SMP Racing Tag

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter Age: 29 Years in IndyCar: 2 Podiums: 2 Laps led: 124 2016-17 Team: Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Now that Mikhail Aleshin is officially returning to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, there is much to be hopeful for. The likable Russian returned to the cockpit of the No. 7 SMP Racing Honda last year after a year hiatus. He ended the year 15th in the standings, just two spots behind teammates James Hinchcliffe. Good for a guy that was out for a year, but it could have been just thatRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter Mikhail Aleshin will return for a third year at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in the Verizon IndyCar Series. The 29-year-old from Moscow, Russia will return to the No. 7 SMP Racing Honda alongside James Hinchcliffe for the 2017 season. “Thanks to both the SMP Racing program and our American team, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, I am to keep fighting for even better results this season in IndyCar,” Aleshin said. “With the Russian flag on my car, and with James and the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports crew, I willRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Driving a brand new Prototype developed and built in his native Russia, IndyCar driver Mikhail Aleshin won the top starting spot for the Rolex 24 at Daytona — with the ninth fastest time of Friday’s qualifying sessions at the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course. Englishman Nick Tandy had the afternoon’s fastest lap, leading a Porsche sweep of the top two starting spots in the highly competitive GTLM Class, touring the course in 2:01.408 (105.561 mph) and edging fellow PorscheRead More

Porsche returned to the top of the timing screens at Bahrain this morning as the teams took part in a final hour of Free Practice running before the important qualifying sessions later today in preparation for the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain tomorrow. Brendon Hartley laid down an early lap of 1m40.917s in the No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid and the New Zealanders effort, which was 1.2s faster than Marcel Fassler’s best from last night’s session, was not bettered in the 60-minute session this morning. Making it another Porsche 1-2, theRead More

With the No.18 Porsche finishing in second place, 26-seconds behind the No.17 car, Porsche clinched the 2015 FIA World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship, sending the Stuttgart mark into ecstasy.  Now holding a 70-point lead in the Manufacturers’ standings over Audi, Porsche cannot be beaten no matter what happens at the final race at Bahrain. Like Fuji last month, Shanghai produced another sensational WEC event today.  In changeable weather and track conditions, each of the Porsche and Audi entries led the race at stages, thrilling the crowd and TV viewers alike. BrendonRead More

After locking out the front row in qualifying, the Porsche Team went 1-2 at the Six Hours of Nurburgring with No. 17 919 Hybrid driven by Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard claiming their maiden victory. The win puts Webber, Hartley and Bernhard just 17 points behind Audi Sport Team Joest’s Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer. The No. 18 919 Hybrid started on pole, but ran into trouble mid-race for over use of its fuel allowance which saw a total of 95s in stop-go penalties. However, aRead More

Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb split qualifying duties in the No. 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid to best teammates Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard en route to the pole for the Six Hours of Nurburgring. Dumas and Lieb had a two lap average of 1:36.473s, beating the second Porsche 919 Hybrid by a slim 0.069s. Dumas set the fastest outright lap with a 1:36.192s and secured Team Porsche’s continuance perfect pole record for 2015. Led by Oliver Jarvis and Lucas Di Grassi, Audi Sport Team Joest saw the No. 8 AudiRead More

Porsche has claimed its first overall victory at Le Mans since 1998. The #19 car, driven by Nico Hulkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy were out front for the majority of the race and almost the entire last nine hours over the sister #17 car driven by Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard and the #7 Audi driven by three time Le Mans winning trio Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer. Lotterer did manage to get one small victory for Audi as he was able to secure theRead More