reporter

According to a statement from officials, the decision has been made due to a "significant number" of competitors that encountered difficulties on yesterday's fifth stage. Carlos Sainz was among the competitors to struggle during the 456-kilometre test between Riyadh and Al Qaisumah, the WRC legend likening the route so far to a "gymkhana rather than a rally". The Al Qaisumah to Ha'il stage ...Keep reading View the full article

A lot may have changed in 2020, but one thing that remained constant was Americans’ love of the pickup truck. The experts at iSeeCars.com analyzed more than 12.9 million vehicle sales in 2020 and has released a study listing the most popular vehicle overall, by state, and even down to by metropolitan region. The study View the full article

Lessard, 19, ran the complete Truck Series schedule with Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2020. He won once at Talladega Superspeedway and placed 12th in the championship standings before the two parted ways. It was initially announced that he would move over to GMS Racing for the partial schedule in 2021, but that has since been increased to the entire season. The Quebec, Canada native will ...Keep reading View the full article

The team has aspirations to go full-time at the Cup level in the future and is using 2021 to get some experience in the premier division of NASCAR. Kaulig will add road courses and superspeedway events to their schedule, in addition to the 63rd running of the Daytona 500. “Kaulig Racing is always building toward the future, and I believe this is the next step in that process,” said team ...Keep reading View the full article

Powertank Power Plate Power Tanks give you the ability to fill 40-inch tires in under a minute and pack the punch to run air tools on the trail, among other qualities. Now the company offers the Power Plate—a piggyback mount designed to mount a 5-, 10-, or 15-pound Power Tank (or a 5- or 11-pound View the full article

As the saying goes, if you have to ask how much something is, you probably can’t afford it. That just may be the case with the Wrangler Rubicon 392, the straight-from-the-factory Wrangler with a big V-8 under its hood. (It’s based on the 392 Concept.) The Hemi-powered SUV is something Wrangler aficionados have been craving View the full article

Loeb was handed a five-minute penalty for exceeding the speed limit in Stage 4 on Wednesday, where he had been the fourth fastest, 2m36s behind winner and factory Toyota driver Nasser Al-Attiyah. This relegated the Bahrain Raid Xtreme driver to seventh place in the stage and the same position in the overall classification, 52m14s minutes down on leader Stephane Peterhansel (X-raid Mini). The ...Keep reading View the full article

Having already lost 31 minutes in Tuesday's third stage with navigational difficulties, three-time winner Sainz slipped further away from the top runners after losing his way in the early sections of Stage 5 on Thursday. The X-raid Mini driver conceded 28m40s to the Toyota of Giniel de Villiers before the first reference at 43km, with teammate Stephane Peterahnsel and Nasser Al-Attiyah ...Keep reading View the full article

De Villiers had been lying 22nd overall and third among the factory Toyotas after the opening four stages in Saudi Arabia, but led the 456km special between Riyadh and Al Qaisumah from start to finish to claim his 17th career Dakar stage win. The South African’s advantage peaked at over seven minutes after the first 250km of running, but he eventually bagged the stage victory with a reduced ...Keep reading View the full article

The Norwegian announced late last month that he will contest both WRC2 and the ERC in full this year at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia Rally 2 evo that will be prepped by Toksport WRT - the same squad that helped Chris Ingram to the ERC title in 2019. In addition to his dual campaign, Mikkelsen will help Skoda to further develop its Fabia while also trying to secure the backing to start a ...Keep reading View the full article

Benavides went into Thursday's 456km Riyadh-Al Qaisumah stage third overall and 3m24s off overnight leader Xavier de Soultrait, but only 14th in the running order owing to his finishing position on the previous day's test. That put in the Argentinian in a good position to fight for the win, as he spent the stage battling his junior Honda colleague and fellow South American Jose Ignacio ...Keep reading View the full article

Talking about the “best” of anything can lead to quite the slippery slope. Thankfully, fuel economy is a rather straightforward subject thanks largely to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA issues a fuel economy rating for all light-duty vehicles and publishes them in the form of city, highway, and combined mileage. Everyone of driving View the full article

We just got back from punishing the Kenda Klever R/T tire in rocks, snow, gravel, and with thousands of highway miles. Here’s what we thought: If you’re gonna shell out top dollar for a tire, you might expect a commensurate increase in its performance. What if that increase in performance could be had without paying View the full article

Loeb, the nine-time World Rally Champion, finished fourth on Wednesday’s stage from Wadi-Ad-Dawasir to Riyadh, but received a five-minute penalty for speeding. That relegated him to seventh place on the day, and seventh overall. Read Also: Dakar 2021, Stage 4: Al-Attiyah beats Peterhansel to win Peterhansel: High average speed making Dakar "kind of dangerous" In a ...Keep reading View the full article

After organiser ASO admitted that some stages in the inaugural Saudi-based Dakar event last year were “very fast”, a new route that is “80-90% new” compared to the previous edition was prepared for 2021 to address the issue. A top speed limit was also introduced for the cars category, with competitors in the T1 (which includes Toyota, X-raid and Prodrive's new BRX1 contender) and ...Keep reading View the full article

Competing in his seventh Dakar Raly for Indian manufacturer Hero, Santosh fell off his bike 135km into the stage at 11:45am local time - in an area that features gravel tracks between mountains. Spierings was the first to arrive at the crash scene where he found an unconscious Santosh as well as fellow Husqvarna rider Maurizio Gerini. “I saw two bikes that were down and both riders ...Keep reading View the full article

Larson is gearing up for his return to the NASCAR Cup Series this year after being sacked by Chip Ganassi Racing and suspended by NASCAR last April for using a racial slur during a virtual racing event run in the COVID-19 enforced pause to the season. The NASCAR Cup race winner missed the remainder of the 2020 season as his sponsors dropped their contracts with him, while veteran Matt Kenseth ...Keep reading View the full article

Kyle Larson has lost his new spotter Chris Monez at Hendrick Motorsports just days after being announced due to controversial social media posts View the full article

FRM announced its NASCAR plans on Wednesday, including the addition of Alfredo, who ran 19 races in the Xfinity Series last season with Richard Childress Racing. Alfredo, 21, replaces John Hunter Nemechek who left the organization to move to Kyle Busch Motorsports. Seth Barbour will serve as his crew chief. “This is really an unbelievable moment,” said Alfredo. “When you start out ...Keep reading View the full article

Al-Attiyah, Peterhansel and their teammates Henk Lategan and Carlos Sainz made Stage 4 the most openly-contested battle of Dakar so far, with the quartet separated by just a minute at one point during the 337km test between the Wadi Ad-Dawasir-Riyadh. Sainz, still reeling from his 31-minute loss in Tuesday’s special, led early on for X-Raid Mini, before Al-Attiyah grabbed the lead at the ...Keep reading View the full article

The “rubber band effect” as described by reigning champion Ricky Brabec continued on Wednesday, as Barreda bounced back from a lowly 30th position on Stage 3 - which put him eighth overall - to win by nearly six minutes on the 337km Wadi Ad-Dawasir-Riyadh test. Barreda first took the stage lead at the opening waypoint, but KTM’s Toby Price managed to snatch the position immediately at the ...Keep reading View the full article

Announcing M-Sport’s three-man squad this morning, Team Principal Richard Millener said the programmes he has drawn up are designed to “bring out the best in each driver”. While Greensmith is set to contest a full WRC campaign for the first time alongside Elliott Edmondson, Suninen and Fourmaux will share a second car. Fourmaux, in effect, replaces Esapekka Lappi in M-Sport's ...Keep reading View the full article

Monez announced in a post on his Twitter feed on Jan. 1 he would be spotting for Larson and the No. 5 NASCAR Cup Series team in 2021. Following an apparent uproar over some of Monez’s social media posts, a spokesman for Hendrick Motorsports on Tuesday night confirmed to Motorsport.com that Monez is no longer with the team. A new spotter for Larson will be announced at a later ...Keep reading View the full article

Factory Yamaha rider Short was running in eighth position on yesterday’s stage when he refuelled at the 267km point, and his bike’s engine cut out seven kilometres later. The American tried to fix what he assumed was a problem with the engine or fuel pump, but when it refused to restart he finally gave up and got into the organization's helicopter. The bike was transferred to Yamaha’s ...Keep reading View the full article

Sainz, who led the opening stage of the event, suffered a frustrating third day of action by ending it 33m34s off overall leader and X-Raid Mini team-mate Stephane Peterhansel. Despite briefly leading the 406km Wadi Ad-Dawasir third stage, Sainz and co-driver Lucas Cruz were held up by a navigation problem 156km into the special stage, which cost around half an hour, before having frustrations ...Keep reading View the full article