What I'm Working On
Motorsport has always existed on a razor-thin edge, where brilliance meets obsession and the pursuit of speed sends great men to their graves. Behind the podiums and champagne, behind the PR gloss and corporate smiles, racing has always carried its share of somber secrets.
Welcome to Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys, an award-winning motorsport history podcast dedicated to uncovering the scandals, tragedies, and intrigues that transformed the racing world in ways that the record books have long tried to forget.
I'm motorsport journalist and historian Elizabeth Blackstock, and in each episode, I return to the archives — examining interviews, court documents, original reporting, and eyewitness accounts — to reconstruct how these forgotten events unfolded. I want to know the motivations, the conflicts, and the consequences, which reveal how personal ambition and organizational pressure collided in often fatal ways — ways that altered motorsport forever.
Subscribe via Substack for DPTJ scripts, motorsport journalism tips, and analysis of all the latest news in racing.
Racing with Rich Energy: How A Rogue Sponsor Took Formula One for a Ride
Formula One has long maintained a glitzy aura that masks dark and strange goings-on in the background. But with the 2019 season came a force louder than Formula One could dream of muffling: William Storey, the founder of British energy drink startup Rich Energy.
Storey became a multimillion-dollar sponsor of the Haas Formula One team a year after records showed Rich Energy having a mere $770 in the bank. He equated his doubters to moon-landing truthers and publicly mocked both the Haas team and the entities winning legal disputes against him. But where were actual cans of Rich Energy, and did the supposed sponsorship funds exist?
In the six months between Storey's first race as a Formula One sponsor and his very public exit, he stole the spotlight with a loud mouth and an active Twitter account. Haas team boss Guenther Steiner once described the Rich Energy news cycle as: "I'm getting sick of answering these stupid fucking questions on a race weekend. I've never seen any fucking thing like this." No one else had, either. This book uncovers the complete, bizarre story.
Grand Prix Gastronomy
If you only tune into Formula 1 for the race, you're missing out on so much of what makes the sport so special: its international flair.
To celebrate Grand Prix weekends in 2023, I cooked the national dish of each host country in an effort to more authentically connect with the culture of the places F1 visits. A nation's cuisine can tell so many stories about geography, politics, history, and agriculture, and through Grand Prix Gastronomy, I was able to respectfully engage with each country beyond the race track.
Stay tuned for 2024!
RACEWKND Magazine
We live for the race weekend.
RACEWKND connects fans to the circuits, cities and culture of Formula 1 through collections of stunning coffee table magazines. RACEWKND honours the world’s most glamorous sport with fresh editorial perspectives, award-winning design, cutting-edge artworks and iconic photography.
I've contributed to three editions of Collection 1 and all four editions of Collection 2 while also writing regional guides to all three American venues (Austin, Miami, Las Vegas) in collaboration with Wynn Resorts and Lewis Hamilton's +44.