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Motorsport

Final Thoughts on Jack Doohan’s first full weekend Formula 1 debut for Alpine-Renault before the start of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix’s Friday Practice Sessions

by Sports Benches

In a few hours time, Jack Doohan will make his first full weekend Formula 1 debut for Alpine-Renault at Abu Dhabi.

Yes, there has been pressure around him for some time including off-track while he does not have a championship with him from lower levels of motorsport.

But let’s hope he makes the most out of it having won races and delivered podiums before as soon as he drives off his AS24 chassis from pit lane.

A Top 7-10 race finish would be the bare minimum for a start that should help Jack keep on going through to next season and hopefully the season after that – that’s what we all want from the debutant.

We wish Jack the best of luck!

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Alpine back to 6th in the Constructors’ Championship following Pierre Gasly’s Top 5 run in 5th at Qatar

by Sports Benches

Who would’ve thought Alpine unlikely to finish 6th in the Constructors’ Championship after their huge Brazilian double podium jackpot a few weeks ago?

Thanks to the upgrades being done on Pierre Gasly’s race car, this was made possible, especially on the dry after he had a brilliant drive to pull off his car home in 5th place. 

Now Alpine has re-taken 6th in the teams’ spots over Haas by a five-point gap and as long as they hang in there by the finish line for next weekend’s finale at Abu Dhabi, then surely that would mean so much when it comes to the $$$ & everything. 

Sure, wish they could keep their own engines that is expected to end in one year’s time but at least, more can be used to make Alpine be more competitive.

And off the back of Esteban Ocon’s recent frustrations with the team lately, he may as well leave Alpine a bit early now to join his new team Haas right away for post-season testing ahead of the 2025 season.

That would open the door for our Aussie Jack Doohan to make his Formula 1 race debut in an Alpine not too long from now rather than March 2025 at Albert Park in Melbourne. First of all, it’s great seeing another Aussie on the grid which is things you love to see. Yes, his racing record may not be the most glamorous but has scored podiums and race wins before. Sure, he will look at 7th-10th placed finishes for a start and go from there alongside Pierre.

For now, another brilliant show from Alpine this time on the dry under the lights from Losail International Circuit in Qatar.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Nine looking to bid exclusive rights for the 2026 Supercars TV deal that could change everything with Stan Sport

by Sports Benches

The Supercars season may be over with Will Brown winning his first Drivers’ Championship for Red Bull Team Australia which is under the Triple 8 Chevy organisation but there’s still more to it off-track following a huge update regarding the sport’s next TV rights package from 2026 to at least 2030.

It’s not just Fox Sports battling hard to retaining the majority rights alongside Seven, they now officially have competition in the form of Nine/Stan Sport under Nine Entertainment Co. Should Nine win the rights, this shouldn’t be an issue with $$$ since they got Stan as their own paid streaming service that includes Stan Sport. 

They currently hold a number of other major sporting rights content with some being simulcasted on Nine that operates similarly to other Pay TV outlets like Fox Sports via Foxtel (cable/satellite) & Kayo Sports (streaming).

With scheduling though, that will be another point of area to discuss if Nine does win the rights. They would like to have all Sunday races live, keep the other six major event races live that Seven is currently doing (which was also Ten has done as a secondary broadcaster back in 2015-2020) and have nearly everything else behind a paywall. 

Most Sunday races nowadays begin closer to 4pm and Nine has the NRL on at the same time, but Supercars is indeed one of our national-level sporting leagues much like our motor racing version to our two biggest footy codes – NRL and AFL.

Sunday Afternoon NRL, for example, during the season may be on the main channel over in Queensland and New South Wales with all other states being on 9Gem. However, it’s still better than nothing and sure Nine would at least have some sport to play with for the non-NRL states in Supercars as a lead-in for their 6pm news bulletin. 

Remember the Supercars races are held every couple of weeks across 12-13 times throughout the year as yes, the viewership and fan base may not be the same as once was before. Although you can say that ad-free racing proved to be the difference over the last decade & that won’t change anytime soon, but it would be better though if Supercars at least have every Sunday race live for free on top of six full event races every year – that’s the bare minimum we could ask for.

I’m not going to pick a winner out of this but whoever has the most money and most importantly, the appropriate reach they could offer to our viewership would be enough for Supercars to lock in that next TV rights deal.

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Motorsport

Formula 1 News: Thoughts on Damon Hill leaving Sky Sports F1 after 13 years following the end of this season

by Sports Benches

Just heard the news about 1996 World Champion Damon Hill who is set to leave Sky Sports F1 at season’s end. He has been there providing punditry from day one since the network’s first foray into Formula 1 back in 2012 after BBC were no longer able hold full rights at the time that ended decades worth of live full season coverage on British free-to-air television.

But the TV landscape of live sport has changed ever since anyway with Sky holding and still has full season rights while the BBC initially carried half of the live packages over the next couple of years before Channel 4 took over the free-to-air several years later. 

Now as of the 2019 and 2024 contract extension deals by Sky, Channel 4 still has the local free-to-air rights until at least 2026 but can only air the British race live and everything else being highlights.

This is much like the model we have here with our Formula 1 coverage where all races are currently behind the paywall on Fox Sports/Kayo (although every practice/ qualifying of all other races including race highlights are free-to-view on Kayo Freebies) & the annual Australian race live via free-to-air on Network 10. This is despite 10 still having a great relationship with F1 that way goes back to 2003 off the Nine Network despite cutting back awful lots of coverage over time – this goes from full season coverage to half season live coverage to then the Australian race live + highlights and now just the Aus race live.

Speaking of 10, Damon Hill was actually part of their comprehensive Australian Grand Prix on-air presentation over the last two years at Albert Park – including race day commentary alongside Richard Craill and journalist Tom Clarkson. 

This was when Australian F1 legend Mark Webber no longer able to devote time on 10 when he had to be there for current Aussie F1 driver Oscar Piastri who currently drives McLaren-Mercedes as his agent while Channel 4 paid him more than well enough to be part of their commentary/punditry team at times throughout the year. Don’t know if his exit from Sky was his decision or by the network themselves but it looks like 10 will have to find another new analyst to replace Hill going into 2025 since he will want to slow things down back in the UK.

We could either see Jolyon Palmer or maybe James Hinchcliffe onboard since they are from F1 TV. Maybe Jenson Button since he now calls the US home these days in California and it wouldn’t be too much of an issue for him to fly over to Melbourne for 10 as long as he doesn’t have anything else with going on. If not, maybe Anthony Davidson or even Karun Chandhok as outside picks if they would be willing to go there in-person?

As we know by now, Sky sometimes pick studio hub locations at selected Grand Prix events in London when the current F1 calendar year is so jam packed & not all races will be on-site going forward considering the cost of travel, hotel accommodation, production setup, etc.

But again, just playing around with speculation as still too early to tell ahead of the next Australian race who will be opening the next Formula 1 campaign in March 2025.

And let’s hope Jack Doohan will still be able to make it towards the grid on time as a full-time Alpine-Renault driver on debut amid rumours of him being dumped before he could even touch a Formula 1 car for the rising Argentine Franco Colapinto, who has been making an immediate impact, since he unexpectedly replaced the crash-prone Logan Sargeant very recently at Williams. For now, we wish Damon Hill the best of luck with his next chapter in 2025.

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Motorsport

NASCAR Shoutouts after the 2024 season-finale: Chris Buescher the best non-Playoffs driver outside the Top 16 Points, more farewells & a few exciting things to look out for going into 2025

by Sports Benches

And now we roll off with the shoutouts for the final time in season 2024 aside from yet another Team Penske season where Joey Logano got his 3rd Drivers’ Championship there for the Blue Oval Ford as we start with Chris Buescher. Shoutout to Buescher as the best non-Playoffs driver of 2024 after he came home 9th in the No.17 Ford for RFK Racing. Who knows what he could do next year? When Kroger is expected to be onboard soon & he and Brad Keselowski will be able to see their team add a 3rd chartered car imminently.

So does Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford) after they finished their last race as a whole team together with No.10’s Noah Gragson being their best driver of the day in 12th. I know he’s already signed up to Front Row Motorsports next year but we’ll have to wait and see what happens since FRM has been in a court yard fight alongside 23XI Racing with the sport lately re. charters.

Don’t forget Harrison Burton over in 16th even though he wasn’t the best for Wood Brothers Ford over these last three years but still made his first and the team’s 100th win come true at Daytona’s summer race. Although Wood Brothers will be in good hands with a handy racer in Josh Berry next year, but there’s more to come from Harrison when he will step back at Xfinity level with another Ford outfit at AM Racing – wishing him the very best of luck.

Then we look at the 2017 Cup champ Martin Truex Jr. who also competed his last race as a full-time driver. Now he may not have been able to convert into a race win from pole, but still one of the best racers to watch including the last decade over the best of Toyota Cup teams. 

Going down a position in 18th, how about also the best rookie on show Carson Hocevar in the No.77 Chevy for Spire Motorsports? He’s got a bright future ahead straight out of Trucks, especially with Spire growing more and more every race weekend alongside Justin Haley in the 7 — and they’ll soon be joined by veteran Michael McDowell in the 71 next season after his decorated seven-year stint with Ford’s Front Row Motorsports.

And if that’s not enough, how about we give a big shoutout to Australia’s own Leigh Diffey, who now calls America home & also recently became NBC’s lead NASCAR race commentator at least for Cup. We continue to see and hear the best of Leigh at the highest of racing levels whether if it’s Motorsport or Athletics/Track and Field as sure there will be more memorable NASCAR calls by the Diff going into next year and beyond. Well done Leigh & have a well-deserved break.

Yes, we’ve also heard the best of Rick Allen over the past decade up until late August before Leigh took over, having called the Xfinity season-finale race live the other day for The CW under NBC’s production. But again, we thank him for what he’s done as wishing him good luck wherever he ends up next season.

So there we have it, the 2024 NASCAR season is finally over after 36 points races plus two extra weeks of non-points fun and excitement. We cannot wait to go all over again for season 2025 under a new TV rights contract with a huge focus on the streaming part as it rolls on. For now, your champion is Joey Logano for the 3rd time after he fended off Blaney that justified another glorious Team Penske moment with another silverware yet again. 

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Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Another title, Another year for Team Penske with No.22’s Joey Logano back on top to prize off team-mate Ryan Blaney with his 3rd Championship win

by Sports Benches

It’s been another golden championship season of Team Penske Fords ever since when the Next Gen Chassis era began three seasons ago. 

The driver of the day though belongs to Joey Logano who stole the Drivers’ Crown off his No.12 team-mate & last year’s champion Ryan Blaney following a really great battle between those two on a few occasions – including the final stage when 1-2 others may have crashed out – before Joey pulled off the winning move & stayed there just in time to clinch yet another silverware piece for his No.22 team. 

Again, it has to come down to one huge winner as Logano both had the fight and championship-winning experience to lock up for the 3rd time that goes back from 2018 to 2022 & now 2024. 

For Blaney, it’s never a good feeling being 2nd best but hey, he raced really well to defend his crown against his team-mate Logano. At the end of the day, it’s all about great racing that makes Team Penske the most successful Ford Cup team over the last few years, and sure Blaney will back in 12 months time to hopefully hoist his Drivers’ Championship title No.2 at this same Phoenix race track.

William Byron finished 3rd in the No.24 Chevy Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports where he wasn’t quite up to Team Penske’s standards for the ultimate prize when it comes to the consistency including late race restarts. But he had a fantastic season though where he always finishes Top 3, Top 5 as well as a few regular season wins here and there. 

If he can translate with wins into Playoffs time next year, then the best of Byron and the No.24 Hendrick team should be yet to come.

We also still haven’t heard much of Toyota when you compare to Penske and Hendrick when you got Tyler Reddick finishing 6th behind another consistent Top 5 finisher Christopher Bell from Gibbs as the 4th and final Championship 4 contender for the manufacturer’s satellite Cup team at 23XI Racing, with team-mate Bubba Wallace in 7th. It remains to be seen what will happen going into next year since 23XI is having a really tough time alongside Front Row Motorsports at court & unfortunately, it didn’t go their way as per judge ruling before the weekend.

It’s not just 23XI who is walking into unknown territory but one of their co-owners Denny Hamlin would most likely not be donning the FedEx colours anymore  next season & he too finished 11th for his No.11 Gibbs Toyota team after missing the Championship 4 cup for yet another year in season 2024. Whoever comes in to support Denny, let’s hope he can adjust his expectations so he doesn’t end up disappointed next time as he’s still yet to win a Drivers’ Championship at age 43.

I wish he can get a decent enough crew chief who has been there & done that before with winning championships, but all he can do is just win them all at Playoffs time if he can and we might finally see the best of Denny as a driver. If Justin Allgaier can do like he did as a finally first-time Xfinity Series Champion yesterday, then so could Denny no matter what happens. 

In the meantime, if you’re a big Penske fan, particularly for Joey, then today’s your lucky day! No doubt Penske will go on to be the 2020s version of Hendrick Motorsports if they keep on adding more and more championship titles every season as congrats to Joey once again with his 3rd Cup crown all coming from the same place of Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway. 

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Justin Allgaier finally clinched his 1st Xfinity Series triumph & a perfect tribute to finish on a high for Stewart-Haas after Riley Herbst won the season-finale

by Sports Benches

From one new season series champion in Ty Majeski at Trucks level to another, how good was the No.7 JR Motorsports Chevy driver Justin Allgaier – who just over the line as the best Championship 4 Finisher to take home the NASCAR Xfinity Series title in 2nd – just behind Phoenix race winner in the No.98’s Riley Herbst for Stewart-Haas Ford. Also, good to see former full-time Cup driver & Stewart-Haas alum Aric Almirola finish 3rd in the No.20 Toyota Supra for Gibbs too.

I mean, first of all, it’s been great seeing Tony Stewart own part of this Stewart-Haas Ford team for a long time whose last Xfinity Series race as a team owner ended things on a high thanks to Herbst, while we saw one of his former drivers make up the Top 3 by Almirola. 

Lovely to see this Stewart-Haas family bringing this together both past and present.

We thank him for everything as hoping he will still turn up next season & don’t forget the Haas team will continue after all on its own at the same time (still running Fords), with two Xfinity cars for Sheldon Creed & Sam Mayer as well as one chartered Cup car by the returning Cole Custer.

Yes, we could’ve saw Custer take home that Xfinity Championship again like he did last year when he finished 2nd in Drivers’ Points to Allgaier after he finished 8th. But still, it’s great to see Custer being at his best at this level to make up unfinished business and now it’s on him to at least be a Top 20 driver points team next Cup year.

And as said earlier, what a moment from Allgaier who dedicated this Xfinity Series competition with tremendous success while spending the most with family. He’s grateful to Brandt (his sponsor) and Dale Jr. (his race team) for giving him the platform to succeed regularly at this level since 2016 without even thinking of going into Cup. 

Although he will continue to be back at Cup at least for a rare occasion or two when someone has to pull out if required.

But hey, he’s there to give us tremendous competition including some Cup regulars earlier in the year when a young rising star would usually take this top prize. However, that doesn’t mean Allgaier can’t make this possible and here is today with the Xfinity Championship. Sure, there’s a lot more to come going into next year as hats off once again to Allgaier, the first time champion.

And next year will be another wonderful time to look forward to every week for those over in the US with free-to-access all along thanks to The CW and CW online.

For now, we got one more race to settle in the Championship 4 for the premier Cup class tomorrow. Will see another first time triumph in either 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick for Toyota or William Byron in the Hendrick Chevy? or will we continue to see another Team Penske Ford’s glorious moment from either already Drivers’ champs Joey Logano (two-time) or Ryan Blaney (defending winner)? Just cannot wait to see this out as the 2024 season-finale Cup race will begin at 7am AEDT.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Ty Majeski winning his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship after his win at Phoenix

by Sports Benches

First of all, congratulations to 30-year-old Ty Majeski, who not only was the Championship 4 contender to win that season-finale Trucks race, but he also got away with the Trucks season title in his No.98 Ford F-150 as well for ThorSport Racing.

I’ve haven’t forgotten about him after all when he was part of the the shared Project60 Xfinity Series program several years ago at Roush Fenway Racing alongside now current Cup drivers Austin Cindric (Team Penske Ford) and Chase Briscoe (Stewart-Haas Ford for one last time this weekend before he will switch over to Joe Gibbs Toyota next season).

Okay, his results there wasn’t that good for the most part other than just the two Top 10 finishes before he was dumped by Roush at season’s end after the team shut down their Xfinity program at the time. But again, he just made the most out of his opportunities since then including some iRacing work, and good to hear that Ty is finally making his name at Trucks level with wins & decent top finishes along the way. 

And who would’ve thought when iRacing was an important feature to every racers’ life when COVID put a hold to everyone for most of 2020 & some in 2021? Well, Ty Majeski most certainly was one of the drivers who benefitted from this for a long, long time as he wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for iRacing. But hey, ThorSport gave him a chance to start from the bottom and here he is now with the Truck Series championship. He’s so grateful to both of them as what’s next for 2025?

Well, he’s having so much fun getting used to running up front, which is the most important thing everyone needs to know as an inspiring racer of any kind. So I guess he will stay at Trucks as long as he enjoys dominating this every week. If he was to end up in Xfinity and maybe Cup though, then I’d say he will go to a team who can provide him the competitive means to win races & run regular Top 10s. 

Yes, he might not be a young prospect anymore unlike a few others today. But at least he wants to win races for fun and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Jack Doohan might not be making his Formula 1 debut for Alpine next year as they’re after Argentine driver Franco Colapinto from Williams

by Sports Benches

I’ve seen Alpine making enough mistakes already but this might not be the last one just yet as they’re sreportedly on the lookout for a bit more established driver ahead of next season. Now wait for it but Alpine is after Argentine Franco Colapinto to replace the already announced rookie Jack Doohan to partner Pierre Gasly.

First of all, great job to Franco on what has been a stunning immediate impact since he recently replaced the underperforming Logan Sargeant 1-2 months ago for Williams. As we all know though, Williams are currently stuck with three good drivers with two cars going into next year unless one of them goes out. 

So far way before the eventual axing of Sargeant, Carlos Sainz Jr. has already signed there for a multi-year contract from Ferrari while Alex Albion also extended his deal there earlier this year.

And also the last remaining F1 seat over at Sauber which would soon be under Audi’s works team for 2026 has just been taken yesterday by Brazilian Gabriel Borteleto – which will effective end the long-running career of Valtteri Bottas from Finland.

Likewise with the engine, they don’t look to be so serious when it comes to their driver academy program – having fumbled this over and over again like it was two years ago with now McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. It would be a bit of surprise if Doohan does not get the chance to make his Formula 1 debut just because they saw a better driver than him in Franco Colapinto. Also, if they want him right now, then they would need to pay $20 million to get him out from Williams – that’s a lot of money there without them thinking where they want to go from here.

Again, they should improve their car first and most importantly their engine – even if they do use Mercedes engines at some point. But despite their huge Brazilian Grand Prix lucky break from last weekend where both cars finished 2nd & 3rd, here we go again to see Alpine make yet another big change in none other than Franco instead of Jack – if that turns out to be true.

Hoping I’m wrong though that appears to have so little legs & also hoping that Franco will end up within the Red Bull teams too rather than having to sit out for one year – either at the main squad to replace Sergio Perez or even at the sister Visa CashApp RB squad alongside Kiwi Liam Lawson will do it, with Yuki Tusnoda getting the chance at their senior squad with the current 3 x champ (soon to be four if he can hold off McLaren’s Lando Norris in the coming weeks) Max Verstappen.

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Motorsport

NASCAR Race Today: Another late Team Penske Round of 8 win this time by No.12 Ford’s Ryan Blaney at Martinsville ahead of his season-title defense for next weekend

by Sports Benches

Yes, it’s that time of the year when eligible Playoff drivers who haven’t booked their Championship 4 ticket yet usually leave things to the last minute during the last Round of 8 Cup race. However for some when they were fortunate enough to get that golden ticket opportunity, it’s within good reason thanks to Ryan Blaney’s win today in the No.12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske at Martinsville Speedway. 

Now there’s going to be not one but two Team Penske cars alongside a 23XI Toyota (Tyler Reddick) and a Hendrick Chevy (William Byron) on what could be yet another golden Team Penske Championship year for the third straight time ahead of next weekend’s season-finale race at Phoenix Raceway.

You just couldn’t believe the time has come for Team Penske to dominate this three-week semis swing even though we haven’t heard much from them beforehand. But hey, they’ve been there and have done before with huge success and it would no surprise if either the defending champ Ryan Blaney or Joey Logano take home that championship trophy once the 2024 season is done.

First of all, Christopher Bell would’ve easily been the other last two favourites to book into Phoenix – provided if he can provide a good enough finish – as one of the championship front-runners like it was back in 2022 and 2023. But then he made an illegal wall move towards the end there on Byron (the actual Championship 4 contender instead) that got himself DQ’d and NASCAR fined him with a penalty there on the spot post-race. He’ll have to wait till next year now for his next championship opportunity as still plenty to offer in the No.20 Gibbs Toyota at age 30.

Also, feeling sorry there for experienced veteran Denny Hamlin who overcame yesterday’s crash to force his way back up through the field with a spare No.11 Toyota Camry in 6th – the best placed Toyota/Gibbs car today at Martinsville.

Unfortunately, it’s still not quite enough to book in his championship shot yet again for season 2024 when a win was still required that began with the Team Penske’s championship glory back in 2022. Yes, he also could’ve done it last weekend at Homestead if it wasn’t for that poor last restart & also if the last yellow didn’t come out when other eligible Championship 4 contenders already have better Playoff form than him it as seen with the Team Penske duo & even one or the other Toyota team-mates like Bell and his 23XI employee of course in Reddick.

Although there’s lots more to come from Denny as a co-owner for 23XI Racing with Reddick still in the fight, but as a driver, he really needs a big impact all along at Playoffs time next year like winning all these set of races if he wants to finally win the championship so badly.

What else? There’s also some Ford cars in and out of the Top 10 with Brad Keselowski who finished 9th in his co-owned No.6 Ford for RFK Racing as well as Noah Gragson 11th as the highest Stewart-Haas Ford finisher ahead of a few other team-mates down the Top 15 mark for his No.10 crew. And don’t forget New Zealand’s Shane Van Gisbergen in 12th for Kaulig Racing’s No.16 Chevy Cup team. Yes, I know Austin Dillon aka AD finished 7th for the No.3 Childress Chevy but he was there for the wrong reasons unfortunately when it comes to that late race radio drama.

And if I was going to choose a championship winner for next Monday’s season finale for Cup, it’s going to be a touch one for sure. Now based on regular season form then it would be William Byron; if not, going with Logano to get this done for a 3rd Drivers’ Championship.

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