Gianmarco Ercoli continued his pole streak in EuroNASCAR PRO while Paul Jouffreau finally grabs his first career Pole Position award in Vallelunga after an impressive opening day for the Frenchman.
Celebrations and jubilations were the theme for the Qualifying sessions of American Festival of Rome at Autodromo Vallelunga. Gianmarco Ercoli continued his pole position streak in EuroNASCAR PRO with his fourth pole of the year, but the celebrations were reserved for Paul Jouffreau after he finally grabbed the first pole position of his career.
The results followed on what had transpired on Friday, which saw Ercoli and Alberto Naska become the fastest in the combined Practice times of their division. The recap of Friday’s activity and the Qualifying session for both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 can be checked in the sections below.
Friday Recap
The action on Friday started with the second round of the 2023 EuroNASCAR Club Challenge season. Reigning Club Challenge champion Gordon Barnes came up on top after he swept both sessions and grabbed maximum points from Vallelunga. Coverage for Club Challenge is covered in the article linked here.
The day continued in the afternoon with the first Free Practice for drivers in EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 before they took to the track again in the evening. In the end, Gianmarco Ercoli and Alberto Naska rose to the top after they topped the combined timesheets in their respective division.
Ercoli, fresh from winning both races at Brands Hatch and taking over the lead in the ENPRO championship, continued his strong form as his best lap time of 1:41.334 from FP2 was enough to put him on top. He finished ahead of Vittorio Ghirelli, who finished the day just 0.064 seconds slower than the CAAL Racing driver.
One driver that truly shined on Friday is top Junior Trophy driver Paul Jouffreau, who set the third best time in his first outing as an EuroNASCAR PRO driver. Jouffreau was chosen by series legend Frédéric Gabillon as his replacement in RDV Competition and the results showed that he’s more than ready to compete against the best drivers in European stock car racing.
Anthony Kumpen and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, who finished on the rostrum together with Ercoli at Brands Hatch, remained in close proximity to each other with their top-5 finish in the combined times. They were followed by Tobias Dauenhauer and Giorgio Maggi, who completed the Junior Trophy podium in sixth and seventh respectively.
Martin Doubek and Liam Hezemans were only eighth and ninth after a tough day for the Hendriks teammates in the office. Ulysse Delsaux completed the top-10 positions ahead of top championship contenders Marc Goossens and Lucas Lasserre. They were all ahead of Riccardo Romagnoli, who is the best of the Challenger Trophy drivers in 13th place.
Tuomas Pöntinen was 14th overall in his first race since last year’s finale at Rijeka. He was eight positions ahead of Cesare Balistreri, who was 22nd on his first ENPRO outing in eight years while debutant Hugo Fleury was 26th onboard the No. 75 Uber Modern Racing Chevrolet.
ENPRO FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS | ENPRO FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
The good day for CAAL Racing continued in the EuroNASCAR 2 Practice sessions because Alberto Naska who topped the timesheets with a time of 1:41.350. Naska is hoping that the support of both the tifosi and his content creation fans would give him the boost he needed to grab his first win of the season.
Tziortzis starts off his quest for six wins out of six with a second place finish in Practice. The Cypriot driver was 0.212 seconds slower than Naska, but he was half a second ahead of Paul Jouffreau. Jouffreau repeated his ENPRO feat by getting third place in the combined EN2 Practice timesheets.
Gil Linster once again ends up as the best of the rest in fourth position. He was ahead of Claudio Remigio Cappelli, who topped the Legend Trophy ranks in fifth place. Cappelli was sandwiched by another Hendriks driver as Martin Doubek ended his day in sixth despite not taking part in the final Practice session.
Melvin de Groot was seventh ahead of Scotsman Jack Davidson, who was the best driver in the Rookie Trophy sub-classification. Patrick Schober, racing in a backup chassis for this weekend, was ninth with Riccardo Romagnoli completing the top-10 positions.
A strong performance was delivered by Double T Racing’s Cesare Balistreri, who was 12th in his first outing as an EN2 driver. Valerio Marzi was 21st on Practice after he took part in the Club Challenge session to gain extra track time. The two debuting Olivier’s, Panasport’s Panagiotis and Uber Modern’s Bec, ended their day in 23rd and 24th place respectively.
EN2 FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS | EN2 FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
Qualifying Recap
The Qualifying session for the EuroNASCAR PRO drivers began at 10:00 AM local time with 28 drivers participating in the 10-minute session to determine the ten drivers that will advance to the all-important Superpole session.
With the temperature soaring to extreme levels at Vallelunga, conserving the tires is going to be a key factor and that’s exactly what Liam Hezemans was able to do. The Hendriks session went quickest with a time of 1:40.540 and was able to save some life for his tires by needing only four laps to set his fastest lap time.
Vittorio Ghirelli and Tobias Dauenhauer advanced with a top-3 finish and they too were able to conserve their tires by needing just three flying laps to set their times. Paul Jouffreau and Giorgio Maggi completed the top-5 positions, but they put extra strain on their tires by doing seven flying laps.
Championship leader Gianmarco Ercoli was only sixth with a gap of almost eight tenths of a second to Liam, but he was able to conserve his tires for the race. Vladimiros Tziortzis, Lucas Lasserre, Ulysse Delsaux and Anthony Kumpen complete the top-10, with the latter advancing despite suffering from head gasket problems.
Marc Goossens missed out on the Superpole with an 11th place finish, while Néo Lambert made a huge impression by finishing 12th. No Challenger Trophy driver advanced to the Superpole, leaving Riccardo Romagnoli as the best driver of the sub-classification in 13th on the grid.
Finishing behind Romagnoli is Tuomas Pöntinen, who remained consistent on his first outing in EuroNASCAR’s top class. Double T’s Cesare Balistreri was 23rd while Uber Modern’s Hugo Fleury finished the session in 24th position. Rally raid specialist Yannick Panagiotis was 26th on his second competitive outing in the EuroNASCAR stock cars.
A driver with a Qualifying to forget is Racingfuel Motorsport’s Alina Loibnegger, who had to end her session early due to carburetor issues. She ended up 27th on the grid, only beating Dario Caso because he did not set a lap time.
The Superpole session started with drama because Tobias Dauenhauer was mistakenly released too early by Bremotion, which put him ahead of Vittorio Ghirelli in the queue of drivers. Ghirelli was forced to overtake Dauenhauer in the pits and their actions would lead to both drivers receiving a reprimand by the stewards.
After five intense minutes, Pole Position for the fifth race of the 2023 season ultimately went to home crowd’s favorite Gianmarco Ercoli. Ercoli, who was released sixth in the line, was able to set a lap time of 1:40.543 that was quick enough for his fourth pole position of the year.
“I’m very happy with the pole position at my home track as it’s very important to take the pole here,” said Ercoli. “The team yesterday did a good job to set up the car for Qualifying. It’s going to be a difficult race because of the temperatures, but we will be ready for it!”
“The atmosphere here in Vallelunga is incredible, congratulations to the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series and the Autodromo di Vallelunga for the job and for the event because it’s important to have a lot of fans here.”
The tifosi will have more reasons to be proud of as another home crowd hero Vittorio Ghirelli, who actually started his racing career at Vallelunga, will start from the outside of the front row with a time of 1:40.838. Despite his early issues, Dauenhauer was able to secure third and the top spot of the Junior Trophy ranks.
Paul Jouffreau’s impressive debut continued after he beat Liam Hezemans for fourth position. Liam struggled to find pace and was six tenths slower than his Qualifying time. He will be accompanied by Vladimiros Tziortzis, who finished the Superpole in sixth ahead of Delsaux, Lasserre, Maggi and Kumpen.
The Qualifying session for EuroNASCAR 2 began at 10:40 AM local time with 26 drivers taking part in the fight for pole position. After 20 minutes, the top spot in Qualifying belongs to Paul Jouffreau as the 19-year old Frenchman finally scored his first pole position in EuroNASCAR’s junior division.
Jouffreau had been denied from pole position at Brands Hatch after he was penalized for impeding Gil Linster, a mistake that he admitted to be his own fault. Today, Jouffreau made no such mistake and mastered the 4.095 kilometer long circuit to put the No. 3 Cartolux Ford on front with a best lap time of 1:40.998.
“I’m really happy, but I’m exhausted because I jumped out of the EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying to do the EuroNASCAR 2 Qualifying,” said Jouffreau after the session. “It’s amazing how much the track changed between the two sessions. The car wasn’t the same at all! The track gained a lot more temperature so we couldn’t take the turns like we did in EuroNASCAR PRO.”
Alberto Naska tried his best to match Jouffreau’s time, but he ultimately came short as he had to contend with a front row start. Qualifying third is Vladimiros Tziortzis, who did a total 11 flying laps, which was the most alongside rookies Nick Schneider and Olivier Panagiotis.
Gil Linster once again is in fourth position, which seems to be his favorite place to be during the race weekends so far. Patrick Schober completes the top-5 ahead of former EN2 champion Martin Doubek, while Claudio Remigio Cappelli took seventh as the best driver in Legend Trophy.
Cappelli’s teammate Thomas Toffel brought home the other yellow machine to eighth despite making several mistakes that are caught on the broadcast. Thomas Dombrowski, who withdrew his entry in EuroNASCAR PRO, was ninth while Melvin de Groot completed the top-10 qualifiers for the Saturday race.
Nick Strickler lost several minutes of track time because of the aforementioned carburetor issue on the No. 94 Racingfuel Camaro, but he was able to complete a trouble-free Qualifying. The same can’t be said for Michael Bleekemolen and Jack Davidson however, as they were stopped after just three and two laps respectively.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.