Academy Motorsport is happy with what they had achieved at Brands Hatch despite a tough start to their weekend in the UK, with team co-owner Federico Monti noting that the results are “very rewarding for us.”
Despite a tough start to the second round of the 2023 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season for Academy Motorsport, the Italian team was left pleased with the results that the team had achieved at Brands Hatch.
Academy Motorsport once again swept the EuroNASCAR 2 races with Vladimiros Tziortzis, who continued his perfect record in EuroNASCAR’s junior class after he swept the season opening round at Valencia. Advait Deodhar also brought home a podium finish in the Challenger Trophy, giving the London-based Indian driver important points in the sub-classification.
Tziortzis didn’t have the best of starts on Saturday though, with mechanical issues forcing Tziortzis to retire midway through the EN2 Qualifying session. The mechanical issues continued in the EuroNASCAR PRO race as he lost his throttle input after just one corner and had to retire before he completed one lap.
“It was a disappointing morning after all the misadventures we had, but this victory pays it all off. Thank you so much to the team that worked hard to deliver me a perfect car,” said Tziortzis on the Saturday events, as quoted on Academy’s post-race official release.
He made up Saturday’s disappointments with a double victory in the EuroNASCAR 2 races, ensuring that he will be the championship leader in the junior division ahead of the team’s home race at Vallelunga next month.
“I’m happy!” said Tziortzis on his Sunday performance. “I wanted to win this race as well after yesterday’s troubles. I managed it on a wet track I’m not used to, it’s my second race with rain in my entire EuroNASCAR career. I’m happy for myself and for the whole team who worked hard so that this could be successful.”
Deodhar also experienced an up-and-down weekend at Brands Hatch. His Saturday race was ended early after contact with Max Lanza and the team had to do an overnight repair to ensure that he made the start for the Sunday race.
His DNF meant that he lost the lead in the Challenger Trophy to The Club Motorsport’s Fabrizio Armetta, but the Challenger podium on Sunday allowed the 33-year old driver to minimize his deficit from Armetta in the standings.
“Unfortunately the car was not 100% because of the blow suffered yesterday by a rival, so I could not push to the maximum and I’m sorry to my fans because I wanted a good result in the home race. However, I thanked the team who rebuilt the car overnight. Now we think about the next round in Vallelunga,” comments Deodhar in the press release.
Deodhar was joined by Max Mason in the No. 1 Ford Mustang for Brands Hatch. The Aussie, who raced for Racingfuel Motorsport in the season opener at Valencia, gained important experience in wet weather racing and brought home the bonus points for most positions gained on his Sunday race.
“It’s an amazing race because it’s my first time in the wet, the first time here at Brands Hatch and also the first time with Academy Motorsport! I managed to make around 10 overtakes and maybe I will take the extra points, not bad really,” said Mason after his performance in the Sunday race.
Team co-owner Federico Monti, who is on the sidelines for Brands Hatch due to Club Challenge not having a round at the United Kingdom, is happy with the results that the team achieved. He also expressed his gratitude to Max Mason’s presence at Academy Motorsport in the American SpeedFest 10.
“Saturday was a difficult day but we have grown so much,” said Monti. “This is very rewarding for us, maybe we are spoiling ourselves a little bit with these results but they are definitely good for us.”
“Thank you to all the guys and of course to our engineer Bill. I would like to work further to ensure better results for Advait. I’m happy to have met Max and his father Alex, they are fantastic people with whom I had a great feeling with. They immediately appreciated all the work done by the team!”
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