After scoring his maiden podium finish at Most, Patrick Schober expressed his relief that he “finally” was able to achieve that in this year’s EuroNASCAR 2 season.
The weekend at Autodrom Most was the one that Patrick Schober had been waiting for. After one and a half years of trying, Schober secured his first podium in EuroNASCAR 2 with a third place finish that he achieved in the Saturday race.
Schober, who is competing in his sophomore season with Double V Racing, started his NASCAR GP Czech Republic weekend with a seventh place finish in the combined Practice times. On Saturday, he was only 0.764 seconds behind the pole time set by championship leader Vladimiros Tziortzis.
That was enough to place Schober in the third row of the grid for Race 1, which was held in the dry conditions. Alberto Naska’s early race problems opened up the opportunity for someone outside of the ‘Big Three’ to finish in the podium and it was Schober who capitalized from it.
Running fourth when the second Full Course Yellow was called after Claudio Remigio Cappelli beached his car in the gravel trap, the Austrian driver managed to find his way past Gil Linster on the penultimate lap to secure his – and Double V’s – first podium finish in the sport.
“Everything went according to plan at Saturday’s race in Most,” said Schober in social media after the race. “I was able to finish in the top-3 and not least fought for this place with a nice overtaking maneuver against Gil Linster. I’m so glad I finally did it and I hope I get more chances to show what I can do in the future.”
The battle for the fastest lap was hotly contested too and in the end, Schober set a lap time that was good enough for sixth on the grid for Race 2 despite being only three tenths away from the fastest.
Heavy rain arrived at the track when it’s time for Schober and the rest of the EuroNASCAR 2 field to race on Sunday. The Austrian was prepared to race in the rain, but sadly his No. 27 Ford Mustang wasn’t.
His defogging device malfunctioned after just a few laps and with Schober at the prospect of racing blind for most of the race, he chose to park his car in the pits knowing how unsafe it’ll be if he chose to continue on.
The results from NASCAR GP Czech Republic meant that Schober maintains his eighth position in the overall standings. He currently has 201 points and will have the opportunity to drop his two worst results – a retirement and a DNS at Brands Hatch – if he performs well in the next round at Oschersleben.
“Sunday’s race was a wet race, just like what I wished, but a defective windscreen heater forced me to drive blind around the track,” said Schober on what happened in Race 2. “That was far too dangerous, so I headed for the pits and parked the car.”
“But in our thoughts are just the podium place from Saturday and the knowledge that the small remaining way to the top, with corresponding possibilities, would also be possible.”
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