An epic drive from Tobias Dauenhauer in ENPRO’s Superpole gave Bremotion their first career pole position while fellow youngster Paul Jouffreau took pole in EN2.
The fans that made the trip to Motorsport Arena Oschersleben for the first ever NASCAR GP Germany at the 3.668 kilometer circuit got treated with their home crowd hero Tobias Dauenhauer taking his first ever pole position in EuroNASCAR PRO.
The German star starred in Qualifying and proved that the underdogs at Bremotion are ready to compete against the best in European stock car racing. One of the top competitors, RDV Competition’s Paul Jouffreau, ended up in pole position in EuroNASCAR 2 after an excellent session for the young Frenchman.
The recap of Friday’s activity and the Qualifying session for both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 can be checked in the sections below.
Friday Recap
The opening day for NASCAR GP Germany started with the fourth round of the 2023 EuroNASCAR Club Challenge season, which saw Florian Richard score his maiden victory in the regularity-based division ahead of SpeedHouse Racing teammate Alain Mosqueron. Coverage for Club Challenge is covered in the article linked here.
As usual, it was then followed by Free Practice for EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2. With Oschersleben being a new track for everybody, the Practice sessions were an important one as teams and drivers have no reference that they can work on outside of what they can get on the simulators.
One of the favorites heading to Germany is Team Bleekemolen’s Vittorio Ghirelli and he vindicated his status by setting the fastest time in the combined Free Practice times of EuroNASCAR PRO.
The Italian set the benchmark time of 1:31.699 ahead of Gianmarco Ercoli, who was just 0.053 seconds behind. Liam Hezemans held off Vladimiros Tziortzis for both third place and top spot in the Junior Trophy with Marc Goossens completing the top-5 after he missed the previous round at Most due to a schedule clash.
Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Giorgio Maggi, Anthony Kumpen, Tobias Dauenhauer and Martin Doubek rounded out the top-10. Fastest of the Challenger Trophy contenders is Max Lanza, who finished the day in eleventh ahead of Paul Jouffreau.
Ulysse Delsaux celebrated his 26th birthday on Friday, but he had a bit of a downer present with a 15th place finish in the combined Practice times. Lucas Lasserre, who was easily in the top-3 on the standings, shockingly was only 16th. The SpeedHouse owner-driver was ahead of Ryan Vargas, who made steady steps in his first EuroNASCAR race weekend.
ENPRO FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS | ENPRO FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
Paul Jouffreau might have had a slow start in EuroNASCAR PRO, but he was certainly not slow in EuroNASCAR 2. With the aid of more laps completed thanks to his double duty outing, the Frenchman managed to top the combined rankings in the junior class after he set a lap time of 1:32.032 in the second Free Practice session.
Another double duty competitor Vladimiros Tziortzis was second, just 0.104 seconds behind the RDV Competition driver. Alberto Naska completed the day in third place after leading the first session with “Mr. Fourth Place” Gil Linster once again finding himself in that place on Practice.
Martin Doubek was fifth ahead of Thomas Toffel, who beat Thomas Dombrowski by less than one tenths of a second for the top position in Rookie Trophy. His teammate Claudio Remigio Cappelli was also the fastest in Legend Trophy with an eighth place finish, beating rivals Melvin de Groot and Roberto Benedetti for that position.
It was a tough first day for talented youngsters Patrick Schober and Jack Davidson, who were only eleventh and twelfth respectively. Arianna Casoli, the sole Lady Trophy competitor, was in 21st and last place.
EN2 FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS | EN2 FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
One driver who sadly didn’t turn a lap at Oschersleben is Kenko Miura, who abruptly had to miss the weekend in Germany. Miguel Angel Aragon Zurita revealed that the Japanese driver suddenly went ill and Miura was left with no choice but to withdraw his participation plans.
We wished a speedy recovery for Miura-san and we hope that we can see you taking part in EuroNASCAR again in the near future.
Qualifying Recap
Qualifying for EuroNASCAR PRO began at 10:00 AM local time with twenty two drivers ready to lay the groundwork for the first ever race at Oschersleben. Plenty of enthusiastic German race fans had already arrived at the track on Saturday morning to watch the battle for pole position in EuroNASCAR’s top division.
It was a tense 15-minute session as the lap times continued to tumble down as time slowly ticked away. In the end, it was Vittorio Ghirelli who became the fastest after setting a lap time of 1:31.822 on his final flying lap attempt.
Tobias Dauenhauer was the only other driver to go into the 1:31’s. He also topped the Junior Trophy rankings ahead of Liam Hezemans. Liam was involved in a collision with Fabrizio Armetta, but thankfully neither Liam or Armetta damaged their cars.
Paul Jouffreau was fourth ahead of the CAAL Racing duo of Marc Goossens and Gianmarco Ercoli. Ghirelli’s team boss Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Lucas Lasserre beat fellow veteran Anthony Kumpen to comfortably make it to the Superpole session.
Ryan Vargas was overjoyed with emotions after he became the final Superpole qualifier. Vargas, who also celebrated his birthday in the Oschersleben weekend, praised the skills of his competitors and was proud that he was able to keep up with his much more experienced rivals.
Giorgio Maggi and Martin Doubek both missed out on Superpole even though they were within one second of Ghirelli’s time. Armetta was the quickest of the Challenger Trophy drivers in 13th, but he received a 3-place grid penalty for that contact with Liam.
Thomas Toffel briefly brought out the red flag when he spun his Race Art Technology machine into the gravel trap at Hasseroder. He was classified in ninth at the time, but that mistake would ultimately relegate him to 15th in the final results.
The top drivers came back to the track shortly after for the Superpole showdown. The fight to set for the best lap possible was intense and the support from the home crowd awakened Dauenhauer’s fighting spirit.
Dauenhauer set the benchmark time of 1:31.364 on his first flying lap attempt to claim his first ever pole position in the top class. Dauenhauer’s ascension to the top was a moment to remember for not just the German fans, but also for the Bremotion team as the underdogs got to start their home race from first place.
“It’s amazing to get pole here in front of my wonderful fans here!” said Dauenhauer afterwards. “My lap was really on the edge, but everything came together!”
“I think it will be exciting to run into the first corner, which will be difficult because pole position is on the left hand side. It’s not that clear if the pole man is going to be in front after the second corner, but we will see. I think it will be an exciting race with a lot of overtakes so I’m looking forward to it!”
Ghirelli was unable to match Dauenhauer’s time and would have to start from second. Ercoli qualified third ahead of Paul Jouffreau while Liam Hezemans rounded out the top-5. The classifications were completed by Lasserre, Sebastiaan, Kumpen, Goossens and Vargas.
EuroNASCAR 2’s Qualifying session got underway at 10:43 AM local time. Only 20 of the 21 entrants hit the track as the biggest name in the division failed to take part in the shootout.
Vladimiros Tziortzis was suffering from engine issues in the preceding EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying that left him second-from-last on the grid there. With the Academy Motorsport team unable to find a fix, the Cypriot was unable to set any lap time in this crucially important session.
That opened the door for his rivals to take the initiative and after twenty minutes, RDV Competition’s Paul Jouffreau came out on top. A time of 1:31.655 was enough for the Frenchman to claim his second pole position of the year, but he admitted that he is focusing more on the races for the Oschersleben weekend.
“I’m happy, but I want to stay calm because my main objective is to win the race. Scoring the pole position is cool, but it will not determine the result of the race,” said the 19-year old driver after grabbing his second career Pole Award.
“While pole is good, it’s not what will make me an European champion at the end of the year so I just want to stay focused and we will see what happens in the race.”
Alberto Naska completes the front row of the grid with an advantage of nearly half a second from third place man Martin Doubek. Another two tenths separated Doubek from teammate Gil Linster, who once again is “mara-struck” to fourth place.
Legend Trophy drivers filled out the third row of the grid with Claudio Remigio Cappelli edging out Melvin de Groot by just 0.030 seconds. Patrick Schober and Roberto Benedetti finished the session ahead of the fastest driver in Rookie Trophy: Thomas Toffel, who has a lot of pressure on him as he will be unable to shed his disqualification away from his final points tally.
Riccardo Romagnoli completes the top-10 ahead of Thomas Dombrowski and Nick Schneider. Mario Ercoli qualified 14th in his debut while Dominique Schaak was only 17th in the wheel of the Bremotion Camaro. Arianna Casoli rounds out the qualifiers in 20th, 11 seconds off the pace from the leaders.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.