World of EuroNASCAR’s second Race Preview for the American Festival of Rome takes a look at what we can expect from the best drivers of EuroNASCAR PRO in Autodromo Vallelunga.
NASCAR Whelen Euro Series is back in action this weekend for the third round of the 2023 season, the NASCAR GP Italy – American Festival of Rome at Autodromo Vallelunga.
The fast and fearsome 4.085 kilometer long track in Campagnano di Roma has wowed the hearts of the passionate Italian tifosi during the previous three editions of NASCAR GP Italy and this year is shaping up to be no different as 30 teams and 54 drivers across all three classes are set to take part in the last round before the summer break.
This NASCAR GP Italy Preview article is the second of a three-part series, in which we will be focused on the preview for the EuroNASCAR PRO races. Part 1 was focused on the Entry List changes while Part 3, which is scheduled to be released tomorrow, will be focused on our preview for the EuroNASCAR 2 division.
After completing the sweep and becoming the new “king” of Brands Hatch, Gianmarco Ercoli enters his home round at Vallelunga as the new championship leader in EuroNASCAR’s top division. Ercoli will have the backing of the Italian tifosi behind him, something that we consider to be a huge blessing for the CAAL Racing driver.
As a Rome-born driver, Vallelunga is easily the track that Ercoli would call “home” and it showed both on- and off-track. Not only will Ercoli get to enjoy the support of the incredibly passionate fans, the statistics have proven that Vallelunga is his strongest track on the calendar.
Ercoli has scored two wins and five podiums in the previous six races, with only a retirement caused by striking a loose debris in last year’s Saturday race preventing him from having a 100% podium record. The pressure is going to be high for Ercoli, but it is certain that he will be the driver to beat for NASCAR GP Italy.
One driver that could rival Ercoli this weekend is SpeedHouse’s owner-driver Lucas Lasserre. Lasserre might have been dethroned from the championship lead, but the former champion in the pre-NASCAR era of EuroNASCAR is the master of consistency and will always be there to pounce when his rivals encounter issues.
Vallelunga is also a track that has been kind for the 45-year old Frenchman, with two podiums and two fourth-place finishes in his previous four starts. Maintaining the top-5 streak is going to be the key to give him better odds for the elusive first title in the NASCAR era.
Anthony Kumpen and Marc Goossens entered Vallelunga in third and fourth place on the standings after achieving strong results at Brands Hatch, but both will have plenty of adversity to overcome.
In Kumpen’s case, he never raced at Vallelunga with the EuroNASCAR cars before. The weekend in Italy will be a huge learning curve for the PK Carsport driver and he plans to address this by entering the regularity-based Club Challenge division to get extra practice time onboard the No. 24 Heinz Performance Camaro.
As for “The Goose”, his adversity came from his finishing record. Goossens has an average finishing position of 19.25 from his previous four starts at the track, which statistically made Vallelunga the weakest track for the 53-year old driver.
Admittedly the low finishing position average comes from the fact that he had two DNF’s on those four starts, but simply finishing both races in the top-10 would be a huge win for Goossens. That being said, the old fox is surely going to aim for better than that.
For another home crowd favorite in Team Bleekemolen’s Vittorio Ghirelli, he will have to avoid the bad luck that he suffered in the previous rounds. Two finishes outside of the top-10 isn’t the end of the world, but it does put him at a risk when the “joker” rounds come into play at Zolder.
Ghirelli cannot afford other problems, otherwise one of those finishes will be locked towards his points tally for the season. Not helping matters is that in Ghirelli’s past Vallelunga outings, it resulted in a total of two podiums and two finishes outside of the top-15. The support of the tifosi should motivate the Italian to get the results he needed.
Ghirelli will not be alone in the predicament that he will face at Vallelunga. For instance, Hendriks Motorsport’s Martin Doubek has one finish outside of the top-10 and one DNF while Giorgio Maggi has yet to score a top-5 finish. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen also has one DNF that he would like to get rid of later in the season.
Liam Hezemans had an even bigger problem to face as he already had two DNF’s to his name. Liam has proved that he had the pace to match and even beat Ercoli, but the DNF’s from a late collision with Ercoli at Valencia and a broken power steering in Brands Hatch has left his title hopes in jeopardy.
Liam knows first-hand that getting rid of the DNF’s with the “joker” round rules is the key to winning the title, as getting rid of his DNF at Most helped him win the EuroNASCAR 2 title in 2022. Thus, strong finishes is not just a goal for Liam. It is a must if he wants to keep his title chances alive in the second half of the season.
In the battle of the Trophy winners, the Junior Trophy battle headlines the weekend as five drivers are separated by just ten points in the sub-classification for drivers aged 25 and under at the start of the year.
Giorgio Maggi maintains his lead despite a tough round at Brands Hatch, but he knew that Ulysse Delsaux, Liam Hezemans, Vladimiros Tziortzis and Thomas Krasonis will be hot on his tails as all four of them are within ten points of the Race Art Technology driver.
A new addition in the Junior Trophy comes in the form of Paul Jouffreau, who will be making his EuroNASCAR PRO debut this weekend. Jouffreau has been entrusted by series legend Frédéric Gabillon to replace him in the No. 3 RDV Competition Ford and while getting on-track experience will be his main goal, it wouldn’t hurt if he can play spoiler in the Junior Trophy battle at Vallelunga.
Tobias Dauenhauer would also want to stake his claim after his return to the championship at Brands Hatch. As for Néo Lambert and Thomas Dombrowski, they will continue to lurk in the shadows as they wait for the right opportunity to strike and get their first Junior Trophy podiums of the year.
For the Challenger Trophy, it will be an Italian driver who will lead the charge in the sub-classification for Grade C drivers in EuroNASCAR PRO. After scoring an impressive double top-10 finish at Brands Hatch, The Club Motorsport’s Fabrizio Armetta is undoubtedly the favorite to win the Trophy on his home race.
He holds a healthy 17-point advantage to Academy Motorsport’s Advait Deodhar, who experienced a setback in the UK due to a collision with Max Lanza. Five more points separated Deodhar with Armetta’s teammate Riccardo Romagnoli, who is still chasing his first double round finish of the year.
Series rookies Thomas Toffel and Alina Loibnegger will be working hard to improve on the results that they have achieved, while Lanza will be continuing his chase for his first Challenger Trophy win of the year with a new chassis to replace the car that was damaged in the rollover at Brands Hatch.
In addition, there will be two new drivers vying for the top spots of the sub-classification: Debutant Hugo Fleury for Uber Modern Racing and Cesare Balistreri, who is making his first EuroNASCAR race in eight years with Double T Racing.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.
Last Updated: 6 July 2023