The month of April saw Formula One return to Australia, a popular first-time winner in MotoGP, an American win a grand prix motorcycle race for the first time in nearly 11 years, Long Beach back in April, NASCAR race on Easter, the World Superbike Championship possibly boiling over two rounds in, and there has already been plenty of silly season news to shake your fist at.
The good news is everyone is pretty much up and running. The major championships are all in season and have long ways to go before we can start talking about championships and the end to seasons. In the Northern Hemisphere, days are getting warmer and the sun is around longer. This is a good time of the year.
A Third of the Way Home
Four months are behind us. There have been plenty of outstanding moments from what we have seen so far this season. This is the best point to highlight what we have seen. We are going to look at the best races, racers, passes and comebacks so far this season.
Best Races:
24 Hours of Daytona - GTD Pro
The entire 24 Hours of Daytona could be included here, but let's focus on the GTD Pro class. It had been a great battle from the start, but in the closing hour four cars were on the lead lap, the #9 Pfaff Porsche, the #2 KCMG Porsche, the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari and the #14 VasserSullivan Lexus.
The two Porsches had gapped themselves to the other two, but Pfaff and KCMG remained within touching distance. Mathieue Jaminet led for most of the closing stages in the #9 Porsche, but Laurens Vanthoor kept the #2 Porsche in Jaminet's mirrors. Vanthoor made his move on lap 709 and took the class lead with only two laps to go. Jaminet rallied and on the final lap took the lead in the International Horseshoe. Vanthoor countered in the Western Horseshoe, but could not re-take the lead before re-joining the oval.
The Porsches ended up side-by-side entering the chicane. Vanthoor went to the outside and both cars were in the grass at the first right-handed portion of the corner. Vanthoor spun. Jaminet returned to the tarmac facing the right direction and KCMG took the victory. The Risi Ferrari slid through to take second, but Vanthoor recovered to salvage third.
Rallye Monte-Carlo
The World Rally Championship is transitioning into its next era, but the 2022 season opener saw its two best competitors of the 21st century put on a show. Sébastien Ogier vs. Sébastien Loeb.
Ogier, driving for Toyota and coming off his eighth championship, competed in his first race of what will be a part-time program. Loeb, driving for M-Sport Ford, made his first WRC appearance since 2020. The two Frenchman traded blows over the four-day event. Ogier opened with two consecutive stage victories. Loeb won the next four stages and was the overall leader after stage five. Ogier clawed time back and the two drivers were tied after stage ten.
Ogier took the overall lead after stage 11, and his overall lead was 21.1 seconds at the end of Saturday with four stages remaining. The lead grew to 24.6 seconds after stage 15 with two remaining. A disastrous penultimate swung the lead into Loeb's favor by 9.5 seconds. Loeb sealed his 80th rally victory in the final stage and won by 10.5 seconds over Ogier. Craig Breen was third, over a minute and 39 seconds back.
4 Hours of Le Castellet
The European Le Mans Series started another banner season at Circuit Paul Ricard, and over four hours, two classes came down to the final lap.
The overall victory was a runaway in comparison. Prema Racing won on its ELMS debut by 10.936 seconds over Algarve Pro Racing, but in LMP3 the #17 Cool Racing Ligier of Malthe Jakobsen overtook the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Nicolas Pino on the final lap. Though exciting, it was a moot point as the #13 Ligier was disqualified for illegal Belleville washers.
One final lap battle did stand. In GT, the #32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari and the #77 Proton Competition Porsche went at it. Nicolas Varrone piloted the Ferrari ahead of veteran Gianmaria Bruni in the Porsche. The young Varrone did not blink and while the cars were side-by-side across the line, Rinaldi Racing held on for victory by 0.120 seconds over the Proton Porsche.
Best Racers:
Eli Tomac
Hands down the top rider in AMA Supercross this season, Tomac moved to Yamaha for the 2022 season and rebounded after a slightly down 2021 season with Kawasaki. With seven victories, Tomac quickly took control of the Supercross championship and for the last month it has been clear the championship would be the Coloradan's for the taking. It has always felt Tomac would clinch the championship early, and he will head to his home race in Denver this Saturday needing only a 14th-place finish or better to seal up his second Supercross championship.
Josef Newgarden
There have only been three races this IndyCar season, but when you are batting two-for-three, with a spectacular last lap pass for a victory and an aggressive in- and out-lap earn you the other, it deserves recognition. Newgarden's Texas and Long Beach races have cancelled out a poor season opener at St. Petersburg, and it feels as if Newgarden could be set up for something greater this season. He fought all race at Texas and overcame traffic to pass teammate Scott McLaughlin to win that race. At Long Beach, he slip ahead of Álex Palou and held off Romain Grosjean. There are many races to go, but with two championships under his belt, 2022 feels like 2017 and 2019 for the Tennesseean.
Ross Chastain
Two NASCAR Cup victories, a Cup Series leading six top five finishes through ten races, who else could it be but... Ross Chastain? The unexpected darling of the first ten Cup races has been Trackhouse's Chastain, his first year with the team after Trackhouse took over the Chip Ganassi Racing operation. The year started poorly, dead last in the Daytona 500, but Chastain went third, second, second and first from Las Vegas to Austin. He picked up his second victory at Talladega. Despite being one of two drivers with multiple victories and having six top five finishes, Chastain is ninth in points, while the winless Chase Elliott leads the championship with only one top five finish. Go figure? No one has been the clear leader this Cup season, but Chastain is at the front of the group.
Best Passes:
NASCAR does inflate its passing numbers and competitiveness with an excessive number of restarts each race, but from time- to time there is a move that deserves praise. On lap 99 at Las Vegas, Erik Jones had a run on the outside exiting turn two. Ahead of Jones was Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex, Jr. three-wide. Chase Elliott was to Jones' inside. There was a narrow opening for Jones to cut in front of Elliott and Jones went for it. With his speed, Jones passed Elliott and went four-wide into turn three. By the they reached turn one, Jones had only made up one position, the pass on Elliott, but it was a hair-rising move that very well could have seen multiple cars taken out. The aerial does it more justice. In the end, it was a forgotten pass like 97% of them in a NASCAR Cup race, but it deserves it recognition.
Twenty-four hours should be long enough to decide a winner. As covered above, that wasn't the case at Daytona. Four of the five classes went to the wire. While GTD Pro had the dramatics on the final lap, LMP2 was decided a little earlier, but with just as breath-taking a pass. With just over ten minutes to go, Louis Delétraz led in the Tower Motorsport entry, but Herta was charging. There was some distance between the Swiss driver and the American, but Herta threw his car up the inside entering the bus stop. Déletraz blinked and went into the grass. Herta was through and took LMP2 victory with that move.
The reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway turned the track from an old surface, tire wear race into a flat out momentum battle. The first NASCAR Grand National Series race at the track went to a green-white checkered finish. Ty Gibbs was fourth at the restart on the outside. After speeds build on the penultimate lap, Gibbs had a run exiting the final corner coming to the white flag. Gibbs cut from the outside to the inside entering turn one and passed Ryan Sieg. Gibbs pulled away scored his second victory of the season thanks to the smooth move.
This race looked settled with five laps to go after lapped traffic separated Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden, but Newgarden closed the gap and was within three-tenths at the start of the final lap. With lapped traffic ahead, McLaughlin was slowed, but the tight nature of Texas Motor Speedway meant the margin for error making a pass was nothing. Newgarden took his chance and ran in what barely existed of the higher lane through turns three and four. He carried the speed and pulled ahead of McLaughlin was barely an inch to spare. Newgarden's car stuck through exit of the corner and the American made it to the finish line 0.067 seconds ahead of the New Zealander.
Best Comebacks:
Memo Gidley
Gidley's career took a turn in 2014. At 43 years old, Gidley was in a violent accident in the 24 Hours of Daytona when his Daytona Prototype collided with a GT Ferrari that was slowing on track. Gidley suffered a broken back in the accident and it required many surgeries. For the better part of the last decade, he has been out of a race car. He has had a few outings, but not returned to full-time competition. Last year, he drove a few GT America rounds and swept the Sebring weekend.
For 2022, it was announced Gidley would return to Daytona in the IMSA Prototype Challenge series, his first race at the facility. He was third on his Daytona return with co-driver Alexander Koreiba. Gidley also entered the European Le Mans Series full-time in a GT entry driving for Rinaldi Racing. He won on his ELMS debut with co-drivers Pierre Ehret and Nicolás Varrone. Gidley is hoping to run Le Mans this year. After such a lengthy pause to his career, it is wonderful to see Gidley make the most of this second act.
Robert Wickens
For the last three-plus years, Wickens' comeback story has been on full display for the world to see. After his accident in the 2018 IndyCar Pocono race, Wickens has been an open book on his rehabilitation from a spinal fracture. Regularly sharing videos of his physical therapy, Wickens showed us a person not only looking to return to his highest physical level, but return to a race car.
That day came on January 28, 2022 in the Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Daytona. Driving the #54 Hyundai in the TCR class with Mark Wilkins, Wickens ended up finishing third in a highly competitive performance. The duo was 13th at Sebring, but the finish did not match the drive. There are many races left but Wickens fits after so much time out of a race car.
Matthew Brabham winning on his Indy Lights return
We might have to break up comeback into two parts, one for off-track adversity and another for your basic racing comebacks because nothing on-track can match what Gidley and Wickens have done, but we will acknowledge some other popular comebacks, starting with Matthew Brabham.
After spending much of the last five years competing in Stadium Super Trucks and sporadically in sports car racing, Brabham decided to return to single-seater competition in 2022 and take another crack at IndyCar. Driving for Andretti Autosport, Brabham was in a prime position for success, but after so many years away against drivers who have spent the last few years dedicated to single-seater racing, Brabham would likely need a few races to find his legs. Fortune broke his way in the St. Petersburg season opener, but Brabham was at the front and when his teammates Hunter McElrea and Christian Rasmussen both fell out of the lead, Brabham swept through and took the victory on his return.
Kevin Magnussen to Formula One
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions around the world, Haas F1 found itself without a driver. Nikita Mazepin's Russian funding was gone and with an open seat, the team needed to draft in a driver. It turned to a familiar choice.
With Magnussen's Peugeot hypercar commitments postponed until 2023, Haas brought back the Dane and a familiar face to the team. In the 2020 season with Haas, Magnussen scored one point. In his first race back in 2022, he was fifth. He followed it up with a ninth in Saudi Arabia and a ninth at Imola. Magnussen has made Q3 in three of four races. His 15 points are already only five fewer than his 2019 total and with six more points he will have his third-highest points total in his Formula One career. He is on pace for 82 points, which would shatter his personal best. Nobody saw this coming.
Sébastien Bourdais in the IMSA Long Beach race
IMSA's street races are the shortest on the calendar at only an hour and 40 minutes in length. Any mistake is amplified. Which makes Bourdais' incident less than eight minutes in while leading even more painful. Catching the GTD entry of Kyle Washington, Bourdais shot up the inside of the hairpin, but he didn't have the grip and slid through the corner, forcing the Frenchman to park against the wall and wait until it was clear to engage reverse and straighten the car out.
Bourdais was 21.5 seconds back once he got back going. In less than 20 minutes, Bourdais was back up to third. It took him another lap before he was back up into second. In less than a half-hour, he was back in the lead. Twenty-three laps. Bourdais was out of the lead for 23 laps.
With the #01 Cadillac back at the front, the team controlled the race. Bourdais handed over the car to Renger van der Zande in a good position and the Dutchman brought it home, but if it wasn't for Bourdais' spectacular drive, it could have been another disappointing day for this pairing.
May Preview
Maybe it is a good thing, but there are too many things to preview in May to focus on just one.
The Indianapolis 500 will get its attention, don't worry, but this May will also feature the Bathurst 12 Hour, the first since 2020. It will likely be a highly Australian-based race, as this year's event falls in the middle of most European seasons, but it will be nice just to see the race again, though there will be less daylight on this race. Due to the later date, this race will have more significant nighttime running, as the sunrise will be later into the race and the sunset will be before the checkered flag comes out.
The 24 Hours Nürburgring will be Memorial Day weekend. Last two races have been shortened because of red flags. In 2020, nearly ten hours of racing was suspended overnight due to rain and fog. Last year, there was a record-low 59 laps completed due to the weather. We are due for a full race. Porsche is coming off victory with Manthey Racing. This should be the 24 Hours Nürburgring debut for the new BMW M4 GT3.
And Formula One has its inaugural Miami Grand Prix. Ticket prices are through the roof, greater than any other motorsports event I can recall in the United States. The track has one notably long straightaway and a few other promising areas, but we will only find out during the race weekend. This track is brand new. No test events have been on it. Racing aside, it has already captured the buzz.
Other Notable May Events:
There is that Indianapolis 500 we mentioned. That same day will be the Monaco Grand Prix, MotoGP's Italian Grand Prix and the Coca-Cola 600.
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters opens its season in Portimão and has another race at Lausitz.
Formula E is back in Berlin, which is really one of the few staples on the Formula E calendar.
