Our first Race Preview for NASCAR GP Czech Republic takes a look at the Entry List changes that will happen as 34 teams and 54 driver are currently listed on the Preliminary Entry List on the first post-summer break round of the 2022 season.
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series is ready to return to action soon as Wednesday saw the reveal of the Provisional Entry List for next week’s NASCAR GP Czech Republic at Autodrom Most.
Much like with the previous three rounds of the 2022 season, the Provisional Entry List for Most has once again set new records as 34 teams and 54 drivers from all three classes are listed to participate, a new high for NASCAR GP Czech Republic.
World of EuroNASCAR’s Race Preview for the NASCAR GP Czech Republic is once again going to be divided into three parts as we will focus on the changes in the Entry List on the first part with EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 receiving their dedicated Race Previews on the upcoming Part 2 and Part 3.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
On the Team’s side of things, the Entry List for NASCAR GP Czech provided relatively little in terms of changes when compared to the entrants of the previous round at Vallelunga.
Team Bleekemolen is set to enter one less car as the team will not bring the No. 72 team to the Czech Republic. This change is made after NASCAR Whelen Euro Series announced on 22 August that Melvin de Groot will take both of his joker rounds at Most due to personal clashes that prevented his participation next week.
Michael Bleekemolen has been listed as de Groot’s replacement on the No. 69 team, a move that is set to reunite the Bleekemolen family patriarch with his son Sebastiaan on the same car for the first time since last year’s Brands Hatch round.
Not Only Motorsport will continue to enter just three cars at Most, but this time it is the No. 90 team that will not make the trip instead of the No. 36 team. This entry change situation coincides with the announcement made by the No. 90 team’s primary driver Advait Deodhar, who announced through social media on Thursday that he will not participate in the series for the rest of the season to focus on a planned return in 2023.
In addition, Vict Motorsport’s No. 9 team has yet to list a driver in all classes despite being officially listed as entrants in the Teams chart.
Thirty-two drivers are listed on the current EuroNASCAR PRO Entry List with five driver changes set to occur. Not Only Motorsport contributes to two of these changes as both Vittorio Ghirelli and Davide Dallara are set to return to their usual entries after both drivers swapped teams at Vallelunga.
Stefano Attianese has been listed to return to Double V Racing’s No. 27 Ford, giving Double V their first listed Entry List entry of this year in ENPRO. Leonardo Colavita is also listed to return to the No. 47 Double T Chevy after Thomas Ferrando replaced the 16-year old on a one-off entry at Vallelunga.
The final listed change will happen at Racingfuel Motorsport as the team has listed Mato Matosevic as the driver of the team’s No. 94 Chevrolet. Matosevic, who had previously taken part in the Club Challenge class at Vallelunga, is scheduled to make his debut in EuroNASCAR’s top class if his entry is approved by the officials.
There is, however, a potential of a sixth driver change that may occur at Most based on a report that Czech website Ceskeokruhy made in April. On that report, Ceskeokruhy reported that Buggyra ZM Racing is planning to enter the team’s chief designer and two-time European Truck Racing Champion David Vršecký in Most.
The current Entry List for Most did not list Vršecký as an entrant in either EuroNASCAR PRO or EuroNASCAR 2, but Yasmeen Koloc’s commitment switch following her injury could open the path for Vršecký to race with the No. 38 Ford Mustang team at his home race.
While twenty-nine drivers are listed on the current EuroNASCAR 2 Entry List graphic, a total of twenty-eight drivers would actually enter at Autodrom Most after Alberto Panebianco announced his non-participation through Instagram yesterday.
Panebianco suffered a hand injury during the previous round at Vallelunga and while he has been taking his time at the summer break to recover from the injuries, his doctor has not given Panebianco the clearance to compete as the injury is yet to be fully healed.
Christoph Lenz and Nicolò Gabossi are listed to be doing the double duty in the Entry List while Leevi Lintukanto is scheduled to return to the wheel of Team Bleekemolen’s No. 23 Barot’s Ford Mustang after Tuomas Pontinen replaced him at Brands Hatch and Vallelunga.
MK1 Racing Italia’s lead driver Claudio Remigio Cappelli will once again do his unusual two classes, two teams approach after it was announced that he will be returning to Race Art Technology’s No. 18 Toyota Camry team for next week.
Club Challenge saw virtually no driver changes as 8 cars are listed on the provisional Entry List for EuroNASCAR’s regularity-based division. SpeedHouse will be entering all four of their cars with all of their EN2 drivers listed as participants, but only Neo Lambert in the No. 40 Ford is expected to compete for Club Challenge points alongside Federico Monti, Julian Vanheelen, Andreas Kuchelbacher, and Gordon Barnes.
Lambert, who won on his Club Challenge debut at Valencia, is set to compete in another EN2-Club Challenge double duty participation at Autodrom Most after a successful EN2 debut at Vallelunga where he scored a 9th place finish and bonus points for most positions gained in the second race.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Disclaimer: Unless noted on the photo, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Klemen Sofric.