Up to Speed: 5 – 6 February 2022

Friday 04 February 2022

Legends ranging across all disciplines of motorsport head to Pite Havsbad, Sweden this weekend for the return of the Race of Champions.

Back on UK soil, there is also a welcome return to the calendar for the Riponian Stages Rally after a similarly enforced two-year break. Here’s all you need to get up to speed on the action this weekend:

Race of Champions – Pite Havsbad, Sweden

Some of the sport’s most iconic names across single seaters, rallying, stock cars, sportscars and rallycross will come together in Sweden this weekend for the ultimate showdown on snow and ice.

The popular knock-out format event returns with it’s standard individual and ‘Nations Cup’ titles, with Formula 1 stars Sebastian Vettel, Mick Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard set to battle it out against the likes of Sebastian Loeb, Jimmie Johnson, Johan Kristofferson, Petter and Oliver Solberg, Mattias Ekstrom and Colton Herta – and many more!

Motorsport UK Academy will also be represented on the grid as Team UK driver Jamie Chadwick, fresh from a second W Series title and successful debut campaign in Extreme E, partners with 13-time Grand Prix winner Coulthard for Team UK.

The format is familiar, but ‘RoC’ breaks new territory with its new snow and ice venue, situated just 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle, with races set to be held across a number of vehicles including the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4, Polaris RZR and both the Supercar Lite and RX2e models from Olsbergs.

Coverage of both the individual (Saturday) and Nations Cup (Sunday) titles can be viewed live in the UK on Sky Sports F1.

Riponian Stages Rally – Yorkshire, UK

After falling foul of the weather in 2020, then the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, it’s a case of ‘third time lucky’ for the return of the Riponian Stages Rally this weekend.

The annual trip to North Yorkshire marks not only the start of the British Historic Rally Championship, but five additional categories across a bumper, 143-car entry list.

Reigning champions Ben Friend and Cliffy Simmons will be out for a repeat of their title glory in 2021 on board their Ford Escort, but the competition looks to be as stiff as ever as the UK’s premier historic rally championship goes ‘gravel only’ across seven events in 2022.

You can keep up to date with the opening event of the season here.