World of EuroNASCAR’s final Race Preview for the American SpeedFest 10 takes a look at what we can expect from the main contenders of the EuroNASCAR 2 division at Brands Hatch.
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series goes to the United Kingdom this week for the second round of the 2023 season, the American SpeedFest 10, Powered by Lucas Oil at the Indy Circuit of West Kingsdown’s Brands Hatch.
The round at Brands Hatch has been featured in all but one season of EuroNASCAR and has proved itself to be the most popular round in the series history. With more than 40,000 fans visiting the previous edition of the SpeedFest, Brands Hatch certainly deserves the honor of being called as the series’ “Crown Jewel” round.
A total of 25 cars and 43 drivers across the two main divisions will be present at the American SpeedFest as the round hosts its special tenth anniversary edition that features the arrival of NASCAR’s Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Le Mans racer.
This SpeedFest Preview article is the final part of our three-part series, with Part 3 focused on the preview for the EuroNASCAR 2 races. Part 1 was focused on all of the changes listed in the Entry List, while Part 2 was focused on our preview for the EuroNASCAR PRO races.
After the events of NASCAR GP Spain at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, one name stands out as the favorite for winning the American SpeedFest 10: EuroNASCAR 2’s championship leader Vladimiros Tziortzis.
The Cypriot driver was extremely dominant in Spain, securing pole position and leading from start to finish in both races to sweep the season opening round. Much like Lucas Lasserre in ENPRO, Tziortzis’ EN2 outing at Valencia was intended to be a one-off, but his success there has led him to reconsider those plans for the time being.
This is potentially bad news for Alberto Naska, his closest championship rival. Naska was poised to be the favorite for the EuroNASCAR 2 title when Liam Hezemans and Tziortzis announced their promotion to EuroNASCAR PRO during the off-season, but Tziortzis’ return had made things trickier for the driver that had just turned 34-years old on 14 June.
That being said, there is one thing that Naska had that others didn’t. Naska is the only driver from the 23-car grid entered in EN2 at Brands Hatch that have won at the venue. With Naska serving as the reigning round winner from Brands Hatch, he would like to retain that honor to give him a boost in his championship hopes.
For Paul Jouffreau, his performance at Valencia is a good step forward. Replacing a former EN2 champion in Ulysse Delsaux at RDV’s No. 3 team isn’t going to be easy, but he proved that he had what it takes to be a top contender in EN2 with the double podium finish that he secured in Spain.
With Jouffreau having only scored a 9th place finish and a DNF in the two SpeedFest races from last year, he’d be looking to improve on those results in 2023. The same can be said to Hendriks’ Gil Linster, who scored two finishes out of the top-10 at Brands Hatch in 2022.
Linster’s first race week at Hendriks was a solid step forward for himself, although there’s still plenty of work to do as he was in ‘no man’s land’ on both races at Valencia. Too far behind from the front and yet too far ahead from the rest, successfully closing the gap to the top three will be the goal to achieve for the Luxembourger driver at Brands Hatch.
That same goal will be what Martin Doubek would like to achieve at the SpeedFest. After a surprisingly poor weekend for the Czech driver in Spain, the former EN2 champion would love to secure some podium finishes in order to boost his chances of becoming EuroNASCAR 2’s first double champion.
Brands Hatch is known for producing some unexpected results and thus, it would be worthwhile to pay your attention to drivers such as Patrick Schober, Claudio Remigio Cappelli, and Rookie Trophy leader Thomas Dombrowski. If the leading drivers hit trouble, then they could be in a shout for a surprise podium finish at EuroNASCAR’s ‘crown jewel’ round.
Other drivers to look forward to are the two home crowd favorites: Jack Davidson and Gordon Barnes. Davidson has shown that he had what it takes to be a top-10 contender in the ever unpredictable EN2 division, but racing at Brands Hatch in the EuroNASCAR stock cars will be a new challenge for the Scotsman.
The same can be said for Barnes, who has yet to race at Brands Hatch in EuroNASCAR. Despite this, Barnes is a two-time champion in the EuroNASCAR Club Challenge division, so he has plenty of experience driving the EuroNASCAR stock cars to use for his first outing in the EN2 class.
A change in Racingfuel Motorsport saw Racingfuel’s regular driver Max Mason being scheduled to race Academy Motorsport’s No. 1 Ford Mustang. This change was originally made due to Matthew Ellis being listed on the provisional Entry List as the EN2 driver of the No. 58 team, but he was subsequently listed to compete in ENPRO instead.
Despite this, Mason continues to be listed as the driver of the No. 1 Ford at Brands Hatch. The Australian driver is hoping for a much better round in both the overall standings and the Rookie Trophy sub-classification, which will have nine drivers eligible for the top honors at Brands Hatch.
The seven Rookie Trophy contenders from Spain will be joined two new drivers: Igor Sicuro, debuting for SpeedHouse’s No. 64 team, and Victor Neumann, the winner of Valencia’s Club Challenge round. Neumann will drive for The Club Motorsport in the No. 55 Dinoil Camaro, making him the first non-Italian driver to race for Fabrizio Armetta’s team.
Lady Trophy will have no competition to speak of as Arianna Casoli once again became the only female driver to enter EN2 in the second round of the 2023 season. She’ll also compete for the Legend Trophy honors at Brands Hatch, which will have nine drivers compete in the sub-classification.
Current Trophy leader Riccardo Romagnoli once again is the favorite for the victory after his performances at Valencia gave him a nine point lead from Roberto Benedetti, who will overtake non-entrants Dario Caso and Kenko Miura in the Trophy standings at the UK.
Cappelli, Michael Bleekemolen, Sven van Laere, Casoli, and Matthias Hauer would have to play catch-up to the 59-year old driver at the SpeedFest. The same goes to Melvin de Groot and Barnes, who entered their first race in EN2 this weekend. With zero points on their tally, getting as many points as possible would be the goal if they want to have a shot at winning the Legend Trophy.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.