow to get by or you might as well not try!”

The sport’s purists may be quick to critique the on-track product, which more closely resembles a WWE match with plenty of contact and lots of hurt feelings. The temporary surface often develops deep ruts and the on-track speeds never hit triple digits. However, most are happy not to be sitting at home fighting winter boredom and accept the race for its minor flaws, understanding that no race at all would be a greater evil.

And so, tens of thousands of fans filled the Dome last December. This year, the event’s attendance had grown so substantial that organizers opened another section of seating for Saturday’s big dance.

The event is a three-day pressure cooker and reaches a massive crescendo on its final day. Preliminary races in the two days leading up to that night pare down the competitive field from over 120 late-model dirt cars to just 20 for Saturday’s feature race. “You have to segment out the night and not think too far ahead,” says Illinois driver Brandon Sheppard. “If you can’t qualify well and you’re buried in your heat, there’s no point in thinking about the feature until you’re in it. The key to going fast is balancing risk versus reward.”

He adds: “And keep it between the walls, baby.”

Tyler Erb did just that in 2022, winning his first Dirt Nationals in his Days of Thunder-inspired green and yellow paint scheme. The 25-year-old fan favorite from Texas captured the checkered flag just four days after losing his father to a heart attack. An emotional Erb stood on the roof of his car to celebrate as fans whooped and hollered.

Erb was back this year to defend his title, joining perhaps the strongest field to ever start a Gateway late model feature. The final night’s pre-race festivities are yet another thing that sets the December dance apart from the other thousands of dirt races run throughout the rest of the calendar year. After the Dome lights went out, fans held up their phone lights and sang “Proud to be an American,” which was followed by indoor pyrotechnics that sent heat waves into the lower seats. Each of the 20 drivers walked out of a smoke-filled tunnel, one by one, like pro wrestlers entering the ring. Dirt racing’s hottest driver, Ricky Thorton Jr., even wore a giant gold championship belt; other drivers opted for costumes or disparaging signs that took shots at their competitors.

The 40-lap late model feature was one of the cleanest yet, with only a few on-track incidents. Sheppard, who started on the front row, quickly assumed the lead and built up a decent gap on the rest of the field. Not to be discouraged by his lackluster starting sport, Thorton quickly charged through the field. With less than 10 laps to go, he was in second place and taking chunks out of the leader’s interval.

With one to go, the two were bumper to bumper. Thorton went low, and Sheppard went high.

Thorton’s shot was just short as he slid behind Sheppard, clipping the wall. Thorton ultimately settled for second. The crowd erupted as a new champion was crowned: King Sheppard, the Seventh. “To win in front of a home crowd that big is insane,” says the man who cut his teeth running on the dirt tracks that surround St. Louis. “It’s hard to put a number on it, but definitely a top 10 moment in my career.”

Sommer and crew have already announced that the Gateway Dirt Nationals will be back in December 2024, so mark this weekend on your calendar. Football be damned, this indoor contest might be the “Greatest Show on Dirt.”

The post Former NFL Stadium Now Hosts the “Super Bowl” of Dirt Racing appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Hammertown: A desert fantasyland in which a temporary encampment of nearly a hundred thousand off-road fanatics and their side-by-sides, custom modified trucks, ATVs, and dirt bikes pack more than three square miles of the Mojave for the annual ten-day festival known as King of the Hammers. Regulars call it “Burning Man for off-road racers.” Bloomberg reporter Ashlee Vance called KOH a “party for cars” in this must-see video. Both descriptions fit the wonderful madness of this singular event.

Races happen nearly every day, with different classes of vehicles running a tortuous course of about 100 miles that encompasses wide-open sections and boulder-strewn climbs known as “Hammers.” These rock-crawling sections are as entertaining for (often drunk) spectators as they are challenging for drivers, who frequently are required to winch their extreme machines past obstacles and who are prone to tumble down hillsides like a Tonka truck in a sandbox. Over half of the competitors don’t finish. The Ford Bronco that won this year’s production class averaged less than 15 mph and, with what I imagine must have been a great ripping sound of metal against rock, lost its passenger door to a boulder along the way.

The highly produced races are broadcast live on YouTube, with drones and helicopters filming the remote action. Considering the brutality of the course, it’s no surprise that most of Hammertown’s inhabitants are there to jeer and cheer rather than compete. Particularly after dark, monstrous crowds hoot and holler as the bravest warriors among them take a stab at the competition course. When things wind down, the crowds zoom back to their Hammertown campers in their 4x4s, flocks of machines storming across the desert floor like a scene from a Mad Max flick.

I’ve been fascinated by KOH for years. Back in 2015, curious to know if the stories I’d heard were remotely true, I sent a reporter and photographer to investigate, and they came back with a gripping tale of near anarchy. The images, sadly, are no longer available, but shooter Chris Cantle snapped an unforgettable photo that he kindly let me share:

Ever since I’d been itching to join the tens of thousands behind the wheel of this vehicular smorgasbord. My people! While I do most of my driving on asphalt, there’s something graceful about off-road driving. On a slippery surface like dirt or sand, you’re not directing your vehicle as much as coaxing it, looking far ahead and working the controls long before you need to slow or turn. Your movements likely are clumsy at first, either too early or late, but with some practice, your machine is floating and gently responding to well-timed inputs. That’s when off-roading is like dancing, not that I know what it feels like to be a good dancer.

Ford, the only manufacturer with a high profile at KOH, not only used the event to prove the Bronco’s off-road chops but also brought along—but did not race—a Bronco DR, so-named for “Desert Racer.” The $300,000 factory-built off-road racer isn’t street-legal but is super cool. Ford will build only 50 DRs, which are seemingly like every other limited edition and instantly collectible. One just sold at auction for $440,000.

Ford also brought an F-150 Lightning electric pickup with an experimental off-road suspension. I rode shotgun as professional off-roader Christopher Polvoorde flung it through the desert. Two things jumped out: Polvoorde had a sixth sense about which bumps he needed to slow for and which ones he could drive over, whereas they all looked the same to me. I also enjoyed the relative silence of the cabin so we could talk without shouting.

The KOH crowd was more welcoming to electric power than I expected. Many buzzed the pits on electric scooters and dirt bikes. The Optima battery company held a rally for EVs and set up a massive solar and hydrogen fuel cell–powered charging station. A host of privately owned EVs, including Rivians and a Tesla Cybertruck, prowled the desert.

I highly recommend you join Hammertown next year. You will not be bored.

As we roll into the weekend, here’s some of the latest and greatest from Hagerty Media:

• The kids are all right — here’s how Kansas college kids made a mark at Pebble Beach “on a ramen budget”
• Learn about America’s Most Beautiful Roadster 2024, from the Grand National Roadster show, this flamed Ford Phaeton
• Feeling grateful for your car heater this winter? Here’s how motorists got toasty in the early days
• The Audi R8 is going away and it will be missed

This week’s podcast covers the aftermarket car parts business and the massive annual SEMA show. Listen on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to support us, please share our material and join the Hagerty Drivers Club.

Have a great weekend!

Larry

P.S.: Your feedback is very welcome. Comment HERE.

Please share this newsletter with your car-obsessed friends and encourage them to sign up for the free weekly email. The easy-to-complete form is here. And if you’d like to support the efforts of Hagerty Media, please consider joining the Hagerty Drivers Club.

The post Never Stop Driving #85: Burning Man for Desert Racers appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tony Stewart is a three-time NASCAR Cup champion, an IndyCar champion, an IROC champion, and a USAC Silver Crown sprint car and midget champion.

At 52, he’d like to add one more: The National Hot Rod Association Top Fuel championship.

Beginning with the NHRA season opener, the Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway on March 7–10, Stewart will take over the driving duties for his wife, Leah Pruett, in the Tony Stewart Racing 11,000-horsepower, 330-mph Top Fuel car. In 2023, Stewart made his drag racing season debut in a Top Alcohol Dragster, finishing the year second in the standings. But while a Top Alcohol car is fast, a Top Fuel dragster is fast.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous about it,” Stewart told Hagerty Media. “But I was a little bit nervous when I went to Daytona for my first Daytona 500, I was nervous before my first Indianapolis 500, I was nervous the first time I got in a full-sized sprint car. I would say it’d be more disturbing if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous.”

This weekend, Stewart is at the big-money SCAG Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park, just south of Tampa. It’s the first major drag race in decades that isn’t sanctioned by the NHRA—it’s sanctioned by PRO, the Professional Racers Organization, whose members are a who’s who in drag racing. Last year, Stewart was elected to the board.

But Stewart won’t be driving this weekend—it’ll be Pruett’s last race before she steps aside, as she and Stewart are trying to start a family (nothing yet to report on that front, he said). The total purse for the PRO Shootout, the richest drag race in history, is $1.3 million, with $250,000 going to the winner of Top Fuel and Funny Car, and $125,000 to the winner of the Pro Stock class. Pruett, 35, has nine NHRA wins and finished a close third in the 2023 championship.

Stewart and Pruett met at an outing hosted in Utah by the late Ken Block in 2020, and were married a year later. Stewart started a drag racing team with a Top Fuel car driven by Pruett, and a Funny Car driven by Matt Hagan, the current NHRA champion. Stewart still plays a large role in NASCAR, as he and partner Gene Haas own Stewart-Haas Racing, a four-car NASCAR Cup team with drivers Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, Noah Gragson, and Chase Briscoe. Stewart also owns the dirt sprint car driven by Donnie Schatz, a 10-time World of Outlaws champion.

But it’s at drag races where you can usually find Stewart on weekends. “I enjoy it. I enjoy the people, I enjoy the atmosphere, the camaraderie—nothing against the other series, but it has an old-school feel that I haven’t seen in a long time. When I say that I don’t mean that it’s primitive at all, but the amount of fun that I’ve had there, even before I started driving, is considerable. On Friday and Saturday evenings, when the fans have all gone home and the crews are finishing up on their cars, we’re visiting with other teams and socializing and doing things we used to do way back in the day.

“That’s almost non-existent in motorsports. Some of the short-track guys will still hang out with each other when they’re traveling down the road in between races, but aside from that, you really don’t see it anymore.”

Some fans have speculated that the PRO race may be causing some friction with the NHRA, but Stewart disagrees. “There was a lot of animosity at the beginning from the NHRA, but we’re trying some different things that, if they work, maybe the NHRA can adapt down the road and keep growing the sport. This is not the proverbial pissing contest. Teams go south and do pre-season testing, and this event includes two-and-a-half days of testing that teams want to do anyway, with two-and-a-half days of an event attached to it. So to be able to race for the money offered up, and to have a unique format—I mean, I’ve never seen a Top Fuel dragster race a Funny Car. To be able to see that with the cars that don’t make the field—that’s going to be unique. I know it’s been done before, but I’ve never seen it.”

Bradenton Motorsports Park has been open since 1974, but has never hosted an event this size. “The group at Bradenton has done an amazing job to accommodate what needed to happen to make this event possible,” Stewart said. “I don’t think there would have been too many venues outside Bradenton that would have had the balls to make changes that we needed for this event—they haven’t blinked, they haven’t flinched, and that’s one of the reasons why we think this event will be a success.”

Stewart also addressed the challenges that face Stewart-Haas Racing, the NASCAR team. The past two seasons have been “miserable,” Stewart said, and its two most experienced drivers, Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola, left at the end of 2023. Stewart has taken a lot of criticism, especially on social media, about the lack of competitiveness of Stewart-Haas, with many of the comments centered around the fact that Stewart is spending more time at NHRA races than NASCAR races, and he isn’t happy about it.

During the off-season, “I’ve spent more time in the NASCAR shop than I ever have, in all honesty. I can’t tell you what the results are going to be, but I can tell you that whatever they are, it’s not going to be for lack of effort on anybody’s part.

“I’m tired of hearing race fans complain that I’m not at the racetrack enough—somebody has to have the common sense to remind these fans that I’m not the crew chief, I’m not the engineer, I don’t make the pit strategy calls, I’m not the spotter—my job is to put the people in place to do those jobs. Whatever it is we’re missing is not because we don’t have good people.

“It’s frustrating on my side. It shows me how uneducated some of these fans are, and how they start talking before they think about what they’re saying. You can’t be in every place every time, and I’m not going to go to every NASCAR race. Even if I wasn’t racing in the NHRA, I wouldn’t go to every NASCAR event. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about our race teams, it doesn’t mean I don’t care about our drivers, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care about the results.

“For 20-plus years, NASCAR dominated my life. Now, I’m going to get some of my life back, and do some of the things I want to do, but it doesn’t mean that if we don’t have the results, I’m not putting effort into it. I don’t understand why people would say, after two seasons that went rough, that it’s because I’m not there. I’m confused and baffled by some of the stuff that you read, and the stuff you hear. Just baffled.”

Stewart admitted that he spent more time reading social media comments than he should have. “I had shoulder surgery the day before Thanksgiving, and I literally couldn’t do anything the first two weeks. So I went on the computer, and there was so much on social media—these people have no clue as to what’s going on. They just turn the TV on every Sunday and think they know everything. And they don’t know anything. It’s amusing to read some of it.

“It was a good reminder to just go do your thing. We don’t do all this for them, we do it for ourselves.”

For information about the PRO Shootout, which starts today and runs through Saturday, go to SuperstarShootout.com. For information about the NHRA Gatornationals, log onto NHRA.com.

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The post Tony Stewart Is Happy about Drag Racing, Not So Happy about NASCAR appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Few Japanese cars in recent history have garnered the sort of fanfare and adolescent admiration that Toyota’s fourth-generation Supra Turbo has enjoyed. However, its potential on the road course is largely unknown or, more often than not, casually dismissed. Few Supras in the U.S. were modified into casual road-course weapons, and fewer examples of Toyota’s former flagship performance car ever saw sanctioned wheel-to-wheel competition on North American soil.

Housed in that elongated snout was an iron-block straight-six, the 2JZ-GTE, which spoiled the weight distribution slightly. Toyota did its homework, however, and despite its weight (a 1993 car weighs 3480 pounds) and curvaceous shape, the Supra was responsive and surefooted. Those willing and/or able to look past the renowned tuning potential of the powerplant might have recognized a car that could be more than a drag racer, but not many were interested in developing it in that way.

David Schardt, founder of wheel manufacturer Forgeline, was one exception. With the help of Toyota, he not only built a Mk IV Supra to compete in the World Challenge GT series, but, fifteen years after selling the car, he bought it back and made it better—and faster—than ever.

Japanese racers solved the problem of making the Supra corner like a real racer by ditching the big iron lump and using a silhouette body. From 1996 to 2004, GT500-spec Supras raced in the Japanese Grand Touring Championship using an aluminum, two-liter, twin-cam four-cylinder called the 3S-GTE. Its compact package helped move mass towards the middle of the Supra, and, thanks to the time that Toyota had spent refining the engine in the World Rally Championship, the little four-cylinder produced over 200 horsepower more than the 2JZ with which the Supra Turbo left the factory. Granted, a JGTC car shares little more than a silhouette with its production counterpart, but the Supras that competed in this series were, in many people’s eyes, the only fourth-gen models worthy of being called bonafide race cars.

Stateside, there was no comparable series in which the Mk IV Supra showcased its strengths: stability, stopping power, a potent powerplant, and a shape that was not only pleasant to look at but relatively aerodynamic. However, IMSA’s Speedvision Cup series made room for a modified version of the production car to show its strengths in the Street Stock class. This class mandated all the cars stay semi-factory, which made the overbuilt and easily tuned Supra a candidate with real promise.

Among a field of proven Porsches, BMWs, and Mustang Cobras, David Schardt decided to campaign a fourth-generation Supra Turbo. With the help of Shawn Passen from Passen Motorsports, he procured two examples to run in the 1997 and 1998 seasons of the Speedvision Cup. Schardt and Passen mulled over a name that would suit their unproven Japanese sports GT and settled on hikari, Japanese for “light.”

Once stripped of creature comforts, the Supra measured in at 3150 pounds. That made it a middleweight, though it was not so heavy as to overwhelm the factory four-piston calipers, which were quite good: In 1997, Road & Track found that the Supra Turbo could decelerate from 75 to a full stop in just 45 meters (147.6 feet). That stat remained unmatched among road-going vehicles for seven years, when the Porsche Carrera GT beat it.

The Hikari Supra didn’t need much to become road course–worthy, just Koni shocks, TRD swaybars, and a few bolt-on modifications to get the 2JZ breathing freely. (Funny how easily an uncorked 2JZ-GTE could produce 450 horsepower at a time when supercars made roughly the same power.) In this mildly modified state, the motor would run the race distance without losing power, overheating, or suffering any setbacks. “We ran multiple six-hour races with the car in that configuration without a hiccup,” Schardt recounts proudly. With co-driver Kelly Collins, Schardt enjoyed five top-ten finishes in the 1998 season. Fuel economy was what kept them from doing even better.

Cash injection

Toyota had noticed the Hikari Supra and wanted to give its flagship sports car a greater chance to shine. Factory backing can take an ambitious privateer team quite a long way and, with Toyota writing large checks to his team, Hikari Racing, Schardt decided to step into World Challenge GT for the 1999 season.

Since World Challenge’s rule set was more flexible, Toyota wanted the team to start with a clean slate. With a new VINless “crusher” chassis, Hikari Racing began exploring this car’s potential—particularly that of the engine. Out came the factory CT20 turbos and in went a massive Turbonetics TS03 unit.

The big turbo and supporting modifications doubled the factory power figures, but driveability went down the drain. With an aftermarket valvetrain oriented for optimal performance in the higher rev range, the promise for big power was there, but the limitations of aftermarket ECUs from twenty-five years meant power came on like a steam hammer. The MoTeC M48 ECU was cutting-edge stuff in 1999, but even it could not make the motor as tractable as road racing required.

While the rules concerning the powerplant were relatively open, those concerning aerodynamic additions were stricter. An adjustable TRD wing and a custom splitter helped stabilize the Supra at speeds, but it wasn’t forced into the road as aggressively as a contemporary GT2 car, which had comparable power output. Like the other World Challenge cars the Supra was, essentially, a production car that relied primarily on mechanical grip and power to perform.

Schardt and his team ran a simple, effective setup similar to the one they had used for their Super Stock cars: Koni shocks, Eibach springs, and TRD swaybars. Where their setup differed was in the width of the footprint as per the rules of World Challenge GT. However, even 315-section BFGoodrich G-Force tires were too narrow to handle the mule-kick of 500 lb-ft of torque. In most races, the tires would be useless past half-distance; a large amount of their rubber had been painted on the asphalt in long, black streaks.

The added power did more than strain the driven tires. The engine struggled to stay cool for much longer than half of the race—even with the front-mounted HKS intercooler, which, unbeknownst to the team, was obstructing the necessary airflow through the central inlet to the Fluidyne radiator. Their World Challenge GT car was a sprint special: strong in qualifying and capable of sailing off into the distance within the first half of the race, but incapable of sustaining that performance. “It led many races, but never won one,” Schardt says wistfully.

Following the end of the ’99 season, Toyota pulled its funding for the Hikari Supra, which left Schardt with a bitter taste in his mouth. Still, their team had multiple top-five finishes and had finished fourth in the driver’s championship.

Toyota did supply Hikari Racing with two Celicas, but the company’s plan to promote that model didn’t go as successfully: Due to oiling issues, the Celicas never quite performed like their bigger brother. After a lackluster racing season, Schardt decided to park his Toyotas and focus on the growth of his wheel business, Forgeline. In 2001, he sold the Supra to an enthusiast in Ohio and moved on with his life, never expecting to see the rounded yellow hips of his World Challenge car again.

Fifteen years later, that familiar yellow shape popped up on eBay. Schardt, a calm and measured man, could not resist the pull of nostalgia. He made an offer—as it turned out, to the same man to whom he had sold the car in 2001. A couple weeks later, his old warhorse was unloaded at the foot of his driveway.

Schardt had to pinch himself. Though it had developed some patina, the car was cosmetically identical to the way it had left Schardt’s shop. “Even the original decals were still in place!” Schardt laughs.

Tidying up

Time had taken its toll on the Supra, so Schardt began rebuilding the car with the aftermarket support that simply hadn’t been available twenty years earlier. Spurred on by sentimentality, he wrote a few sizable checks that would do the old Supra justice.

First came the footwork. Hoosier R7 slicks now wrap Forgeline GW3R wheels at each corner. With Titan sway bars, MCS Double Adjustable shocks, and solid bushings all around, the Supra is even more surefooted and responsive than before, although the overall weight hasn’t changed. Two decades of improvements in tire tech make traction and turn-in far better than they were in the race car’s heyday.

So much of the old engine’s habit of overheating was due to poor management of aerodynamics. Titan’s custom undertray now helps direct airflow which once escaped underneath the car through the radiator. Also, the airflow through Supra’s inlets—two wing inlets and a larger central one—was not being wisely utilized back when the intercooler was positioned directly ahead of the radiator. After Schardt swapped the front-mount intercooler for a custom side-mount item housed in the area behind the right wing inlet, a known low-pressure zone, both coolers are fed more efficiently.

In pursuit of boost

Titan handled the engine rebuild, and this time used TMS 264 cams, Carillo rods, and CP pistons. The resulting 9:0:1 compression ratio is ideal for the high-boost setup, which comes courtesy of a Garrett GTW6465R turbocharger. To make the most of beefier internals and a big whistler, Schardt opted for a modern MoTeC M800 ECU. Not only does it help maximize power output across the entire rev range, but it supplies Schardt with a host of features to make the motor run more smoothly and safely. Few cars can match the Supra at places like Road America, save for some of the big-block cars.

Performance over the subsequent two seasons of vintage racing has been stellar—the Supra finished fourth in its class at Indianapolis in 2023—but racing takes its toll on even the strongest engines. A recent inspection of the oil pan showed plenty of glittery shavings. Schardt deferred to local Supra specialist Thomas Harless, who gave him the horrible prognosis: The crank bearings were damaged. A full rebuild was in order.

Schardt wasn’t fazed. Ever an optimist, he saw this as an opportunity to find more power and a touch more response—and he got half of what he wanted. After rebuilding the motor and adding a larger oil pump, he opted for a GTW3586 turbo for a more progressive onset of torque—or so he hoped. However, the new head, ported by Titan and boasting hotter cams, flows so well that the little GTW comes on violently. Schardt is back to the lightswitch power delivery of the old days.

Although the latest iteration of the 2JZ isn’t as wieldy as he’d like, at least he doesn’t have to lift the hood most weekends. When he does, the motor is more easily serviceable than it’s ever been; additional MoTeC safeguards as well as a set of easily accessed wastegates have made mid-weekend fixes much easier.

Schardt’s World Challenge years might have been the best of his life, but reuniting with the car, optimizing it, and finally finishing on the SVRA podium is sweet, overdue vindication. Finally, the Supra has the reliability and stamina it lacked in its heyday. The big grand tourer has become more than a one-lap special: By finishing fourth in class at Indianapolis in 2023 against Mercedes, Porsche, and Audi GT3s from the 2000s and 2010s, the Supra has proven it’s fast, even by modern standards. “We’re gunning for a win next year,” Schardt said.

Plus, it regularly draws crowds. The old Supra is popular because it is quick, and because it spits fire and whistles away like no modern car will. If you ever see it race in person, you’ll understand why Schardt just couldn’t let his Supra stay away from him forever.

In 2024, Schardt plans to race the Supra the WeatherTech® International Challenge with Brian Redman at Road America (July 11–14) and at Historic Festival 42 at Lime Rock (August 30–September 2).

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Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup champion, is one step closer to his IndyCar debut at the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500. Following his fifth-place finish at the Clash preseason NASCAR race Saturday at the Los Angeles Coliseum, he traveled to the Phoenix Raceway for an Indy car test on Monday.

Granted, the one-mile Phoenix oval is a far cry from the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but Larson said in a Zoom call today with the media that he learned a lot from the test. “I had a few moments where I was uncomfortable. I thought that was good to feel that at 190 or whatever we’re going—180 maybe in the corner— compared to going 220 [mph] at Indy. Having the moment, being surprised by something, I think that was a benefit.”

He nearly lost the car once: “Got a little bit loose into the corner,” he said. “As I was leaving the bottom, it just started to get sideways. I was able to catch it.

“Honestly, though, nothing about yesterday felt way different than what a Cup car feels like. That was good for me. I think the characteristics of the Indy car versus the Cup car, at least at Phoenix, felt very similar. You’re just going a lot faster in an Indy car.

“The moments happen a lot quicker. The edge of ‘good’ versus ‘not good’ feels a lot sharper. Yeah, it didn’t feel way, way different than what I was used to. Even with those moments of getting sideways, it didn’t feel way different.”

On May 26, Larson is planning to do the “double,” shorthand for running both the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar race and the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Cup race, which are held on the same day. He will compete at both events for his NASCAR team owner, Hendrick Motorsports.

Doing the double is a physically and mentally demanding exercise, requiring the driver to compete in the Indianapolis 500, hurry to the airport, board a private jet for the Concord-Padgett Regional Airport in North Carolina, which is 430 miles away, then board a helicopter that lands at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The late John Andretti was the first driver to attempt the feat, on May 29, 1994. In 2001, Tony Stewart became the first and only driver to successfully complete all 1100 miles of both races, finishing sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte, despite complaining over the radio of an upset stomach. Besides Andretti and Stewart, only Robby Gordon and Kurt Busch have attempted the double. Busch was the last in 2014, where he finished sixth at Indy but dropped out of the Coca-Cola 600 with engine problems. He completed 906 total miles.

Dubbed the “Hendrick 1100” (t-shirts, hats, and model cars are already available at Hendrickmotorsports.com), Larson’s HendrickCars.com–sponsored Indy car, from the Arrow McLaren stable (with full-time drivers Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi, and David Malukas), was unveiled last August. In October, Larson passed his rookie orientation at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His Indy car is powered by Chevrolet, like Larson’s NASCAR Cup car.

He’s unlikely to get another run in the open-wheel, Dallara-Chevrolet race car until open practice in April at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, then in the practice sessions leading up to the Indianapolis 500. Besides lapping at Phoenix, when he went through five sets of tires, he practiced pit stops and making in-car adjustments that are possible in an Indy car but not in a NASCAR Cup car.

Night running. pic.twitter.com/kEdn0TBpyI

— No. 5 Team (@Hendrick5Team) February 6, 2024

Larson thinks he got up to speed in the Indy car, but since he was out there by himself, he really isn’t sure. “I have yet to be on track with anybody else, so I don’t know,” Larson said. “I’m not able to compare to anybody else yet. I could have been half a second or more off the pace yesterday. I just have no clue. Once we get to the month of May or the open test in April, that’s when I’ll be able to kind of judge myself based off of the guys who do this for a living.”

Few doubt that Larson, arguably the most versatile driver in the Cup garage, will get up to speed or that he’ll get his share of attention. “I do know there’s a lot of race fans that are excited to see me out there. That makes me excited, as well. I feel like I’m a grassroots type of racer. Even though I race on Sunday in the Cup Series, I still feel like I resonate with the local short-track fans. I think that’s exciting. That’s what gets people liking me.

“I know I’ve got a lot of support on the fan side of things. I’m sure the whole NASCAR garage will be paying attention to how my couple weeks is going there.”

And as for the Daytona 500, on February 18: “Hendrick Motorsports is always really fast there. I know our race car is going to be good. It obviously takes some luck to get to the finish, but you also have to make good decisions and be prepared.

“Although on paper we’re literally like the worst team on superspeedways, I do believe that we are much, much better than what we show on paper. I feel like 90 percent of the time we’re in the top six or eight at the end of the race, the final 10 laps, then we get caught up in a crash, end up finishing 28th or worse.

“Eventually it’s got to work out. We keep putting ourselves in position. I’m confident that we can go out there and win or at least get a good finish and get off to a good start for the year. There’s a lot of factors that come into play at those superspeedway races. You have to cross your fingers that you can be in front of the pack and then you execute at the finish.”

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Despite nearly two decades of amateur racing under my belt, setting up a race car’s suspension remains something of a dark art to me. Getting all the variables on my Miata or even the much more limited ones on my kart just right for a given track usually requires describing what the vehicle’s doing to a knowledgeable pro and making incremental changes based on their advice. With the ability to adjust toe, camber, caster, and wedge, it is far too easy to take a chassis in the wrong direction while hunting for a setup that behaves predictably. Finding that perfect combination will yield a better-behaving car at speed and ultimately produces better lap times.

Knowing the complications that come with making chassis adjustments, I was quite intrigued when Lamborghini recently unveiled its Active Wheel Carrier, or AWC for short. It might have nothing to do with karting or SCCA club racing Miatas, but this tech actively adjusts two aspects of rear suspension geometry up to 60 times per second, shaving massive chunks of time from the pace of pros and novices alike. Let’s look at how it works and what it can do for you.

Toe, or the angle of the wheels relative to a straight line running from the front of the car to the back, is the first axis of adjustment. Zero toe is when the wheels are pointed perfectly straight—this positioning makes for the least rolling resistance (and therefore the least amount of tire wear). However, for spirited driving, even tiny changes in toe angle can make a world of difference. Small increments of toe out—where the leading edge of the tires is slightly further apart than the trailing edge—can make the car more eager to change direction (some drivers call this “twitchy”), while toe in, especially at the rear of the car, can help induce stability. AWC’s variable toe enables razor-sharp turn-in and confidence-inspiring stability throughout the corner. It’s also able to use this adjustable toe mechanism to induce minute amounts of rear-wheel steering to help the car feel more nimble, as well.

The second axis that Lambo’s AWC can alter is camber, which is the extent to which the top of the wheel is leaning in (negative camber) or out (positive) relative to horizontal. Optimal camber, like toe, is dependent on what a car’s doing at any given moment. For applying power down a straight, zero camber maximizes the tire’s contact patch. In a corner, negative camber on the outside wheel compensates for the vehicle’s lean and enables ideal grip on side of the car that is loaded up with the most weight.

AWC’s active camber adjustment provides the optimal contact patch at all times. This is most important in cornering, where not only is the outside tire ideally set up for the turn, the one on the inside—which in a traditional setup would have the smallest contact patch in this situation—is now able to employ the full width of the tire and greatly increase mid-corner grip.

The AWC system moniters data from a number of sensors including steering angle, throttle, and g-forces to add or subtract camber and toe independently at both rear corners. The outcome was dramatic—according to the OVERDRIVE YouTube channel, journalists testing the car improved their lap times by 4.8 seconds, and Lamborghini’s own test drivers saw a 2.8-second reduction in lap times when AWC was on.

Of course, there’s a lot of load placed on wheel hubs, especially with the monster power and sticky tire compounds found on today’s Lamborghinis. As a result, it may be some time before this tech reliably finds its way to the streets on supercars or otherwise. I think I’ll keep my racing rides old school, but I am constantly amazed at the technology that makes speed ever more attainable.

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This Ford fanatic found, restored and ultimately lost a Shelby Mustang race car. Today, his ride pays homage to that very special machine.

Phil Jacobs is a Ford guy. A one-time dealer tech, he proved outstanding in that role, so Ford brought him into the mother ship to answer service and repair questions for dealer mechanics nationwide. He has a particular fondness for Mustangs and has owned several, including a 2006 Mustang GT that is the current object of his affection.

That Mustang GT stands out in a crowd. Sure, it’s a pretty red car in pristine condition, but that’s not what draws your attention. Rather it’s the car’s dressage, a near-perfect livery of the Shelby Trans-Am Mustang in which Jerry Titus won his class at the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona. Why? The simple answer is that the ’06 Mustang’s graphics are meant to honor Titus, the Trans-Am Mustangs of the late ’60, and, most importantly, a very special Shelby Trans-Am race car that Jacobs will never forget.

Titus was a journalist who had shown promise behind the wheel of several race cars when Carroll Shelby offered him a place on his SCCA National Championship Trans-Am team. I can attest that those kinds of offers seldom come to those of us who wield the pen. But Titus quickly proved his worth, winning the Trans-Am series driver championships in ’66 and ’67 while helping clinch the manufacturer’s championship for Ford in that second season.

Titus’s successful ’67 season made him solidly number one on the ’68 Shelby Terlingua Racing Team, and, along with his co-driver, he began the campaign with a class win at the 24 Hours of Daytona. A big number 1 on the door would later identify his red Mustang as the car to beat. A second Shelby Trans-Am Mustang was prepped for Horst Kweck and various name racers who opted in for a single event or more. Ford provided a third Mustang for the Shelby team, but it was never raced and probably never fully prepped for battle. Instead, it gathered dust in the Shelby garage.

The Shelby team suffered multiple engine failures and a rash of DNFs during the ’68 season. According to Jacobs and other sources, the engine failures were largely the result of Ford’s insistence that the race car engines could only be built at company headquarters in Dearborn. In ’66 and ’67, the Shelby team had developed its own engines. To further complicate things, the ’68 engines were a new design that used tunnel-port heads similar to those used on the big-displacement NASCAR engines, and they initially proved difficult to tune. With the lack of team control over assembly, and problems dialing in the tunnel-port engines, the results were disastrous.

By the end of the season, with no Mustang championship in sight, Titus jumped ship and signed on with the Pontiac Firebird team. He saw some success in ’69, once again winning his class at Daytona but again frequently failing to finish. He was tragically killed in an accident while practicing for the 1970 Road America Trans-Am race.

Jacobs was still a youngster when Ford dominated Trans-Am early on, but he was old enough to relish their success. With a passion for Mustangs, he bought his first, a ’71 Mach 1, shortly before starting as a Ford dealer repair technician in 1977. He put his mechanical skills to work on that Mustang and had it running 12-second elapsed times at the Milan, Michigan dragstrip. But he was a road racer at heart and longed to take to the track in a car like those his heroes drove in the late ’60s.

Meanwhile, the third ’68 Shelby Mustang Trans-Am, the one that had never seen a racetrack, was passed from one owner to another. Shelby first sold it to an independent Trans-Am racer by the name of Bill Pendleton. Before Pendleton could prep the car for competition, he signed on with a race team and sold the unfinished car. In subsequent years, it apparently went from one owner to the next, all planning to complete it but never succeeding. After nearly 20 years of foster care, it went to John Hancock, an Oregon enthusiast.

Hancock knew he had what was likely a historic automobile but was unable to document it to the satisfaction of the Shelby American Automobile Club (SAAC). At the time, the club, which was founded in 1976, had yet to develop a comprehensive registry. Frustrated, Hancock decided to sell it. Jacobs heard of the car through his Ford connections and suspected it was truly one of the Shelby race cars. In one of the great automotive bargains of all time, he purchased the rusting hulk for $1500 in 1987. The price for shipping it from the West Coast to Michigan was a hundred bucks more than the cost of the car.

With the bare bones of a Trans-Am Mustang in his garage, Jacobs went to work learning as much as he could about the Shelby race cars, traveling to swap meets to hunt for parts, calling former Shelby crew members, and more. To say he was thorough would be an understatement.

“I didn’t start working on the car until I had a full picture of exactly what an authentic ’68 Shelby Trans-Am Mustang should be,” said Jacobs.

Several years of research provided that picture, and in 1990, he got to work. Some of the metalwork was completed by a respected restorer of Ford automobiles, but Jacobs did much of it himself. The finished car was exactly what it would have been in ’68 had the Shelby team completed it.

Jacobs was as particular about the powertrain as he was with the sheet metal and was able to obtain a tunnel-port 302 cubic-inch Ford engine that was a duplicate of those that the team struggled with in ’68, but he also built a standard-port engine, an identical copy of the ’67 version that had earned Ford and Titus a championship. That engine generated 442 horsepower and 372 lb-ft of torque, using only the hardware on which the Shelby team had relied. With more modern systems, the engine could have been more potent, but Jacobs is big on authenticity. Despite not having as much power as some vintage racers, he was still able to win four of the 12 vintage races he entered.

It wasn’t only Jacobs’ engine that was a copy of the one that took Titus to championships. The paint scheme and graphics were what Titus used as well. Although the ’68 car was red at Daytona, yellow was the predominant Shelby team color. Jacobs duplicated that yellow paint and made exact copies of all decals and trim.

Although completing the restoration was rewarding, authentication and affirmation were important to Jacobs as well. His extensive research and efforts to fully document the car finally paid off in full when SAAC acknowledged that the Jacobs Mustang was one of the three cars that Ford had provided for the Shelby race team.

Jacobs continued to race the Shelby ‘Stang for 15 years, enjoying every minute of it. In a Trans-Am vintage race in Waterford, Michigan, he held the lead until the last lap when he braked late and ran off the track. Although he lost the overall battle, he got back on track in time to win his class. In a Shelby event at Tulsa, Oklahoma, he beat a big-block ’69 Mustang for the overall win. And in a mixed-field vintage race at Mid-Ohio, he was sparring with an L88 Corvette that would put bus lengths on the little Mustang in the straights, only to be passed in the corners. As Jacobs recalls, the Corvette owner was both distressed and impressed.

In 2005, divorce changed everything. Given Michigan’s divorce laws, the Shelby Trans-Am was community property. Without the funds needed to buy out his ex-wife, Jacobs was forced to sell the Shelby ‘Stang. It went for $125,000, a substantial amount thanks to the extensive provenance that Jacobs had developed and the authenticity of the car’s restoration. Had the Shelby team used the car in competition, it probably would have sold for twice that.

Jacobs missed his very special car but got on with his life and kept on smiling. “I was a mechanic,” he says. “I never had much, but the funds generated from the sale of the car enabled me to buy a house.”

In that house, he put together an elaborate race-themed man cave with many photos of his race car, hundreds of models, and a wealth of Ford racing memorabilia.

Although he was no longer the owner of a Shelby race car, Jacobs had developed a love of road racing, so he rented a spec ’95 Mustang GT race car from a friend and ran several Camaro Mustang Challenge races sanctioned by the National Auto Sport Association. At Indiana’s Putnam Park Road Course, he qualified number one and set a new lap record but was experiencing health issues and couldn’t continue.

Those health issues were revealed to be due to a cardiac problem that required surgery and left Jacobs ineligible for a competition license.

While he could no longer rub sheet metal on the racetrack, he bought the slightly used 2006 Mustang GT and dressed it in Titus livery. Jacobs was, and so remains, a committed Mustang lover.

But old racers rarely hang up their helmets for good. And they don’t have to, thanks to track days where one can enjoy the thrill of hitting the apex and roaring down the straightaway without serious risk. So, these days, Jacobs can be seen at track days throughout the Midwest, driving a beautiful red Mustang GT dressed in the livery of a car and driver long gone.

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The 2023 National Hot Rod Association season was a good one for Pro Stock racer Matt Hartford—he won three events, including the prestigious U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis—and he’s looking forward to the 2024 NHRA season, which starts March 7-10 with the Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in Florida.

But first, there’s money to be won.

Hartford is one of dozens of drag racers who will be competing at the first-ever Skag Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park, south of Tampa. It’s a big-money invitational sanctioned not by the NHRA, but by PRO, the Professional Racers Organization, which represents most of the professional racers and teams in big-league drag racing.

The PRO Shootout will be the richest event in drag racing history, one reason it’s attracting racers like Hartford. “Obviously, we are looking forward to a race where the payout is almost as much as winning an NHRA season championship,” he said. The Pro Stock winner will pocket $125,000, and the winners of the Top Fuel and Funny Car competition will get $250,000 each. Total payout is a sobering $1.3 million.

Money aside, “Everybody wants to win the first one no matter what the series is, but it would be something you look back on in 20 years and say, ‘That was pretty cool,’” said Hartford.

The event will begin with one qualifying session on Thursday night, February 8, followed by three sessions on Friday. Then, the eight qualified drivers in Top Fuel and Funny Car and the 16 qualified drivers in Pro Stock will draw chips to set the pairings for Saturday eliminations.

With Super Bowl LVIII airing on Sunday, February 11, race organizers Wes Buck, founder and editorial director of Drag Illustrated, and Alan Johnson, president of PRO and crew chief for Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta, wanted to make sure the PRO Shootout didn’t go up against the biggest sporting event in America.

When Buck and Johnson announced the PRO Shootout six months ago, they said the purse would be $1.3 million, but no major sponsors had been signed. Fortunately for them, that’s changed, but you have to give them credit for guts.

“This is an inaugural event so there are bound to be some hiccups, but we felt we had to lead with conviction and put our money where our mouth is,” Buck said. “We knew we had to call our shot on day one, and here we are, $1.3 million later.”

Compared to some other pro motorsports, prize money in drag racing often hasn’t kept pace, Buck said. “We’re talking about changing the economy in drag racing. Our sport has the expense associated with running these cars, specifically Top Fuel and Funny Car, and the math has never made sense, but it’s trending in the wrong direction.

“A lot of these racers don’t expect their race operations to make tons of money, but it needs to be self-sustaining. And in the environment that exists currently, there really isn’t a pathway for drag racers to win enough money and even break even. So it causes a lot of these race teams to be 100 percent beholden to sponsors, with no security—it’s a tough environment to operate in.”

If this sounds as though Buck is criticizing the NHRA, he really isn’t. In fact, he says he’s done all he can not to represent the PRO Shootout as a shot across the bow of the NHRA. “There’s a lot of us versus them, NHRA versus PRO, and that’s never been our agenda. We certainly understand that people are competitive, and it’s easy to get your feathers ruffled, but we really feel that this is complementary to a great time in the sport of drag racing, and I think it’s going to send everybody off into the season with excitement and momentum and enthusiasm for our sport and what we do.

“We’re running well in advance of the NHRA season opener because we didn’t want any decisions to have to be made by fans or vendors—I think we’ve done as good of a job as we can to work with the NHRA and have this event be something inclusive.”

Besides Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock, the PRO Shootout will also run three Sportsman classes—Stock Eliminator, Super Stock Eliminator and Top Sportsman Eliminator. Pay-per-view streaming will be provided by FloRacing.com.

“We’re about to have ourselves a hell of a drag race,” Buck said.

For more information, log onto Superstarshootout.com.

***

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One of the worst side effects of digital photography is the additional step that it takes to bring your photography into the real world. If you’re not diligent in saving files or inspired to make prints, whole catalogs can be lost to the annals of time. Without physical negatives, plenty of my photos that grace this website no longer exist beyond a line of code in our system. It’s a major bummer.

And I’ve only been shooting for six years. Imagine a career photographer’s photo storage conundrum. I have plenty of colleagues who squirrel their stuff in hard drives that look like bank safes. That’s all well and good, but what happens if, one day, that drive doesn’t turn on? The world will have gained one more paperweight.

The Revs Institute in Naples, Florida, gets it. This repository of automotive history and memory includes over 120 archival collections, 26,000 books, and 200,000 magazine and journal issues. Even better, they are open to researchers and the public by appointment. and Revs’ extensive photo collection is available online through the Revs Digital Library (RDL)—presently with 700,000+ images and counting.

The Institute is currently in the process of digitizing another two million shots, including images by the recently acquired André Van Bever Photography Archive. “Throughout his career, André Van Bever chronicled motor racing history, from Juan Manuel Fangio in 1949 to Niki Lauda in 1975, making him one of the most renowned visual witnesses of post-war motorsport,” said Scott George, Curator of Collections.

Preservation of information might be the most important thing on this planet. For my money, photos are artifacts right up there with the Declaration of Independence, the Parthenon, and Dale Sr.’s helmet. Luckily, the Revs Institute recognizes the importance—and the impact—of preserved shots within automotive space.

“Caring for photographs is a real responsibility, because by and large, they are unique,” said Miles Collier, founder of the Revs Institute, in a press release. “They are one image taken by one photographer, at one moment in time, and if something happens to that image that moment in time is forever lost.”

Van Bever was born in Brussels in 1922. His career in photojournalism began at 18 years old when he covered a motorcycle race at the Bois de la Cambre in Brussels as a favor for a friend.

In 1947, he began a 28-year stint as the official photographer of Belgian newspaper Les Sports. Throughout his career, he was assisted by his wife, Nicole Englebert-Van Bever.

“I realize now that he had an artistic side, but he didn’t [realize it],” Englebert-Van Bever told Revs. “Although, I found there is an element of research in every photo. He saw himself as more of a photojournalist who was always under pressure. He wasn’t aware of his artistic side in my opinion.”

The couple became close friends with many of the drivers, especially fellow Belgians Paul Frère, Olivier Gendebien, Lucien Bianchi, and others.

Van Bever’s negatives will be cleaned, logged, and processed over the coming year, then uploaded to the RDL and tagged so that the photos are searchable by scholars and the general public. (The entire RDL can be found at library.revsinstitute.org.) Until then, check out a sampling of Van Bever’s remarkable work in the slideshow below.

The post 18 Moments of Motorsport Magic Through André Van Bever’s Lens appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton is set to move from Mercedes to Ferrari, according to an Instagram post from Scuderia Ferrari.

“Scuderia Ferrari is pleased to announce that Lewis Hamilton will be joining the team in 2025, on a multi-year contract,” the post said.

Mercedes also released a statement announcing the news. “Lewis has activated a release option in the contract announced last August and this season therefore will be his last driving for the Silver Arrows. The news brings to an end what is currently a 17-year relationship in F1 with Mercedes-Benz, and an 11-year partnership with the works team.”

Said Hamilton: “I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I am so proud of what we accomplished together. Mercedes has been a part of my life since I was 13 years old. It’s a place where I have grown up, so making the decision to leave was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. But the time is right for me to take this step, and I am excited to be taking on a new challenge.”

Hamilton, 39, was expected to finish out his career with Mercedes, the team with which he won six of his seven world championships. Mercedes struggled during 2023, leaving Hamilton winless.

Of course, with the outstanding season Max Verstappen had driving for Red Bull Racing Honda, most drivers were winless. Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, would have swept the season were it not for Carlos Sainz’s September win at Singapore for Ferrari. Media reports say Sainz is the driver that Hamilton would replace. Where this leaves Sainz is unclear; he could possibly replace Hamilton at Mercedes. His Ferrari co-driver Charles Leclerc signed a new contract two weeks ago, but there was no mention then of Sainz. Speculation was that Alex Albon of Williams could replace Sainz, but that was before the Hamilton news was made public.

Ferrari has long courted the services of Hamilton, making him a $50 million offer last year. But Hamilton decided to stick with Mercedes. His current contract includes the 2025 season, but obviously there was some sort of escape clause built in, likely reflecting Mercedes’ competitiveness, or lack of it.

Autosport quoted Hamilton early last season as saying about Mercedes: “I think for this year [2023] they thought the fundamentals were good and we just have to go here and it’s not the case. That’s why I was frustrated in February, because they hadn’t made the changes I’d asked (for).”

Apparently, Hamilton is convinced that as he enters the late stage of his career he has a better chance at a return to glory with Ferrari than Mercedes.

In recent years, the outspoken Hamilton has branched out into other ventures. In October of 2022, he founded Dawn Apollo Films, a production company. Its upcoming projects include an untitled motorsport drama starring Brad Pitt and directed by Joseph Kosinski, which spent the last two weeks filming at the Daytona International Speedway and the surrounding area.

***

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Tuesday was a big day for stock car racing as NASCAR: Full Speed debuted on Netflix. The five-episode docuseries follows last year’s 16 playoff drivers as they race toward the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

If you’re apprehensive about yet another motorsports documentary, I get it. I certainly was.

Since its debut in 2019, F1’s Drive to Survive has become a global phenomenon, perhaps making the biggest waves right here in the States. According to a Nielsen study, the sport’s U.S. fan base grew about 10 percent in light of the show’s success. Fun stat: More than 360,000 viewers who didn’t view F1 in the latter part of the 2021 season watched F1 racing in 2022 after first watching Drive to Survive.

These stats were likely regurgitated in the board room of every motorsports sanctioning body here to Timbuktu, as aspiring documentarians pitched other series on similar ideas. In the past few years, plenty of disciplines have rushed to make a bare-all docuseries. In 2022, the USA Network premiered a 10-episode NASCAR series, Race for the Championship. Last year, IndyCar launched 100 Days to Indy on the CW. Both were legitimate attempts but lacked the trademark rawness and drama that Drive to Survive served in its five seasons.

The rumblings surrounding NASCAR: Full Speed signaled that the show might be different. For one, the project had some serious power players in the mix. The production studio Words + Pictures was behind the lens. If that sounds familiar, this is the same group who created The Last Dance, a ten-part documentary that focuses on Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls, and the 2017 Academy Award-winning O.J.: Made in America.

Oh, and retired NASCAR superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the executive producer.

Still, I’ve been bit before. When you know a subject matter so intimately, a production’s flaws can stick out like a sore thumb. I recently watched a tennis expert break down the inconsistencies in Break Point, another hot Netflix doc produced by the Drive to Survive crew.

Girding myself for disappointment, I tuned into the big red ‘N.’

The first episode opens in Martinsville, Virginia, at the penultimate race of the season. It’s a time of high stress for the remaining playoff drivers who are attempting to make the final four cutoff for the season-ending showdown in Phoenix. This is a great snapshot of the sport at its most tense. The intimate pre-race convos between lovers and teammates, which are rarely shared during the event’s traditional coverage, excellently build the suspense. Long gone are the early-season races, where a mulligan or two can be tolerated; it’s go-time in Martinsville.

Then, the show quickly pivots, jumping back a couple of months to the days leading up to the playoffs and the respective cutoff race in Daytona. This Tarantino-style timeline could be confusing to the entry-level viewer, however, the doc employs a fuzzied shock jock radio voice to slowly explain the context. We join Denny Hamlin as he prepares his two daughters for school.

Throughout the episode, we’re given incredible access to the personal lives of each driver in the spotlight. This is where the show shines. It’s intriguing to watch these superstars who wrestle race cars around the track at 200 miles per hour performing mundane tasks. Hamlin burns a pancake during his family’s morning routine.

Unsurprisingly, it is the veteran driver Hamlin who provides the best sound bites: “I don’t want my competition thinking ‘Oh gee shucks, what a nice guy.’ F*ck that.”

In addition to interviews with a roster of drivers, you also hear from plenty of pundits and even executive producer Dale Jr., who eloquently explains the sport’s subtle complexities and provides clear context. In fact, as you roll through the midpoint of the episode, the experienced NASCAR fan will start to understand the intended purpose of this docuseries: make new fans.

First, the decision to set the first episode at Daytona is intentional. It’s the same track that will open the 2024 season in a couple of weeks. What a way to prime an audience. Second, the explanation of NASCAR’s playoff system, one of the most nuanced components of the sport, is laid out and explained multiple times so that even a person who has never witnessed a stock car race can comprehend. Drafting, inspection, personas, reputations—everything is laid out like a grade school curriculum.

At one point, bored of explanation, I started to reach for my phone. Then, the cameras travel inside a hauler to listen to a prerace speech from a crew chief. Wait, I’ve never seen that. We even see team owner Coach Joe Gibbs pull Hamlin aside to talk about a soundbite that aired on the driver’s podcast earlier in the week. Juicy!

And it’s all shot and composed really well. There’s plenty of neat framing, unique perspectives, and a great soundtrack.

Despite setting most of the first episode at Daytona, a place where Dale Earnhardt dominated but ultimately passed away, there is no mention of the Intimidator. There isn’t mention of any Hall of Fame driver, for that matter. Make no mistake, the series is here to explain today’s NASCAR. That might rub some fanatics the wrong way, but for the sake of the sport’s future, I’m fine with highlighting modern-day heroes. The lack of personality is one of NASCAR’s current issues and NASCAR: Full Speed is trying to provide a remedy.

Bubba Wallace, the second-ever Black driver to win in NASCAR’s premier level, is chronicled heavily in the first episode. Rightfully so. Wallace has worked his tail off to be in the Cup Series, and found himself right on the playoff cut line during the show’s filming. He also drives for Hamlin and co-owner Michael Jordan. Yeah, that Jordan.

The episode ends with the closing laps at Daytona. A huge flip is followed by late-race dueling, and a triumphant—and exhausted—Bubba Wallace on pit lane receiving congratulations from teammates and Jordan alike. Orville Peck’s “Daytona Sand” accompanies the scene. This doc consistently has the kind of stuff that will likely put your arm hair on end, even if you aren’t a NASCAR fan.

NASCAR: Full Speed is an excellent primer for new fans and provides plenty of intimate never-before-seen moments for the most devout followers, and it wraps it all in a shiny cinematic bow. I’m excited to watch the next episode.

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When we last left former Formula 1 driver and current multi-series team owner Michael Andretti and his quest to be allowed to enter a two-car team in Formula 1, it was October 2 of last year, and the FIA, the governing body for F1, had approved his application.

Andretti then moved to the final stage of the process, which was handled by Formula 1 management itself.

Today, its decision dropped on Andretti’s head like a ton of bricks. In a 20-point assessment, F1 has blackballed Andretti’s application, though the series managers did say they could reconsider their decision for the 2028 season.

Andretti and his father, 83-year-old Mario Andretti, the 1978 F1 world champion, have been seeking to become the 11th team on a grid that seems happy with 10 teams and 20 cars. All during the process, Michael Andretti’s effort, in conjunction with a partnership with Cadillac, has received minimal support from some team principals, outright hostility from others.

F1 claims its decision had nothing to do with how the other teams felt about Andretti. “Our assessment did not involve any consultation with the current F1 teams,” reads the rejection statement. “However, in considering the best interests of the Championship we took account of the impact of the entry of an 11th team on all commercial stakeholders in the Championship.” In other words, they understand that the F1 pie is presently divided into 10 parts, and those teams did not want to have to cut the pie into 11 slices.

The rejection seems to rely largely on the fact that Andretti F1 does not have a dedicated engine supplier. According to F1’s statement, Andretti’s application “contemplates an association with General Motors that does not initially include a Power Unit [PU] supply, with an ambition for a full partnership with GM as a PU supplier in due course, but this will not be the case for some years.” In other words, while Cadillac is happy to provide development resources such as wind tunnel time, and has registered as a power unit supplier with F1 as of last November, the company is not yet in a position to build a suitable F1 powertrain, a process which could cost upwards of 10 figures. If Cadillac’s situation changes by 2028, Andretti’s application would stand a better chance of approval.

“Having a GM Power Unit supply attached to the Application at the outset would have enhanced its credibility, though a novice constructor in partnership with a new entrant PU supplier would also have a significant challenge to overcome. Most of the attempts to establish a new constructor in the last several decades have not been successful,” the rejection statement said. “GM has the resources and credibility to be more than capable of attempting this challenge, but success is not assured.”

F1 management said that: “Our assessment process has established that the presence of an 11th team would not, in and of itself, provide value to the Championship. Any 11th team should show that its participation and involvement would bring a benefit to the Championship. The most significant way in which a new entrant would bring value is by being competitive, in particular by competing for podiums and race wins. This would materially increase fan engagement and would also increase the value of the Championship in the eyes of key stakeholders and sources of revenue such as broadcasters and race promoters.

“We do not believe that the Applicant would be a competitive participant.” This comment will catch any motorsports aficionado by surprise: Michael Andretti as a driver and team owner has consistently been competitive in a variety of series, including IndyCar, Formula E, and IMSA, proving itself most recently with Jake Dennis’ win in the season-opening Formula E race last week.

But what about the Andretti name, arguably the most famous racing family in North America, which has become a huge market for F1? “While the Andretti name carries some recognition for F1 fans, our research indicates that F1 would bring value to the Andretti brand rather than the other way around.”

The only ray of hope for an Andretti- and Cadillac-backed team was this: “We would look differently on an application for the entry of a team into the 2028 Championship with a GM power unit, either as a GM works team or as a GM customer team designing all allowable components in-house. In this case there would be additional factors to consider in respect of the value that the Applicant would bring to the Championship, in particular in respect of bringing a prestigious new OEM to the sport as a PU supplier.”

This, despite the fact that multiple teams currently in the series use powertrains bought or leased from other manufacturers. And that the only American F1 team, Haas F1, has been a perpetual backmarker since it entered the series in 2016, and has always used a supplier engine, originally from Ferrari. Haas F1 finished 10th out of the 10 teams in 2023, and owner Gene Haas fired team principal Gunther Steiner this month. Steiner had been with the team since it began. Haas has never had an American driver.

Almost certainly, Andretti could do better.

So it appears Andretti’s only real path into F1 is to buy an existing team, but he has said repeatedly that there isn’t one for sale.

Last year, we asked Andretti if he was disappointed with the lack of support he has received from other F1 teams. “I don’t know if ‘disappointed’ is the word,” he said. “I said some things I shouldn’t have. I should have said that every team is going to look out for themselves, that’s just the way it is, especially as big as Formula 1 is. My point was the series—FIA and F1—look at it a different way than the teams do. They are the ones who have to look out for the future of the sport, where the teams have to look out for the future of the teams.

“I think I used the word ‘greed,’” as he described the teams’ negative reaction towards his initiative, “which was the wrong word. I should have said ‘self-interest.’ If I was in their position I’d probably be doing the same thing.”

Well, maybe. The fact that F1 can’t see the value in a solid American team, likely with at least one American driver, and an association with General Motors—we’d say “disappointed” is the right word.

Late today, Andretti issued a statement: “Andretti Cadillac has reviewed the information Formula One Management Limited has shared and strongly disagree with its contents. Andretti and Cadillac are two successful global motorsports organizations committed to placing a genuine American works team in F1, competing alongside the world’s best. We are proud of the significant progress we have already made on developing a highly competitive car and power unit with an experienced team behind it, and our work continues at pace. Andretti Cadillac would also like to acknowledge and thank the fans who have expressed their support.”

A tweet from Mario Andretti perhaps sums it up: “I’m devastated. I won’t say anything else because I can’t find any other words besides devastated.”

***

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This interview first appeared on our site in 2019, on the 55th anniversary of Hopkirk’s historic victory. He passed away in July 2022, but we wanted to update the story to mark the 60th anniversary of his win, because it remains no less monumental today as it did then. —Ed.

No one expected him to win, not the competition, not the race officials, and not even the driver himself. Yet 55 years ago, Patrick “Paddy” Hopkirk and his co-driver Henry Liddon came out ahead in one of the greatest David versus Goliath motorsports battles ever. Pitched against factory teams from Mercedes-Benz, Saab, Volvo, Citroën, and Ford’s onslaught of eight V-8-powered Falcons, Hopkirk’s bright red Mini Cooper S emerged victorious as the winner of the 1964 Monte Carlo rally.

Overnight, Paddy Hopkirk became a household name, and the Mini cemented a lasting reputation for punching well above its weight. This year [2019] being the 60th anniversary of Mini, we caught up with Paddy at his Buckinghamshire home in the UK to talk about his greatest race.

“At the time, I didn’t realize how important it was going to be,” he says. “It was just another rally win to me.”

In the winter of 1963 Hopkirk wasn’t famous, but well-known in rallying circles. He’d cut his teeth on motorized contraptions early, flogging a highly unstable, inherited 250cc invalid carriage around an estate near his Belfast home as a child, and then moving into autotest handling competitions in his university days. Success came early, rallying VW Beetles and later Triumphs around the narrow lanes of the Irish countryside.

Hopkirk was initially unimpressed by the Mini. “I saw it coming into the local showrooms,” he says. “At the time, we sort of laughed at it. We called it the district nurse’s car. My [BMC] team manager Stuart Turner convinced me to have a go in a Cooper [at Oulton Park Circuit] and I remember being absolutely knocked over by it. The performance, the handling—it was love at first drive.”

What was to become the most famous Cooper in the world, registration number 33 EJB, was successfully campaigned by Hopkirk at the 1963 Tour de France. He beat out the 3.8-liter Jaguar Mk IIs in the Touring division, finished first in his class, and when the handicaps were worked out, ended up besting a Ferrari 250 GTO driven by Jean Guichet, later winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1964.

The three months prior to the 1964 event required painstaking reconnaissance of the mountain passes around Monte Carlo. Preparation was a grind, but a shared task. “Rallying’s not like an Olympic sport,” says Hopkirk. “It’s a team effort. I had a wonderful team coordinator, wonderful mechanics, the right team.”

Unlike modern stage rallies, the Monte Carlo rally didn’t start from a single location, but required first driving long distance from one of nine European cities to a gathering point to begin the timed sections. BMC racing manager Turner hedged his bets by dividing up his teams to improve the odds. Crews were sent to far-flung places like Glasgow and Athens. In the case of Hopkirk, Liddon, and 33 EJB, the spot was Minsk in Russia—behind the Iron Curtain.

“I, like an idiot, put my hand up, because I’d never been [to the Soviet Union],” Hopkirk says.

Having a sense of adventure was key to the rallying spirit in those days, as was an entrepreneurial bent. Hopkirk took along a supply of nylon stockings and bartered them for a huge tin of Number One beluga caviar, which he stashed among the spare parts in his Cooper, hoping to sell it for a profit when they arrived in Monte Carlo. Just getting to the gathering point in Reims, France was a difficult task.

“We had to press on because you never knew what was around the corner,” Hopkirk explains. “We didn’t go flat out, but you had to build up time. You’d be driving along and hear a mechanical noise, and just hope that the mechanics could fix it when you caught up to them. But you weren’t always sure where they were going to be. There was very little communication.”

To stave off weariness, Hopkirk and Liddon relied on Dexedrine and coffee. Liddon operated the roof-mounted light to shine around corners while Hopkirk tried to make time on unfamiliar roads in darkness. At last, they arrived in Reims, and the rally began in earnest. It almost immediately ended in disaster.

On the first day, the team was stopped by a policeman for accidentally turning the wrong direction up a one-way road. Hopkirk flipped on the charm and claimed he had given up the rally and was only heading home because his mother had died. If arrested, the team would have been instantly disqualified. They got away with it, turned the corner, and went flat out to make up for lost time.

“Nobody knew what was happening,” he says of the special stages. “When you started, one set of officials would mark down the time, and another set would record when you arrived on the other side of the mountain. The results were sent on ahead, but until it was all calculated, no one knew how they were doing. As we were heading into Monte Carlo, Stuart Turner asked us, ‘How’ve you done, lads?’ and we replied, ‘We don’t know but we haven’t hit anything.’”

Icy conditions and narrow roads, however, proved a considerable advantage for the small, front-drive Mini. “The French plows made a hard bank, and if the Mini got sideways it didn’t hit, not like the larger cars. Front-wheel drive was fast and safe on the downhills.”

Overall, Ford’s Falcon team was quicker on nearly every stage except those on the narrowest roads. However, their 289-cubic-inch V-8s were more than four times the size of the 1071-cc engine in the Cooper. Hopkirk was quick behind the wheel and mechanically sympathetic to the little Mini. “Left-foot braking is a bit overrated,” he says. “Fast, but you break the car.”

Finally, after four days and nights, they all arrived in Monte Carlo for a well-deserved break. Hopkirk remembers getting a call from French journalist Bernard Cahier at four o’clock in the morning, telling him that the Mini team might have won the whole rally. He didn’t believe him.

But next morning, the results were up on the board, and Hopkirk and Liddon were in the lead. There was just one final stage to go: five laps of the F1 circuit around Monaco.

“I felt a bit of pressure,” Hopkirk says. “But we had enough of a lead that I didn’t have to drive too fast. I just didn’t want to make any stupid mistakes and break the car.”

On the Monaco circuit, Swede Bosse Ljungfelt was finally able to use the full V-8 power of his Ford Falcon and was around 30 seconds faster around the course than Hopkirk’s Cooper. Even so, when the dust settled, the Mini had accumulated 2,152.1 penalty points to the Ford’s 2,216.2.

“I have a photo of [Mini designer] Alec Issigonis and [F1 champion] Fangio and me drinking champagne and eating the caviar out of that tin on the balcony of the Hotel Paris,” Hopkirk laughs. “I never got paid for it.”

The victory made headlines around the world, with LIFE magazine dispatching a reporter to cover the story, and congratulatory notes from the British and Northern Irish Prime Ministers. At the height of Beatlemania, Hopkirk even got fan mail from the Fab Four.

All these years later, Hopkirk is humble about the win, noting that the effort was as much about mechanics lying under cars in cold ditches as it was about the driving. “I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time,” he says.

A bit of luck, some cheeky daring, and the skill to go flat out when it really matters. No one saw Paddy Hopkirk and his Mini Cooper coming 55 years ago, but they slew the giants, and became legends.

***

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At his first overall victory in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, car owner Roger Penske confounded the highly-favored factory Porsches by snatching a win in his Chevrolet-powered Lola T70 Mk. 3B driven by Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons. That was in 1969, 55 years ago.

On a cool, sunny Sunday, this time with Penske leading the Porsche factory effort, Porsche Penske Motorsports won a second overall victory at Daytona over the Whelen Engineering Cadillac, which was leading until 45 minutes from the end, when a caution flag flew and the GTP cars peeled off to get enough fuel to finish the race. The #7 Penske Porsche 963 beat the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R back onto the track, and Felipe Nasr, driving the final stint in the Porsche, never looked back.

“I’ll tell you, this goes down as one of the biggest wins we’ve had,” said Penske, who turns 87 in February. “When you think about 1969, when we won here with a Lola, things were a lot different in those days. Just to see the competitiveness now, where six- or seven-tenths of a second was the difference after 24 hours of racing, it’s unbelievable.”

Roger Penske Racing won by 30 laps, something that will never happen again at the Rolex 24, given the current level of competition. Of course, this occurred in an era when a Chevrolet Camaro entered by Randy’s Auto Body could finish 12th overall.

Yesterday, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s Acura ARX-06 finished third, breaking Acura’s three-race winning streak at Daytona. Porsche 963s finished fourth, fifth and sixth. It’s a far cry from 2023, when the top Porsche, also a Penske entry, finished 14th, 34 laps off the pace.

In LMP2, the Era Motorsports Oreca/Gibson took the win—more about that victory in a moment.

In GT Daytona Pro, the Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 beat out AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R for the win. And in GTD (unlike in GTD Pro, the driver lineup of each entry in this class must include amateur drivers), Winward Racing’s Mercedes AMG GT3 won out over AF Corsa’s Ferrari 296 GT3.

In other news from the track:

Takeaway #1: The ending was confusing

Fans and drivers both were confused with the race’s finish, which seemed to come at least a lap early. The NBC broadcast said there were two laps to go, but the white flag flew almost immediately, and it seemed that the GTP cars had already begun their final lap.

Felipe Nasr, who was driving the winning #7 Porsche Penske 963, said, “I was confused, too. I don’t know if there were two white flags. I don’t know. I really don’t know. I was just focused on each corner, each braking and just clearing traffic and making sure there was no mistakes and taking the car to the end.” That’s why Nasr didn’t really begin slowing until it was clear that it was obviously time. “Yeah, you’ve got to keep on the throttle until it’s over.”

We’ve asked IMSA for an explanation, and here it is: “Due to an officiating error in race control, IMSA inadvertently announced and subsequently displayed the white flag with under three minutes remaining in the race. At the end of the lap, the race-leading No. 7 GTP car then received the checkered flag with 1 minute, 35.277 seconds still remaining, ending the race short of the planned 24 hours by effectively one lap.” According to the rules, IMSA said, the race ends when the checkered flag is displayed,  thus completing the Rolex (not quite) 24.

Takeaway #2: We never saw a proper Mustang-Corvette fight

The highly anticipated Ford vs. Chevrolet battle in GTD Pro never really materialized which, in reality, should not be surprising. Even though they have tested extensively, the Ford Mustang GT3 and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R are brand-new cars, and there is something about the Rolex 24 to make even the most tested vehicles break. Or crash. The highest-finishing Mustang of three in the race came in sixth in class and 31st overall, in a 59-car field. The top Corvette finished fifth in class and 30th overall.

Both models were fast, and ran near the front in the early stages of the race. Both of the Pratt Miller Corvettes led for extended periods, but one suffered a cracked oil tank, and the other a power steering pump. The two AWA Corvettes were sidelined with a power steering issue in one car, an electrical problem in the other. One of the Mustangs was rear-ended by a Corvette, and repairs cost the car six laps.

Takeaway #3: Lexus had bad luck

It was an unlucky outing for the two Vasser Sullivan Lexus RCF GT3 cars, one (#14) running in the GTD Pro class, the other (#12) in GTD. That car sat on the pole and led for multiple stints until it was hit by another car, damaging the rear bumper. But the car persevered and made it to the final pit stop still in contention when, leaving the pits, it burst into flames. Driver Parker Thompson got out and grabbed a fire extinguisher from a corner worker and put the fire out.

As for the #14, which is the IMSA class champion, it was leading in the first hour of the race when an LMP2 car spun and collected the Lexus. The car was repaired by was 36 laps down when it rejoined the race. “We have championship drive and we’re not going to let this race deter us from going on to achieve great things this year,” said driver Ben Barnicoat. “We’re going to get our heads down and get ready for Sebring.”

In happier Lexus news, Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson told Hagerty that Lexus will have a brand-new GT3 car, likely for 2026.

Takeaway #4: The winning LMP2 car was driven by a 17-year-old bound for NASCAR

The Era Motorsports car that won the LMP2 class had some experienced sports car racers, including Ryan Dalziel, who won the race overall in 2010, and in LMP2 in 2021. But making his first start in the Rolex 24 was Connor Zilisch, believed by some to be the Next Big Thing in stock car racing. He becomes the second-youngest driver to score a win at the Rolex 24 at 17 years and 191 days old; he’s just behind Michael de Quesada, who won the GT Daytona class in 2007 at 17 years, 63 days old. Zilisch signed a contract for this season with NASCAR’s Trackhouse Racing, and his schedule includes races in the NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series races, along with starts in ARCA, the zMAX CARS Tour, Mazda MX-5 Cup series and the SCCA Trans-Am TA2 series.

“It’s been a wild last few weeks for me, and I’m not going to let my head get big. I’ve still got to put in the work. I’m only 17,” he said. “I can’t even rent a car. Dad has to do that for me.”

Takeaway #5: Brad Pitt got some filming done for his racing movie

The planned filming of the Brad Pitt racing movie, which is possibly called Apex, reportedly went well, with Pitt spending some time behind pit wall of the #120 Chip Hart Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, which was being raced by Wright Motorsports in the GTD class, finishing seventh in GTD, and 26th overall. The car carried cameras, shooting footage that is expected to be in the movie. That car had a twin in the garage; the actual film stunt car carries the names of the fictional Sonny Hayes (Pitt’s character), C. Kelso, and Patrick Long, who does actually exist.

Long, a former Porsche factory driver, doubled for Pitt in some of the filming during practice sessions, which began more than a week before the Rolex 24 and is expected to conclude on Thursday. Pitt has been spotted around Daytona Beach, and, oddly, at a laundromat in New Smyrna Beach with co-star Javier Bardem.

Takeaway #6: Attendance hit a record high

IMSA, the sanctioning body for the WeatherTech Sports Car Racing Championship, is owned by NASCAR, and they stopped giving attendance figures in 2013. But IMSA president John Doonan said that not only was there a record turnout for the Rolex 24, but also for Friday’s Michelin Pilot Challenge race and the Roar Before the Rolex.

The series is undeniably healthy, with 18 manufacturers participating, compared to two for IndyCar, three for NASCAR, with no additional manufacturers for those two series in sight.

Takeaway #7: The four-hour support race was a nail-biter

Speaking of the Michelin Pilot Challenge race, the four-hour event was held Friday afternoon, with a 45-car field. The race was a nail-biter to the end, as several of the leaders were in danger of running out of fuel before the checkered flag. In the last 10 minutes, leader after leader peeled off the track to get a splash of fuel, and at the end, the Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 718 GT4 RS was the last car standing, winning with a two-second lead over the Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT4 car. Windward Racing, along with driver Daniel Morad, also won the GTD class in the Rolex 24 in a different Mercedes.

The Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup also squeezed in two races, won by Nate Cicero and Gresham Wagner. The aforementioned Connor Zilisch qualified his Miata on the pole for one of the races.

Takeaway #8: Where to catch the next action

The IMSA WeatherTech series is back in action with the second-longest race in its season, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway on March 16. At that race, Lamborghini will debut its new GTP car.

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So far as I know, time machines do not exist. The closest humans come is when they race vintage cars: specifically, at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in Chichester, UK. The track facilities have been unchanged for decades, and, at its famous Revival event in the fall or its exclusive Members’ Meeting in the spring, the cars look plucked out of black-and-white photos. As their drivers hustle them around the nine turns of the 2.4-mile track, you can see a century’s worth of vehicles pass by the grandstands in a single weekend.

It’s a lot to take in when the cars are passing by at speed, and it is somehow even more fascinating to see the cars all parked. Well, at least when almost all of them seem to be parked under one roof—one very cool roof owned by a very cool person: Gary Pearson. He’s the second-generation owner of Pearson Engineering LTD in Newcastle upon Tyne, better known as the shop that keeps Goodwood going fast.

The story of how it all started is pretty humble. John Pearson, the founder of Pearson Engineering, was a quick driver and a good wrench, which meant other drivers naturally started asking for his help preparing their race cars. That was the early 1960s. John specialized in Jaguars but would take on other makes too and, after 20 years in business, the second Pearson stepped in. Gary was just 21 years old and fresh out of school with an engineering degree and has been at the shop ever since.

The grouping of unassuming buildings sitting in the countryside holds a workshop worthy of the stars. Well, the star cars at least. From a Group C Jaguar to Shelby Cobras, there is just about anything you can imagine. That array of machines requires a team of mechanics unlike any other. Gary points out that a lot of his employees are technicians who retired from Formula 1, so there is certainly no lack of experience or understanding. If a person can make sense of a modern F1 car, a D-Type Jaguar certainly won’t be so bad.

Since the 2024 vintage-racing season is about to kick off, the cars sitting in the Pearson shop are especially drool-worthy, but what really caught our attention were the storage shelves. Gary strolls through some of the storage area and grabs parts off a shelf, casually recalling when, where, and why the team at Pearson Engineering undertook a mission to reproduce it. Under a few vintage wood steering wheels hung neatly from another shelf sits a box containing all the gears of a Porsche 917. The machines that could be assembled from the spares in storage would be humbling.

There are so many amazing shops tucked around the world that keep vintage racers going fast, and most are staffed by humble gearheads like Gary, who just care about the history that these vintage cars carry and the fun that they bring with them everywhere. It’s still a few months until the Goodwood Members’ Meeting in April, but when the green flag drops, we will be cheering and looking for the cars we saw in the background of this shop tour. It ought to be a fun game of “I Spy” that everyone will win.

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NASCAR will demonstrate its electric race car at the Busch Light Clash at the LA Memorial Coliseum event on February 4, 2024. 

The concept car was tested over a three-day period at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway oval in Virginia in December. It completed 340 laps with part-time racer David Ragan at the wheel.

Leaked Image of possible NASCAR Crossover EV (via u/crypto6g) https://t.co/p1QDTtIjFh #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/iaROIO6p2B

— r/NASCAR on Reddit (@NASCARonReddit) November 10, 2023

Prior to that, it was tested at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, North Carolina. Ragan is expected to drive the car in the exhibition on the LA Coliseum’s temporary oval track.

The sanctioning body is expected to develop a hydrogen-powered engine and test that, as well. Several NASCAR officials made a trip to Japan last year to watch hydrogen-powered cars compete in an endurance event. Toyota has been racing hydrogen-powered cars since 2021. Hydrogen may appeal more to NASCAR than battery power, since the engines would still make noise.

A story on Sportsnaut.com quotes NASCAR’s vice president of vehicle design Brandon Thomas as saying that fans should not assume that electricity or hydrogen will replace gasoline-powered cars on the Cup circuit anytime soon.

“The [current] NextGen car does project to have hybrid-style power, but we’ve elected not to implement that to date.” Thomas said. “But it also has the ability to adopt full battery electric, and aspirational down the road, more hydrogen combustion, so that when the time comes, and someone says, ‘This is the car of the future,’ we don’t have to pull out the pencil and design it. We’ll already have it.”

The Busch Light clash is scheduled to air on Fox at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 4.

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California 68 is a highway that begins in the town of Pacific Grove at Asilomar State Beach, winds through the Monterey Peninsula, and ends where the road meets U.S. Highway 101 near Salinas.

Along that 26.5-mile route, you’ll find WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course. Built over just two months for $1.5 million, the track opened in 1957 after the Pebble Beach Road Races. That competition was held on public roads for seven years beginning in 1950, ending in 1956 after driver Ernie McAfee, known more for his land speed exploits in his streamliner at Lake Muroc than for road racing, crashed his Ferrari into one of the many trees that lined the street circuit. McAfee was killed.

For decades, Highway 68 was just a winding, scenic way to get from Monterey to Salinas, with Laguna Seca being one of few notable addresses on the road. In the mid-1960s, California officials made plans for the Highway 68 Expressway, widening parts of the road and essentially serving as a non-stop link between the cities. The idea was popular with travelers but less so with some local residents, who were not pleased with the potential for added traffic.

In 1974, those residents formed the Highway 68 Coalition to oppose the Expressway. Though the membership of the Coalition has rarely been publicized, one aspect has remained constant: It has categorically challenged growth and development along Highway 68, and multiple lawyers have been employed to make sure the Coalition, self-described as “a social welfare organization made up of property owners and tenants living and/or owning property in the Highway 68 corridor of Monterey County,” is heard loud and clear.

In that respect, the organization has been rather successful. The Coalition opposed the expansion of the Monterey Regional Airport, filing suit in 2011 over a $42 million safety improvement plan. The expansion was delayed and then substantially scaled back. The Coalition filed suit against Ferrini Ranch, a planned residential area that was approved by the government in 2014. Ten years later, there’s still no Ferrini Ranch. The Coalition filed suit against the developers of the Corral de Tierra shopping center, which was to be built on 11 acres after county approval in 2012. The shopping center never happened.

While Coalition has complained about Laguna Seca in the past, especially regarding race-day traffic and engine noise of cars and motorcycles, the group’s most cohesive effort is a lawsuit filed December 12, 2023, against the track’s owner, Monterey County; the county’s Board of Supervisors; and the Friends of Laguna Seca, a nonprofit group that considers itself a “steward” of the Laguna Seca Recreational Area, which includes the track. The Friends of Laguna Seca has pledged to raise millions to improve the facility, but the lawsuit asks that the county’s contract with the group be nullified.

“We live here too and share the same concerns as our neighbors about noise and traffic,” said Ross Merrill, president of Friends of Laguna Seca. “Our team of experienced business and community leaders are eager to move forward to revive this staple in our community for decades of future success and revenue generation for Monterey County.”

The Highway 68 Coalition disagrees. The lawsuit claims the track is a “public nuisance,” and wants to bar “motor vehicle racing events, rentals of the racetrack and noise levels at Laguna Seca Raceway in excess of the level of use and noise that existed at the time the legal non-conforming use was established in 1985.”

The county backs its 2.2-mile cash cow. “From the county’s perspective, we are asking to get this cleared up so we can continue operations at Laguna Seca, which is a large operation, and doesn’t need this cloud hanging over it,” Deputy County Counsel Michael Whilden told the Monterey County Weekly.

“It is unfortunate certain individuals have chosen to file a complaint against the county concerning operations at Laguna Seca,” said Nicholas M. Pasculli, county communications director. “The county does not recognize any merit to the allegations and expects a favorable legal conclusion.”

Barry Toepke, Laguna Seca’s director of public relations, declined to comment when contacted for this story. The track had a very good 2023 season, and much-needed improvements were made last year, including a complete repaving and a new $18.5-million pedestrian bridge at the start/finish line.

Indeed, the track contributes considerably to the county coffers, as well as area businesses. A year ago, the track announced that surveys conducted of ticket purchasers “who attended the six major race events in 2022 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca revealed an impressive total direct spend of $246,929,648.” In the words of John Narigi, president and general manager of the track: “Laguna Seca is coming back to life.”

For the Highway 68 Coalition, that is a problem.

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca’s official calendar lists just nine events, including a Trans-Am race, an IMSA race, an IndyCar race, a MotoAmerica Superbike race, and the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. At the same time, a press release from Laguna Seca mentions “a near-daily track rental program.” In the first 10 days of February, rentals range from the Restless Wheels RV Club to IndyCar NXT series testing, from Pacific Motorcycle Training to a Hooked on Driving high-performance track day.

According to the lawsuit, “These increases include, but are not limited to, more racetrack event days, higher permitted noise levels, additional track rental days with intensified noise in excess of 100 dB, increased traffic, inadequate water supply and water quality, inadequate sewage disposal and expansion of the camping grounds.”

“This stuff is well-documented,” attorney Richard H. Rosenthal, counsel for the Highway 68 Coalition, told the website sfgate.com. “All you have to do is look at what they’re leasing the track out for between 1985 and 2000 and then now, currently. You’ll see a very intensive impact and expanded level of use and noise at Laguna Seca.”

Hagerty.com reached out to Rosenthal for further comment, but we haven’t yet heard back. We wanted to ask if the Highway 68 Coalition’s membership solely consists of one individual, Michael Weaver, who is the only individual plaintiff mentioned in court documents related to the lawsuit. We’ll update the story if we receive a response.

Meanwhile, none of Laguna Seca’s 2024 events are expected to be affected. After that, it’s up to the courts.

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When the 2024 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion celebrates the history of racing August 14–17 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, 12 of the 13 classes of competition will now be associated with legendary drivers.

“This year’s 50th-anniversary salute to historic racing will be a grand celebration unlike any we’ve done in the past,” believes Barry Toepke, director of heritage events for WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. “Every aspect of the 2024 Rolex Reunion is being examined and elevated in a sense. The entire team is abuzz with new ideas and ways to honor the significance of historic racing and the addition of these gentlemen has only fueled that engine.”

They are as follows:

Mario Andretti Trophy (1966–85 Formula 1): Andretti is the only person to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), the Daytona 500 (1967), and the Formula 1 World Championship (1978). The Turn 2 hairpin at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is named in his honor.

Scott Pruett Legends of Endurance Cup (1991–2011 IMSA ALMS, Grand Am, FIA): California native Pruett began his career in karting at the age of eight. He broke the record for the most IMSA wins in 2016 when he won his 60th race (since eclipsed in 2020 by another Californian, Bill Auberlen). Pruett won at the Rolex 24 at Daytona five times. He has five Grand-Am championships, two IMSA GTO Championships, and a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He continues to win awards with wine produced at Pruett Vineyards.

Parnelli Jones Trans-Am Trophy (1966–72 Trans-Am): Parnelli Jones’ story weaves in significant accomplishments in IndyCar, Trans-Am, off-road racing, and in the history of Laguna Seca. At 90, the oldest living winner of the Indianapolis 500 had one of his most acclaimed wins in 1970 when, at Laguna, he almost lapped the entire Trans-Am field in his Ford Mustang Boss 302. He went on to win the season championship.

Dan Gurney Saloon Car Enduro (1955–69 saloon cars): Dan Gurney was a Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR, Can-Am, and Trans-Am race winner, becoming the first of three drivers to win in each series. He also started the champagne-spraying celebration in 1967 after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, now an integral post-race ritual. In 1961, in the thick of his F1 career, Gurney rebuilt a Chevrolet Impala and entered it in saloon races in Europe where he made history outrunning the dominant Jaguars.

Ken Miles ’60s GT Trophy (1955–67 SCCA large-displacement production cars): Miles, now widely known from the 2019 film Ford v Ferrari, is a 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring race winner. Along with Carroll Shelby, Miles was deeply involved in the development of the Ford GT40 that he raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He often raced at Laguna Seca in Shelby Cobras, and he also drove Porsches for car dealer Otto Zipper.

Jim Hall USRRC Cup (1963–68 sports racing cars): Hall, 88, is one of the most successful USRRC drivers, including winning back-to-back USRRC championships and the 12 Hours of Sebring. As a race car builder, his products have won in ‘most every series they’ve competed in, which includes USRRC, Can-Am, Trans-Am, Formula 5000, World Sportscar Championship, and the Indianapolis 500. He was a leader in the innovation and design of aerodynamics and ground effects, as seen through his Chaparral cars.

Peter Gregg Trophy (1973–81 IMSA GT, GTX, AAGT, GTU, FIA): Gregg had many important race wins and championships across multiple series. He was the Trans-Am champion in 1971 and 1973, and he had wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1973, ’75, ‘76, and ’78. Gregg also took four IMSA GTO championships and a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Hurley Haywood Trophy (1981–91 IMSA GTP, GTO, FIA, Group C, Trans-Am): Arguably America’s greatest road-racing endurance driver, Haywood is a five-time winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, a three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, and a two-time 12 Hours of Sebring winner. Haywood’s record also includes a 1988 Trans-Am Series title with Audi and two IMSA GT championships.

Pedro Rodriguez Trophy (1961–75 FIA Manufacturers Championship): Rodriguez was a popular Formula 1 driver between 1963 and 1971, winning the 1967 South African Grand Prix and the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix. With his brother, he won the 1961 Paris 1000km and the 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans. According to the Laguna Seca track, driving for Ferrari between 1957 and 1970, he stood on the podium steps an impressive 40 of 94 races.

Briggs S. Cunningham Trophy (1947–60 front-engine GT, Sports Racers, and American specials): American sportsman Briggs S. Cunningham owned and raced Jaguars, Ferraris, Corvettes, Listers, OSCAs, and Abarths, but he is mostly known for constructing and fielding teams in the ‘50s with Cadillac- and Chrysler Hemi–powered Cunninghams. Third-place finishes at the 1953 and 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans were his highest, but Cunninghams captured impressive wins at Sebring, Elkhart Lake, and Bridgehampton. Adding to his legacy, Briggs successfully skippered America’s entry in the 1958 America’s Cup.

Skip Barber Cup (1967–81 Formula Fords): Barber is a back-to-back-to-back SCCA National Champion and back-to-back Formula Ford National Champion. He also raced in Formula 1 at the Monaco, Dutch, U.S., and Canadian Grands Prix. Upon retiring from racing, he founded the Skip Barber Racing School, the largest racing school in the world that holds programs at 10 different tracks in the U.S., including Laguna Seca. He is often credited by pro racers as laying the foundation for successful careers.

John Morton Trophy (1955–67 SCCA small-displacement production cars): After successfully competing in the SCCA National Championships, Morton’s talent and versatility caught the eye of Carroll Shelby, who teamed John with Ken Miles to drive for Shelby American Racing at Sebring. He catapulted into prominence with Peter Brock’s BRE team. He raced in IndyCar, F5000, Can-Am, and nine times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he won in class twice. Morton’s expertise and involvement in racing had an impact on the development and performance of many iconic automotive brands.

Ragtime Racers Exhibition (1920-and-earlier vehicles): It can be argued that this group, known as The Ragtime Racers, celebrates the start of motor racing. Sporting long-ago brands such as Chalmers-Detroit, National, Packard, and Franklin, the owners of these vehicles bring the history of motor racing to life for fans of all ages.

For more information on the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion visit WeatherTechRaceway.com and click on the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion event page.

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Now that this past weekend’s Roar Before the 24 is in the books, the three-day practice session for cars and drivers entering next weekend’s Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona has given the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship staff a better idea of who’s fast—and who isn’t.

That’s important in case the IMSA technical crew makes changes to the Balance of Performance before the race. The Balance of Performance, or BoP, is IMSA’s way of assuring that the variety of cars in each class are approximately running the same speed. Mandated changes in the BoP, which could be applied to engine power, rpm limits, aerodynamics, weight, the amount of fuel the cars can carry, or other adjustments, are designed to maintain parity and create a level playing field.

IMSA has now added Rolex 24 qualifying to the Roar. Prior to that, when it was just practice, many teams declined to show their full hand during the test, for fear that going as fast as they possibly can might result in getting BoP performance limitations for the race itself. Adding qualifying to the Roar likely limits that; granted, where you start may not be that critical for a 24-hour race, but it’s a feather in the cap of the teams and the manufacturers that qualify up front.

So who did? In the top class, GTP, it’s an all-Cadillac front row. Driver Pipo Derani, in the Whelen Cadillac V-LMDh, turned a lap of 1 minute, 32.656 seconds (138.318 mph) on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course, laying waste to the existing track record set in 2019 by a Mazda DPi. Second was Sebastien Bourdais in another Cadillac, this one from Chip Ganassi Racing, who was just 0.071 seconds behind Derani. In third was a Penske Porsche 963 driven by Felipe Nasr, with a lap of 1:32.816. Acura, looking for its fourth straight overall victory, qualified fifth and sixth.

“Obviously, the Cadillac was flying out there today,” Derani said after earning his 10th career pole position in IMSA competition. “It was just a privilege and a pleasure to drive such a car—really well balanced. There was great teamwork to improve what was needed for qualifying. The car felt on rails, and it was nice to enjoy and feel the full potential of GTP.”

In LMP2, Ben Keating was again the fast qualifier in his new ride, the United Autosports USA Oreca, with a lap of 1:38.501. In GTD Pro, Seb Priaulx put his AO Porsche 911 GT3 on the class pole with a time of 1:44.382. And in GTD, Parker Thompson won the class pole in his Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, with a lap of 1:44.494.

In other news:

—Cars and drivers from Friday’s four-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race, called the BMW M Endurance Challenge, also participated in the Roar Before the 24. Twenty-seven cars from the GS class were on the entry list, plus 12 cars from the TCR class. Notable are the drivers of the Smooge Racing Toyota Supra: NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek, and Corey Heim.

—LMP2-class cars are all powered by a V-8 from British manufacturer Gibson, and of the 11 entries, 10 use the Oreca chassis. The outlier is Sean Creech Motorsports, which is running a Ligier chassis. Said veteran driver Joao Barbosa, who has won the Rolex 24 outright: “It’s been super interesting, working with this car and this team to bring the Ligier back to life,” said Barbosa. “We knew it was going to be a big challenge and we took it head on, and it’s paying off. Looking at all the hard work the crew has put in behind the scenes, to catch up on all these years of non-development, it has been really rewarding to watch the car go. The week has been very successful, and the team is very motivated to continue that progress.”

—The GTD Pro battle between Chevrolet and Ford looks to favor the Corvette GT3 over the Mustang GT3, judging from qualifying. A red flag allowed for just eight minutes of green-flag running, though, so that may not be definitive. The fastest Corvette, from Pratt Miller Motorsports, was driven by Antonio Garcia, qualifying third in GTD Pro. The fastest Mustang was driven by Dirk Mueller and qualified ninth. 

—The Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 caught fire while traveling down pit lane on Saturday, with driver Romain Grosjean quickly exiting the car. It had to be a scary moment of déjà vu for Grosjean, who was injured in a fiery crash while driving in Formula 1 in 2020, but he emerged unscathed at Daytona. The team replaced the engine and continued practicing in the Roar.

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The world of motorsport is vast. For almost any vehicle with an engine or a motor, there is someone who spends their time tweaking and tuning it to go faster, further, or higher. Of course, there will always be people who are motivated less by an overall win and more by proving they have the heart to tackle a challenge in an unconventional or otherwise less-than-ideal vehicle. Their goal could be to show that the vehicle is more capable than most think, or that they have the skills to make anything work. Regardless of their motivation, we salute those who keep the weird and wonderful driving and racing.

The latest examples we have found of people doing the right thing in a questionable way were competitors in the 2024 Dakar Rally—specifically, in the Dakar Classic, a time-speed-distance rally run parallel to the main event (won by Carlos Sainz, Sr. in an electric Audi) and open only to vehicles built before 2000 (or built new to pre-2000 specs). The two-week event wrapped its final stage last Friday, and, as we followed along the recaps and highlights, this video from Red Bull Rally caught our eye.

Matt Jones walks the pits each day and talks to various racers about their experience and their machines, some of which we didn’t recognize or expect to see at a grueling off-road race such as Dakar. Here are four vehicles that you’d never expect to see in the desert of Saudi Arabia—but that took on its challenges all the same.

Unexpected Dakar hero #1: Citroën 2CV

With only 35 horsepower on tap from an air-cooled flat-twin, the 2CV is an odd choice for a race that involves miles of extremely soft sand, a surface that requires high wheel speeds and typically favors vehicles with high horsepower. Luckily, the car’s lightweight construction and the simple design of its air-cooled, two-cylinder engine worked in favor of Barbora Holická and Lucie Engová, the pair of Czech ladies who comprise the driver and navigator team.

Holická, the driver, points out that the suspension’s unconventional—and very French—design makes for a floaty car that looks like a duck as it bounds over the terrain—thus, the theme for the “Duckar” livery. However, in a field of dedicated race cars, this vintage oddity would have been easy to spot even without the plastic ducks or the bright pink paint.

Unexpected Dakar hero #2: Unimog Snow Plow

Of all the vehicles you’ll find in the desert, one designed to move frozen water sounds pretty absurd. Dakar has a lot of classes for competition, though, and Class T5.1 and T5.2 are designed to accommodate this sort of unconventional monster. Watching in-car in-truck video of the three-person crew in this ex-snow plow shows how wild Dakar can get. This Unimog is likely a T5.1 class entry, as that is skewed toward models based on production vehicles; T5.2 is for modified ones. Regardless of how much power you pack under the hood of your truck, the bed must be empty, and your speed is limited to 86 mph. That still seems quick for a vehicle the size of a New York City apartment.

Unexpected Dakar hero #3: Porsche 911

An air-cooled sports car out jumping the dunes? Really? Well, yeah. The safari trend of lifting a car, adding some chunky tires, and playing in the dirt is hardly new, especially for Porsche, which has been racing off-road for longer than you might realize. A father-daughter team brought a rowdy G-series 911 back to Dakar this year. Even with a veteran Dakar race car, it was no small feat for this team to navigate 9000+ miles while keeping the Porsche on top of the sand rather than in it.

Unexpected Dakar hero #4: Mercedes-Benz NG 2636

Six-wheel drive just sounds absurd—and then you see this monstrous blue beast, and the number of axles makes sense. A pair of six-wheel-drive trucks ran the Dakar Classic this year, which is an interesting story on its own. It gets even more impressive when you learn these trucks were originally race vehicles delivered to the Mitsubishi Dakar Team in 1986 and 1987 and were used by that team until 2009. Each truck is powered by 18.5-liter V-10 engine making 360 horsepower. They aren’t even capable of reaching the speed cap for the big trucks, but the Völkel team proved that doesn’t really matter by finishing anyway.

Racing is about more than just going fast, and these four cars and teams prove it. The experience of a unique vehicle in ordinary circumstances is fun. Add in a once-in-a-lifetime rally in that same car and, well, that’s gonna be a story told for a lot of years.

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Ready for the sound of racing engines?

This weekend’s Roar Before the 24 is the annual three-day practice session for teams participating in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona International Speedway in Florida, which is scheduled for January 27–28, and in the Michelin Pilot Challenge race, which runs on January 26.

The Roar starts on Friday and runs through Sunday, and it’s open to the public. All 59 cars entered for the Rolex 24 (they numbered 60, but one pulled out) are on the entry list for the Roar. That list includes 10 GTP cars, 13 LMP2 cars, 13 GTD Pro cars, and 23 GTD cars. The LMP3 cars, which raced for the past few years with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, are no longer part of the series, but they will compete in some support races this year. Several of the LMP3 contenders moved up to the LMP2 class during the off-season.

It’s a compelling time for the WeatherTech Championship, which opens its season with the Rolex 24. IMSA president John Doonan said there are multiple reasons for fans to be excited about the upcoming year.

“If you’re looking back to 2023, kicking off a brand-new hybrid platform with the GTP class was important, and it’s still going to be exciting in 2024, especially when Lamborghini comes and joins us at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

“But for me, the big story of ’24 is a GT battle like none other. There’s no place else in the world where there are this many manufacturers competing against each other. Eleven of our 18 OEMs are racing in GT. That, to me, is really exciting news for the fans,” Doonan said.

“You have the new cars—the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Corvette, and a new Aston Martin. Lexus finally got a championship last year, and they’re back, in both GTD and GTD Pro. Aston Martin is in GTD and Pro. Porsche, the perennial GT champion, is back. Ferrari brought a new car last year, and they’re back.”

As usual, the Roar and the Rolex 24 “are like an all-star team of drivers. You have Formula 1’s Jensen Button and Felipe Massa, you have IndyCar winners, and from NASCAR there’s Bubba Wallace and John Hunter Nemechek in a Toyota Supra in the Michelin Pilot Challenge series. Both the WeatherTech series and the Michelin Pilot Challenge series are just stacked. As a racer at my core, that gets me excited.”

Besides GT, the LMP2 class is showing some growth. “LMP2 is only racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the [mostly European] World Endurance Championship, and some of those teams have decided to join IMSA,” Doonan said. “LMP2 has a lot of veteran and up-and-coming talent that we look forward to watching.”

If you’re new to IMSA racing, here is a quick primer for the 2024 Roar.

• The top class is GTP, consisting of cars that were introduced just last year. Manufacturer backing comes from Cadillac, Porsche, BMW and Acura. Looking much like the GTP cars is the LMP2 class, which uses a chassis produced by Oreca or Ligier. They all use the same V-8 engines produced by Gibson, a British company. LMP2-class cars are the only ones racing in the IMSA WeatherTech series that aren’t backed by an OEM.

• The GTD class is invariably the largest. The driver lineup consists of some professional racers (rated Platinum, the highest rating, or Gold, which designates a less-experienced pro) but must also include drivers who are rated Silver or Bronze, which suggests amateur status. The cars are fully modified racers but must begin life as a street-going model (ex. a 911, a Mustang, a Corvette).

• The GTD Pro class is just what it sounds like—a group of GTD cars that are allowed to have an all-pro driver lineup. GTD Pro entries typically have a slightly closer relationship to their respective manufacturers than GTD teams.

• Probably the hardest job IMSA has is to write the class rules so each of the cars has a shot at winning its class. This process is called the Balance of Performance, or BoP. It allows IMSA to adjust the rules for each model within a class to either speed up or slow down the car—that can be done by regulating engine power, adding or subtracting weight, adjusting a car’s aerodynamics, or one of several additional changes. This allows, say, for a McLaren 720S or a Lamborghini Huracán to compete in the same class as a Ford Mustang. Or for a V-8 GTP car like Cadillac’s to compete with one powered by a V-6, like Acura’s.

Five WeatherTech test sessions are scheduled for all Roar classes on Friday and Saturday, with a short sixth session for GTP cars on Sunday, just ahead of qualifying for the Rolex 24. In addition to the WeatherTech Championship, the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series will use the weekend for testing, and the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge will begin its second season with a pair of 45-minute races. Those races feature LMP3 cars, plus full-bodied GT4 cars, like the Mustang, Toyota Supra, and BMW M4.

The 59 entries for the Rolex 24 constitute a full house. “There are no more pit boxes, no more garage space. From what I’m told, every camping spot is spoken for, every hospitality suite is spoken for,” Doonan said. “It’s a really good sign for our sport that there’s that much momentum, that much interest, both on the competitor side, and probably more important for us, on the fan side.”

More information is available at IMSA.com.

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The as-yet-untitled Formula 1 movie starring Brad Pitt will be filming at the IMSA Roar Before the 24 this weekend at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida and at the Rolex 24 itself, the following weekend. An Orlando television station reported seeing Pitt on Monday night near the track. Those involved with filming have had to sign confidentiality agreements, so most of the information about the film is hearsay.

Here’s what we know: The movie, which is being co-produced by Sir Lewis Hamilton, the Formula 1 driver, and led by Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski, has Pitt, 60, playing a race driver Sonny Hayes. Pitt said in an interview with Sky Sports at the British Grand Prix: “He has a horrible crash, kind of craps out and disappears and is racing in other disciplines … His friend, played by Javier Bardem, is a team owner. They’re a last-place team, 21, 22 on the grid. They’ve never scored a point. They have a young phenom played by Damson Idris. He brings me in as a kind of Hail Mary, and hijinks ensue.”

The movie already has filmed at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and at the Formula 1 race in Las Vegas, using a Carlin Formula 2 car. “I’m a little giddy right now, I’ve got to say,” Pitt told Sky Sports. “It’s great to be here. Having such a laugh, time of my life.”

So what is a team filming a Formula 1 movie doing at a sports car race? Presumably, capturing footage for the “other discipline” that Pitt talked about in the interview. Pitt’s character may be racing at Daytona, possibly alongside the rookie driver played by Idris, whose character’s name is Joshua Pearce. Pitt said in the Sky Sports interview that his character raced at Daytona, as well as in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Jerry Bruckheimer, 80, is the lead producer. He’s responsible for a long line of films including Days of Thunder, Flashdance, Top Gun, The Rock, Crimson Tide, Con Air, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, as well as the Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys, Pirates of the Caribbean, and National Treasure franchises.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal confirmed that the movie will be shooting at a surf shop in Daytona Beach and at a restaurant in New Smyrna Beach, in between the Roar and the Rolex 24 weekend, which is January 26–28.

Racer magazine reports that the film has struck an agreement with an actual race-car team competing in the GT Daytona class. Their car will carry the livery, and presumably cameras, for the film crew. The car is expected to mix in with other cars during the practice sessions of the Roar, and possibly even during the race itself. 

In an interview, Lewis Hamilton said the movie, which may or may not be called Apex, is likely to appear in 2025.

“It will be as authentic as we can get it,” Pitt, who has raced motorcycles, told Sky Sports. “As a civilian, I had no idea what it takes to be a driver.”

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If you loved Netflix’s Drive to Survive, buckle up for another high-speed Netflix docuseries, called NASCAR: Full Speed.

The five-episode docuseries, which premieres on Netflix on January 30th, will follow last year’s 16 playoff drivers as they race toward the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship. Each episode will be 45 minutes in length. A trailer for the new film debuted earlier this week, providing a sneak peek into the drama captured during the last season’s on- and off-track action.

According to NASCAR, the documentary “will bring fans behind the scenes, exploring the physical and emotional challenges of competing for a championship at the top level of stock car racing.”

Before you pass NASCAR: Full Speed off as a cheap copy of Drive to Survive, know that this effort has some serious horsepower—and cred—under the hood. The production studio Words + Pictures created this series. If that sounds familiar, these are the same people who created The Last Dance, a ten-part documentary that focuses on Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls, and the 2017 Academy Award-winning O.J.: Made in America. Retired NASCAR superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. also joins as executive producer.

The documentary comes at a time of great sea change. “NASCAR has kicked down the door to an entirely new era recently—with new tracks, cars, team owners, and stars combining to deliver some of the best competition the sport has ever seen,” says NASCAR Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer Tim Clark. “Now is the perfect time to introduce people to the characters, competition, and chaos that make NASCAR so compelling while still giving our most passionate fans plenty of new insights into their favorite teams and drivers.”

The last big NASCAR film series to hit screens came in the fall of 2022, when the USA Network premiered a 10-episode series, Race for the Championship. Last year, IndyCar launched also its docuseries titled 100 Days to Indy on the CW. Both seemed like rather ambitious efforts with plenty of compelling behind-the-scenes drama, but neither took America by storm in the same way that Drive to Survive did back in 2019.

A Netflix property, given the app’s 247 million-plus users and cultural influence, has plenty of promise to make any series a touchstone overnight, from Tiger King to Squid Games. Will NASCAR be the next trendy docu-series to dominate water cooler chat and incite massive FOMO? Only time will tell.

Will you tune in?

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