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The Qatari bagged his third stage win of the even on a day which caused major problems for Sebastien Loeb, Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres – three drivers that were within the top five in the general classification heading into the special. Peterhansel was ruled out shortly after the start, as a crash 26 kilometres in consigned him to a first Dakar retirement in a decade. The ...Keep reading View the full article

The penultimate stage of the Peru-based rally, a loop which started and ended at Pisco, featured a mass start format in which riders commenced the stage in groups of 10. That meant the top 10 from Wednesday's stage all started simultaneously, and the gaps between them all stayed relatively small until the latter stages of the 313km test. However, they were surpassed by two riders from the ...Keep reading View the full article

The team announced Wednesday that Drew Blickensderfer will lead its No. 34 Cup team with driver Michael McDowell and Mike Kelley will head up the efforts of its new No. 36 team with rookie driver Matt Tifft. Seth Barbour returns as crew chief of the No. 38 team with driver David Ragan. Blickensderfer joins the No. 34 team from Richard Petty Motorsports where he had served as a crew chief ...Keep reading View the full article

Peterhansel, who entered Wednesday's test in fourth place overall, had an incident shortly after the start of the 312km test. His co-driver David Castera, who was teaming up with Peterhansel in place of his long-time partner Jean-Paul Cottret in this year's marathon, is reported to have sustained a back injury. Peterhansel was piloting one of the three X-raid Mini buggies entered into Dakar ...Keep reading View the full article

Benavides' teammate Ricky Brabec had retired from the lead with an engine failure on Tuesday and this, coupled with early exits for Joan Barreda and Paulo Goncalves, had left the Argentine as Honda's chief hope. However, Benavides then picked up a hefty penalty in the aftermath of Tuesday's stage for carrying route notes on his bike, which took him out of victory contention. “We have ...Keep reading View the full article

A small detail tells a lot about Henk van Leuven’s passion for motorsport is that his WhatsApp profile picture is Scuderia Ferrari's Prancing Horse. Team manager of the Petronas De Rooy Iveco Team since 2015, Henk has been involved with De Rooy and his Dakar adventure for over a decade. As Iveco’s Northern European boss, he was the man who created the link between the Dutch team owner ...Keep reading View the full article

The engine has to be reliable. In this regard, the engine development and preparation before the rally become vital, as well as the daily engine maintenance at the bivouac. The Dutch team counts on the reliability of the Cursor 13L developed at the FPT headquarters in Arbon. In the past, after two seasons, the engines of the race trucks were sent to Arbon for a complete check-up before being ...Keep reading View the full article

The organizers of the Mint 400 race and Republic Services are cleaning up the Nevada desert. View the full article

The Gibbs family has established the 'J.D. Gibbs Legacy Fund' following his passing on January 12th. The website reads: "In lieu of flowers, the Gibbs family requests support for an important campaign that has been established in honor of J.D. and his passion for the Young Life Ministry, which he served as a member of the National Board. Please read J.D.'s Young Life story and consider giving ...Keep reading View the full article

The 2016 Dakar champ broke his right scaphoid during pre-event training midway through December, the injury requiring surgery and leaving him under a fitness cloud for the gruelling Dakar. Having battled through the discomfort thus far, Price reckons today's push to take over the overall lead of the event in the wake of Ricky Brabec's engine failure was a huge test for the injury. And while ...Keep reading View the full article

PH Sport Peugeot driver Loeb began the eighth stage of the event over two hours later than his main rivals, as Dakar organisers opted to group together the top 10 in the cars running order with the top 10 bikes and top five trucks. After dropping three minutes to Al-Attiyah in the opening portion of the 361km San Juan de Marcona-Pisco test, Loeb seized the advantage in the latter part of the ...Keep reading View the full article

Brabec had a 7m47s advantage as Stage 8 kicked off, but his Honda bike had an engine failure only 56 kilometres into the 361km San Juan de Marcona-Pisco run, forcing the American to retire. He is the third retirement in the factory Honda camp, with Joan Barreda getting terminally stuck on the third day and Paulo Goncalves falling and injured himself two days later. With that, KTM rider Price ...Keep reading View the full article

In a recent interview with Motorsport.com regarding his decision to sign a contract extension with Fox Sports, Gordon said his move to the broadcast booth has helped shed a new light on one aspect of a driver’s career. “The biggest eye-opener for me or that I wished I had paid more attention to or had this perspective when I was driving, is how just how much people resonate with a ...Keep reading View the full article

The car, privately entered by Gronholm, will be run by Toyota Gazoo Racing, but not as part of the factory effort. Gronholm is the joint-most successful driver in the history of Sweden’s WRC round, but he has laughed off suggestions that he is chasing a sixth win which would put him one ahead of Swedish legend Stig Blomqvist. As Motorsport.com reported in September, Gronholm came close to ...Keep reading View the full article

Ostberg, who contested eight WRC rounds with the Citroen factory team last season, was left without a seat for this year with the French manufacturer slimming down to two cars for Sebastien Ogier and Esapekka Lappi. The Norwegian has elected to drop down to WRC2 level rather than sit the season out entirely, and will drive a C3 R5 prepared by the Belgian DG Sport team. “I was disappointed ...Keep reading View the full article

The Mini driver made decent headway on leader Nasser Al-Attiyah by winning today's stage, as he moved back into second outright thanks to problems for Sebastian Loeb. However it wasn't a painless day for the 13-time Dakar winner, a nasty landing off a dune early in the stage leaving he and co-driver David Castera rattled. Peterhansel later confirmed to the official Dakar website that he ...Keep reading View the full article

Loeb gave up over half an hour around 50km into the stage to fix an electrical fault, and while his pace was unmatched from then on, it wasn't enough to mitigate the damage to his victory hopes. The start of Monday's stage, which looped around San Juan de Marcona and featured 331 timed kilometres, was postponed by nearly an hour due to fog in the morning. Peterhansel ran neck and neck with ...Keep reading View the full article

Sunderland was struggling with his rear brake in Stage 6 and was 23 minutes off the pace, but the 2016 champion dominated the proceedings in the subsequent 331 timed kilometres of Monday's route, which both started and ended at San Juan de Marcona. Brabec led in the early stages of the test - which was delayed and then suspended due to fog - but Sunderland took over at the third of six ...Keep reading View the full article

On-deck in this episode: Mil-Spec Hummer, Scott Born from Deaver Springs, and the Jeep Hercules. View the full article

The Dakar Rally has hit the halfway point. There is just a week to go before the event is over. View the full article

The V6 Euro Pickup Series will use four-litre, 350bhp machines that were previously raced, with Ford Mondeo bodies, in the Benelux Racing League Series. The pickups will be centrally run by Total Motorsport. This team has been established by Stephen Young and Hubertus Heyman as a satellite of Racing-Total which currently runs two cars in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. There will be six race ...Keep reading View the full article

A fully paid drive in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series is the prize for the winner of a new championship for 2019 View the full article

The North American Auto Show held in Detroit, Michigan, is always an exciting time for new truck reveals. View the full article

Van den Heuvel's role is to support the three other crews of Petronas De Rooy Iveco Team (headed by Gerard de Rooy, Ton Van Genugten and Federico Villagra) in case they encounter some problems on a special stage. We met Maurik at the De Rooy tent in the Dakar bivouac. Can you explain to us your exact role in the team? “When the special stages run smooth I have an easy job! [he laughs] ...Keep reading View the full article

The Mini driver got stuck while turning around to help stranded teammate Nani Roma, the stoppage costing him 22 minutes and dropping him from second in the outright standings to third, 40 minutes behind leader Nasser Al-Attiyah. Following what he described as a "rookie mistake" on the second stage last week, Peterhansel says a second lengthy delay has left him feeling that victory is almost out ...Keep reading View the full article