Tuomas Pöntinen impressed on his return to the sport after he scored a double top-10 finish and beat some of the best drivers in EuroNASCAR PRO at Vallelunga.
Tuomas Pöntinen is back in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series for the American Festival of Rome at the Autodromo Vallelunga. The talented Finnish driver got a shot to compete in EuroNASCAR PRO with Marko Stipp Motorsport after he managed to secure a last-minute deal with the German team just before the weekend in Italy.
Pöntinen, who finished sixth in the 2022 EuroNASCAR 2 championship with two podiums to his name, turned his first laps in the top class on the Friday Practice sessions. Friday was used by Pöntinen to familiarize himself with both the heatwave and the EuroNASCAR stock cars, which he hadn’t driven since pre-season.
“It’s ridiculously hot, my shoes are melting into the floor, but it’s fun,” comments Pöntinen, who finished 14th in the combined timesheets, on his race weekend debrief.
Saturday’s action began with Qualifying and after a challenging 10-minute session, another 14th place finish is the maximum that Pöntinen can achieve. Despite this, he was pleased to learn that he had the potential to make it to the top-10 positions.
“No lap was perfect, either I made a mistake myself or I got stuck in traffic,” said Pöntinen on his Qualifying performance. “We used used tires during practice, and it always takes time to find the limits with new tires.”
“Overall, I’m quite happy with this because the time difference to the top isn’t that significant and with a small improvement, I could have easily been in the top ten.”
The first race validates the top-10 potential of the No. 48 GTOmega Chevrolet. Pöntinen’s pace was solid and he was able to overtake top championship drivers such as Anthony Kumpen and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen to finish in ninth position, just 0.123 seconds away from Marc Goossens.
It wasn’t a trouble-free race for the 23-year old driver though, as he revealed that the heat caused issues that he hadn’t expected.
“It’s incredibly hot here and the fiberglass [body panels] started to smell,” reveals Pöntinen. “Also tears were streaming from my eyes, but it wasn’t a significant problem. There was great competition and some good overtakes, proper racing.”
For Sunday, Pöntinen was fortunate that teammate Jack Davidson survived the carnage from the EuroNASCAR 2 race, allowing him to start the EuroNASCAR PRO race that had a record high seven non-starters.
Starting from 11th, Pöntinen once again had top-10 pace and made an amazing overtake around the outside of Goossens with two laps to go to take the checkered flag in eighth place, 29.582 seconds behind race winner Vittorio Ghirelli.
His debut performance at Vallelunga is perhaps overshadowed by Paul Jouffreau’s own debut performance, but a double top-10 finish and being able to finish ahead of legendary names such as Anthony Kumpen and Marc Goossens proves that Pöntinen is ready to compete against the best in EuroNASCAR PRO.
“It was another good race and the car was great throughout the whole race,” said Pöntinen. “The grip was consistent, and the tires held up until the end. Thanks to Marko Stipp Motorsport and all the partners for the weekend. It feels amazing to be back!”
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