And now for something entirely different on 8W... Although he only exists on paper, Michel Vaillant is one of the true heroes of motor racing. Thanks to his creator, Jean Graton, this French racing driver has captured the imagination of many teenagers and adult readers around the world - and for decade after decade.

But what if we take a look at Michel's adventures from a historical point of view? How does his fiction stack up against reality? Henri Greuter decided to take a chance by diving into Graton's very first Michel Vaillant comic, Le Grand Défi, with the aim of comparing his knowledge of Indycar history in particular with what happens in the story created by Graton. As you will see, the result is fascinating.

The Historic Grand Prix Car Association, the GT & Sports Car Cup and the Formula Juniors – with a fair bit of 1000cc F3 screamers thrown into the mix – joined Masters Historic Racing’s four grids to end all their 2022 seasons under the Portuguese sun for another edition of the Algarve Classic Festival. This time, there was much less of a mess compared to last year when things went awry during the course of the weekend, and with 2021’s rain swapped for dry and mostly sunny conditions in 2022, all was well at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.

The Dutch came to the Spa Six Hours with just six cars, yet four of those took podium positions, one of which was the big one – first place in the 2022 Spa Six Hours, the biggest historic endurance race of the season that with an entry of 90 cars was almost back to its pre-multi-crisis form. The memory of David Hart taking the win in René Herzog's Shelby Mustang GT350 was almost gone when his son crossed the finish line in first, the GT40 shared with Dad and Nicky Pastorelli a full lap ahead of the competition.