Paul Jouffreau became EuroNASCAR PRO’s youngest race winner after he beat Saturday winner Vittorio Ghirelli in a thrilling battle on mixed conditions at Autodrom Most.
Paul Jouffreau created history in the fourth edition of NASCAR GP Czech Republic at Autodrom Most. The 19-year old driver gambled on the slick tires in the drying conditions on Race 2 and was rewarded with a surprise victory, a feat that crowned him as EuroNASCAR PRO’s youngest ever race winner.
Jouffreau bravely held on from Vittorio Ghirelli, who took victory on Saturday’s Race 1 to close his gap on Gianmarco Ercoli in the championship standings. The recap of the races can be checked in the sections below.
Race 1 Recap
After a wet Qualifying session, the first EuroNASCAR PRO race of the weekend got underway at 14:00 CEST on the dry conditions. The start was led by pole sitter Vittorio Ghirelli, but it was teammate Sebastiaan Bleekemolen who got the best launch.
He placed the No. 69 Race Planet Ford Mustang in the middle of Ghirelli and Paul Jouffreau on the run to the chicane, but sadly for the 2022 Most race winner that’s where the good things would end.
Starting slightly behind him is Liam Hezemans, who had a decent start. Unfortunately, the 20-year old Dutchman braked too early and lifted off his brakes slightly in an attempt to correct his mistake.
That caused him to tap the rear end of Anthony Kumpen, sending the two-time champion into the path of Sebastiaan. Both drivers touched and it resulted in a multi-car collision involving many of the front runners.
Kumpen came out relatively unscathed, but everyone else that got involved was not so lucky. Bleekemolen and Jouffreau had to make an unscheduled stop that sent them a lap down. Liam also had to visit the pits, once to close down the hood of his No. 50 Binance Toyota and once to serve a penalty for instigating the incident.
Tobias Dauenhauer and championship leader Gianmarco Ercoli got it the worst, however. Both Dauenhauer and Ercoli got stuck on the outside and found no room to get through.
Ercoli then made contact with Dauenhauer’s No. 99 Bremotion Camaro and it was their impact that would ultimately cause the Full Course Yellow to be called.
Their cars were recovered in time for the race to continue on the next lap. The incidents allowed Ghirelli to open a two-second advantage and he would ultimately extend the gap to six seconds when he crossed the line to win his second race of the season.
“I had a fantastic start and quickly got a two second advantage,” said Ghirelli in the post-race interview. “We had a good strategy and my car was very fast in the first laps. Then I had a good gap, so I managed that and saved the tires but it got very tricky because there was debris on the track and oil in the last corner.”
“I had two or three moments where I said ‘Oh my God, that was close!’, but it was important to take this victory. It’s been a very good weekend so far and tomorrow we’re starting from pole, so let’s do it again!”
The battle for second position was hotly contested for most of the race. Vladimiros Tziortzis found his way up to second and ran there for most of the race, but his gearbox began to fail with just two laps to go.
Tziortzis’ gearbox issues allowed Anthony Kumpen, who restarted in fifth, to find his way past for his second podium finish of the season. The Cypriot lost two more positions to Lucas Lasserre and Martin Doubek on the final lap, but he kept his third place because Lasserre and Doubek made their overtake in a yellow flag zone.
On the lap where Tziortzis began to experience his gearbox issues, Fabrizio Armetta lost control of his car due to the oil slick and was forced into retirement as his car was beached in the gravel trap. This brought out localized yellows and the area was still under yellow when Lasserre and Doubek got past Tziortzis.
Tziortzis’ podium allowed him to win the Junior Trophy sub-classification once again, beating Ulysse Delsaux and Thomas Krasonis who finished sixth and seventh respectively.
Thomas Toffel recovered from his Vallelunga disaster to finish eighth, claiming his first Challenger Trophy win of the season. Riccardo Romagnoli finished ninth and barely held on from Jack Davidson, who ran off course on lap 5.
Dario Caso, Max Lanza and Michaela Dorcikova rounded out the finishers on the lead lap ahead of Liam, whose penalty dropped him a lap down in 14th position. Ercoli ultimately finished 15th ahead of Jouffreau, Armetta, Bleekemolen, Néo Lambert and Dauenhauer.
After a tough Qualifying session that saw Giorgio Maggi unable to set a lap time on his No. 18 Ford Mustang, the Swiss driver ultimately did not take the start as the mechanical gremlins that his car experienced were not resolved in time.
Race 2 Recap
A drying track welcomed the EuroNASCAR PRO drivers when they took their place on the starting grid on Sunday afternoon. It was a tense moment for both drivers and teams as they didn’t know what tire compound would be the best one for the race.
By the time the command to start the engines was given, half of the teams went for slicks while the other half went for wet compound tire. Thus, 20 drivers took the green flag at 14:30 CEST without knowing whether they would win or lose their 50/50 pull.
After the field circulated behind the Safety Car on the opening lap, the ‘RNG Gods’ would bless the slick runners as they were just as fast as the wet tires from the get go. The track dried up rapidly and while there was a drizzle, but it didn’t rain heavily enough to allow the wet runners to gain an advantage.
Front row starters Vittorio Ghirelli and Paul Jouffreau opted for slicks and they immediately set off to the distance. Ghirelli led the first few laps before Jouffreau found a way past on lap 4, right as the Full Course Yellow was called due to Thomas Toffel and Michaela Dorcikova’s car being stranded on the side of the track.
From then on, was the French driver’s day to shine as he led all of the remaining laps and held off a late charge from Ghirelli to score an unexpected first victory in the top class.
Jouffreau’s win broke a four-year long winless streak for RDV Competition, who last won with Frédéric Gabillon at Brands Hatch in 2019. It also gave Jouffreau the record for being the youngest race winner in EuroNASCAR PRO at the age of 19 years and 271 days, beating the previous bar set by Liam Hezemans earlier this year.
“What a race!” said a jubilant Jouffreau in the Victory Lane. “We decided to put the slick tires on and I wasn’t really enthusiastic about it. I was just ‘Yeah, we will struggle in the first five laps and then catch the guys on wet tires’ but in the first lap the slicks were just as fast as the wets.”
“I don’t know what to say, the car was just perfect. I have to thank the RDV team for putting this car together. I never had a car like that, I thought I would go too fast but the car was telling me that I could go flat out and was just amazing!”
Lapped traffic towards the end of the race nearly spoiled the party for Jouffreau, but Ghirelli’s charge to the front was too late. He had to contend with a second place finish, but the Italian did come out of Most as the receiver of Tijey’s Fastest Driver Award.
Liam Hezemans completes the podium after an impressively collected race for the young Dutchman. He was hit with a 10-place grid penalty for his mistake on Saturday and he dropped down to 17th position at one point. The Hendriks driver soon recovered and charged his way to third with the help of the slick tires.
Tobias Dauenhauer also ran slicks on his car and held third for most of the race. Unfortunately for him, he ran off course after hitting a wet patch on lap 14. That mistake handed Liam the podium finish, but the German driver was still rewarded with fourth place as it was his best finish of the year.
Gianmarco Ercoli finished fifth after he also chose to gamble on the slick tires. However, he was more than 40 seconds behind Jouffreau as he had to recover slowly due to running off the track twice – once from contact with Jack Davidson and once from his own error.
Lucas Lasserre finished sixth as the best of the drivers in wet tires. It allowed Lasserre to minimize his damage in the championship battle, once again showing why consistency is his greatest weapon in his quest to win his first title in the NASCAR era.
Vladimiros Tziortzis was provisionally seventh, but a 5-place time penalty for avoidable contact with Néo Lambert meant that Fabrizio Armetta ended up classified there instead.
The Italian had to start from the pits due to issues with the No. 55 Dinoil Camaro, but that also gave him time to bolt in the slick tires. The choice to go with slicks saved his day as he recovered 13 places to score his third top-10 finish of the year.
The seventh place finish also gave him the victory in Challenger Trophy, avenging the poor result that he achieved on Saturday. Ulysse Delsaux survived the wrong tire choice ordeal to finish ninth ahead of Thomas Krasonis, who scored a top-10 finish with slick tires on his No. 46 Marko Stipp Motorsport Chevrolet.
Lambert was eleventh ahead of Anthony Kumpen, both opting for wet tires. Interestingly, Kumpen joked that he wants series interviewer Andre Wiegold to tell everyone else to race on slicks. The Belgian was confident with his wet tire choice, but that proved to be the wrong call.
Max Lanza and Riccardo Romagnoli nearly changed the complexion of the race as they caused Jouffreau difficulties when the Frenchman came to lap them. They ultimately finished 13th and 14th ahead of Dario Caso, who was the last finisher in 15th place.
Davidson was penalized for his contact with Ercoli, but it was a moot point as he spun off with two laps to go. Martin Doubek and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen retired in the pits after completing eight and three laps respectively, the former retiring due to brake troubles.
Toffel and Dorcikova, who both retired from contact in the first green flag lap, closed out the classified participants ahead of Giorgio Maggi, who once again failed to take the start.
Despite his issues, Gianmarco Ercoli keeps his place as the championship leader in EuroNASCAR PRO. With 266 points to his name, the CAAL Racing driver is just two points ahead of the ever consistent Lucas Lasserre. Vittorio Ghirelli now moves up to third with a total of 259 points.
Kumpen’s wet tire malarkey has dropped the two-time champion down to fourth, 19 points behind Ercoli in the standings. Marc Goossens’ absence allowed Ulysse Delsaux to move up to the top-5 with 229 points, one point – and one position – ahead of Vladimiros Tziortzis in the battle of the Junior Trophy.
Hendriks teammates Martin Doubek and Liam Hezemans are seventh and eighth respectively. Thomas Krasonis is now ninth while Challenger Trophy leader Fabrizio Armetta now holds tenth place with 194 points, 48 points clear from teammate Riccardo Romagnoli. Paul Jouffreau’s victory promoted him to 19th place in the standings.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.