Recent announcements have revealed that series veterans Arianna Casoli, Guillaume Dumarey, and Stienes Longin will all be returning to the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series grid for the 2020 season.
Arianna Casoli, two-time Lady Cup winner and one of the most experienced drivers in the EuroNASCAR 2 grid with 47 starts on her name, is set to be returning for a fourth year in CAAL Racing’s No. 54 team as confirmed by the series on the 28th of January.
“I am really happy to be part of the CAAL family for the fifth consecutive season and to continue driving the #54. It is a car I grew very fond of along the years,” said Casoli to euronascar.com. “I can’t wait for the season to start and I want to not only defend the Lady Trophy but also try to do better than last year’s third place against the Legend drivers. The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series is great because it gives you opportunities to compete at all levels in a strong and numerous field.”
“I am excited to race at Vallelunga. It is a special track for me and I took part in my very first touring car race there,” added Casoli on the prospects of racing at Vallelunga this year. “Then when I came back to racing in 2015 I started from the pole, again in touring cars, due to the inverted grid in my first wet race in 12 year. I can’t wait to get back in the car and get the season started.”
As for Guillaume Dumarey, it was reported earlier today by Belgian racing website Autosport.be that the 33-year old Belgian will be returning to the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series after he left the series to race in the GT4 European Series last year. Dumarey, who last competed with PK Carsport in the Elite 2 class two years ago, is reported to be returning to the same team and class for his return campaign in EuroNASCAR.
Guillaume, the older brother of 2014 Elite 2 champion Maxime “Max” Dumarey who also drove for the No. 24 PK Carsport team in his title-winning season, made his debut in the series in 2017 and finished second in the championship by virtue of consistency, scoring 4 podium finishes and 9 Top-10 finishes in his rookie season.
He went on to score two victories the following year, but he was unable to compete for the title after he was forced to skip two of the rounds that year for two different reasons.
Anthony Kumpen’s heavy crash with Marc Goossens in the first Elite 1 race at Tours wrote off the No. 24 team’s chassis and forced the team to withdraw for the rest of the weekend as PK Carsport had already assigned the team’s spare car to the No. 11 team for Tours due to the damage sustained by the No. 11 team’s primary car in a first-lap incident during the Sunday Elite 1 race at Brands Hatch that put it out of commission for Tours, while the birth of his daughter Renee would ultimately force Dumarey to miss the races at Hockenheim.
Autosport.be also reports that Stienes Longin has signed a contract to stay with PK Carsport for 2020 and with Alon Day joining the team, this left Nicolò Rocca, the previous driver of PK Carsport’s No. 24 team in the Elite 1 class, to be left without a seat despite he finished third in the Elite 1 standings last year.
Stienes, the 2016 Elite 2 champion, enjoyed a breakthrough year last year as he secured a second-place finish in the Elite 1 championship and also scored his first career victory in the EuroNASCAR PRO class during the final race of the season on his home race at Circuit Zolder.
While Longin and Day are confirmed to be driving the No. 11 and the No. 24 Camaros in the EuroNASCAR Pro class, it is still unknown which car Dumarey and Julia Landauer is scheduled to drive with. Despite this, it is expected that Guillaume Dumarey will be returning to the No. 24 team while Landauer is expected to accompany Stienes Longin in the No. 11 team for 2020.
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard.