Liam Hezemans talks to André Wiegold on his transition from EuroNASCAR 2 to EuroNASCAR PRO and how he was “happy and not happy” with his performance in the first half of the 2023 season.
It is safe to say that Liam Hezemans has experienced an interesting first season as a full-time competitor in EuroNASCAR PRO. Liam ran double duty for most of the 2022 season, but he has chosen to move up to EuroNASCAR’s top division after he clinched the EuroNASCAR 2 title on his debut season.
In an interview with André Wiegold on NASCAR Whelen Euro Series’ official website to talk about Liam’s performance in the 2023 season so far, the Hendriks Motorsport driver revealed that his transition to the top class has gone smoothly.
Liam is mentored by his brother Loris, a former two-time champion in EuroNASCAR PRO. Loris, who currently races in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe with Comtoyou Racing after competing in the NASCAR Cup Series with Team Hezeberg last year, has been present on all rounds so far to assist Roy Hendriks’ team in driver coaching.
“The transition went really well,” said Liam on the full-time transition from EuroNASCAR 2 to EuroNASCAR PRO. We won the first race in Valencia and were fast in the second race until we made contact with Ercoli. The level of competition is a bit higher in EuroNASCAR PRO than in EuroNASCAR 2.”
Liam proved his capability in EuroNASCAR PRO by winning the first race at Valencia, a result that made him the youngest driver to have won a race in EuroNASCAR’s top division. Despite scoring two more podium finishes, Liam has yet to find the consistency and luck that he needs to be a proper championship contender.
For one reason or another, Liam always gets into trouble during the Sunday races. His results on Sunday only gave him two retirements and a 16th place finish, a huge contrast to his podium finishes on Saturday’s. These issues meant that he currently sits ninth in the overall standings, 54 points behind leader Gianmarco Ercoli.
“I’m happy and not happy at the same time about the first half of the season,” admits the 20-year old Dutchman. “We had a lot of ups and downs and if you look at it, we could have scored a lot more points if everything had gone our way.”
“It was always the same. The first race of the weekend went well, then the second race we always had problems like crashes or technical problems. We lacked the necessary luck in the races. In the end it is the little things that make the difference, so there are different areas where I want to improve.”
With EuroNASCAR’s championship format only allowing drivers to drop the worst two results from the first 10 races, Liam knows that he has no more room for error and needs to maximize every result that he can get when the second half of the season gets underway at Autodrom Most next month.
“I already had three bad races and I can only drop two, so there is no room for mistakes anymore,” muses the driver of the No. 50 Toyota Camry. “We want to maximize the results in the upcoming second half of the season and win as many races as possible.”
“I think we are fast enough to visit Victory Lane again. We are trying to make up the points and fight for the title at Circuit Zolder, where double points are on the line. We will do our best to get back in the title hunt for sure.”
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