Tobias Dauenhauer believes that he and Bremotion ended their 2023 season in the best way possible after they set the new record for the largest winning margin in EuroNASCAR history.
Tobias Dauenhauer and Bremotion completed a stunning debut NASCAR Whelen Euro Series campaign with a highly dominant victory in the season finale race at Circuit Zolder.
Fresh from Dauenhauer’s maiden EuroNASCAR PRO victory – and Bremotion’s first visit to the Victory Lane – in the previous round at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, the German squad entered the EuroNASCAR Finals with high expectations after they finally secured their breakthrough result at home soil.
The Morlenbach native took a seventh place finish on both Practice and Qualifying, the latter was achieved with some damage to his No. 99 Camaro after he clipped the tire stack at the Kleine chicane. He was joined for the Finals weekend by Eric de Doncker, who took part in his first EuroNASCAR race in four years.
Saturday’s race produced fine results for Dauenhauer as well as de Doncker, but it was on Sunday where he and the team truly shined.
A crash by de Doncker in his Sunday race left the team with a collapsed front right suspension to repair, something that they managed to do in just one and a half hour. With Dauenhauer able to make it to the grid just in time, it gave him the motivation to complete the drive of a lifetime.
Starting from fourth, the German took the lead of the race from Lucas Lasserre on lap 2 and never looked back. He was regularly going two to three seconds faster than anyone else that day. In fact, he was so far ahead that he took the checkered flag with a 45 second lead from Giorgio Maggi!
That advantage got even bigger after Maggi was penalized for start procedure infringements, leaving Dauenhauer with a winning margin of 47.276 seconds from Liam Hezemans, who inherited second in the final results.
While it wasn’t enough for Dauenhauer to claim the top spot in Junior Trophy’s overall standings, the win allowed him to set a new record for the largest margin of victory in EuroNASCAR history.
Dauenhauer beat the previous record of 41.380 seconds, set by Simon Escallier when he dominated the EuroNASCAR 2 field at Valencia in 2012. He also absolutely crushed the previous EuroNASCAR PRO record of 14.739 seconds that was achieved by Frédéric Gabillon at Le Mans in 2013.
“The season couldn’t have ended any better,” said Dauenhauer to André Wiegold on Leadlap. “I just feel comfortable in these conditions and my team Bremotion did a fantastic job and provided me with a super car.”
“Although we didn’t compete in the first race weekend in Spain, we managed to finish second in the Junior Trophy and take two wins in our debut season. I’m very proud of everyone who contributed to this and would like to thank my team Bremotion, my sponsors and partners for their support.”
Dauenhauer’s thoughts were also shared by Bremotion’s team leader Patrick Brenndörfer, who is equally satisfied with what they have achieved in the 2023 season.
Brenndörfer hopes that this will allow Tobias Dauenhauer to fight for the championship title in 2024, a lofty yet reasonable target for the underdog team that surprised the powerhouses on their first ever EuroNASCAR season.
“We end this year’s season with another overall victory,” said Brenndörfer on Bremotion’s official post-race release. “The fact that we were able to celebrate two pole positions, podiums and even two race wins in our very first year is something we would never have dared to dream of before.”
“The NWES is fiercely competitive and there are many professional teams, so it is not easy for a new team to compete at the top. Nevertheless, we managed to do it! We can’t wait to fight for victories and maybe even the championship title next year!”
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.