Yesterday, Braxx Racing announced on their Facebook page that the team is selling the No. 78 Ford Mustang car that Marc Goossens drove into a double podium finish during the 2019 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season finale at Circuit Zolder last week. The car is available to be checked on Racecars Direct via the link provided here.
“We are offering for sale this Nascar Whelen Euro Series Mustang,” said the team on the description of the Racecars Direct link. “It has competed in 4 race weekends this year and comes with new engine (2 races), new gear box (2 races) and new diff (1 race). This car is one of the most competitive cars in the field, driven to P2 and P3 in the last two races by Marc Goossens.”
“The car comes with spares and extra wheels. Please contact us for more info or to view the car. Our team and the car are located near Antwerp, Belgium.”
The car is listed to be sold with a price tag of €48,000 (around $52,746), excluding VAT (Value-Added Taxes). The amount of money listed by the team would provide enough budget for a team to field a car and compete in half of the races listed on the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series calendar.
When we reached out and asked the owner of Braxx Racing Jerry de Weerdt on this topic, he comments that the team currently “have no statement about why we sell the 78” and “more info will follow”.
Jerry de Weerdt’s Braxx Racing has been a staple of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series since the team made its debut in 2015 as “Brass Racing”. De Weerdt originally fielded just the No. 78 Ford Mustang team in 2015 – with him competing in both classes – before he expanded the team in 2016 to add the No. 90 Ford Mustang team with sports car racing veteran and former road course ringer Marc Goossens as the driver.
In 2017, the team changed its name to “Braxx Racing” in the off-season to prevent a legal case after the team discovered that the name “Brass Racing” has been registered in the European Union registry by another company. The same year also saw Braxx’s biggest success in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series after Goossens scored the team’s first – and so far only – victory in the final Elite 1 race of the season at Circuit Zolder.
The team then expanded again in 2018 to become a three-car team with the addition of the No. 91 team. Uniquely, the team run two manufacturers throughout the season: The No. 78 team continued to run Fords, while the No. 91 team ran Chevrolets and was the first team to run the new Camaro body style at Franciacorta. The No. 90 team, on the other hand, originally competes with the Ford Mustang body style before switching to a Camaro one starting from Hockenheim.
The team also made its biggest changes to the driver roster in 2018 as the team provides the opportunity for former Tour de France stage winner Tom Boonen, Alex Sedgwick, and Pedro Bonnet to make their debuts in the series, with Dylan Derdaele later would also made his Elite 1 debut with the team at Zolder.
For 2019, the team originally planned to compete full-time with Goossens and de Weerdt in the No. 78 team and Sedgwick and rookie Scott Jeffs in the No. 90 team. Unfortunately, the team didn’t make an appearance in the rounds at Most and Venray, while only the No. 90 team – with Jeffs and Elite Club driver Callum Cripps as its drivers – returning to Hockenheim before the No. 78 team, Goossens, and Sedgwick – along with the debuting Sven van Laere – returning to compete in the season finale at Zolder.
With Braxx Racing stating that more information on the team’s decision to sell the No. 78 car will be coming, we can now only speculate as we awaits the confirmation from Braxx Racing on the team’s future in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard.