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Motorsport

Thoughts on Toyota officially entering the Supercars Championship with Walkinshaw Andretti United under its famed Supra model to rival the Camaro & Mustang from 2026

by Sports Benches

It’s been a long time coming for a new manufacturer to finally enter in one of motorsport’s most prominent competitions in Australia as Toyota will enter the Supercars Championship from 2026, with Walkinshaw Andretti United being their works team. The model/chassis Toyota will race will be the Supra sports car under its 5.0 litre Hilux Truck engine from the Dakar Rally where they’ll go head-to-head with Chevy Camaro and Ford Mustang.

First of all, thanks to Toyota Australia and its performance arm Gazoo Racing on trying their hand in Supercars. They have an iconic history with Motorsport here before with the likes of Neal Bates & Coral Taylor (although her daughter Molly is more of a Subaru person) that passes on to Harry Bates today in the Australian Rally Championship. Plus, they’ve also built a good brand of grassroots Motorsport with their one-make series over the last decade that produced future Supercars stars and race winners involving its compact 86 sports car.

I’m sure these youngsters competing today would love to hop on a Supra V8 Supercar one day and WAR is providing a great pathways platform to help them towards achieve that goal by competing at the top level of racing in Australia.

Furthermore, if anyone like Chaz Mostert or Kiwi Ryan Wood would like to have a crack in NASCAR across the US – Toyota can help them out to arrange at least a road course or Trucks oval race deal to begin with either for Gibbs or any of Toyota’s satellite Cup, Xfinity or Truck Series teams.

It remains to see what Toyota can do to find a second Supercars team in order to support Walkinshaw. Maybe a small-customer run team would be an ideal candidate like PremiAir Racing or Team 18 for Toyota’s first Supercars attempt.

Other than that, we thought Toyota could be the perfect 3rd manufacturer when they launched the TRD Australia performance division back in 2007 thanks to their Aurion sedan. Yes, that high performance sedan may not be exactly be V8 but it still gave some excellent competition that would send shockwaves to Holden (Commodore) and Ford (Falcon). But it was unfortunately short lived by the end of 2008 off the back of poor sales and the global financial crisis.

Also the timing wasn’t right either even before the 2000s when the large Toyota Avalon sedan went out at the time with V8 Supercars being simply happy with just Holden & Ford whose arch-rivalry was so synonymous with our Aussie motorsport fans that goes back to the 60s-70s via the Australian Touring Car Championship.

But that doesn’t mean Toyota would want stay away from being fast altogether as you can see with their World Endurance Championship Le Mans entry over the last decade as well as their return to World Rallying that marked the steady rise of the Toyota Gazoo brand. Now it’s the right time for them to their Supra into the fray against two of America’s iconic muscle sports cars at our race tracks including the famed Mountain in Bathurst like the (Chevy) Camaro and (Ford) Mustang.

We wish Toyota Australia and Walkinshaw the best of luck on-track and also off-track with their future performance-oriented editions together for the road car business like the big Tundra pick-up & that sporty compact Corolla hatchback for example. 

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Motorsport

NASCAR Race Review: Chris Buescher def. Shane Van Gisbergen on what has been a signature road course race finish with the win for Ford’s RFK Racing team at Watkins Glen

by Sports Benches

Plenty of twists and turns with some stunning side-by-side racing including that last lap on overtime from Watkins Glen International in New York where it was full of race/pit strategy as well as a mix of mechanical and contact drama into the wall. The winner you’re looking right now at is Chris Buescher from the No.17 Ford Mustang for RFK Racing even though he may have missed the Playoffs bubble by 1-2 spots when the regular season finale ended at Daytona a few weeks ago.

Haven’t heard much from him earlier on from 24th but he’s been flying high when he restarted in Top 7-8 at the start of Stage 3. From there, Buescher got a real sniff up front for the whole time alongside a good pit strategy thanks to another early Stage 3 yellow including the race lead off Joey Logano with 17 laps to go. 

Despite having go through a series of late yellows, Chris Buescher successfully fought off Shane Van Gisbergen on the run home that signalled the best of road course racing so far in 2024 of NASCAR at The Glen – congrats to Chris & the No.17 RFK crew. Commiserations to SVG for the runner-up spot but he too had a great day out up front for Kaulig Racing (No.16 Chevy) as sure we’ll see more of him right now at Xfinity level as well as Cup full-time next season with Trackhouse (3rd car).

What else? Spire Motorsports also had a terrific afternoon with all three (Chevy) cars in the Top 10. We begin with the No.77 of Carson Hocevar (3rd) followed by No.71’s Zane Smith (5th – even though Michael McDowell was upset with him post-race who finished 7th in the No.34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports) & No.7’s Corey LaJoie (8th). Gotta say future is bright indeed thanks to their big money investments over these past 12 months.

So does the No.41 Ford of Ryan Preece who posted a Top 10 finish in a while & his third overall of 2024 since Nashville back in late June in 9th for Stewart-Haas Racing. And despite losing his way when he was stuck on the gravel late in Stage 2, Daniel Suarez is well and truly safe into the Round of 12 (currently 5th on Drivers’ Playoff points) after he managed to rebound through a couple of Stage 3 yellows in 13th for the No.99 Trackhouse Chevy team. All he has to do is keep up the good faith & Daniel will probably see some good breakthrough moments like racing in the semis & even the Final ASAP.

Other than Daniel, the next Cup race this weekend (a night race) at Bristol Motor Speedway on the short track will be the last chance for those languishing outside the Top 12 Playoffs bubble. With the likes of Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. & Harrison Burton — they are all stuck in a must-win situation or else be eliminated & have try again next season when the 3 x Round of 12 events begins towards the end of this month in Kansas.

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Motorsport

Motorsport News: Thoughts on SpeedSeries set to be replaced by SRO Australia’s new national racing competition led by the GT World Challenge Australia category from next season

by Sports Benches

After three seasons, it looks like SpeedSeries will be no more going into 2025 with a like-for-like replacement national racing series being helmed by SRO’s Australia division. So that means Motorsport Australia won’t be in charge going forward after only one season when they previously controlled SpeedSeries from the Australian Racing Group, although they will continue to contribute this in some way like it was last season.

As it stands, GT World Challenge (GT3) will come right in first with the GT4 Australia and the Australian Production Cars race categories next in-line, as seen with the stand-alone GT Festival event last month at Phillip Island. 

What does it mean for TCR Australia and Trans-Am? Safe to say that they’re both not going anywhere. For Trans-Am, they might join the Supercars support bill for the most part while TCR Australia may be looking to form an Asia-Pacific competition with TCR’s Asia series. 

But that doesn’t mean both TCR & Trans-Am are going to be left out of SpeedSeries’s replacement competition altogether as they may still play a role with SRO in some events.

Don’t forget also the TCR World Tour will be back in Australia after all next year after a year-long absence, but they won’t be racing at Mount Panorama again for sure when the annual Bathurst International event will wrap up for the last time this November.

Plus, one thing we know for sure that the S5000 open-wheel category won’t be back at least for the foreseeable future when that race series was shut down at the end of last season.

Looking at the race calendar (not final just yet), what’s new about this SpeedSeries replacement comp is they’ll be heading over to New Zealand for the first time at Hampton Downs that will round out the series late next year. Other than that, there’s nothing much apart from the usual six-round event that will take place a few times throughout the year likewise with other racing series across the country. 

And last but not least, the media rights deal. The question is who will be covering SRO Australia’s newly expanded competition? Right now, SpeedSeries is currently on 7 under Motorsport Australia’s control until the end of this season before SRO Australia will be taking over from Motorsport Australia next year.

Whatever that may be, let’s hope they can keep it free-to-air at all times.

For now, we wish SRO Australia the best of luck by taking the step up to make their sports cars roar against the likes of the current Supercars comp we’ve got here.

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Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Joey Logano the first driver to make it into the Round of 12 with the win after a great day for Team Penske & the Blue Oval at Atlanta Motor Speedway

by Sports Benches

It was massive Ford (Mustang) & even Team Penske day to light up the opening 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Atlanta Motor Speedway where each of their three drivers won each stage (Ryan Blaney in Stage 1 for the No.12 followed by Austin Cindric in Stage 2 for the No.2) as today’s winner was all about Joey Logano in the No.22 side for Team Penske. 

It’s been a while since his last win in Nashville back in late June where he had a really top day upfront – mainly in the Top 5 – before more late cautions went his way to reach top spot, and there goes Joey Logano with his 2nd win of 2024 & also being the first driver now to advance into the second Round of 12 Playoffs. So nothing to worry about there until Kansas at the end of this month where he will either need to win again or stay consistent with his results up front on the road to the Championship 4 Finale as it’s party time for Joey & his No.22 Team Penske crew right now on the way home.

What else? Oh so close from Daniel Suarez there who finished 2nd in the No.99 Chevy Camaro for Trackhouse & he too loves racing at this track off the back of his early-round win back in late February. As long as he can stay consistently in the Top 5-10, then sure we will get to see more of him when it comes to the next round and even semi-finals round of Playoffs – keep your head up!

Meanwhile, Christopher Bell continues to be so good in the No.20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing as he finished 4th & is currently 2nd on drivers’ points behind reigning champ & 3rd-placed finisher in this 2nd Atlanta race Ryan Blaney. This is the man who has made it to the last two season-finale races and he would love to make his 3rd season-finale attempt being his championship-winning breakthrough at Cup level.

And hats off to a few others that got away with some good finishes just outside the Top 10 mark. We begin with Daniel Hemric in 11th for Kaulig Racing (Chevy), Justin Haley 12th for Rick Ware Racing (Ford), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 14th for JTG Daugherty Racing (Chevy) & don’t forget the Spire Motorsports Chevy duo of Corey LaJoie (No.7) and Carson Hocevar (No.77) who both came home in 15th and 16th respectively.

Next stop: Watkins Glen International where we will be going road course racing albeit in a slightly different time of the year next Monday rather than always August in New York as the Round of 16 is still up for grabs for some drivers if they really want to be in to win until the first cut-off ends with the Bristol Motor Speedway night race on Saturday 21st September 2024.

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Motorsport

NASCAR Race Review: Chase Briscoe def. Kyle Busch for the best of the final Playoffs spot following his Southern 500 win at Darlington

by Sports Benches

Lots to look back from a long night of racing in the Labor Day weekend Cup race from Darlington Raceway with Kyle Larson so dominant for the most part, but a couple of late Stage 3 cautions saw Larson beginning to slip away while the centre of attention up switched over to best of the last Playoffs spot up front between Chase Briscoe & Kyle Busch.

The winner of that battle belongs to Chase Briscoe over Kyle Busch who won them all in the No.14 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing – both the Southern 500 win as well as that 16th and last Playoff spot. 

Great to see Briscoe get his moment when his car was solid all-night long with Chase unable to get around Larson under green long enough before a series of late yellows went his way & now he wants to finish off Stewart-Haas Racing’s tenure with another championship exactly 10 years on from Kevin Harvick’s one & only 2014 championship-winning Cup season.

Meanwhile, Gotta feel for Larson where he had the best performing race car on show & he would’ve defended that win if it wasn’t for these yellows, but still more to come though if he wants to win his 2nd Cup championship so bad since 2021.

What else? The Toyota race cars continue to be always Top 5-10 material with Christopher Bell in 3rd yet again thanks to his long-runs, Spire also had another Top 10-15 weekend this time from Corey LaJoie’s No.7 Chevy in 9th, No.45’s Tyler Reddick in 10th who just won the regular-season championship for Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing as all eyes on the co-owner Hamlin now to hopefully win a first championship for himself over the next few weeks, and another Stewart-Haas Ford driver came home not bad by the No.41’s Ryan Preece after he finished 12th.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Triple 8 Supercars driver Will Brown’s NASCAR plans for next season

by Sports Benches

Before the weekend, current Triple 8 Supercars driver Will Brown says that he’s sure to come back for more cameo NASCAR races next year. However, at the same time he also said that he won’t be looking to move into the US full-time anytime soon like his predecessor Shane Van Gisbergen – that’s fine by him since he’s happy living here. 

He still has a part-time job at his family car dealership business while still retaining his top ride where Supercars races tend to race more than 12 events throughout the year, so still lots of time to keep him busy on & off track. 

If he wants to go back to NASCAR when it comes to cameo events, he would still like to do road courses with two including an Xfinity race for the first time rather than one at Sonoma and Chicago. 

But no word yet though whether if he would like to do oval racing at this stage & if he wants to do an oval race like on a short track to begin with, then he would be in a Trucks car like SVG (Indy) and Cam Waters (Martinsville & Kansas) did over the last 12 months.

For now, Will is having the time of his life right now leading the Supercars drivers’ points going into the Sandown endurance race in the next few weeks. 

Both a Bathurst 1000 win and a championship title would mean so much to him and while he may not be willing to leave his life behind here, there’s always others who would love to race NASCAR – don’t forget that when you got Cam Waters (No.6 Tickford Racing Ford) as the next in line after SVG. 

I don’t know about Brodie Kostecki right now after a tough off-season when he also made his Cup debut at the Indy road course race for Childress last year, but we’ll have to wait and see having just announced his switch from Erebus’s Chevy for Dick Johnson Racing’s Ford next year.

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Motorsport

Formula 1 News: Thoughts on Renault still wanting to abandon its own 2026 engine project by becoming a customer outfit to Mercedes-Benz for their Alpine F1 Team

by Sports Benches

Last week, Alpine officially signed our Aussie Jack Doohan as a full-time driver to the replace the Haas-bound Esteban Ocon next season alongside Frenchman Pierre Gasly. But we still don’t know what’s going to happen beyond 2025 when the new engine regulations come in and Renault – who manages Alpine – still wishes to abandon their engine project to cut costs, so they can use Mercedes as one of their privateer teams rather than continue being a fully fledged factory team.

If they really wanted to be a customer team, it’s going to be weird when a big car company like Renault via Alpine makes their own sports cars on the road but not for Formula 1 as if they’re running Lotus or Aston Martin. 

I don’t recall a single thing about Alpine working with Mercedes on a road car project before. Although they’ve did work with Caterham and Lotus for a brief time before, but then neither of those joint venture projects came out because there’s less competition to produce and get back in this small sports car market.

What Renault should’ve done is to just sell off Alpine to Andretti if they didn’t really want to run a team that isn’t their own engine. However, we still don’t know when they will finally admit that they can no longer run a Formula 1 team should they become a customer team to Mercedes.

As it stands for now, they are not keen on selling even it’s for a billion dollars when Formula 1 currently enjoys running 10 teams to maximise & protect its financial value rather than thinking anything expansion to let Andretti-GM in.

All we can hope for Renault is to get a supportive OEM partner to help finish off the project like IImor or Mecachrome in the hope of closing their rivals upfront by competing for regular podiums and victories again. If not, they can finish this off by themselves in-house if they really want to for the best of Renault given their long history of racing in Formula One.

That will be a huge ask though as hoping Alpine doesn’t succumb to its complete collapse at some point and Jack would then have to find another ride or at least admit they can’t compete in Formula 1 anymore, and a new team like Andretti or Hitech can come take over Team Enstone where this place was the home to many World Championships back in the 90s and early-mid 00s.  

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Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: More on Zane Smith if he doesn’t secure a return to Front Row Motorsports next year with Ford standing in his way after his release from Trackhouse

by Sports Benches

While it’s great having Shane Van Gisbergen fulfill his wish to race Cup full-time next year for Trackhouse under the No.88 numberplate that meant lots to both Dale Jr. and SVG’s former Supercars team at Triple Eight Race Engineering (although he raced the No.97 there all along up until last year), but there’s still a lot more talk about Zane Smith who already announced his release ahead of 2025 from Trackhouse the other day.

As it stands, under the proposed seven-year charter rules, each Cup team can only hold up to three charters except Joey Gibbs Racing & Hendrick Motorsports.

So no room for Zane to come back at Trackhouse since they only have three Cup rides instead of trying to keep 4 or even 5 drivers while his current seat in the No.71 at Spire Motorsports has already been taken by former Front Row Motorsports team-mate Michael McDowell next year. 

Yes, Spire still has a spot available in the No.7 to replace Corey LaJoie but they most certainly won’t put Smith in there either due to his predominantly poor season, and would rather have Justin Haley in there from Rick Ware Racing with Rodney Childers coming along from the soon-to-be former Stewart-Haas team.

Image Reference: Zach Catanzareti via Wikipedia, CC BY 2.0

Same goes to Kaulig Racing even though they might replace Daniel Hemric in the No.31 but Kaulig and Trackhouse has a great business relationship when it comes to talent and there’s no way Kaulig would want to use someone who has already been dumped by Trackhouse like Smith. 

Also, whatever happens with the No.31 for at least next year, it will most likely be a pay driver where it could be Ty Dillon instead of Hemric & Smith doesn’t have his own sponsorship anyway.

The only other place he could end up within Cup is a return to Front Row Motorsports where he won a Truck Series championship back in 2022. Sure, he will have unfinished business with FRM as his proven Cup experience and his long-term ambitions will mean a perfect match for the pair like it was before – even though he skipped or barely raced Xfinity but we’re beginning to see more of this now.

However, there’s a catch and according to Kevin Harvick via his Fox Happy Hour podcast, it’s up to Ford to make this happen & since he left FRM for Trackhouse/Spire after the 2023 season, management wasn’t very pleased about this move at all. So looks like that 3rd FRM Cup ride is still taking so long but a different Smith could be jumping over from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Toyota Xfinity Series team in Chandler and not Zane. 

He also said that the No.34 car for 2025 would be filled by Noah Gragson in place of Spire-bound Michael McDowell rather than put Gragson in a 3rd car and put the underperforming Zane in there.

I think both Chandler’s enormous talent and even his sponsors may have ticked every box to FRM’s plans of closing the gap upfront as Ford would agree with this 100% & so would Chandler who no doubt wants to race on Sundays soonest in a Blue Oval – despite being in a Toyota again this year & many years before in Trucks when he was with Kaulig in a Chevy last season.

If it’s not for FRM, he might be better off going to Rick Ware Racing if Rick is happy to put faith in him & Ford agrees to this or else he should get a top Xfinity ride like JR Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing, so he can try win another championship there but in NASCAR’s second tier. Then we’ll know by then he can win Cup as well but I hope they don’t screw him up next time.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Brodie Kostecki set for a Supercars switch from Erebus to Dick Johnson Racing in 2025 and how this impacts his NASCAR plans if he wants to race there again

by Sports Benches

We haven’t heard much of Brodie Kostecki’s NASCAR goals since his off-season stoush with Erebus Motorsport so far in 2024 as he won’t be coming back to race in the US at least for now according to Paul Morris a few months ago around April.

If it wasn’t for that off-season saga, then he would’ve done a couple more Cup races this year under Erebus with the support of Richard Childress Racing rather than directly for Childress as a third partial Cup team.

However, his pending Supercars move to Dick Johnson Racing next year could shake things up a bit when Anton De Pasquale just confirmed his 2025 ride yesterday as a replacement for Mark Winterbottom at Team 18. He too will switch over to Chevy having last driven a GM brand chassis formerly known as Holden back in 2020 with Erebus. 

Speaking of Erebus, looks like Kostecki is going the other way round and possibly take the spot of another Erebus alumni as the last time Kostecki raced a Ford car was back in 2017 in the Super2 feeder series for Matt Stone Racing.

If he wishes to come back racing in the US, then he would be better off racing for a Ford-powered NASCAR team unlike Richard Childress Racing – who previously viewed him as a great squad member thanks to the team’s Australian connections with Erebus. Both teams race Chevy in their respective race series and it’s highly unlikely RCR would want someone who is racing that isn’t Chevy. 

Plus, Will Brown raced for RCR back in June at Sonoma anyway as sure he’ll be given a warm welcome back in 2025 if Will wishes to make his NASCAR goals serious in the path like we’ve saw with 2025’s Trackhouse full-time Cup driver & former Triple 8 team-mate Shane Van Gisbergen.

Maybe Xfinity would be a good start again still part-time but RSS or AM Racing would suit him well or a good Trucks ride wouldn’t be bad either. Yes, he made his debut in a Cup car for Childress last year much like SVG also in a road course but at Indianapolis rather than Chicago. But again, he’s had a tough first half of the season or off-season as his proven Supercars track record should not go unnoticed. Therefore, Xfinity or even Trucks would be the way to go if Kostecki feels ready to race in the US again before he can think about Cup when the time is right; Maybe he’s happy living here with Supercars after all.

I hope Kostecki is well wherever he ends up ahead of next year’s Supercars season after his unexpected few months off where things will have to take time before we can see the best of him again from 2022-23.

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Motorsport

NASCAR Race Review: Harrison Burton holds off with the big Daytona summer win over Kyle Busch following a last-lap shootout on Wood Brothers Racing’s 100th win milestone

by Sports Benches

It was a huge night full of The Big Ones for the Ford cars upfront where they dominated each and every stage but tonight’s Cup race at Daytona was about Harrison Burton in the No.21 for Wood Brothers Racing. 

He was the one who just got away with his first career Cup win, his first Playoffs opportunity and also his team’s 100th race win – even though he won’t be coming back there next season with Josh Berry already confirmed to replace Harrison due to his underwhelming regular race results since he first replaced Matt DiBenedetto back in 2022. 

But that doesn’t mean he isn’t that bad in Cup after all when you look back at some good Top 5/10s before. He was battling mid-pack from the start before a series of yellows particularly throughout Stage 3 went his way with lots of track position & extra adjustments on pit road. All he had to do is get that race lead ahead of the final lap restart & hold off through the checkered flag and there he is holding off Kyle Busch (No.8 Childress Chevy) to get that breakthrough moment he was hoping for in a race that was so unpredictable twice a year at this same Daytona race track.

Wishing Harrison all the best wherever he ends up next year as it’s his night tonight in victory lane.

Shoutout to Cody Ware following a brilliant night to bring his No.15 Rick Ware Ford home in 4th, so does Parker Retzlaff in 7th for the part-time No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevy; Meanwhile, Daniel Hemric continues to be so good at the big tracks in 9th for Kaulig also in a Chevy & there was bunch of Toyotas filling in the Top 10 with Christopher Bell (No.20 Joe Gibbs) in 3rd behind Kyle and Harrison.

One more regular race now to go before the Playoffs going into the Labor Day weekend next week at Darlington Raceway with another two special shoutouts – Leigh Diffey in his debut at NBC’s new lead NASCAR Cup caller & his co-commentator and former NASCAR racer Jeff Burton who also celebrated his son’s big breakthrough moment from upstairs.

As said, his time at Cup for the most part hasn’t been that great other than a handful of Top 10s prior to this as we would’ve liked but he’s grateful for the sponsors backing him every step of the way like Dex Imaging.

Again, I’d like to see him end up at Rick Ware Racing & stay being a two-car team since Justin Haley is most likely going to Spire Motorsports to replace Corey LaJoie despite Haley being around here for one year but he’s a top asset to them anyway with lots of $$$ or a returning top Xfinity ride would do it if Harrison wants it – it’s up to him.

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