Scott Speed gets his own VW Beetle for Red Bull GRC season finale

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Andretti Autosport is bringing in the Beetle for their Red Bull Global Rallycross title contender, Scott Speed.

The former NASCAR and Formula One racer has earned three victories this season driving the No. 77 Volkswagen Polo and is one of four contenders with a chance to take home the championship in Wednesday’s season finale at Las Vegas.

But instead of sticking with the Polo for the final battle, Speed will drive VW’s latest version of the Beetle. The car made its 2014 debut in Los Angeles with Speed’s teammate, Tanner Foust.

“We’ve driven it enough to feel more confident with this,” Speed told the series website. “Obviously, we’d like to have had more testing with it before we bring it out in race circumstances, but we feel like our odds are better with this than with the Polo.

“I think everyone here is just happy to get working on what our future is, and that’s this car, which hopefully gets off to a good start.”

Down 29 points in the championship to leader Joni Wiman, Speed will need help in order to emerge with the GRC crown. But the American driver isn’t worrying about that scenario, and is simply keeping his focus on taking the checkered flag this week in Sin City.

“As far as championships are concerned, if we walk away from there with four total wins and the Championship winner has no wins, then we’ll still feel pretty good about ourselves and the year we have had,” he said in a team release – perhaps referencing the fact that two of the four championship hopefuls, Wiman and Nelson Piquet Jr., have not yet won a race this season.

“We’ll just control what we can control in Vegas, try to walk away with another win, and call it a good year overall for the No. 77 7UP Volkswagen Andretti team.”

Tomorrow will see practice, qualifying, and heats for the GRC contingent, followed by the main event on Wednesday evening. NBC will broadcast the Vegas final on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Supercross: Enzo Lopes will race with ClubMX in 2024

Lopes ClubMX 2024
Feld Motor Sports/MX Sports Pro Racing/Align Media
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Coming off his best Supercross season to date, Enzo Lopes has re-signed with Muc-Off / ClubMX Yamaha and will race for the team in 2024. The deal is for Supercross only.

Enzo Lopes won his heat race in Denver and finished fourth in the Main. – Feld Motor Sports

Lopes debuted in the Supercross series in 2019 on a Suzuki and scored his first top-10 finishes in his last two starts of that season. Showing consistent improvement, he earned six top-10s in eight Main events the following year and finished fifth in the 250 East standings. In 2022, he scored his first top-five at Daytona and finished in the top five in points again.

“I am happy to be returning to ClubMX for another season,” Lopes said in a press release. “It is like family to me there and that is very important. Although I had many options, staying where I am makes the most sense for many reasons. The bikes are great, the people are great, the tracks are amazing, and I am surrounded by people that care about me. We all want to win and together we will get there.”

While he improved his season-best performance by only one position this year, it was nevertheless a breakout season. Lopes barely missed the podium three times in 2023 with fourth-place finishes at San Diego, Seattle, and Denver.

His strong performance him rumored to be speaking with factory teams.

“We could see the growth from Enzo every time he gets on the bike,” said team owner Brandon Haas. “We all knew it was just a matter of time before he would be noticed by everyone, and we are proud of him on many levels. He had some heat race wins and qualified fastest at three events this season. It would be hard not to be noticed going that fast. He had a big decision to make and we are glad he chose to stay with us at ClubMX.”

Lopes had three podium finishes in heat races this year, including a win preceding his fourth-place finish in Denver.

Lopes will join Jeremy Martin, Phil Nicoletti and Garrett Marchbanks, who announced a two-year extension with the team in January, at the ClubMX team.