Reigning Club Challenge champion Gordon Barnes goes back on top of the division’s standings after he brought home maximum points on his victory at Vallelunga.
After an oil leak in his gearbox hampered Gordon Barnes in the season opening round at Valencia, the reigning two-time EuroNASCAR Club Challenge champion bounced back in the best way possible on the opening day of NASCAR GP Italy at Autodromo Vallelunga.
The driver of the No. 46 Marko Stipp Motorsport Chevrolet had a trouble-free round and won the second round of the 2023 season, bringing home maximum points after he finished first in both sessions. He also received bonus points for choosing the faster reference time, which gives three bonus points to the drivers that selected it.
“It’s great to be back on the top spot of the podium,” said Barnes post-race. “We made points back on the problems we had in Spain. It was great to bounce back and I really love this track here in Italy.”
“It’s the second consecutive time we won here, that’s absolutely brilliant. We did a great job today and only had minor technical issues, but that was nothing that stopped us!”
Barnes finished ahead of Double V Racing’s Viktor Schiffer, who scored his first podium finish in the regularity-based division. The results gave Double V something to celebrate after a tough first two rounds.
The team suffered three engine failures at Valencia, which Schiffer experienced one of them during his Club Challenge outing in Spain, before their original car was destroyed in Patrick Schober’s incident with Jack Davidson at Brands Hatch. Double V had to work hard to find a backup car that they had to prepare in three weeks, but their hard work has paid dividends.
The three bonus points were also crucial to Schiffer as the drivers that finished behind him, SpeedHouse’s Florian Richard and Alain Mosqueron, finished with the same points as Schiffer after the sessions were completed. Neither Richard and Mosqueron chose the faster reference time however, which allowed Schiffer to steal second place from the SpeedHouse drivers.
In the end, it was Richard who grabbed the final podium position because he had the better finishing position in the Club Challenge sessions: A second in the final session, while Mosqueron’s best was a third place in the first session.
Federico Monti finished fifth ahead of Loris Cencetti, who made his maiden EuroNASCAR appearance at Vallelunga onboard Racingfuel Motorsport’s No. 94 Chevrolet Camaro. Cencetti’s Club Challenge outing is the first competitive outing for the Italian in five years.
Arianna Casoli, Valerio Marzi and Eduoard Fatio completes the final finishing positions in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively. Anthony Kumpen and Uber Modern Racing’s Hugo Fleury and Olivier Bec also took part in the session, but they were ineligible to score points as they entered under the extra practice provisions.
With championship leader Victor Neumann not participating at Vallelunga, the maximum results that Barnes achieved was enough to put him back on top of the standings with 148 points. Both Monti and Mosqueron were able to retain second and third, now with a deficit of 8 and 11 points from the Marko Stipp Motorsport driver.
Florian Richard sits fourth with 136 points while Schiffer’s podium allowed the Austrian to move up to fifth and close down his deficit to Richard. Casoli, Fatio, Neumann, Cencetti and Yann Schar closed out the top-10 positions in the standings.
SESSION 1 RESULTS | SESSION 2 RESULTS
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