Onofrio Veneziani’s championship-winning Double T Racing team will be returning to NASCAR Whelen Euro Series starting from this weekend’s Vallelunga round with Leonardo Colavita as their lead driver following Colavita and the No. 47 team’s split from Racers Motorsport.
Former EuroNASCAR 2 champions Double T Racing will be returning to NASCAR Whelen Euro Series after a six-year hiatus for this weekend’s NASCAR GP Italy following the announcement of its reformation yesterday.
Leonardo Colavita, who had been competing with Racers Motorsport for the first two rounds of the season, will be switching teams to Double T as team owner Onofrio Veneziani aims to make the 16-year old to become the next star in EuroNASCAR.
“I find the Double T project very interesting and will certainly be an important step in my career,” said Colavita, who will bring his No. 47 entry to Double T as well.
“Being part of Double T Racing’s return to NASCAR is special given their past successes. Finally I want to thank the Racers Motorsport team. Dario Caso and the whole team have played a very important role in my training in recent years.”
Double T – not to be confused with the similarly named Double V Racing team – was part of the EuroNASCAR grid in the 2015 and 2016 seasons after team owner Onofrio Veneziani took over the entry of Marco Spinelli’s Events4you team, retaining Events4you’s technical partner MRT Nocentini in the process.
Having set up a three-car team in its debut season, Double T achieved immediate success as the team’s lead driver Gianmarco Ercoli was able to claim the EuroNASCAR 2 title – then named Elite 2 – in 2015 after scoring four race wins and ten Top-5 finishes.
The team then expanded into a four-car team in the following year with Ercoli promoted to the top class, but results were harder to come by. Ercoli scored several Top-5 finishes but he was not able to reach the podium just yet and by the end of the year Double T only scored one win, courtesy of the team’s Elite 2 driver Riccardo Geltrude at Tours.
In the end, Double T and MRT Nocentini separated into their own ways after the 2016 season ended and Onofrio Veneziani would merge Double T with Dario Caso’s Vict Motorsport to form Racers Motorsport for the 2017 season.
While the team has had numerous identity changes such as the change to FEED Vict Racing in 2020 and bringing back the Vict name last season, Veneziani and Caso’s Racers Motorsport team has been a mainstay in the EuroNASCAR up until yesterday’s announcement.
Double T’s return will be supported by the MK1 Racing Italia outfit as it was announced that MK1 will provide the technical support for the returning team. Rumors have been circulating that MK1’s No. 17 team has been merged with the No. 47 team to make the alliance happen, but this has yet to be confirmed so far.
“I am very happy to start this new adventure beginning with our home race,” said Veneziani on Double T’s return. “With Double T, an important brand returns, which has put its name in the history of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. I am sure that with Leonardo’s talent and the support of MK1 Racing we will be able to achieve ambitious goals and bring Double T back to the top of the standings.”
It is currently unknown whether Racers will continue on as a single-car team or whether they will fill the entry vacated by the departing No. 47 team with another team.
Disclaimer: Unless noted on the photo, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard / Klemen Sofric.