Team Bleekemolen took their “well deserved” first victories of the 2023 season courtesy of Vittorio Ghirelli’s overall victory and Michael Bleekemolen’s Legend Trophy win.
Team Bleekemolen was able to leave the American Festival of Rome with plenty of smiles after an excellent weekend at Autodromo Vallelunga. Despite problems for the No. 69 team of Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Melvin de Groot, the No. 72 team of Vittorio Ghirelli and Michael Bleekemolen was able to score their first wins of the season.
The team’s performance in Italy was headlined by Vittorio Ghirelli’s stunning victory in the Sunday EuroNASCAR PRO race. Team manager Sebastiaan Bleekemolen praises the performance of the 29-year old Italian, who drove beautifully to grab Team Bleekemolen’s second overall victory in EuroNASCAR.
“Vittorio drove fantastically and went for the victory in his own country,” said Sebastiaan on Team Bleekemolen’s post-race release. “In the first race he made another mistake, but in the second race he took a well deserved victory.”
Michael Bleekemolen also scored his first win of the year, albeit not on the overall classification. Instead, the 73-year old driver took home a victory in Legend Trophy after he survived the Big One that happened in the Sunday EuroNASCAR 2 race.
“It was a reasonable weekend,” said Michael. “I had a broken driveshaft after two laps in Qualifying, so I had to start at the back. In the first race I moved up to P13 and in the second race I finished ninth. With that I was first among the Legends. A nice podium in a nice weekend, but it was a shame that Melvin got into that crash.”
The Big One did affect the No. 69 team greatly however, as Melvin de Groot was one of the eight drivers that were involved in the incident. Despite finishing seventh in the first EN2 race, de Groot had to start from the back on Sunday because his car suffered a puncture on the pre-race grid formation.
This later led to the No. 69 car’s involvement in the Big One as de Groot couldn’t avoid the cars that were wrecking ahead of him. The damage suffered by the No. 69 Race Planet Ford Mustang was sufficient enough to force Sebastiaan, who finished 13th on Saturday, to not take the start for his Sunday race.
“We were hoping we would still be allowed to change the tire, but we were just too late,” explains Sebastiaan on how Melvin got involved in the Big One. “Melvin had to start from the pits and join the back. That’s how he got into that starting crash, he couldn’t avoid those cars.”
“The chassis was torn at several points and that was a big shame because I couldn’t start in the EuroNASCAR PRO. My dad drove around that crash fantastically via the grass and became the first Legend.”
Sebastiaan admits that it’s frustrating that one half of the Team Bleekemolen squad suffered problems after problems at Vallelunga, but Ghirelli’s victory allowed the team to look forward to the next round at Autodrom Most – a round that Sebastiaan won in 2022 – with plenty of optimism.
“It was a weekend with two faces,” sums up Sebastiaan. “The #72 car went well all weekend and the #69 had a lot of bad luck all weekend. It was a sum of all kinds of details, which made it a frustrating weekend for me. We thought we had the car all set, but we weren’t able to fix those issues in time.”
“This weekend offers a lot of perspective for the weekend in Most. Last year I won there and previously I was also on the podium there. Our cars are going to be on fire at Most. Because of the cooperation with Vittorio and Melvin, I expect that we will have a super weekend there.”
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