With rain limiting the amount of track time available for the drivers at Zolder and many drivers having their times removed for usage of non-legal tires, Alon Day leads the field in the EuroNASCAR PRO class Practice after the track dried enough for the Israeli to set a new EuroNASCAR track record at Zolder, with Tobias Dauenhauer continuing to become the leader in EuroNASCAR 2.
Alon Day and Tobias Dauenhauer set the fastest time of the weekend so far in both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 class respectively after yesterday’s Practice sessions saw the drivers having to deal with wet-weather conditions for most of the day.
For the EuroNASCAR PRO drivers, they received a break on their final Practice session as the rain stopped just long enough for them to set lap times on the dry-specification General Tire tires. The brief break in the rain proved to be enough for Alon Day to set a new track record for the EuroNASCAR cars at Zolder as he finished Practice with a time of 1:36.929, a full second faster than championship leader Loris Hezemans in 2nd place.
“I think it was good in this condition with the rain and everything. I was really pushing this time. The Monster Energy car is really good, I know we’re quick on the dry and this is the home track for PK Carsport. They did an awesome job to give me the best equipment they can give,” said Day after the Practice sessions.
Lasse Sørensen continues to impress as the defending EN2 champion completes Practice in 3rd place, ahead of Jacques Villeneuve and Stienes Longin who completes the Top 5. Lucas Lasserre and Giorgio Maggi finished 6th and 7th respectively as Thomas Ferrando, Gianmarco Ercoli, and Nicolo Rocca completes the Top 10 after setting a lap time within 0.25 seconds of each other.
Martin Doubek returns to the series this weekend after he was forced to sat out from the season opening round at Vallelunga after being tested positive for COVID-19. With Daniel Rowbottom not present for Friday’s Practice, Doubek took the opportunity to run the No. 7 Hendriks car in both classes, setting the 13th fastest time in the PRO class and the 4th fastest in EN2.
The first Practice session saw drama as all cars from CAAL, Shadow, DF1, and Not Only Motorsport had their lap times removed from the timesheets for running tires that aren’t considered to be legal by the officials, leaving only 10 drivers being classified in the final first Practice timesheets.
The fastest time from these drivers, a 1:46.120 from Luigi Ferrara in the No. 42 Shadow car, would have put the Italian at the top of FP1 timesheets as his lap time was 1.5 seconds faster than the legal leading time set by Stienes Longin in the No. 11 PK Camaro.
EuroNASCAR PRO Practice Timesheets
| RANK | DRIVER | FP1 TIME | FP2 TIME |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Alon Day (24) | 1:48.474 | 1:36.929 |
| 2. | Loris Hezemans (50) | 1:48.275 | 1:37.979 |
| 3. | Lasse Sørensen (66) | No Time1 | 1:38.024 |
| 4. | Jacques Villeneuve (5) | 1:48.790 | 1:38.386 |
| 5. | Stienes Longin (11) | 1:47.661 | 1:38.475 |
| 6. | Lucas Lasserre (33) | 1:49.238 | 1:39.154 |
| 7. | Giorgio Maggi (18) | 1:49.121 | 1:39.269 |
| 8. | Thomas Ferrando (88) | No Time1 | 1:39.535 |
| 9. | Gianmarco Ercoli (54) | No Time1 | 1:39.548 |
| 10. | Nicolò Rocca (22) | No Time1 | 1:39.599 |
| 11. | Luigi Ferrara (42) | No Time1 | 1:39.959 |
| 12. | Marc Goossens (98) | No Time1 | 1:40.034 |
| 13. | Martin Doubek (7) | 1:49.254 | 1:40.271 |
| 14. | Justin Kunz (99) | No Time1 | 1:40.818 |
| 15. | Francesco Sini (12) | 1:48.941 | 1:41.290 |
| 16. | Patrick Lemarié (6) | 1:52.394 | 1:41.806 |
| 17. | Davide Dallara (89) | No Time1 | 1:41.874 |
| 18. | Mauro Trione (31) | No Time1 | 1:42.400 |
| 19. | Dario Caso (8) | No Time | 1:43.944 |
| 20. | Bernardo Manfrè (17) | No Time1 | 1:47.085 |
| 21. | Evgeny Sokolovsky (48) | 1:54.133 | 1:47.616 |
1 The following cars had all of their Practice times removed for usage of non-legal tires during Practice.
The very same tire drama that was seen in EuroNASCAR PRO’s FP1 was also seen in the EuroNASCAR 2 class, as neither EN2 Practice sessions ended with all cars setting a classified Practice time. The first Practice session saw 9 cars having their Practice times removed, while only four cars had their times removed in the final Practice session.
The time removals didn’t affect championship leader Tobias Dauenhauer though, as the German once again soared to the top of the timesheets in the Practice sessions after the German set a lap time of 1:47.068, 0.303 seconds faster than Guillaume Dumarey in 2nd place.
Nicholas Risitano completes the Practice in the Top 3 ahead of the Hendriks duo of Doubek and Vittorio Ghirelli, who completes the Top 5. Vladimiros Tziortzis’ time in FP1 was enough to put the Cyprian driver in 6th ahead of the FEED Vict duo of Simon Pilate and Alessandro Brigatti, while Julia Landauer and Andreas Jochimsen completes the Top 10.
Evgeny Sokolovsky, who will be doing the double duty after Gašper Dernovšek was forced to sit out from Zolder due to the injuries he suffered at Vallelunga, finished in 11th ahead of Andre Castro with Eric Quintal, Max Lanza, and the debuting Igor Romanov completing the timesheets of Friday EuroNASCAR 2.
The four teams that had the tire drama in the PRO class – CAAL, DF1, Shadow, and Not Only – also had their times removed in the EuroNASCAR 2 Practice sessions. Except for Andre Castro (who did not set a flying lap), all cars from the listed teams had their times removed in FP1 with Shadow receiving a double whammy as they also had their final Practice times removed from the classified results.
Speedhouse and the No. 43 PK Carsport team, who made their first appearances this year, also got affected by the tire dramas as they too had their Practice times removed from the final classification results for usage of non-legal tires.
EuroNASCAR 2 Practice Timesheets
| RANK | DRIVER | FP1 TIME | FP2 TIME |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Tobias Dauenhauer (50) | 1:49.206 | 1:47.068 |
| 2. | Guillaume Dumarey (24) | 1:48.333 | 1:47.371 |
| 3. | Nicholas Risitano (12) | 1:48.460 | 1:47.985 |
| 4. | Martin Doubek (7) | 1:49.148 | 1:48.232 |
| 5. | Vittorio Ghirelli (18) | 1:48.570 | 1:48.282 |
| 6. | Vladimiros Tziortzis (1) | 1:48.923 | 1:49.164 |
| 7. | Simon Pilate (6) | 1:50.912 | 1:49.233 |
| 8. | Alessandro Brigatti (8) | 1:51.407 | 1:49.685 |
| 9. | Julia Landauer (11) | 1:51.983 | 1:50.293 |
| 10. | Andreas Jochimsen (66) | No Time1 | 1:50.809 |
| 11. | Evgeny Sokolovsky (48) | 1:52.681 | 1:51.352 |
| 12. | Andre Castro (22) | No Time | 1:53.961 |
| 13. | Eric Quintal (33) | 1:57.481 | 1:55.946 |
| 14. | Max Lanza (88) | No Time1 | 1:57.882 |
| 15. | Igor Romanov (89) | No Time1 | 2:05.403 |
| Dylan Derdaele (98) | No Time1 | No Time | |
| Alex Ciompi (17) | No Time1 | No Time1 | |
| Francesco Garisto (42) | No Time1 | No Time1 | |
| Pol van Pollaert (43) | No Time1 | No Time2 | |
| Matthias Hauer (64) | No Time1 | No Time1 | |
| Arianna Casoli (54) | No Time1 | No Time |
1 The following cars had all of their Practice times removed for usage of non-legal tires during Practice.
2 Pol van Pollaert had the times set before his first pit stop removed for usage of non-legal tires prior to a tire change.
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard / Bart Dehaese.