- Round No. 3 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City was dominated by Porsche. Pascal Wehrlein won the pole on Friday and led flag-to-flag to take his first Formula E victory Saturday afternoon. Teammate Andre Lotterer was second, then DS Techeetah teammates Jean-Eric Vergne and
Antonio Felix da Costa. Rokit Venturi Racing's Edoardo Mortara was fifth.
Through three of 16 rounds, Mortara currently has a five-point lead over Mercedes' Nyck de Vries. Porsche teammates Wehrlein and Lotterer are third and fourth, then Stoffel Vandoorne in the second Mercedes.
- The DIRTcar Nationals has been plagued by poor track conditions. Friday night saw the surface finally dry out enough to provide decent racing. The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series teams responded with an excellent feature.
Connecticut's David Gravel led 22 of 30 laps despite having a broken shock, but the race came down to a duel between Gravel, Sheldon Haudenschild and Brad Sweet. Gravel led at the white flag, but Haudenschild was able to beat Gravel by a mere 0.044 of a second to take the win.
Sweet was third behind Haudenschild and Gravel. Carson Macedo was fourth, while Jacob Allen was fifth.
Saturday night's feature was not quite as exciting. Gravel started from the pole once again and led flag-to-flag to take the win. Brent Marks was second, then James McFadden, Haudenschild and Sweet.
Through three of 89 scheduled races, Gravel has a 14-point lead over Thursday night winner Donny Schatz. Haudenschild is third, then McFadden and Sweet. The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series takes some time off before returning to action on Feb. 25 at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Mississippi.
- Monster Energy AMA Supercross teams made their third and final visit of the year to Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Kawasaki's Jason Anderson was able to get the holeshot and take the lead. Points leader Eli Tomac tried to get past early and did at one point before Anderson crossed him over a turn later and retook the advantage. From there, Anderson
opened up a small gap and took his first win of the year.
Tomac was 3.481 seconds back in second, then Justin Barcia, Malcolm Stewart and Marvin Musquin. Musquin ran as high as third before a fall dropped him back. Through six rounds, Tomac holds a 12-point lead over Anderson. Chase Sexton is third, then Stewart and Barcia.
250cc West was marked by a series of crashes. A heat race crash saw Kawasaki's Jo Shimoda get sent to the hospital, ending his night early. The heats and Last Chance Qualifier were marked by a series of crashes, primarily in the whoops. The feature was no different.
Christian Craig once again got the holeshot and tried to run away from the rest of the field. Hunter Lawrence was the only rider in the same county. That is until he crashed out of the race in the whoops. Michael Mosiman inherited second at that point, then he crashed. The result is that Craig took a dominant fourth win of the
year.
With the wrecks, Craig's margin of victory was 25.423 seconds over Vince Friese, who was placed on probation after Glendale. The six-month probation is due to Friese more or less intentionally wrecking Craig. Mosiman recovered from his crash to finish third, while Garrett Marchbanks finished fourth after crashing at the start. Carson Brown was
fifth. Only seven of the 22 starters finished on the lead lap.
With Lawrence's DNF, Craig's point lead is now 28 points, more than a full race, over Mosiman. Lawrence drops back to third, while Friese moves up to fourth. Shimoda drops to fifth after his heat race crash.
Monster Energy AMA Supercross teams move to USBank Field in Minneapolis for the seventh round of the season Saturday night. It will mark the season debut for the 250cc East class.
- In Asian Le Mans Series action, it was a very good weekend for Nielsen Racing at the Dubai Autodrome. Race No. 1 saw pole sitter Rodrigo Sales get overhauled early by Graff Racing's David Droux. After the first round of stops, Sales' teammate Matt Bell took the lead back. The Nielsen Racing team did not give it up for the remainder of the race,
claiming the season-opening victory for Bell, Sales and Ben Hanley.
Nielsen Racing's margin of victory was four laps over Droux, Eric Trouillet and Sebastien Page. High Class Racing's Dennis Andersen, Anders Fjordbach and Kevin Weeda were third.
LMP3 was dominated by DKR Engineering's No. 2 entry. However, after leading all but three laps in class, the car stopped with Laurents Hoerr at the wheel with 25 minutes to go and retired. This promoted the CD Sport Ligier JS P320-Nissan of Nick Adcock, Edouard Cauhaupe and Michael Jensen to the class lead. They held on to take the victory in
fifth overall.
The official margin of victory was a full lap over the second CD Sport entry (No. 27) shared by Christophe Cresp, Antoine Doquin and Steven Palette. G-Drive Racing's Viacheslav Gutak, Xavier Lloveras and Fabrice Rossello were third.
In the GT class, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship regulars Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy, along with Ben Barnicoat took the class victory in their McLaren 720S GT3. Their margin of victory was 5.384 seconds over the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Rino Mastronardi, David Perel and Davide Rigon. AF Corse's Ferrari for Vincent Abril, Fanatec GT World
Challenge America Powered by AWS regular Conrad Grunewald and Louis Prette were third, followed by Optimum Motorsport's McLaren for Nick Moss, Joe Osborne and Andrew Watson. Garage 59's McLaren for Frankie Bird, Marvin Kirchofer and Alexander West was a lap down in fifth.
Race No. 2 on Sunday saw the Nielsen Racing ORECA 07-Gibson lead all but two laps en route to the weekend sweep. Their margin of victory was a full lap over the High Class Racing No. 49. The Graff Racing No. 39 was two laps down in third.
LMP3 was a battle between DKR Engineering and Rinaldi Racing's No. 8 entry. Unfortunately, much like on Saturday, the No. 2 Duqueine M30-D08-Nissan let the team down once again in the final hour. This allowed the Nielsen entry of Colin Noble and Anthony Wells to take the lead and give Nielsen Racing a double victory.
Noble and Wells' margin of victory was 67.312 seconds over CD Sport's Cresp, Doquin and Palette. Rinaldi Racing's No. 22 with Torsten Kratz, Hendrik Still and Leonard Weiss was third.
In GT, it looked like the AF Corse No. 17 Ferrari was going to take the class victory Sunday. However, Abril was guilty of one too many track limit violations. That resulted in a drive-through penalty being assessed in the final 10 minutes of the race. That gave the lead and the class win to Rinaldi Racing's No. 55 Ferrari for Mastronardi, Perel
and Rigon.
Their margin of victory was 5.625 seconds over Inception Racing's Barnicoat, Iribe and Millroy. Abril, Grunewald and Prette had to settle for third after their penalty. Optimum Motorsport's Moss, Osborne and Watson (technically teammates to the Inception trio) were fourth, while Oman Racing's Aston Martin for Ahmad Al-Harthy, Sam De Haan and Charlie
Eastwood were fifth.
In the points, Nielsen Racing's Bell, Hanley and Sales hold a 19-point lead over Droux, Trouillet and Page. Andersen, Fjordbach and Weeda are third.
LMP3 points have CD Sport's Cauhaupe, Adcock and Jensen leading by four points over Cresp, Pallette and Wells. Noble and Wells are third after their victory, followed by Kratz, Still and Weiss.
GT points are led by Inception Racing by one over Rinaldi Racing's No. 55. AF Corse's No. 17 Ferrari is third, then Optimum Motorsport's McLaren. Oman Racing is fifth.
The Asian Le Mans Series will wrap up next weekend with two more four-hour races at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. The championship winning teams in LMP2 and LMP3, along with the top four finishing GT teams, will earn automatic invites to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
