Race Planet Team Bleekemolen has confirmed that Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Melvin de Groot will be staying in the No. 69 team for the 2024 season.
Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Melvin de Groot will continue their successful partnership in the No. 69 Team Bleekemolen team for the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season.
The news, which was announced yesterday, confirms their intention to compete in their third full season together at the Bleekemolen family team, which will be running under the “Race Planet Team Bleekemolen” moniker in the upcoming season.
It will not be the only change that the team will make as the announcement revealed that the No. 69 team will be running the Toyota Camry body for this year, changing from the Ford Mustang body that they have been using since their debut season in 2019.
“I think the series has a lot of potential and I want to be part of that success,” said Bleekemolen to euronascar.com. “And besides that, I think I and the team have more potential than I showed last season.”
2023 marked Team Bleekemolen’s first serious title challenge in the sport. Having finished fourth in the 2022 Teams Championship with the No. 69 car, the sister No. 72 team took two wins and fought to a third place finish in the EuroNASCAR PRO championship with new signing Vittorio Ghirelli.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Sebastiaan Bleekemolen in the lead car. The 45-year old veteran only finished on the podium once – at Brands Hatch – and scored just two more top-5 finishes.
Coupled with several finishes outside of the top-10, three retirements and one DNS, it meant that he only finished 12th in the standings, 81 points adrift from his teammate Ghirelli.
“In 2023 the team was fighting for the championship, but unfortunately I wasn’t a title contender,” admits Bleekemolen. “We’ve had some really bad luck, although there was enough potential. I’ve only been on the podium once. It has to be much better in 2024. Hopefully we can fight for the championship!”
De Groot will once again enter the new season as the reigning Legend Trophy winner, having successfully defended his Trophy title in 2023 despite being on the back foot for most of the season after missing the first round at Valencia.
While the Dutchman’s main goal is to win the Legend Trophy for three consecutive seasons, he’s also going to aim for the overall championship, stating that “it is time” for him to seriously pursue the title in EuroNASCAR’s junior division.
“I’ve been racing for more than 25 years now and I’m still surprised at how much fun EuroNASCAR is,” said the 46-year old driver. “There is a high level of competition, good racing, fast cars and well organized events.”
“Winning the Legend Trophy twice was really nice, especially in 2023 because I was far behind in points before the last event in Zolder. For me, now it’s time to fight for the EuroNASCAR 2 title. I’ll be able to compete in all the events this year and I’ll fight as hard as I can to achieve my goals.”
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