Our first Race Preview for NASCAR GP Croatia takes a look at the Entry List changes that will happen as 30 teams and 50 drivers are currently listed on the Provisional Entry List for this year’s season finale at Rijeka.
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series will be back this week for the season finale of the 2022 season, the EuroNASCAR Finals at the Automotodrom Grobnik in Croatia.
The beautiful mountainous range that surrounds the circuit at Rijeka will provide the perfect backdrop for the Finals as 30 teams and 50 drivers are ready to participate in the grand finale based on what is listed in the Provisional Entry List that was revealed on 27 October 2022.
As with our other previews this year, the first part of the season finale preview will be focused on the Entry List changes as previews for the EuroNASCAR PRO and the EuroNASCAR 2 title race will be posted at a later date.
On the team’s side of things, PK Carsport will enter only one car once more after the team expanded to two cars at Zolder due to Anthony Kumpen’s on-track return after four years. Team Japan NEEDS24 would also miss the season finale at Rijeka after Kenko Miura returned to the series for the first time since 2020.
Vict Motorsport would take the two spots vacated by PK’s second entry and Team Japan NEEDS24’s entry. Dario Caso’s team was absent from the previous round at Zolder, but they’re ready to return with the same two-car arrangement that the team has used in both Vallelunga and Most. The Provisional Entry List for Rijeka also confirmed that the changes made by Academy Motorsport and Not Only Motorsport at Zolder would happen again this week.
After a one-off entry with SpeedHouse’s No. 40 team, Alon Day is returning to PK Carsport’s No. 24 Monster Energy Camaro for the upcoming season finale. Day now holds a 6-point advantage over CAAL Racing’s Gianmarco Ercoli as he hunts for his fourth title, an achievement that would put him clear of Ander Vilarino as the driver with the most championship titles in EuroNASCAR’s history.
Day will be joining a field of 25 drivers that have been listed as participants of the EuroNASCAR PRO class at Rijeka. The absence of drivers that made their first appearance of the season at Zolder, Dario Caso’s return to the No. 8 Italicus Camaro and Mike David Ortmann’s debut as a substitute driver for Yevgen Sokolovskiy are the only other changes listed in the Provisional Entry List for ENPRO this week.
EuroNASCAR 2 will see an increase in the number of participants at Rijeka as 28 drivers are currently listed in the Provisional Entry List. With the exception of Sokolovskiy and Matthias Hauer, who will be replaced by Hugo Sasse and Neo Lambert respectively, all drivers that competed at Zolder will be taking part in the season finale at Rijeka.
Sasse wouldn’t be the only debutant in EuroNASCAR’s junior division this week as two other drivers are set to make their debut as well. The first is Thomas Toffel, the 31-year old ex-Superstock 1000 rider from Switzerland that will make his stock car debut in Race Art Technology’s No. 18 interconsulting.group Toyota Camry.
The other driver set to make their EuroNASCAR debut at Rijeka is Serbia’s Zoran Kastratović. Kastratović, a veteran driver in ESET V4 and various FIA Central European Zone racing championships that has raced since 1991 and not to be mistaken with the former handball player from Montenegro, is scheduled to race Not Only Motorsport’s No. 36 Chevrolet at Rijeka.
Another debutant will make their debut in the regularity-based Club Challenge division as Austria’s Viktor Schiffer is set to make his first EuroNASCAR outing in Double V Racing’s No. 27 Ford Mustang.
A total of 17 cars from 9 teams are listed are entrants for Club Challenge, although realistically only 9 drivers – Schiffer, Toffel, Federico Monti, Paul Jouffreau, Neo Lambert, Andreas Kuchelbacher, Gordon Barnes, Max Mason, and Eric Quintal – are expected to compete for the Club Challenge points.
Disclaimer: Unless noted on the photo, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Bart Dehaese / Klemen Sofric.
Last Updated: 28 October 2022