Paul Jouffreau mastered the changing weather conditions at Circuit Zolder to secure pole position in both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2.
No one was able to match Paul Jouffreau’s prowess in the changing weather conditions during the Qualifying sessions for the EuroNASCAR Finals at Circuit Zolder. The talented youngster claimed both pole position awards to become just the second driver to do so in EuroNASCAR’s history.
The weather shenanigans truly mixed up the grid after Anthony Kumpen and Alberto Naska came out as the leaders in the dry Free Practice sessions on Friday. 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
Unlike the previous race weekends, Friday did not start with EuroNASCAR Club Challenge as the drivers of the regularity-based division had already completed their final outing on Thursday. The recap for Club Challenge can be seen in this article here.
Thus, EuroNASCAR PRO’s first Free Practice was the session that truly kickstarted the action in EuroNASCAR Finals. Morning rain created early concerns, but the track had dried up sufficiently for the session to be held with slick tires.
Anthony Kumpen set the initial benchmark time with a time of 1:38.484, but he knew that he could improve as the conditions in FP1 were less than ideal. The Belgian went on to improve his time by nearly one second – 1:37.550, to be exact – to put himself on top of the combined times.
Fellow title contenders Gianmarco Ercoli and Vittorio Ghirelli followed suit, three tenths behind Kumpen but with only 5 tenths of a second separating the Italians. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Giorgio Maggi complete the top-5 with the Swiss driver topping the Junior Trophy sub-classification ranks.
Zolder expert Marc Goossens is sixth ahead of top Junior Trophy drivers Tobias Dauenhauer and Liam Hezemans. Young sensation Paul Jouffreau was only ninth fastest ahead of Martin Doubek, who did not take part in FP1.
Ryan Vargas is eleventh fastest, but he encountered drama after he and Dario Caso tangled together in FP2. The contact necessitated 3F Racing to change the front body clip to his Chevrolet Camaro for Saturday.
Thomas Toffel was the quickest of the Challenger Trophy drivers in 12th place. Lucas Lasserre, Vladimiros Tziortzis and Ulysse Delsaux all had a tough start to their weekend and found themselves with a 1.5 second deficit to Kumpen at the end of the day.
ENPRO FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS | ENPRO FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
Alberto Naska knew that whoever wins the EuroNASCAR 2 races at Zolder will be crowned as the champion in the junior class and he made his intention to win clear with his performance on Friday.
After losing out to Paul Jouffreau in FP1, the Italian struck back in FP2 and set a time of 1:38.026 to put him 0.251 seconds ahead of the Frenchman. 2021 EN2 champion Martin Doubek was third, albeit eight tenths slower from the time set by the YouTube sensation.
One unexpected name that made it to the top-5 positions is The Club Motorsport’s owner-driver Fabrizio Armetta. Armetta opted to run double duty for the Finals and he set the fourth fastest time on Friday, easily topping the Legend Trophy in the process.
Gil Linster was fifth ahead of Race Art Technology’s Claudio Remigio Cappelli and Thomas Toffel, the latter being the quickest in Rookie Trophy. Oschersleben race winner Patrick Schober is eighth ahead of Jack Davidson and Vladimiros Tziortzis, who is struggling to find pace on used slick tires.
The returning Eric de Doncker beats the debuting Federico Monti for 18th position. The Uber Modern Racing drivers Hugo Fleury and Olivier Bec were not present at Zolder on Friday and they ultimately will not take part in the Finals weekend.
EN2 FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS | EN2 FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
Saturday Recap
Rain splashed down at Circuit Zolder on Saturday morning, but the sun shined brightly by the time EuroNASCAR PRO’s Qualifying session started at 10:00 AM local time.
With the track still half wet, the competitors are faced with a tough choice: Do you go for wets and hope the track doesn’t dry up quickly, or take the slicks and accept the initial first laps as an afterthought before you get a chance at a late charge of the leaderboards?
Eventually, half of the grid went safe with the wet tires while the other half gambled on the slick tires. The wet tire runners got the advantage early with Anthony Kumpen in particular flying fast on the slippery surface.
As time went by, the slick shod drivers went faster and faster. One of the drivers that made the gamble is Paul Jouffreau and his pace was incredibly quick on the quickly drying Zolder. By the time Qualifying was over, he found himself 1.5 seconds faster than anyone else!
Vladimiros Tziortzis was to be the second fastest ahead of the Zolder veteran Marc Goossens. Lucas Lasserre was the fastest of the championship contenders in fourth ahead of Martin Doubek while Vittorio Ghirelli salvaged sixth after he switched tires mid-session.
The top-10 positions were completed by Gianmarco Ercoli, Giorgio Maggi, Dario Caso and Tobias Dauenhauer. Kumpen, despite changing to slicks as well, was ultimately eliminated because he made the decision too late and was unable to get an extra flying lap that could put himself into the Superpole.
Ryan Vargas is also eliminated because of his tire choice. The American was seventh with just one minute to go, but a late rush from the slick runners saw him tumble down to 15th in the end. Another driver with a terrible session is Liam Hezemans, who was only 18th fastest.
Paul Jouffreau’s domination in the changing weather conditions continued in the five-minute long Superpole shootout. Confusion on the session’s start procedure meant that everyone’s first flying lap was deleted in the final results, but the Frenchman’s time of 1:39.080 was more than enough to give him his second career pole position in the top class.
Second place went to Giorgio Maggi, who relishes the opportunity to finally be at the front after a very tough season for the Swiss driver. Lucas Lasserre once again was the fastest of the championship contenders in third, beating Ercoli and Ghirelli for third position on the grid.
Junior Trophy contenders Tziortzis and Dauenhauer were next, followed by Doubek who was only eighth. Caso’s No. 8 Italicus Camaro broke down on his final flying lap attempt, but he still beat Goossens because Goossens’ fastest lap time came in the deleted first flying lap.
The conditions continued to improve when the EuroNASCAR 2 drivers took to the track for their Qualifying session at 10:40 AM local time. Everyone immediately opted for slicks, but the drying track meant that there’s plenty of change at the top of the timesheets.
Drivers such as Melvin de Groot, Claudio Remigio Cappelli and Alberto Naska all sat in the provisional pole position at some point during the 20-minute long session. However, they were not destined to start their first Finals race from the front.
Destiny decided to choose Paul Jouffreau, who came home as the pole sitter in EuroNASCAR 2 with a time of 1:38.078. With this achievement, Jouffreau became just the second driver to sweep the Qualifying Pole Awards in a single race weekend.
“The setup of the car was perfect when the track was half wet, so I had a lot of confidence. It was more tricky to get the pole in EuroNASCAR 2 because everyone was so fast!” said Jouffreau after his Qualifying sweep.
“I got two Pole Positions and it gave me a good position for the races. Ten percent of the job is done, 40 percent is going to be done in the first EuroNASCAR 2 race and 50 percent will be done tomorrow! We want to win the championship, therefore I need to stay calm.”
Cappelli, a noted expert in the mixed weather conditions, scored his first front row start of the season with an equally blistering time of 1:38.203. Naska followed him in third with a lap of 1:38.291, but de Groot had to contend with a sixth place result.
Gil Linster and Thomas Dombrowski were the only two other drivers to reach the 1:38 markn. Linster qualified fourth – yet again – and Dombrowski was due to start from fifth, but he received a three-place grid penalty after he was caught using fuel that wasn’t provided by Circuit Zolder.
Vladimiros Tziortzis will have a lot of catching up to do as his time was only enough for seventh place, one second behind Jouffreau’s best time. Patrick Schober, Thomas Toffel and Fabrizio Armetta complete the top-10 positions.
Schober and Toffel were lucky that they retained their position on the grid after issues on their final flying lap attempt. Schober’s car broke down on the back straight while Toffel touched the kerb too much and spun out at Jochen Rindtbocht.
However, Schober was especially lucky because Sven van Laere had a scary crash right near where parked his car. Van Laere made a mistake at the exit of turn 4 and clipped the left side wall with such force that it tore the front and rear of his No. 56 Anecars Camaro.
Sheer luck prevented van Laere’s car from torpedoing into Schober’s Ford Mustang. The crash blocked the track and prevented drivers like Cappelli and Jouffreau from returning to the pits until his car was towed away by the marshalls. Thankfully, the home driver was able to exit the car under his power.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.