Vittorio Ghirelli ended his winless streak with a victory at Autodromo Vallelunga, but EuroNASCAR PRO championship leader Gianmarco Ercoli was able to extend his lead with a win of his own.
Two Italian drivers came out on top at American Festival of Rome after two highly memorable, yet attritional EuroNASCAR PRO races in Autodromo Vallelunga.
Both Gianmarco Ercoli and Vittorio Ghirelli kept their heads cool in the hot conditions to grab a race win each, allowing Ercoli to extend his championship lead and Ghirelli to end a nearly two year long winless streak in EuroNASCAR’s top class. The recap of the races can be checked in the sections below.
Race 1 Recap
Twenty-eight drivers, led by pole sitter Gianmarco Ercoli, took the start of the first EuroNASCAR PRO race at 2:15 PM local time. It didn’t take long for chaos to ensue as a number of drivers such as Thomas Toffel and Max Lanza collided at Turn 8, creating a debris field that the leaders had to get through on lap 2.
Ercoli was able to open up his lead gap to one second when the Safety Car was called at the start of lap 5 due to a crash involving Stefano Attianese. Attianese, who was also involved in the first lap incident, ran off the track in the final corner and then spun the No. 27 Double V Racing Ford to the inside wall.
After four laps behind the Lamborghini Urus to retrieve Attianese’s stricken machine, the race got underway again with Ercoli retaining his lead. It was a lead that the Roman native would not relinquish as he survived a late challenge by Vittorio Ghirelli to score his third win of the 2023 season.
“I’m very happy as we had a fantastic race!” said “Gimmy Jet” in the Victory Lane. “It isn’t simple to be in the lead of the race with this temperature and I had to drive the car as perfectly as I could. Tomorrow I’ll start in third, but I’m happy for all of the fans because this place is incredible!”
Despite challenging Ercoli for the race lead, Ghirelli would lose several positions towards the end of the race. The No. 72 infitto.eu Toyota Camry experienced a snap oversteer at Cimini on lap 15, which opened the space for Liam Hezemans and Paul Jouffreau to get past the Team Bleekemolen driver towards the end of the race.
Liam and Jouffreau swapped positions on the penultimate lap after Jouffreau bumped the reigning EuroNASCAR 2 champion at the Tornantino hairpin. Jouffreau would finish second on the line with Liam third, but a post-race penalty for the bump and run meant that Liam took second place in the final results.
Despite the penalty, it was still an excellent first race for Jouffreau as he became the thirteenth driver in history to score a podium finish on his debut in EuroNASCAR PRO. Lucas Lasserre kept his car clean and went on to finish fourth after he found a way past Ghirelli in the final laps of the race.
Tobias Dauenhauer was sixth on the line, but he was demoted to tenth for bumping and running Vladimiros Tziortzis at turn 8 on lap 10. The penalty meant that Ulysse Delsaux grabbed sixth with Tziortzis seventh, closing out the Junior Trophy top-3 that was won by Jouffreau.
Marc Goosens and Tuomas Pöntinen also leapfrogged the Bremotion driver, allowing them to take eighth and ninth respectively. They beat top contenders Martin Doubek, Anthony Kumpen and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, who all had a tough race and finished outside of the top-10.
Topping the Challenger Trophy finishers is Fabrizio Armetta in 14th place, who continued his win streak in the sub-classification for Grade C drivers in EuroNASCAR PRO.
He was followed by Simone Laureti and Alina Loibnegger, who both took their first Challenger Trophy podium finishes of the year in 16th and 17th respectively. Loibnegger also secured the bonus points for most positions gained.
The race itself proved to be a race of attrition as a total of nine drivers were eliminated. Toffel’s crash damage was the first to retire as the damage suffered from his first lap crash proved to be too significant. He was followed by Advait Deodhar, whose car died in the middle of sector 2 on lap 2.
Attianese was the next to go followed by Max Lanza, who also had significant crash damage. Dario Caso had numerous visits to the pits and eventually retired after completing just 8 laps. Hugo Fleury completed 11 laps before mechanical issues struck the Uber Modern Racing driver.
Giorgio Maggi once again had a race to forget as mechanical issues resulted in the Swiss driver slipping down the order. He eventually chose to park his car in the pits just as Ercoli got onto the final corner on the last lap of the race.
The last lap also saw an incident that led to the race’s last two retirements. Riccardo Romagnoli swerved into the path of Cesare Balistreri as they raced into Campagnano corner, resulting in a high speed incident that took both drivers out. Romagnoli was deemed to be at fault and was penalized with a last place starting position for Race 2.
Race 2 Recap
After some delays caused by an incident-filled race in the EuroNASCAR 2 class (something that we will cover tomorrow), the Sunday EuroNASCAR PRO race got underway at 2:40 PM local time with Paul Jouffreau leading the field on just his second start in EuroNASCAR’s top class.
The aforementioned EN2 race took its toll on the competitors because 25% of the ENPRO field, or seven drivers – yes, seven – failed to even make the start. The major cause of the staggering amount of non-starters is the fact that there’s a Big One in the EN2 race that took out six drivers on the spot.
Out of the six, five cars were too damaged to continue: Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Néo Lambert, Advait Deodhar, Thomas Toffel, and Riccardo Romagnoli. Only Cesare Balistreri, who was also involved in the Big One in the No. 38 Double T Racing Camaro, was able to have his car fixed in time for the ENPRO race.
Alina Loibnegger is also a non-starter from an incident in EN2 race, although her case was different as it was caused by an incident involving her teammate Nick Strickler and Valerio Marzi. Stefano Attianese was the only non-starter that had his car stayed intact because his DNS was caused by a terminal mechanical issue.
Despite the absences, the action provided by the starting 21 drivers continues to entertain the fans. Jouffreau found himself in the middle of the pack as they entered Curva Grande for the first time and got himself squeezed to third place with Vittorio Ghirelli and Gianmarco Ercoli finding a way past the Frenchman.
Ghirelli, Ercoli, and Jouffreau maintained a close battle that lasted for six laps before the Full Course Yellow was called to retrieve the stricken car of Fabrizio Armetta, who was knocked out of the race after Dario Caso intentionally crashed into him as a retaliation of a first lap incident involving the two of them. Caso, unsurprisingly, was disqualified as a result of his antics.
Once the FCY was rescinded on the following lap, Ercoli made a bad getaway and found himself getting overtaken by Jouffreau. Ercoli eventually found a way past the RDV driver, but the FCY mishap gave Ghirelli the winning edge as he was able to keep his lead for the rest of the race.
Ghirelli won the race with a winning margin of 0.646 seconds to Ercoli, who ran out of laps to catch his fellow countryman. It was the Fasano driver’s second win in EuroNASCAR PRO, ending a winless streak that had started nearly two years ago.
“It was a fantastic race!” said Ghirelli in Victory Lane. “I managed to get first position on the outside of turn two, which was a bit on the edge. Then I kept the pace up and I controlled the #54 as I knew he was very fast.”
“This victory is for him [Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Team Bleekemolen’s team manager], he’s giving me a fantastic car and we’re all doing a great job! I think the win was fully deserved and in the last few laps I was just controlling the tires and not trying to make mistakes.”
Jouffreau crossed the line in third, but he once again had a penalty handed to him post-race. In the opening lap, Jouffreau had pushed Lucas Lasserre to the gravel at Cimini and the butterfly effect of it resulted in Liam Hezemans going off-course to avoid the rejoining Lasserre.
A 10-second time penalty for the 19-year old driver would demote him out of the final podium position, which ultimately went to Lasserre. Lasserre fended off the challenge from Vladimiros Tziortzis, who was handed the victory in Junior Trophy as a result of Jouffreau’s penalty.
Jouffreau was far enough ahead of the other drivers to be classified in fifth place. Anthony Kumpen was sixth after he held off the pressure from Ulysse Delsaux. Delsaux’s seventh place finish is still enough to give the former EuroNASCAR 2 champion the overall lead in the Junior Trophy sub-classification.
Tuomas Pöntinen continues his equally impressive debut weekend with an eighth place finish onboard the No. 48 GTOmega Chevrolet. Marc Goossens took the checkered flag in ninth, successfully retaining his position from Tobias Dauenhauer and Martin Doubek in the final few laps.
Max Lanza survived the race as the best in the Challenger Trophy, finishing 13th and taking home the bonus points for most positions gained. The attrition rate was such that only three Challenger Trophy eligible drivers finished the race: Lanza, Simone Laureti in 14th and Yannick Panagiotis in 15th position.
Liam Hezemans eventually finished 16th after making an unscheduled stop. The Dutchman was the last driver to be classified as a finisher as five more drivers – including the aforementioned Caso and Armetta – failed to see the checkered flag, bringing the total number of non-finishers to twelve.
Mechanical problems once again struck Hugo Fleury, who parked his car in the pits just as Ghirelli took the checkered flag. Giorgio Maggi’s horrendous season continued after being forced to retire after completing 11 laps. Balistreri also ended up in the retirement list, parking his car after seven laps.
Gianmarco Ercoli will be extending his lead in the championship to 12 points thanks to the victory that he scored at Vallelunga. Lucas Lasserre’s podium kept him at bay, but Anthony Kumpen’s issues meant that he is now 25 points adrift from the CAAL Racing driver.
Vittorio Ghirelli’s win meant that he now sits in fourth place in the standings, 28 points behind Ercoli. Marc Goossens dropped down to fifth while Ulysse Delsaux moved up from ninth to sixth. Delsaux leads the Junior Trophy by five points from Vladimiros Tziortzis, who is seventh with 165 points to his credit.
Martin Doubek, Liam Hezemans and Thomas Krasonis complete the top-10 with 164, 158 and 148 points respectively. Giorgio Maggi’s problems meant that he’s now only joint eleventh with Challenger Trophy leader Fabrizio Armetta, both being four points adrift from the top-10 positions in the standings.
Armetta holds a healthy lead in the Challenger Trophy standings as he was nearly 40 points ahead of the drivers that are joint second in the sub-classification ranks: Riccardo Romagnoli and Max Lanza, both having scored 105 points.
Romagnoli and Lanza are now one point ahead of Advait Deodhar with Alina Loibnegger maintaining fifth position in the Trophy – and 20th place overall – with 98 points. Paul Jouffreau is classified in 25th position with 66 points while Tuomas Pöntinen gets 26th place with 57 points.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.
Last Updated: 11 July 2023