EDIT: This article is updated on 27 May based on the confirmation from Jennifer Jo Cobb that she will be in Brands Hatch for the American SpeedFest, and on 29 May based on the confirmation that Jennifer Jo Cobb and Lasse Sørensen will drive in the Elite 1 class for American SpeedFest.
NASCAR Whelen Euro Series returns to action next week for the American SpeedFest, the third race week of the 2019 season. Held on the Indy Circuit layout of the legendary Brands Hatch circuit, American SpeedFest has been a staple of the Euro Series calendar, with the UK circuit being the only track to have been in the calendar in all seasons of the Euro Series after the series received official NASCAR sanctioning status in 2012.
Today on May 24, an initial entry list for Brands Hatch has been released by Euro Series via its official social media accounts. 57 drivers and 32 teams have confirmed their intentions of participating in Brands Hatch, and this number is very likely to go up if late-addition entries such as Sam Taheri in Valencia and Eric Filgueiras in Franciacorta are going to happen.
32 teams are listed in the initial Entry List, with the only absence being 42 Racing by FS Motorsports, who will once again miss a race this season after having previously skipping the season opening round at Valencia. The most notable of the team changes, apart from 42 Racing’s absence, is the presence of Marko Stipp Motorsport (MSM) in the place of Racing-Total.
Earlier on May 18, it was announced by leadlap.de and threewide.de that Racing-Total will leave the series and hand over their Euro Series assets to Marko Stipp after Stipp and Racing-Total announced the break-up of their partnership. While there wasn’t really much information that came out from initial announcement itself, Marko Stipp does state that he is committing to continue field the No. 10 Camaro and No. 46 Mustang for the season, and both teams were listed in the Entry List coming to Brands Hatch.
Based on the entry list, it is now known that Marko Stipp Motorsport will continue the partnership that Racing-Total had with BTCC team AmD Tuning. Initially, we reported MSM may have decided to not extend the partnership that Racing-Total had with Gander Outdoors Truck Series team Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing based on MSM’s No. 10 entry being simply listed as “Marko Stipp Motorsport” (in comparison to the No. 46 entry, which is listed as “Marko Stipp Motorsport AmD Tuning”) and Jennifer Jo Cobb’s absence in the Entry List, despite Brands Hatch being one of the 5 rounds that she was planning to participate this season.
However, on May 27, Jo Cobb tweeted in response to our initial report that she will be in Brands Hatch next week. While it is unknown whether she will drove the No. 10 car as initially planned or not, in one of her tweets, Jo Cobb said “I think that announcement (from us regarding JJC’s absence) was premature. As have been subsequent announcements. I’ll be in Brands Hatch and happy to discuss. I love this series and want to grow in it.” In another Tweet, she also states that while in Brands Hatch, she will have further talks to see what would be possible for her Euro Series campaign later in the season.
Later on May 28, it is revealed that Jo Cobb has found herself a ride for the American SpeedFest. The Truck Series veteran will make her Elite 1 debut for Brands Hatch as she will drove for Alex Caffi Motorsport in the team’s No. 1 Mustang. More information on that can be seen via the link provided here.
Other changes in the team entries are going to be in the body style department. Based on the entry list, Alex Caffi’s No. 2 team and Racers Motorsport’s No. 19 team are scheduled to return to the Chevrolet SS and Ford Mustang body style respectively after both teams used the Chevrolet Camaro body style at Franciacorta. In addition, while Go Fas Racing is listed to run a Ford Mustang body for Brands Hatch, it is expected that they will run the Camaro body style once again.
Other changes in the team entries are going to be in the body style department. Based on the entry list, Alex Caffi’s No. 2 team and Racers Motorsport’s No. 19 team are scheduled to return to the Chevrolet SS and Ford Mustang body style respectively after both teams used the Chevrolet Camaro body style at Franciacorta. In addition, while Go Fas Racing is listed to run a Ford Mustang body for Brands Hatch, it is expected that they will run the Camaro body style once again.
In the Elite 1 class, 30 drivers have confirmed their plans for American SpeedFest. One teams – Marko Stipp Motorsport’s No. 10 team – did not have a driver listed yet and despite Martin Doubek’s presence in the initial Entry List, Hendriks Motorsport have confirmed on May 20 via an announcement on their Facebook page that Doubek isn’t going to participate at Brands Hatch due to a driver injury and ultimately on May 27, the team decided to withdraw the No. 7 entry as the team failed to secure a replacement driver for Doubek for Brands Hatch.
There has been quite a few of driver changes in Elite 1 for Brands Hatch. Ant-Whorton Eales and Eric De Doncker are scheduled to make a return after both drivers withdrawn their entries in Franciacorta, while Max Lanza returns to the double duty task as he is scheduled to return in the No. 41 The Club Camaro for Brands Hatch.
The news that Christophe Bouchut have parted ways with Dexwet-DF1 Racing immediately after the Saturday race in Franciacorta due to “safety reasons” meant that the No. 66 Dexwet-DF1 Racing team initially did not have a driver listed in the Entry List, before it was announced on May 28 that Lasse Sørensen will do the double duty in the No. 66 team for Brands Hatch.
On the same day, Jennifer Jo Cobb is also confirmed to make her Elite 1 debut in the No. 1 Alex Caffi Mustang. This would make her becoming the third driver to drive the No. 1 car in three races after Mexico Series champion Rubén García Jr. and team owner Alex Caffi had previously driven the car in Valencia and Franciacorta respectively.
Eric Filgueiras, who drove for the No. 70 Mishumotors team in Franciacorta, will made a return to the series with the No. 70 Mishumotors team once again for Brands Hatch. The former National Class champion of USF2000 had been replacing Bobby Labonte, who was inducted to the NASCAR Hall of Fame as part of the NASCAR Hall of Fame 2020 Class on May 22.
Meanwhile in the Elite 2 class, 28 drivers have confirmed their participation for American SpeedFest. Three teams did not have a driver listed in the Entry List yet – both RDV Competition cars once again did not have a driver listed for Elite 2, while JJC’s surprising absence meant that the No. 10 team currently did not have a driver listed in the Elite 2 class. In addition, Martin Doubek’s injury meant that despite Doubek is listed in the No. 7 Mustang, no one is confirmed for the No. 7 seat just yet.
Just like Elite 1, there has been quite a few of driver changes in Elite 2 for Brands Hatch. The most notable of these changes is the return of Swede veteran Freddy Nordström. Nordström, who at one point held the record for the highest number of starts in Elite 1, will made his return to the series to replace Bert Longin in the No. 11 PK Carsport team. This will be Nordström’s first start in this series since last year’s edition of American SpeedFest, where the Swede scored a podium in the second Elite 2 race driving for Mishumotors in the No. 33 team.
Another notable driver change involved the musical chairs of Advait Deodhar. Deodhar, the defending Elite Club champion who currently sat in fifth in the Elite 2 Drivers Championship, is going to have his third team in three races as the Indian is scheduled to drive for CAAL Racing in the No. 31 team. This will also be the No. 31 team’s third driver in three races, after Sam Taheri and Moreno Di Silvestre drove for the team at Valencia and Franciacorta respectively.
Speaking to Deodhar in Twitter after Deodhar announced that he will drove for CAAL at Brands Hatch, Deodhar reveals that he currently did not have enough sponsorship money and funding to compete for the rest of the season. If he wasn’t able to compete for the rest of the season due to lack of funding, it will be such a shame for him considering that he had exceeded expectations with Deodhar having scored two Top 5 finishes already this season.
With Deodhar moving to the No. 31 CAAL Racing team for Brands Hatch, the Speedhouse 64 team will also have its third driver in three races, as Matthias Hauer, who last competed in the series with CAAL Racing in the No. 44 team in Elite 1 last season, is scheduled to make his return to the series as well as making his Elite 2 debut as the German is listed to compete in Speedhouse’s No. 64 Elite 2 seat.
Eric De Doncker, who withdrew from Franciacorta, is scheduled to make a return once again for Brands Hatch, while Lasse Sørensen – who shockingly won his very first NASCAR Euro race at his debut in Franciacorta and recently took Jimmy Broadbent for a TCR test drive in Denmark – is scheduled to return to Dexwet-DF1’s No. 66 seat for Brands Hatch. Eric Clement, who also made his NASCAR Euro debut at Franciacorta, is also scheduled to return with No. 88 Racing Engineering team for Brands Hatch.
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series will hit the track for Round 5 and Round 6 of the 2019 season on 1 June and 2 June respectively. All races for this season are going to be aired live on FansChoice.tv, Motorsport.tv, and the official Facebook page and YouTube channel of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
Photos are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard.