Patrick Lemarié returns to the series for a fourth full-season EuroNASCAR PRO campaign with Academy Motorsport, the team that gave him his first victory in 2022.
EuroNASCAR PRO’s oldest race winner Patrick Lemarié is returning to the series after a year of hiatus. The Parisian will be reunited with the team that gave him his big breakthrough in the sport: Academy Motorsport.
Lemarié and Academy’s reunion was confirmed on 5 April 2024, ensuring the 56-year old Frenchman’s comeback after a year of hiatus.
Lemarié had left the sport at the end of the 2022 season to focus on nurturing young talent through his racing academy FEED Racing, but now he is set to accompany his replacement Vladimiros Tzioirtzis in Academy’s No. 1 Ford Mustang for the 2024 season.
He was attracted to the allure of EuroNASCAR from fellow FEED Racing founder and best friend Jacques Villeneuve, who made headlines by racing full-time with Go Fas Racing in 2019 and saw EuroNASCAR as a good place to train themselves and FEED’s young talents.
Lemarié, who had already retired from racing for 16 years at that point, decided to follow JV’s footsteps and join the sport in 2020 after they purchased half of Vict Motorsport to form FEED Vict Racing.
The 2020 season was an acclimatization year for Lemarié, who finished 17th in the standings with two top-10 finishes. However, the alliance with Vict didn’t last and both Lemarié and JV chose to go to two separate teams for 2021: Lemarié to DF1 Racing, JV to Academy.
2021 was an improved year for Lemarié in terms of speed, but he was beset by horrible reliability. He only saw the checkered flag thrice, retired from five races and didn’t even start in two of them.
However, there’s one light at the end of the tunnel: He saw the potential that Academy had. Villeneuve scored two victories by sweeping the season finale at Vallelunga and his one-off outing with Academy to replace JV at Zolder brought him his best finish of the year.
With the Canadian unable to race full-time in 2022 due to his media commitments, Lemaré was chosen to replace his best mate at the Italian-Monegasque team.
The move to Academy brought immediate success. Lemarié nearly secured pole at Valencia, only to be denied by track limits. He consistently fought for top-10 finishes for the rest of the year, but it wasn’t until the season finale at Croatia’s Automotodrom Grobnik where he had his breakthrough.
A spirited drive on Saturday led to his first podium finish, allowing him to become the oldest podium finisher in EuroNASCAR’s top class – a record previously held by Bobby Labonte.
Then on Sunday, lady luck came to bless him. Gianmarco Ercoli and Giorgio Maggi made contact late in the race, putting Lemarié in the lead with just two laps to go.
He fended off Nicolo Rocca and Alon Day to finish first, securing his first win in more than two decades and the record for the oldest EuroNASCAR PRO winner – a record that, fittingly, was previously held by Villeneuve.
Now at 56 years old, Lemarié admits the memories of the victory at Rijeka left a long lasting impression on him. Knowing that he still had the speed despite his age, he’s now prepared to be back after taking part in the pre-season tests.
“I won the last race in EuroNASCAR PRO and it was a good end to the 2022 season, but I want to win again,” said Lemarié to euronascar.com. “I’m really looking forward to driving an EuroNASCAR car again and my goal is to give the young generation in the championship a hard time.”
“I’m really enjoying racing with Academy Motorsport and it’s always great to spend time with Federico and Alex’s team during race weekends. I’m happy to be back.”
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