Lasse Sørensen proves that he’s already at the top of his game for the American Festival NASCAR Finals at Circuit Zolder as he dominates the Friday Elite 2 Practice sessions in the wet conditions.
Sørensen masters the wet condition as he set a fastest Practice lap time of 1:51.421, a staggering 1.851 seconds faster than second place driver Hugo de Sadeleer. Hendriks Motorsport’s Martin Doubek is the closest challenger for Sørensen in the Friday Practice, as the Czech driver finished 2nd in the FP1 timesheets and would ultimately finish his day in 3rd place in the combined timesheets.
Vittorio Ghirelli is in 4th ahead of championship leader Giorgio Maggi, who will have a lot of work to do for Saturday as his best Practice lap time of 1:54.980 was more than two seconds slower than Sørensen’s time.
Jesse Vartiainen and Ben Creanor continued their impressive performance at Hockenheim as the two drivers finished Practice in 6th and 7th place respectively. Justin Kunz returns to full strength as the German driver finished in 8th ahead of home driver Pol van Pollaert, while Myatt Snider completes the Top 10 in his Racing Engineering Ford Mustang.
Freddie Hemborg, who returns to the No. 77 Memphis Racing Camaro this week, is in 11th ahead of the Italian brigade of Nicholas Risitano, Pierluigi, and Alessandro Brigatti, as Ian Eric Wadén leads the Legend Trophy drivers in 15th place.
The young Israeli Naveh Talor is in 16th ahead of Advait Deodhar, whose had a tough Friday as his day was cut early with a clutch issue forcing the Indian driver to not set a lap time in the final Free Practice session.
Michael Bleekemolen, who is running the #70 this weekend to honor his birthday on October 2, is only in 18th place ahead of Matthias Hauer, while Niels Albert completes the Top 20 in an eventful day for the former cycling champion as a crash by him in FP1 cut the No. 11 team’s day short.
Debutant Sven van Laere and Arianna Casoli, the sole female driver in the field, completes the 22-car field for Elite 2’s Friday Practice sessions.
COMBINED PRACTICE TIMESHEETS
| RANK | DRIVER | FP1 TIME | FP2 TIME |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Lasse Sørensen (66) | 1:54.224 | 1:51.421 |
| 2. | Hugo de Sadeleer (88) | 1:56.074 | 1:53.272 |
| 3. | Martin Doubek (7) | 1:54.892 | 1:53.312 |
| 4. | Vittorio Ghirelli (24) | 1:55.705 | 1:53.549 |
| 5. | Giorgio Maggi (50) | 1:57.713 | 1:54.980 |
| 6. | Jesse Vartiainen (2) | 1:55.940 | 1:55.198 |
| 7. | Ben Creanor (33) | 1:57.638 | 1:55.292 |
| 8. | Justin Kunz (99) | 1:55.744 | 1:56.216 |
| 9. | Pol van Pollaert (98) | 2:02.308 | 1:55.751 |
| 10. | Myatt Snider (48) | 1:57.001 | 1:55.755 |
| 11. | Freddie Hemborg (77) | 1:56.697 | 1:56.588 |
| 12. | Nicholas Risitano (8) | 2:04.361 | 1:56.737 |
| 13. | Pierluigi Veronesi (27) | 2:02.389 | 1:56.772 |
| 14. | Alessandro Brigatti (9) | 1:58.110 | 1:56.862 |
| 15. | Ian Eric Wadén (23) | 2:01.007 | 1:57.587 |
| 16. | Naveh Talor (12) | 1:58.712 | 1:57.617 |
| 17. | Advait Deodhar (31) | 1:58.284 | No Time |
| 18. | Michael Bleekemolen (70) | 2:01.229 | 1:58.290 |
| 19. | Matthias Hauer (64) | 2:24.877 | 2:01.097 |
| 20. | Niels Albert (11) | 2:01.603 | No Time |
| 21. | Sven van Laere (78) | 2:03.735 | 2:03.154 |
| 22. | Arianna Casoli (54) | 2:24.877 | 2:06.612 |
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series will hit the track for Round 12 and Round 13 of the 2019 season on 5 October and 6 October respectively. The green flag for this year’s edition of American Festival NASCAR Finals will be waved at 17:05 CEST on Saturday for Race 1, and at 11:15 CEST on Sunday for Race 2.
All races for this season will be aired live on FansChoice.tv, Motorsport.tv, and the official Facebook page and YouTube channel of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard.