After four straight seasons with the same driver lineup, Oracle Red Bull Racing shook up its title-winning team with the addition of young driver Liam Lawson.

Sergio Perez departed the organization after a down season.

Four consecutive championships and the odds-on favorite to snag a fifth, Max Verstappen enters this weekends Australian Grand Prix with confidence.

After all, he won nine of the 24 races and secured the title prior to the finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

It is great to be getting back to racing again and officially starting the season, Verstappen said. It is good to see the first race of the season starting up in Melbourne; I drove my Formula 1 debut race here, so there are a lot memories and we always see the passionate fans come out here to support.

While Verstappens team enjoyed plenty of success, they endured a rough patch during the summer months during which the competition closed the gap in the title race.

Through those 10 events, six races saw Verstappen finish fourth or worse. Nonetheless, the team found what it was lacking and finished on a high note.

Entering a new season, the team will have a gaping hole with the departure of longtime Chief Executive Officer Adrian Newey, who was instrumental in the teams car design and technical advantages over the years.

Newey joined Aston Martin this year.

As Verstappen and team adjust to life without Newey, he feels they checked a lot of boxes during a recent test in Bahrain.

In Bahrain, we learnt a lot from testing but there is still a lot more work to be done, Verstappen said. We have ideas about what we can do and how we can take on what we learnt at testing, so we will see how we go when we start driving on the track.

We have been analyzing the data and working on where we can make improvements and can work to optimize things further.

We are ready to get started up again and I am excited to get the season underway.

Editors Note: In a nod to our 90 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 15, 30 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.

15 Years Ago 2010

News: Americas oldest active open-wheel racing sanctioning organization and the longest continuously running weekly midget auto racing program will both have a new look this season.

Recently Angell Park Speedway announced it would run Sunday-night midget racing under the sanction of the newly formed Angell Park Speedway Auto Racing Assn, ending a 63-year relationship with the Badger Midget Auto Racing Assn.

Ten years after beginning as a racing organization BMARA made its first appearance at the track June 2, 1946. The half-mile track, which previously featured trotter and tin lizzie races, was shortened to a third-mile before the season began. Three additional events were held during the season and another dozen features during 1947-48.

For the 1949 season, lights were installed so events could be held on Sunday nights. On May 29, 1949, Kelly

The Flying Irishman Peters set fast time, won his heat and topped the feature. From that point forward, weekly Sunday night racing has been held at the facility except for a few shortened seasons for minor contract disputes in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

APS and Badger were engaged in negotiations for nearly four months. Neither party was able to come to an agreement for a contract for 2010 season.

We were informed by the APS Park Board President Les McBurney that he would be doing his own deal for the 2010 season. We basically were invited back to run at the track. APS has been a very important part of Badgers history, but we must now look to the future. The future for right now doesnt include racing there, said BMARA President Harlan Kittleson.

Badger will contest 10 Saturday night events 35 miles southeast of Sun Prairie at the third-mile dirt Beaver Dam (Wis.) Raceway (formerly Charter/ PowerCom). Wilmot (Wis.) Speedway, Dodge County Fairgrounds (Beaver Dam), Belle-Clair Raceway (Belleville, ill.) and several dates yet to be announced will comprise a 16-20 race schedule for the season.

Winners: Jason Sides won a thrilling battle with Tim Kaeding to claim his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series triumph of the season Saturday night at Houston Raceway Park.

While there were only two official lead changes at the Iine, Sides and Kaeding swapped the

top spot countless times over the course of the 40-lapper, sometimes multiple times on the

same lap as they weaved in and out of traffic in an event that had just one caution on the third lap and went the remaining 37 circuits of the quarter-mile oval under the green flag.

Sides took the checkered flag just .160 second ahead of Kaeding for his fifth career WoO victory.

It was a great race, said Sides. Tim (Kaeding) was there the whole time and the track really

got good and wide where you could run the bottom, and the top made for a great race as well

running up there. I felt like it was our race to lose and we kept plugging away and plugging

away and came out on top. I am so proud of this team and everything that helps us.

30 Years Ago 1995

News: National Speed Sport News has learned owners of teams which campaign Fords on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit are taking a low-key approach to the performance handicap presented by the so-far all conquering Chevrolet Monte Carlo bodies.

According to reliable sources, initial tests of the Monte Carlo in production trim were disappointing, which resulted in a petition by General Motors Motorsports Technology Group on behalf of Chevrolet to NASCAR for aerodynamic bodywork relief.

NASCAR obliged, allowing widening of the rear deck area by 6 inches and other sheet-metal alterations which substantially increased the downforce generated by the Monte Carlo at speed.

Dave Hederich, speaking for MTG says, however, it was a case of necessity which brought the Monte Carlos skirts out about from their underpinnings.

When we took the Monte Carlo to NASCAR, we said we put the NASCAR-mandated spoiler on it and it didnt fit, Hederich told NSSN on Monday. The rear deck of the car in production trim is somewhere around 51 or 52 inches wide, and the NASCAR-mandated spolier, which is on there for safety, is 57 inches wide.

In the four races so far this season, all won by Chevrolet Monte Carlos, the best Ford finish has been one third place, by Mark Martin in the season-opening Daytona 500.

The most recent race, the Purolator 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, saw Chevrolet sweep the top four places and Ford drivers unable to lead a single lap.

Whereas the Ford team owners have kept their concerns over the matter private, the same cannot be said of their drivers, several of whom have publicly cited racing the rules.

Hederich, however, was not swayed by that argument.

Our teams put up with a car (the Lumina) that was basically a sedan design, Hederich said. I think they did a pretty good job of keeping their mouths shut about it. We came up with the Monte Carlo, which is a whole lot different than the Lumina. Its a sports coupe, like the Thunderbird, not a two door sedan like the Lumina.

Our guys felt they lived with a car and kept their mouths shut, Hederich continued. Ford put out all this press about leading laps and stuff, and now that were doing it, all of a sudden its not right.

Ford is currently gathering data to bolster its case for a return to a production-bodied series. In the past, NASCARs inspection templates were profiled from production bodies.

Were trying to do in a very short time what Chevrolet spent 2 years doing, said Fords Wayne Estes. What theyre killing us on right now Is the fact that the Winston Cup model is 70 percent Monte Carlo and 30 percent Thunderbird. They (the Chevrolet teams) have a very good frontal

area, but the trouble was they had a very narrow tall.

Winners: After a weekend of frustration, Paul Tracy put it all behind him in Sundays Australian Indy Car Carnival to register his first victory for the Newman/Haas team in dramatic come-from-behind fashion before a record crowd of over 90,000 fans.

Tracy, who moved from Penske Racing to the Chicago-based team in the offseason, drove his Kmart/Budweiser Lola-Ford past teammate Michael Andretti on the 58th and final lap and recorded his ninth career Indy car victory and fifth on a temporary circuit.

Tracy, who came from his ninth starting position to move into the top five after 10 laps, led runner-up and new PPG point leader Bobby Rahal across the finish line by 6.983 seconds with Scott Pruett, Mauricio Gugelmin and Danny Sullivan rounding out the top five.

After his early misfortune in the Miami event two weeks ago, Tracy was first to thank his crew for giving him a strong mount Sunday.

There are always going to be critics, said Tracy about his early Miami exit when he hit the barrier on the second lap. But I have to thank the team for believing in me. The guys worked 48 straight hours to repair the cars and get ready for Surfers. The car ran great all day. I ran my quickest on the last two laps of the race.

I made a fool of myself in Miami, Tracy continued. I felt I had a lot to prove to the team, the

sponsors and the team owners, said the driver who has failed to finish in three previous races here.

60 Years Ago 1965

News: The first of the two 1965 Chevrolet racing stock cars to be raced under the sponsorship of the Southeast Chevrolet Dealers, went into production this week.

Jim Rathmann, a former Indianapolis winner and now a Chevrolet-Cadillac dealer in Melbourne, Fla., advised this writer that veteran racing mechanic Ray Fox, would prepare the cars.

Fox was a member of the Dodge factory team through the 1964 season and only recently built up a 1965 Dodge fitted with a GM supercharger that turned the Daytona Intl Speedway at 181.818 mph., with Leroy Yarbrough of Jacksonville the driver.

Rathmann reported that only one car would be built at first and this run in a few races as a test car. Then the second machine would be put together.

He reported that power would come from the new Chevrolet 396-inch engine opened up to 427

cubic inches. Weight will be right on the minimum, the balding Indy winner stated.

Well be ready with the first car for the May 8th race at Darlington, he reported.

When asked what his opinion of the cars performance against current Grand National cars would be, he snapped, the only reason Fords are winning races is that they wont run fast

enough to blow up. He added, We wouldnt be getting into this business if we couldnt run

faster than the Fords.

Rathmann would not reveal who he and Fox have lined up as drivers, however, he did say their men would be top notch drivers.

Winners: Neither Snow nor a whistling Texas norther could heat Jack Bowsher during his appointed round Sunday.

Parlaying quick pit stops with a super-swift 1965 Ford, the twice-straight ARCA national champion from Springfield, Ohio, beat back the challenge of Les Snow and won the championship 250-lap new stock car race at J. F. Meyer Speedway.

Bowsher won in 1:51.08.6 when his gleaming blue-and-white car took the checkered flag. Snow, who had spent a frustrating day as the No. 1 contender, was only a half-lap behind the winner.

Bowsher made the 125-mile trip with two pit stops for gas which totaled less than 20 seconds, and he made his last one with seven laps left merely as a precautionary measure.

His lips and face chapped by the biting cold wind which sliced across the half-mile track, Bowsher grinned wryly when somebody asked him if hed been beaten this year. I wouldnt

say I was beaten, he said softly. I ran out or gas at Daytona and I was leading the race at the time.

LAS VEGAS Five months, 21 weeks, 153 days, no matter which way you spin it, its been a long time since Kubota High Limit Racing last competed on American soil. That drought ends this week.

The campaign, featuring 60 dates that take us all the way to the All-In Championship Weekend at Texas Motor Speedway on Oct. 17-18, begins with a new season-opening event. After a heartbreaking goodbye at East Bay Raceway Park, Nevadas Las Vegas Motor Speedway now kicks off the season on Thursday and Saturday, March 13 and 15.

Between 14 full-time teams, five fresh faces including four Rayce Rudeen Foundation Rookie of the Year contenders, a heap of notable NASCAR names, and the invaders coming from all over to The Entertainment Capital of the World, there is no shortage of storylines this week.

Lets look at whats on the table as we kickoff 2025:

THE NASCAR NAMES

Not one, not two, not three, but four stars competing with Kubota High Limit Racing this weekend on the dirt track also have events on the big track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Fresh off winning three-straight NASCAR Cup Series races at Atlanta, Texas Circuit of The Americas, and Phoenix, Christopher Bell will make his High Limit debut on Thursday night. The Norman, Okla. native recently returned to dirt racing and has been red-hot ever since, winning a Golden Driller at the Tulsa Shootout and beating the World of Outlaws at Volusia. Bell will be in the potent Kreitz Racing No. 69K hauling all the way from Pennsylvania on Thursday, then Daryn Pittman will take over the ride in Saturdays finale.

The 2023 Roto-Rooter Midweek Series champion, Kyle Larson, is set to race both Thursday and Saturday in his familiar No. 57 owned by Paul Silva. Yung Money is eyeing back-to-back season-opening victories with Kubota High Limit Racing after topping the 2024 kickoff at Floridas East Bay Raceway Park. The seven-time High Limit winner owns four wins across the street with the NASCAR Cup Series but has never won at Vegas dirt track.

Making his first-ever start behind the wheel of sprint car, Ty Gibbs will trade his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 for Chad Boats CB Industries No. 84 this week. The former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion dove into dirt racing in 2024 with appearances in micro sprints and midgets, and now the Monster Energy athlete is ready for a sprint car. After Vegas, he and Boat have several more Kubota High Limit Racing events planned in 2025.

Akin to your child coming back home from college, Corey Day one of the 16 original High Rollers in 2024 will return to action with Kubota High Limit Racing for the first time since signing a Hendrick Motorsports development deal that will take the 19-year-old to the NASCAR ranks in 2025. With Spencer Bayston in the full-time Sander Engineering No. 14 for Jason Meyers Racing, the Clovis, Calif. native will pilot a second JMR No. 14BC with Driven2SaveLives colors.

THE TITLE DEFENSE

Its a feeling that Brad Sweet is all too used to. Every year since 2020, The Big Cat has went into each season-opener with the target on his back as the defending champion, and thats no different now.

This time, however, hes got a brand-new white Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts No. 49 and a new-to-him crew chief to working on the car. After a wildly successful seven-year relationship with Eric Prutzman, which resulted in six national championships, Sweet will now hand the wrench to elevated car chief, Tye Wolfgang.

Last year, it was Sweets unrivaled consistency which won him his first High Limit title, including a streak of 17 consecutive top-10 finishes to start the year. The Big Cat looks to start 2025 in a similar fashion at Las Vegas, where hes yet to win at but does own four podium finishes with the World of Outlaws.

WAITING IN THE WINGS

Sweets closest returning title contenders from last year Tyler Courtney, Rico Abreu, and Brent Marks have all shown their championship potential and all have reloaded and refocused on taking down the Kasey Kahne Racing No. 49 in 2025.

Courtney, a two-time All Star Circuit of Champions titlist, led the championship standings as deep as late May. Marks was the only other driver to start the year as smoothly as Sweet did, earning 16-straight top-10s to get the 2024 season going. Abreu ended the year better than anyone else, taking back-to-back crown jewels at the $102,626-to-win Skagit Nationals and $57,000-to-win Tuscarora 50 while skyrocketing to third in the points.

All have had their bright spots, its simply about putting all the pieces together to challenge a point racing guru like Brad Sweet.

FIVE FRESH FACES

A whole handful of drivers will be new to Kubota High Limit Racing in 2025. Included in that mix is Clute, Texas 34-year-old Aaron Reutzel, who will assume the Ridge & Sons Racing No. 87. Hes a former ASCS National Tour champion, a three-time titlist with the All Star Circuit of Champions, a winner of the Knoxville 360 Nationals and Tuscarora 50, and fully expected to compete for the championship this year.

The inaugural Rayce Rudeen Foundation Rookie of the Year Award will be decided between four up-and-coming young stars: Chase Randall, Daison Pursley, Danny Sams III and Sye Lynch.

• Randall, a 20-year-old native of Waco, Texas, is driving his family-owned No. 9R.
• Pursley, a 20-year-old native of Locust Grove, Okla., is piloting the Buch Motorsports No. 13.
• Sams, a 23-year-old native of North Port, Fla., is wheeling the Randerson Racing No. 24D.
• Lynch, a 27-year-old native of Apollo, Pa., is controlling the Mosites Lynch Racing No. 42.

NEW YEAR, NEW HOME

Three full-time drivers from last season with Kubota High Limit Racing are returning to the series in 2025, albeit with a different team on tour.

• Brenham Crouch, a 19-year-old native of Lubbock, Texas, now runs the CJB Motorsports No. 5.
• Spencer Bayston, a 26-year-old native of Lebanon, Ind., now steers the Jason Meyers Racing No. 14.
• Justin Peck, a 26-year-old native of Monrova, Ind., now guides the Rudeen Racing No. 26.

All three drivers have already gotten accustomed to their new outfits, teams, cars, and crew members, taking advantage of the early-season World of Outlaws races to sort of their team chemistry.

Brenham Crouch, working with crew chief Barry Jackson and driver coach Paul McMahan, made multiple features in Florida. Spencer Bayston, now alongside crew chief Shane Noisy Bowers, earned several top-10 finishes in his March swing down south. Justin Peck, now guiding a Tyler Tessemaker prepared car, has made the biggest splash with three ASCS National Tour wins to kickstart 2025.

INVADING VEGAS: With more than 30+ cars expected this Thursday and Saturday, fans will several notable outsiders invading Las Vegas. After all, theres plenty of fun to be had for race teams looking to travel.

Some notable names coming from California include Justin Sanders in the Mittry No. 2X, Kaleb Montgomery in the No. 3, Ashton Torgerson in the Snow No. 7, Tanner Holmes in the Tarlton No. 21T, Dominic Scelzi in his own No. 41, Tanner Carrick in the No. 83T, Austin McCarl in the Country Builders No. 88, D.J. Netto in his own No. 88N, Andy Forsberg in the No. 92.

The star power doesnt stop there with multi-time USAC National Sprint Car Series champion Brady Bacon flying in to pilot the JFM #73, young gasser Ryan Timms bringing the Shane Liebig Motorsports No. 10 west, and Blackjack Brian Brown taking his nickname to the fitting confines of Las Vegas.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. Its (nearly) spring when racing fans fancy turn to thoughts of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, aka Round Two of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

At least the 12-hour part has been the case since 1952, when a former six-hour race around the perimeter of an Army Air Corps B-17 training airfield became a 12-hour test of drivers, teams and machines that annually puts the endurance in endurance racing. Although the layout and amenities at Sebring International Raceway may have evolved over the past seven decades, the essential nature of the track rough and tumble concrete airport runways circa WWII coupled with fast and demanding asphalt roadways remains tougher (and nearly as rough) than a Florida gators hide.

Whats to watch for this coming weekend?

Ride of the Valkyrie

The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH makes its North American debut at Sebring, joining Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Lamborghini and Porsche in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) fray. Powered by a normally aspirated 6.5 liter, normally aspirated, Aston Martin-Cosworth RA V-12, the shriek of the Valkyrie will be a sonorous (and welcome) addition to the audio soundtrack of a GTP class that already includes both twin turbo and normally aspirated V8 hybrids as well as twin turbo V6 hybrids.

Although a host of familiar names will be preparing the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, drivers Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Alex Riberas will make their GTP class debuts. In recent seasons Gunn, De Angelis and Riberas-driven Nos. 23 and 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and GT3 EVOs have won more than a dozen races in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) and GTD PRO classes, with Aston Martin, Heart of Racing Team and De Angelis capturing the GTD PRO manufacturers, team and drivers titles respectively in 2023.

Gunn noted on a pre-event media call that expectations should be kept in check for a debut, but never say never about pulling a surprise.

I think the beauty of endurance racing is theres so many variables, he explained. So many things can happen. Were very early in our development phase, and again, Sebring is such a difficult circuit on the cars, and on the drivers. I think for us, the key is to just remain realistic.

Tandy Slam Plus His and Penskes Sebring Pursuit

Porsche and Nick Tandy come to Sebring in pursuit of milestones. Winners of the past two Rolex 24 At Daytona races and defending WeatherTech GTP series manufacturer champions, Porsche is searching for its first overall win in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring since 2008, with a Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class Porsche RS Spyder. Not surprisingly, Porsches last overall triumph at Sebring came in partnership with Penske Racing.

Suffice to say the drivers and crews of todays No. 6 and No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963s would love to match the achievement of their predecessors. Then again, Sebring has a way of springing surprises, so Proton Competition and JDC-Miller Motorsports would like nothing more than to see their No. 5 and No. 85 Porsche 963s be the one to bring the Sebring GTP trophy back to Stuttgart. JDC-Miller most recently pulled a Sebring surprise in 2021 with the trio of Tristan Vautier, Sebastien Bourdais and Neel Jani in a privateer Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Meanwhile, one Porsche Penske driver in particular Tandy is gunning to become the 10th driver to notch overall wins in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. He already has wins in the major 24-hour races (Daytona, Le Mans, the Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps) as well as three class victories at Sebring to his credit. But an overall win in the No. 7 Porsche 963 he shares with Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor would be the proverbial icing on the cake. Or is that the icing on the proverbial cake?

GTD and GTD PRO Round Two

Seldom has there been a more appropriate term to characterize the second race in a season as Round Two than the coming contests in GTD and GTD PRO. After all, the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona resembled nothing so much as a heavyweight title bout, make that bouts, in both classes.

The No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 and No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R may have won GTD PRO and GTD respectively, but only after 24 hours of intense and at times (over) heated clashes among the representatives of the nine automakers in the categories.

After our Daytona win, we have been on a high, said Frederic Vervisch, who shares the No. 65 Ford with Christopher Mies and Dennis Olsen. We learned a lot at the recent test at Sebring, so we are well-prepared for this race. We are feeling very positive and motivated to keep hold of our championship lead. We know it will be hard as it is not the perfect track for our car, but the team is on top form, and we are working well together with our sister car. Im sure we can achieve a good result.

Matt Bell, who shares AWAs No. 13 Corvette with Orey Fidani and Lars Kern added, It was a dream start to our season. We had a good test at Sebring; we feel well-prepared, but the GTD field is so deep with talent and itll be extremely competitive again as we go ahead and take everyone on.

Chevrolet and Ford may have brought joy to Motown with their Rolex 24 triumphs but defending Sebring GTD PRO and GTD winners Lexus and Mercedes-AMG will be keen to stage repeat performances this weekend, with Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche looking to get in on the winning action as well.