We have reached the point in the year when most series are up and running. March marks the point where offseason is behind us and we are looking forward to every race as the championship pursuits are beginning. We are only in the early stages of 2024, but we have already witnessed some remarkable performances.
At the Quarter Pole
Three months down, and while there are many more races ahead of us, we have seen plenty of exceptional things in the few events that have taken place. Before spring heats into summer and we will forget more races than we will remember, let's take a moment to highlight the best so far in 2024.
Racers Worth Your Consideration...
Matt Campbell
It comes down to two things for Matt Campbell. Sensational drive to win the 24 Hours of Daytona. Sensational drive to win the Bathurst 12 Hour. Campbell has been a talent for quite some time. The start of 2024 has taken him to a higher level and with a full FIA World Endurance Championship season remaining, including a 24 Hours of Le Mans, this is well on its way to a historic season for the Australian.
Josef Newgarden
Speaking of 24 Hours of Daytona winners, Newgarden was one of Campbell's co-drivers in the two-around-the-clock endurance race and in his second Daytona start, his first in the premier class, Newgarden came out on top. How did he follow it up? With a dominant victory in the IndyCar season opener in St. Petersburg. He won four IndyCar races last season, including the Indianapolis 500, and 2023 felt like a disappointment. If Newgarden keeps up the form from St. Petersburg, he could have his best season yet, and he is already a two-time champion.
Connor Zilisch
Everybody's favorite new driver... well, new if you haven't been paying attention to Mazda MX5-Cup in recent years. Zilisch was announced as a Trackhouse development driver for NASCAR, and along with his NASCAR plans, he also made his IMSA debut in the LMP2 class with Era Motorsport. They won at Daytona and Sebring. Zilisch started on pole position for his NASCAR Truck Series debut at Austin before finishing fourth. He will make his debut in NASCAR's second division later this year. Zilisch is still only 17 years old, but already doing extraordinary things.
William Byron
The only driver with multiple race victories so far this season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Byron followed up a 2023 Cup season where he won six races with a Daytona 500 victory, Hendrick Motorsports' first in a decade, and Byron just won at Austin. He has the most Cup victories since the start of 2022. He was knocking on the door of a championship last year. Byron is proving it wasn't a fluke.
Jett Lawrence
Nobody is really surprised Lawrence entered the 450cc division in Supercross and was immediately a pace-setter, but it is still brilliant to watch. He won on debut at Anaheim and leads the series in victories and points. He went perfect last year in the Motocross championship and took the inaugural SuperMotocross championship to boot. Lawrence is on the path to repeating in 2024.
Races Worth Your Consideration...
12 Hours of Sebring
Last year's 12 Hours of Sebring was enthralling and was going to be difficult to top. This year's race went a step further. All four classes were within a second between the top two cars entering the final fifteen minutes. There were a stunning passes across the board, and some rather clean racing despite how tight it was. For the overall victory, Louis Delétraz muscled ahead of Sébastien Bourdais to give Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti and Acura a long-awaiting win. Jack Hawksworth capped off a staggering drive to beat Risi Competizione. It was somehow better than the year before.
São Paulo ePrix
Formula E's second visit to Brazil's most populous city had a race that went to the wire with a handful of cars in contention. On the final lap Mitch Evans and Sam Bird had cleared themselves as the top two. Evans held the point entering the final series of corners, but Bird made a move to the outside and took the lead into the penultimate turn. Bird held on for his first victory in over two years. Meanwhile, Oliver Rowland went from fifth to third in the final corner in a three-wide battle with Pascal Wehrlein and Jake Dennis.
Food City 500
High tire degradation turned the NASCAR Cup Series race from Bristol into a game of whit. Drivers learned the hard way early on as some went from the lead to the back despite showing speed early in a run. Everyone soon learned pushing would be your downfall, and it became a game a chicken. Nobody wanted to stop for tires, but nobody could go much longer than 50 laps. The race was decided with a late cycle of green flag pit stops, and Denny Hamlin came out on top in a race that saw 54 lead changes, the most ever in a non-superspeedway Cup race.
Passes Worth Your Consideration...
Sebring had about a dozen passses there were pass of the year candidates, but we are focusing on just two. With a little under two hours remaining Hunter McElrea was in second in LMP2 behind Nico Pino while negotiating lapped traffic. Both drivers were approaching Jack Hawksworth's Lexus entering turn 17. Pino was hung on the outside while McElrea dove inside both Pino and Hawksworth, using the Lexus as a pick and completing the pass. It could have gone horribly wrong. McElrea showed incredible skill and bravery.
Hawksworth gets to be the main protagonist in this pass. Entering the final 20 minutes, Hawksworth had driven up to second in GTD Pro and was chasing Daniel Serra for the lead. Heading into turn one, Hawksworth went deeper into the corner than the Ferrari and forced Serra wide on exit. No contact happened between the two cars. Hawksworth had the position and made the move stick, leading to the class victory.
It was go big or go home time when Bird entered the final sector of the São Paulo ePrix. Bird and Mitch Evans had been the two best drivers all race, but Bird was looking to end a two-plus year winless drought. Bird closed onto the back of Evans' Jaguar as they approached the last great passing opportunity in turn ten. Bird went early, looking to the outside in the fast kink of turn nine, and forcing himself to accept the outside for turn ten. Bird was able to make the move stick into the penultimate corner and take the lead. Evans had one last look into the final corner but Bird had done enough to steal the victory.
Comebacks Worth Your Consideration
Eli Tomac's Second at Arlington
At the end of the second lap, Tomac was in 16th, nearly 13 seconds off the lead, after suffering a fall battling for sixth. Over the remaining 25 laps, Tomac climbed his way up the order. It took him two more laps to enter the top ten. By lap 18, he entered the top five. After a strong battle with Hunter Lawrence, Tomac was up to fourth before another spirited battle with Aaron Plessinger put Tomac into third on lap 23. Meanwhile, Jett Lawrence's issues in the closing laps allowed Tomac to sweep into second at the checkered flag, three seconds behind race winner Cooper Webb.
Carlos Sainz, Jr.'s Australian Grand Prix victory
Sainz, Jr. won the Australian Grand Prix just over two weeks after an appendectomy kept him out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Spaniard had done less training in the buildup to Melbourne due to his recovery. In his first race back, not only did Sainz, Jr. qualify second, but he led all but the first lap on his way to victory. Yes, Max Verstappen retired due to a brake issue, but Sainz, Jr. withstood the physical punishment of an entire grand prix and came out on top despite not being in tip-top condition.
April Preview
Two championships start in April that are worth keeping an eye on: European Le Mans Series and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
ELMS begins its six-race season on April 14 in Barcelona. A few familiar names to know...
Sebring winner Louis Delétraz will be in the #14 Orlen Team AO by TF Oreca-Gibson with Robert Kubica and Jonny Edgar.
Cadillac Racing's Alex Lynn will be in the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson with Olli Caldwell and Matthias Kaiser.
United Autosports will have three cars with Oliver Jarvis leading the #21 Oreca (with Andy Meyrick and Daniel Schneider), Ben Hanley leading the #22 Oreca (with Marino Sato and Filip Ugran) and Paul di Resta in the #23 Oreca (alongside Bijoy Garg and Fabio Scherer).
Along with his Formula Two responsibilities, Ritomo Miyata will run the #37 Cool Racing Oreca with Lorenzo Fluxá and Malthe Jakobsen. Last year's runner-up in the Formula Two championship, Frederik Vesti, will share Cool Racing's other entry, the #47 Oreca with Alex García and Ferdinand Habsburg.
In the GT class, Nicklas Nielsen leads the all-Danish #50 Formula Racing Ferrari with Conrad Laursen and Johnny Laursen. Daniel Serra will lead the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari with Takeshi Kimura and Esteban Masson. Iron Dames will run the #85 Porsche for Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting while Proton Competition will have the #60 Porsche for Julien Andlauer, Matteo Cressoni and Claudio Schiavoni. Iron Lynx will run the #63 Lamborghini for Andrea Caldarelli, Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Axcil Jefferies.
After Barcelona, ELMS will be at Circuit Paul Ricard on May 5, Imola on July 7, Spa-Francorchamps on August 25, Mugello on September 29 and Portimão closes the season on October 19.
DTM will have seven manufacturers and 20 cars entered this season. This is the fourth season of GT3 regulations for the German-based championship. The opening round of eight will be over April 27-28 at Oschersleben.
Thomas Preining is back to defend his championship with Porsche while Lamborghini's Mirko Bortolotti and Audi's Ricardo Feller will look to top the Austrian. Kelvin van der Linde returns to DTM with Audi. Bortolotti will have Nicki Thiim as his teammate. Ayhancan Güven will be Preining's Porsche teammate.
BMW has three past DTM champions in its lineup with Marco Wittmann, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde.
Jack Aitken leads the two-car Ferrari lineup for Emil Frey Racing with Thierry Vermeulen in the other 296 GT3.
Luca Engstler and Christian Engelhart will drive Lamborghinis for GRT Grasser Racing Team, and Maximilian Paul will be in a fifth Huracán GT3 Evo 2.
Mercedes-AMG will have Luca Stolz, Arjun Maini, Lucas Auer and Maro Engel in its lineup.
McLaren joins DTM with Clemens Schmid and Ben Dörr.
One month after Oschersleben will be Lausitzring over May 25-26. DTM will be at Zandvoort June 8-9, a month before the Norisring July 6-7. The second half of the season begins at the Nürburgring over August 17-18 with the Sachsenring hosting DTM on September 7-8. The penultimate round will be at the Red Bull Ring over September 28-29 with Hockenheim hosting the finale over October 19-20.
Other events of note in April:
The Super GT seasons begins at Okayama.
Supercars makes its first visit to Taupō Motorsports Park.
Supercross has three rounds, including its first visit to Philadelphia in over 40 years.
Formula One makes its earliest visit to Japan and returns to China for the first time in five years.
IndyCar is back in action at Long Beach and Barber.
Formula E makes its first trip to Misano.
MotoGP makes its one trip to the Americas, heading to Austin, with Jerez closing the month.
Imola hosts the FIA World Endurance Championship.
