World of EuroNASCAR takes a look at the drivers and teams that announced their plans to compete in the 2023 EuroNASCAR championship on the month of March.
Another month of the year has gone by as NASCAR Whelen Euro Series continues its off-season period. Last month, we recapped every driver and team entry that have announced their plans up to that point and to help fans keep up with the recent announcements, we will be summarizing all driver and team announcements that have been made as of 31 March 2023.
The list will be ordered by the date of the entrant’s announcement.
Announced Before March
The following drivers and teams, whom we covered in our “Confirmed Drivers and Teams as of February” article, have announced their participation plans before March:
- SpeedHouse, who confirmed their entry through Paul Jouffreau’s initial contract that was signed on 23 November 2021. Néo Lambert was added to the team’s 2023 roster on 28 October 2022.
- Anthony Kumpen, who announced to Autosport.be on 5 October 2022 that he will be making his full-season return after a four-year hiatus with PK Carsport.
- Team Bleekemolen’s Michael Bleekemolen, who announced his 2023 entry during the live broadcast of NASCAR GP Belgium, held on 9 October 2022. His son Sebastiaan Bleekemolen more-or-less confirmed his entry in an article posted by Race Planet Bleekemolen on 29 January 2023.
- Academy Motorsport and Vladimiros Tziortzis, who will be competing together in the EuroNASCAR PRO class as announced on 5 December 2022.
- Bremotion, the debuting German team who announced plans to field the No. 99 Chevrolet Camaro with support from Team Hezeberg and Hendriks Motorsport on 29 December 2022.
- Viktor Schiffer, who announced that he will be joining Double V Racing as the team’s Club Challenge driver on 26 January 2023.
- Max Mason, who confirmed that he will be racing in the EuroNASCAR 2 division on 16 February 2023. At the time, he was the only driver to have not confirmed his team for 2023.
- Max Lanza, who is staying with CAAL Racing’s No. 88 team as announced on 21 February 2023.
- Team Bulgaria, who is set to become EuroNASCAR’s first Balkan team after announcing their entry on 24 February 2023.
Hendriks Motorsport
The reigning four-time Teams Champion Hendriks Motorsport became the first team to announce their plans in March when they announced Liam Hezemans’ return to the Dutch-based squad on 9 March 2023. Liam, the current EuroNASCAR 2 champion, will continue to drive the No. 50 Toyota Camry in the EuroNASCAR PRO class.
Joining Liam at Hendriks is another returning driver in Martin Doubek, who announced his entry on 28 March 2023. Doubek, the 2021 EuroNASCAR 2 champion, is staying at Hendriks’ No. 7 Ford Mustang team as he will continue to partake in a double duty campaign.
The Club Motorsport
The Club Motorsport is back after a successful first season as a full-time entrant in the series last year. The confirmation of The Club’s return was announced by team sponsor Dinoil, who announced on 10 March 2023 that they will be sponsoring the No. 55 team once more.
Team owner Fabrizio Armetta will continue to drive the No. 55 Dinoil Chevrolet Camaro, which featured a brand new look this year, ditching their traditional black-and-green colors in favor of a white-black-and-gold livery.
Marko Stipp Motorsport
A new face will be joining Marko Stipp Motorsport after the team announced on 15 March 2023 that German-Brazilian young talent Nick Schneider will be joining MSM as one of the team’s EuroNASCAR 2 drivers.
It’s currently unknown whether Schneider, who took part in the Drivers Recruitment Program last month, will race the No. 46 Chevrolet or the No. 48 Chevrolet for this year.
Schneider will be joined by the returning Gordon Barnes, whose status as a MSM driver was confirmed on 31 March 2023. Barnes is set to compete in Club Challenge with the team once more and will aim to secure his third consecutive Club Challenge title with the Herford-based team.
Racingfuel Motorsport
Ferrucio Finkbohner’s Racingfuel Motorsport has been busy with finalizing their 2023 plans this month, given that they made two separate driver announcements to confirm three drivers for their roster.
The first was made on 21 March 2023, when Racingfuel announced that Max Mason – who was the only driver to not have a team announced in last month’s recap – will be joining the team as the EuroNASCAR 2 driver of Racingfuel’s No. 58 team.
On the same day, the team also announced that United States driver Nick Strickler will be joining the team as Mason’s EuroNASCAR 2 teammate. Strickler is set to become the first American driver to compete full-time in EuroNASCAR since Julia Landauer in 2020.
Alina Loibnegger, who served as Racingfuel’s primary EN2 driver last year, has now shifted her focus to the top class after it was announced on 29 March 2023 that she will be racing against the sport’s best drivers in EuroNASCAR PRO for this year.
Loibnegger is planning to become the first full-time female driver in EuroNASCAR’s top class since the late Nathalie Maillet, who completed her last season in ENPRO back in 2013 – a full 10 years ago!
CAAL Racing
Racingfuel isn’t the only team that are busy with finalizing their 2023 plans, as powerhouse team CAAL Racing made four separate announcements to complete their driver roster for this year.
The first announcement was made on 23 March 2023, which saw the confirmation of Gianmarco Ercoli’s return to the team. Ercoli, who finished third in the standings last year, will have a new teammate to accompany him in the No. 54 team.
That new teammate is Alberto Naska, whose 2023 plans were announced on the very next day. Naska, last year’s runner-up in EuroNASCAR 2, will create an Italian super team in the No. 54 car following his successful debut year with the sister No. 88 car in 2022.
The pairing of Marc Goossens and Sven van Laere was announced to be joining the team on 27 March 2023. Goossens and van Laere are set to race the colorful, comic book inspired No. 56 Anecars Chevrolet in this year’s championship.
Roberto Benedetti completed the team’s roster when his status as a CAAL driver was announced on 31 March 2023. Benedetti will serve as Lanza’s new teammate in the No. 88 Chevrolet following Naska’s switch to the No. 54 team.
Academy Motorsport
Academy Motorsport had previously announced that Vladimiros Tziortzis will be racing with the team back in December, but recently the team have also announced that co-owner Federico Monti is set to be competing with the team once more.
Monti’s return was announced In a social media post made by Academy on 25 March 2023. The post said that Monti is “ready to attack 2023 season” and showcased Monti’s results in Club Challenge, suggesting that he will be contesting EuroNASCAR’s regularity-based division once more.
RDV Competition
RDV Competition, the only team from 2012 to still be on the grid today, is back after the team announced a new driver line-up for their No. 3 Chevrolet team on 25 March 2023.
Frédéric Gabillon, the first driver to make 100 starts in the top division, is back for his tenth season in the sport and his eighth with RDV in the top class. He will be joined by Paul Jouffreau, who made a surprising switch to RDV after he signed a new two-year contract with Franck Violas’ team.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.