A double podium finish in EuroNASCAR PRO and Trophy wins in EuroNASCAR 2 has led Team Bleekemolen’s Sebastiaan Bleekemolen to declare that “victory is coming” in the near future.
After a rollercoaster weekend in the season opening round at Valencia, Team Bleekemolen enjoyed a better outing in last week’s American SpeedFest 10, Powered by Lucas Oil, held at the legendary Brands Hatch Indy Circuit.
Vittorio Ghirelli and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen started off Team Bleekemolen’s weekend on a really high note thanks to a 1-2 finish that they achieved in the combined Friday Practice timesheets.
Qualifying didn’t lead to a repeat of the 1-2 performance on Friday, but both drivers still achieved noteworthy feats in the battle for Saturday race’s grid positions. Ghirelli went fastest on the main Qualifying session while Sebastiaan was one of the only two drivers to advance to Superpole from the first group of Qualifying.
Ghirelli translated his Qualifying result into a podium finish in Race 1, finishing second with Sebastiaan completing the top-5 on Saturday. Luck failed Ghirelli in Race 2 as a power steering issue left the Italian down the running order, but Sebastiaan saved the team’s fortunes by finishing in third place to secure a double podium finish for the Dutch team.
“We really showed that we are good as a team,” said Sebastiaan Bleekemolen in the team’s official post-race release. “In one of the toughest classes in Europe, we are continuously in a good position and I had the feeling that there was still more in it this weekend.”
“Ghirelli drove to second place on Saturday and I finished third today. That’s certainly nothing to be ashamed of. In the second race I didn’t really have the speed, but I drove smart and had a good restart.”
“Once you get in front, it’s hard to overtake at Brands Hatch and I did feel comfortable at P3. In that race, Ghirelli had a technical problem when he was second. Otherwise, he would have finished in front again.”
In EuroNASCAR 2, Melvin de Groot returned to the seat of the No. 69 Race Planet Ford Mustang and immediately made a huge impression. He finished fifth on the line in Race 1, but a penalty for overtaking under Full Course Yellow dropped the reigning Legend Trophy winner to 14th place in the final results.
Thankfully, Race 2 brought better results for the 45-year old Dutchman. De Groot topped the Legend Trophy with a fourth place finish and created a stand out moment when he got past Hendriks Motorsport’s Martin Doubek on the grass, a daring maneuver considering that the second EuroNASCAR 2 race was held on wet conditions.
De Groot’s teammates Michael Bleekemolen and Thomas Dombrowski enjoyed a race-long battle for what turned out to be the final position in the top-10. In the end, Michael’s experience gave him the advantage after he pushed Dombrowski into a mistake at Paddock Hill Bend. Michael held his tenth position to the checkered flag, securing his first top-10 finish of the season.
Dombrowski’s eleventh place finish still resulted in a podium in the Rookie Trophy sub-classification. Coupled with a victory in the Rookie Trophy thanks to the seventh place finish that he achieved in Race 1, the results at Brands Hatch allowed the young Frenchman to remain in sixth place on the overall standings.
The strong performances from Team Bleekemolen in both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 at Brands Hatch has led to Sebastiaan Bleekemolen to set the goals high for the next rounds of the 2023 season.
“We are the team to beat and that victory is definitely coming,” exclaims Sebastiaan. “The next race is at Ghirelli’s home track in Italy and then we go to Most where I won last year. We are just good in both classes and Melvin is going to grab an overall podium soon too.”
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