Vittorio Ghirelli and Gil Linster opens their 2024 EuroNASCAR campaign with a Qualifying pole position, having also led the Free Practice sessions in Valencia.
Vittorio Ghirelli and Gil Linster enjoyed a perfect start to their 2024 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series campaign with excellent performances in Practice and Qualifying. Both drivers topped the charts in the all-important shootout to secure pole position for the first race of the new season.
Ghirelli had to overcome plenty of adversity – chiefly track limits – in order to achieve the result, while Linster took a risky bet that paid off as he qualified half a second faster than anyone else in the field.
Recaps from Thursday’s Prologue, Friday’s Free Practice sessions and Saturday’s Qualifying can be read in the sections below.
Thursday & Friday Recap
The activities in the 2024 Valencia NASCAR Fest starts on Thursday with the official Prologue test session. It is the only official pre-season test that EuroNASCAR organizes, although teams are free to test at any time they want – and most have indeed done so prior to the Prologue.
Prologue was held for 210 minutes and was open for all teams and drivers to participate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s the reigning Teams champion RDV Competition that finishes the day on the top with a time of 1:40.800.
What is surprising is the team that finishes second: The Club Motorsport. Fabrizio Armetta was just 0.045 seconds away from a surprise top spot in the Prologue, beating powerhouses such as PK Carsport and CAAL Racing who were third and fourth fastest respectively.
Bremotion completes the top-5 with the No. 99 IZECC Camaro ahead of the two Bleekemolen Camry’s, two Hendriks cars and Patrick Lemarié’s No. 1 FEED Racing Ford. Problems were encountered by Academy’s other car however, as the No. 5 team was sidelined with gearbox issues for most of the session.
Friday’s action started with the season opening round of EuroNASCAR Club Challenge and Gordon Barnes from Marko Stipp Motorsport came out on top. A recap from Club Challenge can be read in the link here.
Free Practice sessions for EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 were held afterwards and in the top class, Vittorio Ghirelli topped the timesheets with a time of 1:40.779. He was closely followed by top Junior Trophy driver Paul Jouffreau, who was only 0.069 seconds behind PK Carsport’s new signing.
Ghirelli’s old teammate Sebastiaan Bleekemolen was third and was also the last driver to set a lap time under 1:41. Tobias Dauenhauer was fourth ahead of defending champion Gianmarco Ercoli and Armetta, the latter proving that the speed of the No. 55 Dinoil Camaro was not a fluke.
Another noteworthy thing to note with Armetta is that he has been promoted to Grade B for the 2024 season thanks to the podium finish that he secured at Zolder last year. It meant that the Italian is now ineligible to compete in the Challenger Trophy.
Marc Goossens, Liam Hezemans, Thomas Toffel and Martin Doubek completed the top-10 positions. Toffel’s performance was enough to secure first place in Challenger Trophy ahead of Riccardo Romagnoli and Max Lanza.
Only 24 cars took to the track for the ENPRO Free Practice sessions, with three proving to be non-participants: Reza Sardeha was only entered for EN2 and Club Challenge, Romain Iannetta raced in the Michelin Le Mans Cup opener at Catalunya while Alessandro Lebourgois didn’t turn up at all.
EuroNASCAR PRO FP1 Results | EuroNASCAR PRO FP2 Results
On the other hand, all 25 drivers that entered EN2 did take part in their Free Practice sessions. At the end of the day, Daytona sensation Gil Linster came out as the fastest driver with a time of 1:41.358.
Racing the colorful No. 50 HOOSH/GIMS Toyota Camry, Linster led teammate Martin Doubek to secure a Hendriks Motorsport 1-2. Third is RDV’s new EN2 driver Patrick Schober, just 0.263 seconds behind the Hendriks duo.
Legend Trophy was topped by Melvin de Groot, fourth fastest in the overall times. Both he and Toffel – fifth fastest – have made a statement with their performances in Free Practice, showing their intent to become a championship challenger in 2024.
Thomas Dombrowski was sixth ahead of Kenko Miura and Claudio Remigio Cappelli. Miura’s performance was particularly exceptional as he led a considerable amount of the sessions on his first outing in a year.
Jack Davidson and Thomas Krasonis completed the top-10 positions despite sitting out several combined sessions. Rookie Trophy was led by Victor Neumann, just ahead of fellow debutants Simone Giussani and Julien-Noel Rehberg.
EuroNASCAR 2 FP1 Results | EuroNASCAR 2 FP2 Results
Qualifying Recap
Saturday’s activity started with the Qualifying session for EuroNASCAR’s two main divisions. Valencia’s strict enforcement of track limits caused plenty of headaches as countless laps were disallowed from drivers all across the board, including Ghirelli.
Ghirelli had to spend many laps before he set a legal lap time in Qualifying, which thankfully was more than enough to secure top spot.
It was one the closest Qualifying sessions in ENPRO history as the top-18 drivers were separated by just one second, eliminating several big names such as Goossens and Jouffreau in the process.
The problems were repeated for the Italian in Superpole as both of his flying laps were initially disallowed by the stewards. However, PK Carsport lodged a successful complaint that would secure pole for the newly minted combo.
“It was a really stressful qualifying,” admits Ghirelli in the post-Qualifying interview. “The car was very good and I was able to set fast lap times, but apparently they deleted the lap times.”
“We then brought the footage of the onboard and it was later judged to be correct. We might have done more laps on our tires, but it’s okay as what’s important is that we’re starting first. I’m looking forward to seeing the fans in Race 1!”
With a time of 1:40.773, Ghirelli sits 0.355 seconds clear from Dauenhauer. The German was initially declared as the pole winner before Ghirelli’s time was reinstated. He was a further 0.006 seconds ahead of Armetta, who continued his hot streak by securing the best Qualifying performance in his career.
Sebastiaan was fourth ahead of Gianmarco, who announced the birth of their daughter Ludovica in the morning before Qualifying. Sixth position is Liam, the only Junior Trophy driver to advance to the Superpole shootout.
Doubek and Lucas Lasserre filled the fourth row ahead of Toffel, who made it to the Superpole for the first time. He’s also the leader in Challenger Trophy and like Liam, was the only one of his compatriots to make it to Superpole.
2023 pole winner Tziortzis was relegated to tenth with both of his Superpole lap times deleted. Teammate Lemarié just missed out on Superpole as did Ryan Vargas, who were on the verge of a top-5 result were it not for track limits.
Goossens and Jouffreau were only 14th and 15th, both of whom hampered by car issues: Oil leak for the experienced veteran and an oversteering setup for the young rising star.
EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying Results | EuroNASCAR PRO Superpole Results
There were no such issues for Linster in EuroNASCAR 2’s Qualifying. The Luxembourger continues to set the pace at Valencia with a dominating performance, setting a lap time half a second faster than teammate Doubek in the 20-minute long session.
“We had a perfect lap time at the end!” said Linster, whose best lap time in the session was 1:41.406. “Martin was very close and that was the reason for me to drop the pressure in the tires and go out for one more lap.”
“We took the risk to do it, but we just had a perfect lap. I think I didn’t push the tires too much, but they definitely have got some laps in now.”
Toffel had a session to enjoy after he secured third place. Even though he had a spin in Turn 11 midway through the session, the Swiss recovered by setting his career-best Qualifying performance.
Schober would start his first race with RDV in fourth ahead of Cappelli, the fastest of the Legend Trophy drivers. Cappelli and de Groot’s battle for the top spot in the Trophy for drivers aged 40 and above came to the wire as they were separated by just 0.045 seconds.
Dombrowski, Miura, Roberto Benedetti and Krasonis filled the top-10 positions. Giussani was the fastest of the Rookie Trophy contenders in 11th and it too came down to the tiny margins as 0.040 seconds separated the Double V Racing driver from Bremotion’s Rehberg.
Sixteen-year old uncle Mario Ercoli beat fellow Rookie driver Victor Neumann for 14th on the grid. Finnish driver Veeti Rajala was 18th while Arianna Casoli starts her journey to 100 starts in 23rd place.
EuroNASCAR 2 Qualifying Results
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.