darren, Author at Octane Photography

Capture the Moment

Jul 07

by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: Chicago, Nascar, van Gisbergen

Shane van Gisbergen completes perfect Chicago weekend

It was hot in Chicago this week, but Shane van Gisbergen was even hotter. The road course ace roared to the lead on Lake Shore Drive and ran away from the field in a nine-lap shootout, winning Sunday’s third annual Grant Park 165, the NASCAR Cup Series’ Chicago Street Race. The Trackhouse Racing driver, who won Saturday’s Xfinity Race and the Cup race’s pole, got his number 88 Chevrolet past leader Chase Briscoe with 16 laps left and had a 2.5 second lead over Ty Gibbs before a caution on the final lap gave him his second win of 2025. The victory was the Auckland, New Zealand native’s third in 33 career starts and helped Chevrolet to sweep three victories in the streets of Chicago. He started the weekend by winning the pole for the Sunday race. The 36-year-old Supercars champion then backed up his first career Cup victory in the Second City in 2023 by doing it again. “What an amazing weekend for me,” said van Gisbergen, who led 26 laps and dominated the series last month on Mexico City’s road layout. “We made no mistakes, and there were some really fast cars.” Van Gisbergen said the weather was […]

Jul 06

by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: Chicago, Nascar, SVG

Van Gisbergen storms to Xfinity win

Shane van Gisbergen capitalised on a late race restart to successfully defend his 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series win in Chicago in stunning fashion. Having dominated the early stages, an unfortunate break threatened to derail van Gisbergen’s quest to go back-to-back, however it was a trademark charge through the field that saw him win his first Xfinity start of 2025. Van Gisbergen started second on the final restart with two laps to go, and muscled past JR Motorsports and Trackhouse stablemate Connor Zilisch at Turn 1, winning by 0.823s. It capped off a remarkable day for the Kiwi, who also claimed pole position for both the Xfinity race and tomorrow morning’s Cup Series race. “Yeah unreal, I thought it was going to be a lost cause when the strategy went wrong, but it worked out well,” said van Gisbergen in victory lane. “Thanks to JR Motorsports, the car was a rocket, WeatherTech, Red Bull, unreal day. Awesome day.” It was a much tougher day for Jack Perkins, who barely got into the race before it all unravelled for the 38-year-old. Having started a fine fifth in his first NASCAR start, Perkins dropped back two places in the opening laps before being […]

Jul 01

by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: Alpine, Bottas, Formula1

Bottas a potential Colapinto replacement

Valtteri Bottas has emerged as the leading candidate for a surprise switch to Alpine later this year should the Formula 1 team decide it wants to replace Franco Colapinto. Alpine’s executive advisor Flavio Briatore, who is currently its de facto team principal, has approached Mercedes to discuss the potential availability of its reserve driver. While it is understood that discussions between Alpine and Mercedes over Bottas have been very preliminary, and have not advanced towards a deal definitely happening, they do suggest that Briatore is considering his driver options amid Alpine’s ongoing struggles. Bottas, who was dropped by Sauber at the end of last year, has made no secret of the fact he wants to get back into a full-time F1 race seat. While it was previously thought that the all-new Cadillac operation was his best hope, as talks between the Bottas camp and F1’s incoming team have already begun, the possibility of jumping into an Alpine seat could offer Bottas another F1 lifeline – both for later this year and into 2026. Sources suggest Mercedes would have no problem in letting Bottas take on an F1 return with Alpine, especially as it will become a Mercedes customer team from […]

Jun 30

by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: F1, Lawson, Red Bull

Liam Lawson reflects on Red Bull axing

Liam Lawson has opened up about his early season Red Bull axing after scoring his best-ever finish in Formula 1. The 23-year-old came home an impressive sixth in a chaotic Austrian Grand Prix after a determined and measured drive at the Red Bull Ring, in a race that saw only 16 finishers and a number of frontrunners — including Max Verstappen — retire early. Most impressively, Lawson was one of just two drivers to make a one-stop strategy work in the scorching Styrian heat, holding off the experienced Fernando Alonso in the closing laps to secure eight valuable championship points and the best result of his F1 career. “It’s been a very, very tough race,” Lawson told Sky Sports F1 after the race. “I don’t even know how I survived it, to be honest.” The New Zealander was nearly taken out on the opening lap at Turn 3 after Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli misjudged his braking and came flying into the corner. He ended up missing Lawson and taking out Verstappen instead, with both retiring from the race. “I thought when I saw Kimi coming, I was like okay, this is over, but somehow we got out of it,” Lawson added. “Then […]

Jun 25

by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: Nascar, van Gisbergen

Broken ribs for Van Gisbergen’s tyre changer in pit blunder

One of Shane van Gisbergen’s tyre changers suffered two broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung in an ugly pit stop incident at Pocono Raceway. The incident, which took place during the latest NASCAR Cup Series race, began when Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger messed up his pit box entry. That compromised one of Allmendinger’s tyre changers and pushed the crew member into the path of van Gisbergen, who cannoned into one of the tyres and sent it flying. The stray wheel shot into Trackhouse Racing tyre changer JP Kealey and sandwiched the rattle gun between his torso and the tyre. The former professional lacrosse player fell to the ground briefly before he completed the pit stop. Speaking on NASCAR podcast Stacking Pennies, fellow tyre changer Ryan Flores broke down the incident. “The #16 team is going to miss his pit stall and go deep, he hits his tyre carrier’s tyre which launches it into the #88,” Flores explained. “John Patrick Kealey. Let’s just say it boys, this is the dog of the week because I don’t think everybody understands what happened following this pit stop. “If you watch it in slow motion you go, ‘Okay, he got hit with the […]

Jun 18

by darren in Crash 0 comments tags: Foster, Indy500, Newgarden

Josef Newgarden’s IndyCar Flips During Scary Crash 2025

Josef Newgarden and Louis Foster make heavy contact in a massive incident during the IndyCar Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway 2025. It was something of a miracle that neither driver suffered so much as a scratch.

Jun 18

by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: 8Ten Racing, Hickman, IOMTT

Peter Hickman TT Crash blamed on component failure

Peter Hickman has confirmed that a “component failure” was responsible for the high-speed qualifying crash that ruled him out of this year’s Isle of Man TT. The 14-time TT winner sustained multiple injuries in a 140mph accident from his 8TEN Racing BMW at Kerrowmoar, during the opening lap of the third Superbike and Superstock qualifying session. Hickman suffered broken ribs, vertebrae, a collarbone and a fractured scapula in the incident, which occurred just after the Kerrowmoar left-hand turn. Initial speculation suggested a fairing failure or oil on the track. However, Hickman has revealed that contact between the exhaust and rear tyre caused the accident – the result of a failed exhaust mounting bracket. In a video posted to Instagram, Hickman said: “Sorry it’s taken me a while to give you a little update on my condition, but here it is! It’s been two and a half weeks since I had quite a fast crash at the Isle of Man TT 2025. “Condition wise, I’m not too bad. I’ve got quite a lot of broken bones. I’ve broken my left collarbone, my left scapula and my shoulder blade down the back is in three pieces. I broke three ribs and four vertebrae in my […]

Jun 16

by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: Nascar, Trackhouse, van Gisbergen

Kiwi van Gisbergen wins inaugural Mexico NASCAR race

Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen has mastered the Mexico City road course to score his first NASCAR Cup Series win this season and set up a shot at championship glory. The New Zealander led 60 of 100 laps on Sunday at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez to earn his first cup victory since his NASCAR debut at the inaugural 2023 street course race in Chicago. The former Australian V8 Supercars champion started the race ranked 33rd in the cup standings with only one top-10 finish through the first 15 races. But his victory in Mexico City earned him an automatic berth into NASCAR’s playoffs with a shot to race for the Cup Series championship. Van Gisbergen arrived in Mexico City early Friday morning but was still awaiting many crew members who had been delayed by flights. Then he got sick late Saturday and was sleeping on the floor of his hauler before Sunday’s race. “I felt pretty rubbish today, that wasn’t fun,” he said. “Our car was amazing. That last stint, man, what a pleasure just ripping lap after lap and watching them get smaller in the mirror. Unreal.” He won pole and started the race as favourite, particularly since rain was in […]

Jun 15

by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: Nascar, Trackhouse, van Gisbergen

Shane van Gisbergen soars to Busch Light Pole in Mexico City

Shane van Gisbergen claimed his first Busch Light Pole position of the season Saturday afternoon at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and will lead the field to green in the inaugural Viva Mexico 250 Sunday in Mexico City. Smiling and referring to road courses as his “natural habitat,” van Gisbergen was quite satisfied with his work in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet — especially considering the unknown of a first-time race at the venue. Inaugural races have been a plus on his resume. He made NASCAR history in 2023, famously winning the Chicago Street Race in his very first series start. “It was a great session for us, we kind of lacked in a lot of areas yesterday [in practice] with our car getting the balance we wanted and went through a lot of challenges last night — a couple I thought were maybe too much — and started my lap and the car felt magic right from the start,” van Gisbergen said. The pole position and positive start of the weekend could prove especially important as van Gisbergen is ranked 33rd in the championship standings, essentially needing a race victory to earn a position in the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series […]

Jun 08

by darren in Media 0 comments tags: Alpine, Formula1

Why Alpine F1 driver change is failing so far

When Alpine’s controversial early Formula 1 driver change happened barely a month ago, Alpine boss Flavio Briatore asked only three things of Franco Colapinto: “he needs to be fast, not crash, and score points”. Alpine only gave its rookie Jack Doohan six grands prix before bringing Colapinto in the expectation he would be a clear upgrade. But in three races since replacing Doohan, Colapinto is 0 for 3 in meeting Briatore’s demands – and this move is really not working out as planned. Like his predecessor, Colapinto hasn’t scored a point so far, although he’s had half the number of races Doohan did. He’s shunted out of qualifying at Imola, spent a tricky first F1 weekend in Monaco off the pace, then looked slow again in Spain at the outset. It seemed like a much-need improvement was on the cards in qualifying – only for Colapinto to miss his final Q1 run with a technical problem that he might have accidentally caused himself. Unfortunately, Barcelona was irreversibly compromised by that qualifying problem, and Colapinto was consigned to a third race in a row spent stuck near the back of the field. Despite Briatore’s subsequent claims to the contrary, Alpine said […]