Paul Jouffreau, Ulysse Delsaux, Giorgio Maggi and Gil Linster were given the chance to race against drivers from NASCAR’s national and international series in the special iRacing event.
Twenty-five drivers from NASCAR’s national and international series were gathered on 12 December when eNASCAR, the sport’s gaming and eSports division, organized the 2023 edition of eNASCAR iRacing International Invite.
Four EuroNASCAR drivers are invited to the event: Ulysse Delsaux, Giorgio Maggi, Paul Jouffreau and Gil Linster. Other top drivers such as NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. and newly crowned NASCAR Mexico Series champion Salvador de Alba Jr. were also invited to create a true virtual all-star showdown.
The event was held across two rounds, one each at the Los Angeles Coliseum and Brands Hatch’s Indy Circuit. Each race featured their own twists, with the Coliseum race featuring heat qualifiers while the Brands Hatch round had a Sprint race to determine an inverted starting grid for its Feature race.
Despite Euro drivers’ relative lack of experience in the ovals, it was the newly crowned EN2 champion Jouffreau who set the fastest lap time in Qualifying, giving him pole for his heat race. He led all 12 laps of the heat to advance to the Finals, with Delsaux also advancing after beating the likes of Dale Jr. and Carson Hocevar.
Giorgio Maggi was the second fastest driver in Qualifying and he too started from pole for his heat. Unfortunately, an early incident relegated Maggi to third, but he retained his position all the way to the checkered flag.
However, things were worse for Gil Linster. Having started his heat from sixth, he got caught up in multiple incidents and was ultimately eliminated, leaving the Luxembourger to watch on the sidelines as 18 drivers set themselves up for a 40-lap Feature race.
The race was won by Anthony Alfredo, who survived three caution periods and an Overtime finish to beat 3F Racing’s Ryan Vargas. Maggi was the best performing Euro driver in seventh, beating Delsaux and Jouffreau who finished tenth and twelfth respectively.
Jouffreau was particularly unlucky in this race. Having led the first few laps, he got caught out by Parker Kligerman trying to enter the pits and Alfredo, with nowhere to go, sent him into a spin. After recovering to sixth, he had another incident on the last lap that put him out of the top-10 positions.
The field moved on to Brands Hatch Indy Circuit and first on the cards is an 8-lap Sprint race to determine the grid for the 16-lap Feature race. NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race’s Jeff Giassi was victorious, but Vargas was the “lucky dog” as he finished eighth, giving him pole for the Feature.
Vargas didn’t have it easy as he had to fend off a late challenge from Linster to claim the final inversion spot. Jouffreau, who showed promising pace in practice, had to recover 13 places after starting from 24th due to a poor Qualifying session.
Jouffreau was a man with a mission during the Feature race that followed. He made four places in the opening lap alone and by the penultimate lap, the Frenchman was in second with race leader Giassi in his sights.
Sadly, as he exited the Druids hairpin, he made contact with NASCAR Mexico’s Victor Barrales Jr. and got tipped to another spin. It cleared the path for Giassi to sweep the Brands Hatch round while Alfredo finished second, earning him $2,500 in prize money as the overall winner of the event.
Ultimately, it was a great event for everybody that’s involved with the drivers expressing their gratitude to NASCAR and eNASCAR for hosting the International Invite as it gave them a rare chance to race with drivers in regions that they never raced with before.
“It was a lot of fun, always happy to be part of it,” said Maggi on the broadcast. “The Xfinity cars were quite different to the cars we usually ran in EuroNASCAR. I needed some adjustments to my driving style, but it helps that both races were done with the same car.”
“I feel really blessed with the opportunity, usually you just see them on TV and never see them in person as they’re quite far apart from Europe, so it was really nice to race them on the track.”
“I practiced a lot for those two races and I put a lot of energy in it,” said Jouffreau to euronascar.com. “During the event I managed to score the Pole Position at the LA Coliseum, and I was really proud of it because oval races were my biggest weakness.”
“I won the first heat so that meant I started first for the main race. I took the lead and then a lapped guy braked after the apex that made me spin, which was really frustrating. I started a comeback but I had a bump that put me in the wall on the last lap.”
“At Brands Hatch I made a big mistake, as I didn’t have a valid quali lap due to off-tracks. So I started from 24th and made a good comeback in the Sprint race. Then in the main race, I fought with the winner of the sprint race but I got bumped off the track.”
“I then started a new comeback and I was in the fight for the lead with two laps to go, but my opponent put me out of the track and I finished eleventh. We had the pace to win at the two tracks but racing incidents and faults from my side were the reason I didn’t make it happen. The event was really great, so thanks to iRacing and NASCAR for hosting it.”
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