#Racing

Last December, we reported that a team piloting a 2015 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG obliterated the standing Cannonball record between New York City and Los Angeles. In March, we also noted that traffic density has declined immensely as a result of the viral pandemic currently gripping the nation — with those two cities seeing larger declines than the already low national averages. You can probably guess where this is going.

Rumors are circulating that a 2019 Audi A8 was prepped to capitalize on the moment, setting a new Cannonball benchmark while (almost) no one was watching. According to Road & Track, a team of at least three equipped a white sedan with auxiliary fuel tanks and set out from NYC’s Red Ball Garage on the night of April 4th. They arrived at the Redondo Beach finish line less than 27 hours later — beating the old record with time to spare.

On Thursday, NASCAR announced the planned debut of the next-generation stock car is being pushed back until 2022. The new breed was originally expected to take the field at next year’s Daytona 500, but the COVID-19 pandemic has reportedly made that impossible.

“Due to challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic, the debut of the Next Gen car will be delayed until 2022,” John Probst, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Innovation, said in a statement. “The decision was made in collaboration with the OEMs and team owners. We will continue to develop the Next Gen car, and a revised testing timeline will be shared when more information is available.”

In what is assuredly the most Nineties looking Rare Ride to date, today’s Ford F-150 wears its decade loud and proud. Let’s find out more about this one-off pace car.

Aston Martin is canceling is mid-engined Valkyrie racer and stalling EV development until 2025 as it reassess both the racing and industry landscapes. The Valkyrie was originally scheduled to commence its racing career in Silverstone this fall, before moving on to the main event — the 24 Hours of Le Mans — in 2021. Now, the company says it will halt development on the racer while it reorganizes under new investor Lawrence Stroll (Red Bull is out) and the Racing Point F1 team.

This appears to leave Toyota as the only big-boy factory team participating in the LM Hypercar division for its introductory season. Despite assurances that factory LMP1 teams had an interest in the class, they haven’t been clamoring to get involved. Peugeot and Glickenhaus are technically still in the running, though neither appear to have expended the same kind of cash as Toyota or Aston and are likewise presumed to pull out before the season starts.

This must be confusing for the FIA, as Hypercar was seen by the World Endurance Championship as an affordable alternative to P1 while also allowing manufacturers to adhere more closely to signature body styles that the prototypes would allow. It was assumed automakers would love this, as it allowed for more direct marketing ins and some overlap with the prototype cars.

A Blue Oval vehicle you’re sick of seeing everywhere, the GT, arrives for 2020 with extra oomph in tow, as well as appearance schemes aimed at setting it apart from the other GTs prowling the Lowes lot. A lack of paint is what’s notable with one of these entries.

A Canadian-built, limited-edition supercar, the GT still makes use of a finely tuned 3.5-liter Ecoboost V6, only now there’s more ponies on tap.

There was a minor flap on the internet (Twitter — where else?) the other day in which a few racing drivers were slagging online racing for some reason or another. It is true that there have been several examples of someone making the jump from PlayStation to an actual car … but it is also true that one does not feel the heat, G forces, and barrage of noise like one would in a real race.

This debate will not be solved any time soon, and will likely still be raging after the coronavirus consumes us all. Our question of the day is simply this: what title was your first experience with a racing game?

Maybe electric racing does have something to offer the common man. Jaguar credits its Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy race series (outside makes need not apply) for returning data that proved useful in eking out additional range from the electric crossover’s 90 kWh battery pack.

As things are all very modern in 2019, all Jag needs to do to pass the fruits of that knowledge on to consumers is fix them up with a software update.

Ford has a history of testing its latest Ford Performance products in motosports. For the off-roaders, like the Raptor, that meant building one to race in events like the SCORE Baja 1000. A new Ford Bronco is coming, and the company plans to test it by running this year’s Baja 1000. In doing so, the company is telling us more than we ever knew about the upcoming vehicle.

The Bronco R prototype seen here is based on what will ultimately be the production-spec Bronco. The engine and transmission? Production. The T6 platform that underpins the Ranger? Production. Even the front badge will likely be production, minus the red R signifying the racing version.

Okay, that’s a NASCAR line, but it applies here.

Roger Penske never ran the Indianapolis 500 during his racing career, but as owner of Team Penske, his drivers racked up 18 victories on the famed banked oval. Now, it appears the 82-year-old Penske will soon call the track his own.

Monday morning brought news that Penske will announce the purchase of both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar series from Hulman & Co.

Today’s Rare Ride is one of the more obscure vehicles seen on these pages. The result of an argument between two men, the Le Mans was a short-lived model from a short-lived manufacturer.

Earlier this summer, Acura and Team Penske invited me to Road America to watch them test their ARX-05 racecar in advance of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series race.

After I left, I thought I was done with on-site coverage – I figured I’d write my story and have it go live the day after the race, so I could include the results.

I was wrong.

One of the greatest singers of our generation, a young lady from Mississippi who goes by the name Britney Spears, once posited that if you want a Bugatti, or a Maserati, you better work.

Pure poetry, that.

Sarcastic references to mediocre pop-music lyrics aside, the song does hide a good point under its generic dance beats. Work usually does need to come before success. Like the old cliché says: “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”

Hard work preceding success is not news, I know, but we can all use a reminder now and then. And there aren’t as many reminders as visceral as watching a pro driver sling a racecar around a track at full speed, sans competition, as he and his co-drivers and crew prep for a race that won’t take place for almost another month.

Ever wanted a rally car from 1985 which is brand new and pieced together from an old hatchback? Well now’s your chance. Let’s take a look at the MG Metro 6R4.

It’s a question that I often joked about in relation to racing in LeMons competition. The joke being that small fires are normal for $500 crap cans and don’t necessarily warrant a pit stop (this is not actually true). As I stopped the not-a-crapcan GT350 in the pits to have grass cleared from the grille openings, I heard someone yell, “Fire!”

Knowing the probable source of the combustion, there was just one thing to do… drive.

This year’s 24 Hours of LeMans was expectedly dominated by the two LMP1 entries from Toyota, but it wasn’t the expected car that won. LMP2 had a huge battle of its own, American-based IMSA teams challenged in GTE Pro, and the heartfelt GTE Am win changed after the end of the race.

After dominating for nearly the whole race and resetting the track record, the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Jose Maria Lopez came in with a down tire. Upon going back out, they realized that the tire pressure sensor system was reporting the incorrect tire’s pressure and they had to come in once again. Driving the entire track with a low tire cost them dearly.