Tobias Dauenhauer and Bremotion secured a well deserved first EuroNASCAR victory in their home race at Oschersleben while penalties handed Paul Jouffreau the win on Saturday.
Germany has a new star in EuroNASCAR after Tobias Dauenhauer and Bremotion scored their first career victory in the NASCAR GP Germany at Oschersleben.
The underdogs dominated the Sunday race to beat Paul Jouffreau, who was credited with the win on Saturday after initial race winner Vittorio Ghirelli was penalized for an unapproved air filter. The recap of the races can be checked in the sections below.
Race 1 Recap
The first race held by the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben got underway at 14:00 local time. Pole sitter and Bremotion’s hero Tobias Dauenhauer led the field for the first EuroNASCAR PRO race, but sadly for the home fans his lead wouldn’t last long.
Dauenhauer got a shockingly slow start and that allowed Vittorio Ghirelli, who started second, to take over the lead into the first corner. It wasn’t smooth sailing for the Italian though as he had to deal with an uneven differential, allowing Dauenhauer and Paul Jouffreau to keep up with him for the first half of the race.
Soon, the differential issue began to sort itself out and by lap 12, the lead was secured. Ghirelli eventually took the checkered flag by 2.651 seconds ahead of Jouffreau with Dauenhauer completing the podium for his first visit to the rostrum since his ENPRO debut at Valencia in 2022.
At least, that’s what the results looked like after the race. On Sunday morning, it was announced that Ghirelli and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen were found to have used an air filter that wasn’t provided by the series. Ghirelli later revealed that Team Bleekemolen had accidentally used 2021-spec air filters in their cars.
Despite this breach of the regulations, both Ghirelli and Sebastiaan escaped disqualification because the performance impact of their outdated air filters are minor at best. They ultimately received a three-place penalty, dropping Ghirelli to fourth while Sebastiaan dropped to ninth.
Ghirelli’s penalty meant that Paul Jouffreau inherited the win in the final results, giving the young Frenchman a back-to-back victory in the top class. Because Jouffreau also won the Saturday EuroNASCAR 2 race, this result made him the first driver to sweep the races in a single day.
Dauenhauer was promoted to second in both overall results and the Junior Trophy behind Jouffreau. Marc Goossens was credited with a podium on his return to the series. Ghirelli was still classified ahead of Gianmarco Ercoli, who had a tough first race of the weekend.
Anthony Kumpen blew an opportunity to finish in the top-5 with an off-track excursion at the Hotel complex in lap 9. Having dropped to tenth, he recovered and fought off top Junior Trophy drivers “Hollywood” Liam Hezemans and Ulysse Delsaux for sixth position.
Just behind Sebastiaan is Ryan Vargas, who showed promising pace in the wheel of the No. 30 Critical Path Security Chevrolet Camaro for 3F Racing. Having qualified for the Superpole session, the American made himself proud with a top-10 finish in his debut European race.
Thomas Toffel received a 5-second time penalty for start procedure violations, but he still took the win in Challenger Trophy and maintained eleventh place overall as he was more than 5 seconds ahead of Tuomas Pöntinen, the fastest of the Marko Stipp Motorsport drivers.
Thomas Dombrowski, Thomas Krasonis, Riccardo Romagnoli and Max Lanza completed the classified finishers. Lucas Lasserre shockingly retired with just four laps to go due to a mechanical issue on his Mishumotors-backed SpeedHouse Ford Mustang.
Fabrizio Armetta made several visits to the pits before he called it a day. He completed one more lap than Giorgio Maggi, who was eliminated after a strange spin in the final corner on lap 12. Martin Doubek, Dario Caso and Vladimiros Tziortzis all retired after completing ten, eight and six laps respectively.
Race 2 Recap
Thanks to the fastest lap that he scored in the Saturday race, Tobias Dauenhauer was able to lead the 22-car field to the green flag of the second EuroNASCAR PRO race at Oschersleben at 14:30 local time.
Having analyzed and learned from his mistake on Saturday, Dauenhauer managed to get the perfect launch for the all-important run to the Hotel corner complex on the first lap. Paul Jouffreau, who started on the front row, retained second while Anthony Kumpen moved up to third.
It was a lead that the 26-year old driver would not relinquish. The Bremotion driver extended his lead from Jouffreau and led from start to finish to score a highly popular victory for the underdogs.
The victory ensured that Dauenhauer became the first German driver to win in EuroNASCAR PRO. Dauenhauer’s achievements also meant that Bremotion, who rather famously chose to use a rental van and an open-top trailer for their hauler in 2023, became the 20th different team to win in the top division.
“It’s amazing for me as a driver and it’s amazing for the team as they did a great job!” said Dauenhauer in the Victory Lane. “It’s a first win for Bremotion and me in EuroNASCAR PRO, so I’m absolutely happy to do it in front of my home crowd! I’m a little bit speechless.”
Jouffreau ultimately had no answer to Dauenhauer’s pace, but he did have enough in his reserve to hold on to a second place finish. Kumpen’s performance tells a similar story as he retained his position to bring home his third podium finish of the season.
The two leading championship contenders Vittorio Ghirelli and Gianmarco Ercoli completed the top-5 ahead of Liam Hezemans. Marc Goossens, who is competing in his first weekend as a driver at Oschersleben, finished seventh with Giorgio Maggi returning to the top-10 positions in eighth place.
Sebastiaan Bleekemolen can only repeat his final results from Saturday after a lonely race in the Team Bleekemolen Ford Mustang. Behind him, Ryan Vargas fought hard to score a double top-10 finish in his EuroNASCAR debut.
Having started from 12th on the grid, Vargas caught up to SpeedHouse Racing’s Ulysse Delsaux and found a way past the former EuroNASCAR 2 champion on lap 13. He soon caught up to the other SpeedHouse car of Lucas Lasserre, who had slowed down considerably as he tried to nurse a slow puncture on his car.
Lasserre gave his all, but he was unable to stop Vargas who passed him around the outside on lap 15. Delsaux also got past his team boss not long after and later on lap 19, Lasserre was forced to retire after the slow puncture turned into a full delamination.
Martin Doubek struggled to move up from his lowly starting position and was only 12th in the end. The same happened to Vladimiros Tziortzis as well, who only gained five positions after he sent Tuomas Pöntinen into a spin before he later went sideways on his own accord on lap 16.
Thomas Toffel topped the Challenger Trophy contenders in 15th place, making it a perfect weekend for the former motorcycle racer. Riccardo Romagnoli and Max Lanza also made it two-in-two for finishing second and third in the sub-classification at Oschersleben.
With the regular season completed, Gianmarco Ercoli will enter the season finale at Circuit Zolder as the championship leader in EuroNASCAR PRO. The CAAL Racing stalwart’s four wins and eight top-10 finishes gave him 285 points after dropped points were applied to his results.
Despite losing the victory in Saturday’s race, Vittorio Ghirelli’s mid-season surge allowed him to sit just four points behind Ercoli in second place. Lucas Lasserre’s horrible weekend failed to give him any points at Oschersleben and he now has a deficit of 21 points from Ercoli in the standings.
Anthony Kumpen is fourth with 262 points while Liam Hezemans managed to squeak by to fifth place. With 248 points, Liam has a 10 point advantage from Vladimiros Tziortzis in both the overall standings and the Junior Trophy.
Marc Goossens’ podium elevated him to seventh ahead of Ulysse Delsaux, who dropped from first to third in the Junior Trophy ranks. Tobias Dauenhauer’s victory promoted him to ninth while Martin Doubek closed out the top-10 positions with 229 points.
Fabrizio Armetta, now 14th in the standings, continues to lead the Challenger Trophy with 196 points. Teammate Riccardo Romagnoli closed the gap down to just 13 points while Max Lanza and Thomas Toffel are now 22 and 26 points away in the battle for the top amateur driver in EuroNASCAR PRO.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.