EuroNASCAR Esports Series starts off in the best way possible for Guillaume Deflandre as he dominates the week at iRacing’s virtual Daytona Road Course to put himself as one of the drivers to beat in the upcoming rounds.
Guillaume Deflandre starts off his 2021 EuroNASCAR Esports Series season campaign with a complete sweep as he and 33 other drivers made a visit to iRacing’s virtual rendition of Daytona Road Course to kickstart the second season of Esports Series last Tuesday.
Deflandre, who was signed by Speedhouse to drive the team’s virtual No. 64 Rock’s/Motul Camaro in the Esports Series, was never challenged by his competitors as he went on to sweep the top spot in all sessions of the week.
With only 34 drivers participating in this weekend’s race, the field was split into two Heat Races instead of three and every driver taking part would be allowed to take part in the Main Event regardless of where they positioned in their respective Heat Races.
Deflandre was the one to take the checkered flag in the first Heat Race as he won the six-lap event by 8.115 seconds over Tobias Dauenhauer while Ulysse Delsaux finished third, the young Frenchman making his series return after his withdrawal from the actual 2020 season. Davide Dallara and Speedhouse’s new EuroNASCAR 2 driver Paul Jouffreau completes the Top 5.
Santtu Vuoksenturja and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, both returning to the series after their scheduled participation in the actual 2020 season was quietly withdrawn due to the pandemic, experienced an incident-filled Heat Race while Max Lanza, who returned to on-track competition (virtually) for the first time since his season-ending injury at Rijeka, experienced issues that left him two laps down at the finish.
In the second Heat Race, it was Alon Day’s turn to claim the top spot as the newly-crowned three-time Euro Series champion won his Heat Race by 4.184 seconds over DF1’s new recruit Simon Pilate.
Alessandro Brigatti, now competing under the Vict Motorsport banner, claimed third despite starting from 15th on the grid while the DF1 Racing duo of Alain Mosqueron and Henri Tuomaala completes the Top 5 in Heat 2.
Delsaux’s teammate Frédéric Gabillon, also returning to the series after his withdrawal from the actual 2020 season, finished eighth while series media team member André Wiegold finished 16th in his Heat Race.
Deflandre, whose victory in Heat 1 meant that he claimed pole position for the Main Event, made a good start and quickly broke away from the field as an incident inthe final chicane took Giorgio Maggi and Justin Kunz out of contention. Maggi and Kunz, along with Igor Romanov, were the only retirements of the race.
In the end, it was Deflandre that went on to win the Main Event as he finished 11.953 seconds ahead of Day to bring home the full 40 points. Day later admits that he had no answer to challenge Deflandre in the post-race interview as Delsaux claims third, having started sixth on the grid.
“It was a good race. I didn’t have a lot of time to practice for this track and the car, but congratulations to Guillaume (Deflandre) and Ulysse (Delsaux),” said Day in the post-race interview. “Guillaume is on a different planet, I don’t know what he was doing there. I’m pretty sure he’s cheating with something, but it is unbelievable really.”
Dauenhauer and Brigatti completes the Top 5 as Pilate finished sixth despite being punted by Dallara early in the race. Dallara himself would finish 7th ahead of the highest finishing team member Patrick Hendriks, while Vladimiros Tziortzis and Tuomaala completes the Top 10 in the Main Event.
Main Event Results
| POS | GRID | DRIVER | LAPS | TIME / GAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1 | Guillaume Deflandre (64) | 16 | Winner |
| 2. | 2 | Alon Day (24) | 16 | + 11.953 |
| 3. | 5 | Ulysse Delsaux (10) | 16 | + 16.847 |
| 4. | 3 | Tobias Dauenhauer (150) | 16 | + 24.745 |
| 5. | 5 | Alessandro Brigatti (108) | 16 | + 16.670 |
| 6. | 4 | Simon Pilate (166) | 16 | + 29.794 |
| 7. | 7 | Davide Dallara (89) | 16 | + 39.912 |
| 8. | 12 | Patrick Hendriks (307) | 16 | + 44.344 |
| 9. | 11 | Vladimiros Tziortzis (101) | 16 | + 45.459 |
| 10. | 10 | Henri Tuomaala (23) | 16 | + 46.220 |
| 11. | 16 | Frederic Gabillon (3) | 16 | + 50.868 |
| 12. | 20 | Chris Liemann (348) | 16 | + 54.794 |
| 13. | 9 | Paul Jouffreau (264) | 16 | + 1:00.069 |
| 14. | 8 | Alain Mosqueron (199) | 16 | + 1:00.513 |
| 15. | 19 | Stefan Kresin (479) | 16 | + 1:02.931 |
| 16. | 26 | Gordon Barnes (246) | 16 | + 1:14.040 |
| 17. | 28 | Naveh Talor (191) | 16 | + 1:18.057 |
| 18. | 22 | Luca Canneori (388) | 16 | + 1:20.115 |
| 19. | 17 | Stefano Guastaveglie (354) | 16 | + 1:28.734 |
| 20. | 18 | Jakub Krafek (483) | 16 | + 1:31.046 |
| 21. | 33 | Max Lanza (88) | 16 | + 1:39.848 |
| 22. | 13 | Leevi Lintukanto (91) | 16 | + 1:40.362 |
| 23. | 15 | Roy Hendriks (318) | 16 | + 1:52.825 |
| 24. | 25 | Michel Stoelman (369) | 16 | + 1:55.564 |
| 25. | 23 | Rien Jannsen (346) | 16 | + 1:59.304 |
| 26. | 34 | Evgeny Sokolovsky (48) | 15 | + 1 Lap |
| 27. | 30 | Maximilian Hellek (322) | 15 | + 1 Lap |
| 28. | 32 | André Wiegold (458) | 15 | + 1 Lap |
| 29. | 29 | Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (69) | 15 | + 1 Lap |
| 30. | 27 | Santtu Vuoksenturja (46) | 15 | + 1 Lap |
| 31. | 24 | Francesco Garisto (148) | 15 | + 1 Lap |
| 32. | 14 | Justin Kunz (99) | 4 | Collision Damage |
| 33. | 21 | Giorgio Maggi (18) | 2 | Collision |
| 34. | 31 | Igor Romanov (190) | 1 | Retired |
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.