World of EuroNASCAR’s final Race Preview for the American Festival of Rome takes a look at what we can expect from the EuroNASCAR 2 division 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 last of a three-part series, in which we will be focused on the preview for the EuroNASCAR 2 races. Part 1 was focused on the Entry List changes while Part 2 was focused on our preview for the EuroNASCAR PRO division.
Four races, four wins. That’s the record that Vladimiros Tziortzis has achieved in the first two rounds of the 2023 EuroNASCAR 2 season. The Cypriot driver has proved to be unstoppable in his fourth season in the junior division and it looks as if there’s nothing that can stop him anytime soon.
For this week, there will be an added pressure for Tziortzis as it’s the home round for his team Academy Motorsport. Academy has experienced prior success at Vallelunga with Jacques Villeneuve’s sweep in EuroNASCAR PRO back in 2021, so they are certainly going to be working hard to allow Tziortzis to repeat JV’s feat in the 2023 edition of the American Festival of Rome.
Tziortzis’ chase for six-out-of-six will not be easy as he will enter the home race of his closest championship rival, Alberto Naska. Thousands of Naska’s fans came to Vallelunga to watch his memorable victory last year and they are certainly going to be back this year with the hope of seeing their hero score his first win in the 2023 season.
Naska hasn’t had a terrible season, but being defeated by Tziortzis for four consecutive rounds is not what he had expected either. With the support of his adoring fans and EuroNASCAR PRO championship leader Gianmarco Ercoli as his mentor, Naska must go all out to have a chance to bring home his first win in nearly a year.
Paul Jouffreau enters the round at Vallelunga with his stock at an all-time high. The Frenchman led his first laps on the wet race at Brands Hatch and showed amazing determination and grit to fend off Tziortzis for 24 of the 38 laps contested at the Indy Circuit.
The round at Vallelunga is also going to be the return to the site of Jouffreau’s first podium finish in 2022. The 19-year old Frenchman has added three more podium finishes to his tally since then and would like to score more to maintain his strong stake in the championship battle.
Hendriks Motorsport’s duo Gil Linster and Martin Doubek will have to do more catch-up to the leading trio after Brands Hatch. Doubek scored the team’s first podium finish of the year with a third place on the Saturday race, but the 2023 season has been a setback to the team that had dominated the division for the past three seasons
Vallelunga has been historically a good event for Hendriks, with five of six EN2 race wins at the track having been scored by a Hendriks driver. They would be hoping that the results from Vallelunga can kickstart a renewed run of success to keep their hopes of winning their fourth consecutive EuroNASCAR 2 driver’s title alive.
Another driver with a goal of keeping their hopes alive is Melvin de Groot, who is aiming to score strong results to make up points in the Legend Trophy battle. The Dutchman’s non-participation at Valencia left him with a lot of deficit to overcome, but his performance at Brands Hatch showed why he’s one of the drivers to watch in the EuroNASCAR 2 division.
De Groot’s EuroNASCAR PRO teammate Sebastiaan Bleekemolen noted that he “is going to grab an overall podium soon” and the first opportunity for de Groot to do so will be at Vallelunga. With the support of a rising top team in Team Bleekemolen, de Groot will have every right to be confident with the No. 69 Race Planet Ford Mustang in Italy.
However, De Groot will have to face significant opposition in the Legend Trophy battle at Vallelunga as the two leaders of the Legend Trophy will have their home race this weekend.
Riccardo Romagnoli and Claudio Remigio Cappelli, currently seventh and eighth in the overall standings, have proved themselves to be a regular visitor to the top-10 positions in 2023 and both drivers will be keen to maintain that record to keep their position as the leader of the sub-classification for drivers aged 40 and above.
Sitting above Romagnoli and Cappelli in the overall standings is de Groot’s teammate at Team Bleekemolen, Thomas Dombrowski. The young Frenchman has created a strong resume in the Rookie Trophy with three wins out of four races and will enter the round in Italy with an ace on his sleeves.
Unlike his Rookie Trophy compatriots, Dombrowski had previously raced at Vallelunga thanks to his participation in last year’s Club Challenge event and achieved a top-5 result on his maiden outing. Could this be a good omen for Dombrowski to maintain his position as the leader in the sub-classification for debuting drivers?
That being said, one Rookie Trophy driver to watch for at Vallelunga is Marko Stipp Motorsport’s Jack Davidson. Davidson bounced back from two crashes that necessitated two total rebuilds on his No. 48 GTOmega Chevrolet to win his first Rookie Trophy top spot honors on his home race at Brands Hatch.
The victory allowed Davidson to keep his gap to Dombrowski close in the battle for the top Rookie Trophy driver. There might be 16 points that separated the Scotsman with Dombrowski, but anything can happen in the ever unpredictable EuroNASCAR 2 division.
Both Trophies will see new drivers contest the battle with the addition of several new drivers to the field. In Legend Trophy, Cesare Balistreri and Olivier Bec will be making their first appearance on their debuts in EuroNASCAR’s junior division with Double T Racing and Uber Modern Racing respectively.
As they are both debutants in the EN2 division, they would also be eligible to compete for the top spot in the Rookie Trophy. They will be joined by Panasport’s Olivier Panagiotis and Vict Motorsport’s Valerio Marzi, both of whom are set to make their EuroNASCAR debut this weekend.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.