Our fourth and final Race Preview for NASCAR GP Belgium takes a look at how dropped points is going to play its hand in the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series championship.
NASCAR Whelen Euro Series will be back for the penultimate round of the 2022 season at Circuit Zolder this week as a total of 30 teams and 51 drivers from all three classes are currently listed on the Entry List that revealed some surprise non-appearances along with the confirmation of the return of some of the sport’s familiar names.
Given that NASCAR GP Belgium will see some drivers earn two chances to score a finishing result that could change what results will be dropped from their current results, our Race Preview for NASCAR GP Belgium will be split into four parts as we will create an extra part that will be focused on the dropped points aspect of this year’s championship.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
What is the dropped points system and how is it implemented? Well, dropped points system is a championship format that allows a driver to drop the results of their worst performing races in a season, providing that the driver competed in more races than the maximum amount of results taken during that season.
Dropped points historically was used in the most prestigious racing championships, with Formula One using a dropped points format until 1990 and MotoGP maintaining a dropped points system until 1976. Within EuroNASCAR, the dropped points system has been used in all but one season – all results were counted in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
The 2022 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series’ dropped points format uses the same format as it is in 2021 where a driver is allowed to drop two (2) of their worst regular season results. The regular season rounds consists of the first five rounds of the season: Valencia, Brands Hatch, Vallelunga, Most and this week’s regular season finale at Zolder.
The current dropped points system’s intention is to allow a driver to give themselves an opportunity to keep their championship hopes alive if they were forced to skip a round due to COVID-19 or schedule clashes.
This ruling was notably used by last year’s eventual champion Loris Hezemans, as he chose to not enter NASCAR GP Belgium due to a schedule clash with both his NASCAR Xfinity Series commitment and the post-race week NASCAR Next Gen test at the Charlotte Roval.
That being said, this “joker” allowance also allowed drivers to miss a round due to a decision chosen by their own team. PK Carsport, rather controversially, went for this route due to their decision to not enter the current championship leader Alon Day* in favor of the returning Anthony Kumpen and Pol van Pollaert this week.
* NOTE: While it initially looks as if Day is not going to compete at Zolder this week, Lucas Lasserre’s SpeedHouse team has recently announced that Alon Day WILL be competing for their No. 40 team this week. More on that on the link provided here.
With only 16 points separating Day and Alexander Graff in the standings, there is a chance that Graff could take over the lead in the championship as previously mentioned in Part 2 of our Race Preview for Zolder. Graff, however, is subjected to dropped points as are 20 other drivers that are due to compete at Zolder this week in the EuroNASCAR PRO class. Just how many points can a driver subjected to dropped points score this week?
Mathematical equations with dropped points can get extremely tricky, but thankfully we have broken it down with this table that we have created below. Listed in the table are the drivers subjected to their dropped points, their two worst results, their current championship points, how many points that they can earn this week and the maximum amount of points they can possibly have at the end of the round.
For a note, the points in brackets for the “Points to Earn” and “Max Points” columns are the amount of points earned if the driver also scored both of the most positions gained bonus points that is in play this weekend.
EuroNASCAR PRO Dropped Points Breakdown
| Driver | Worst Two Results | Current Points | Points to Earn | Max Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alon Day (#24)1 |
16th (GBR 2) |
4th (2 races) |
272 | 26 (34) | 298 (306) |
| Alexander Graff (#64) |
21st (GBR 1) |
5th (3 races) |
256 | 32 (40) | 288 (296) |
| Giorgio Maggi (#18) |
20th (CZE 1) |
18th (ESP 2) |
234 | 44 (52) | 278 (286) |
| Nicolò Rocca (#56) |
24th (CZE 1) |
22nd (ITA 2) |
229 | 52 (60) | 281 (289) |
| Martin Doubek (#7) |
21st (CZE 1) |
15th (ESP 2) |
229 | 42 (50) | 271 (279) |
| Frédéric Gabillon (#3) |
25th (ITA 1) |
10th (CZE 2) |
218 | 41 (49) | 259 (267) |
| Gianmarco Ercoli (#54) |
26th (ESP 1) |
26th (GBR 2) |
213 | 58 (66) | 271 (279) |
| Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (#69) |
24th (ESP 1) |
16th (ITA 2) |
209 | 46 (54) | 255 (263) |
| Romain Iannetta (#46) |
20th (CZE 2) |
15th (CZE 1) |
207 | 41 (49) | 248 (256) |
| Yevgen Sokolovskiy (#48) |
22nd (ESP 2) |
20th (GBR 1) |
176 | 48 (56) | 234 (242) |
| Henri Tuomaala (#23) |
28th (GBR 2) |
21st (CZE 2) |
168 | 55 (63) | 223 (231) |
| Patrick Lemarié (#5) |
DNS (ITA 2) |
27th (CZE 1) |
166 | 70 (78) | 236 (244) |
| Vittorio Ghirelli (#36) |
32nd (ESP 2) |
31st (GBR 1) |
164 | 70 (78) | 234 (242) |
| Fabrizio Armetta (#55) |
28th (ESP 2) |
27th (ITA 1) |
156 | 61 (69) | 217 (225) |
| Max Lanza (#88) |
DNS (GBR 2) |
DNS (GBR 1) |
153 | 80 (88) | 233 (241) |
| Dario Caso (#8) |
31st (ESP 1) |
24th (ESP 2) |
137 | 61 (69) | 198 (206) |
| Marc Goossens (#14) |
DNS (GBR 2) |
24th (ITA 2) |
132 | 67 (75) | 199 (207) |
| Riccardo Romagnoli (#65) |
31st (ESP 2) |
29th (ESP 1) |
128 | 65 (73) | 193 (201) |
| Jonne Rautjärvi (#44) |
DNS (ITA 1) |
26th (ITA 2) |
125 | 69 (77) | 194 (202) |
| Claudio Remigio Cappelli (#16) |
30th (ESP 1) |
29th (ITA 1) |
118 | 66 (74) | 184 (192) |
| Thomas Krasonis (#1)* |
32nd (GBR 1) |
29th (GBR 2) |
116 | 69 (74) | 185 (193) |
| Davide Dallara (#89)* |
DNS (ESP 1) |
DNS (CZE 1) |
109 | 80 (88) | 189 (197) |
| Aliyyah Koloc (#29)* |
DNS (ITA 2) |
30th (GBR 2) |
106 | 73 (81) | 179 (187) |
| Federico Monti (#2) |
30th (GBR 1) |
29th (ESP 2) |
93 | 65 (73) | 158 (166) |
NOTE: Drivers marked with * are not scheduled to compete this weekend.
NOTE: 1 Alon Day is due to compete in car #40 for this weekend.
Based on our breakdown, a total of five (5) drivers would have a chance to potentially leapfrog Alon Day in the championship standings if Day is unable to improve upon his two worst results at Zolder: Graff, Giorgio Maggi, Nicolò Rocca, Martin Doubek, and Gianmarco Ercoli.
Out of these five drivers, Graff had the easiest task in his hands as all he need to do is to finish in the top-4 on any of the races. The 33 points that he scored from finishing in 4th place, which would give him 17 points based on how it’ll replace the 21st place result in his final tally, is enough to hand him the championship lead by a single point.
In Nicolò Rocca’s case, he can leapfrog Day in the standings if he was to either win both races or by winning one race and have his other race to have a finish no worse than fifth place, which would give him 273 points at minimum. Rocca must win at least one of the races as he would not have enough points to overtake Day if he was to finish runner-up in both races this week.
For Giorgio Maggi, a double victory or a win and a runner-up would give him enough points to overtake Day in the standings by either 6 points or 1 point respectively.
Martin Doubek and Gianmarco Ercoli’s mathematical chances are by far the slimmest as they would need to win both races and claim the bonus points for most positions gained in both races, an extremely unlikely chance given that only one driver in history – Lasse Sørensen – has been able to do the “win and score most positions gained points” part in the past.
In Junior Trophy, Giorgio Maggi is guaranteed to retain his position at the top of the sub-classification leaderboards as he currently sits 107 points ahead of Hendriks Motorsport’s Liam Hezemans with only a maximum of 88 points to score for Liam, who is not subjected to dropped points as he only took part in 6 races in the top class so far.
As for Challenger Trophy, current leader Yevgen Sokolovskiy mathematically had the largest amount of points possible as he can score a maximum of 242 points scored if the Ukrainian is to miraculously win both races and score the two most positions gained bonus points this weekend.
The driver to watch in Challenger Trophy, however, is not Sokolovskiy. It is also not Henri Tuomaala and Fabrizio Armetta, but rather it’s CAAL Racing’s Max Lanza as his two worst results are a double DNS at Brands Hatch.
While Lanza has competed in 8 races this year, a double DNS as his two worst results meant that Lanza is effectively not subjected to dropped points, meaning that every point that he scored this week will count towards his points tally in the standings.
EuroNASCAR 2 Dropped Points Breakdown
| Driver | Worst Two Results | Current Points | Points to Earn | Max Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberto Naska (#88) |
5th (ITA 2) |
2nd (2 races) |
302 | 13 (21) | 315 (323) |
| Liam Hezemans (#50) |
18th (CZE 1) |
13th (CZE 2) |
256 | 37 (45) | 293 (301) |
| Martin Doubek (#7) |
22nd (ITA 2) |
7th (ITA 1) |
250 | 35 (43) | 285 (293) |
| Vladimiros Tziortzis (#5) |
26th (ITA 2) |
11th (ESP 2) |
249 | 43 (51) | 292 (300) |
| Paul Jouffreau (#33) |
26th (GBR 1) |
11th (ITA 1) |
223 | 43 (51) | 266 (274) |
| Ulysse Delsaux (#3) |
27th (ITA 1) |
17th (CZE 1) |
222 | 50 (58) | 272 (280) |
| Yevgen Sokolovskiy (#48) |
16th (ITA 1) |
16th (ESP 2) |
207 | 38 (46) | 245 (253) |
| Gil Linster (#56) |
23rd (ITA 1) |
18h (GBR 2) |
205 | 47 (55) | 252 (260) |
| Patrick Schober (#27) |
23rd (CZE 1) |
19th (ESP 2) |
200 | 48 (56) | 248 (256) |
| Christian Malcharek (#24)1 |
27th (ESP 1) |
19th (ESP 2) |
187 | 48 (56) | 248 (256) |
| Miguel Gomes (#46) |
28th (ITA 1) |
17th (ESP 2) |
180 | 53 (61) | 233 (241) |
| Luli del Castello (#54) |
21st (ESP 1) |
19th (CZE 2) |
175 | 46 (54) | 221 (229) |
| Aliyyah Koloc (#29)* |
28th (GBR 1) |
27th (ESP 2) |
169 | 61 (69) | 230 (238) |
| Roberto Benedetti (#65) |
32nd (ESP 1) |
26th (GBR 2) |
144 | 64 (72) | 208 (216) |
| Alina Loibnegger (#94) |
23rd (ESP 1) |
23rd (CZE 2) |
143 | 52 (60) | 195 (203) |
| Leonardo Colavita (#47) |
DNS (CZE 1) |
DNS (CZE 2) |
141 | 72 (80) | 213 (221) |
| Arianna Casoli (#14) |
29th (GBR 1) |
23rd (ESP 2) |
135 | 58 (66) | 193 (201) |
| Eric Quintal (#64) |
27th (GBR 2) |
24th (GBR 1) |
135 | 57 (65) | 192 (200) |
| Kasparas Vingilis (#1)2 |
29th (GBR 2) |
25th (ITA 2) |
124 | 60 (68) | 184 (192) |
| Michael Bleekemolen (#72) |
31st (ESP 1) |
28th (ESP 2) |
122 | 66 (74) | 188 (196) |
| Paolo Valeri (#8) |
30th (ESP 1) |
29th (ESP 2) |
117 | 65 (73) | 182 (190) |
| Janne Koikkalainen (#44) |
DNS (ITA 1) |
DNS (ITA 2) |
44 | 80 (88) | 124 (132) |
NOTE: Drivers marked with * are not scheduled to compete this weekend.
NOTE: 1 Christian Malcharek is due to compete in car #11 for this weekend.
NOTE: 2 Kasparas Vingilis is due to compete in car #2 for this weekend, having previously raced the #2 in Valencia.
In EuroNASCAR 2, Alberto Naska is guaranteed to retain his lead in both the overall championship and the Rookie Trophy standings as his closest rivals’ maximum possible points tally will not be able to get past Naska’s current points tally of 302 no matter how many points they scored this week.
Liam Hezemans and Vladimiros Tziortzis could potentially end up being just 1 and 2 points behind Naska’s 302 if they were to win both races and score the most positions gained points in both of the races. The chances for that to happen in EN2 is arguably easier given the domination of the “Big Four” this year, but nonetheless it would be a feat that is considered as almost impossible to accomplish given the circumstances.
One driver to look for this weekend is Team Bleekemolen’s Tuomas Pöntinen, who is not subjected to dropped points because he only entered the series starting from the second round at Brands Hatch.
Barring a catastrophically unlucky weekend, Pöntinen is almost guaranteed to enter the top-10 positions in the overall standings and depending on how the results for the other drivers went, Pöntinen could theoretically climb up to 2nd place in the standings if he was to score the maximum points haul of 88 points and the other top contenders were to face an unlucky weekend at Zolder.
Another driver to look for is Pöntinen’s teammate Melvin de Groot, who is also not subjected to dropped points because he missed the previous round at Most due to a schedule clash. While de Groot is 45 points behind Yevgen Sokolovskiy in the Challenger Trophy sub-classifications, de Groot could potentially eliminate all of deficit in a blink of an eye seeing that Zolder is a track where he scored his surprise EuroNASCAR podium last year.
Aliyyah Koloc’s absence this weekend would provide Luli del Castello with a big opportunity to increase her lead in the Lady Trophy further. Theoretically both Alina Loibnegger and Arianna Casoli could potentially overtake Luli if Luli was unable to better her two worst results at Zolder, but the chances of it happening are slim given that the previous round at Most was Alina’s first ever career top-10 finish and Casoli has not finished in the top-10 for the past two years.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Disclaimer: Unless noted on the photo, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Bart Dehaese / Klemen Sofric.