Yesterday, VW Fun Cup announced that 2019 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Champion Loris Hezemans is scheduled to make his debut in the series for the upcoming 2019 European VW Fun Cup season finale round, the Dutch Fun Festival 2019 at TT Circuit Assen this weekend.
Hezemans will be driving for Comtoyou Racing in the No. 292 VW Beetle Fun Cup car, replacing Jordan Latragna’s spot in the No. 292 team. Tristan Földesi, Gilles Verleyen, and Maxime Lieutenant will be Hezemans’ teammates in his VW Fun Cup debut at Assen.
“Got a call to join Comtoyou Racing for the Dutch Fun Festival of VW Fun Cup this weekend, I said count me in” said Hezemans on a post in his Facebook page. “Will be fun throwing them around and racing side by side at TT Circuit Assen where last time I was there I qualified on the front row. Time to learn and enjoy! Looking forward to meet my teammates!” further adds Hezemans, who recently took part in NASCAR Drive for Diversity’s Driver Development Combine at Daytona and New Smyrna last week.
The Waterloo-based Comtoyou Racing has been involved in the European VW Fun Cup since the team was first founded in 2014. Under the guidance of Team Principal Jean-Michel Baert, the team then expanded to TCR in 2017 when they entered the TCR International Series as Audi’s official customer racing team.
The team has since continued their involvement in both TCR and VW Fun Cup, with Comtoyou currently fielding two separate teams in WTCR: One team – competing under the Audi Sport Team Comtoyou banner – fields two Audi RS 3 LMS TCR’s for Niels Langeveld and Frédéric Vervisch, whilst the other – competing under the Comtoyou Team DHL CUPRA Racing – fields two CUPRA Leon TCR’s for Aurélien Panis and Tom Coronel.
Vervisch scored the team’s sole victory of the season so far during the first race of the WTCR Race of Slovakia at Slovakia Ring. The team also currently fields one Audi RS 3 LMS TCR in the TCR Europe Touring Car Series for Gilles Magnus.
In VW Fun Cup, Comtoyou currently fields two full-time teams: The No. 290 team, and the No. 292 team in which Hezemans was scheduled to drive with at Assen. Comtoyou also fields four part-time entries throughout the season – the No. 145 team, No. 274 team, No. 291 team, and the No. 437 team.
Another VW Fun Cup team, 8KS Corse, has also been involved in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series this year as one of the team owners of 8KS, Claudio Remigio Cappelli, made a one-off entry in the NASCAR GP of Italy at Franciacorta as the Elite 2 driver of the No. 42 42 Racing by FS Motorsports Ford Mustang.
Cappelli performed strongly in his debut, as he scored a 10th place finish in the Sunday race to take the victory in the Legend Trophy classification. He was also running in the Top 10 when he crashed out on the last corner with 6 laps to go on the Saturday race.
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of Rev Racing / VW Fun Cup / Comtoyou Racing.