Vittorio Ghirelli and Gil Linster continued to dominate the time trials by leading the Free Practice and Qualifying for the 2024 American Festival of Rome at Autodromo Vallelunga.
Vittorio Ghirelli and Gil Linster stamped their domination in their divisions by consistently being half a second ahead during the Free Practice and Qualifying sessions for the American Festival of Rome.
There was nothing that can stop the Italian and the Luxembourger as they left everyone else needing to work on plenty of homework to figure out a way to beat them for the races at Vallelunga.
Friday Recap
After the successful parade that headlined the Campagnano Motor Village, the action at Vallelunga began with the Club Challenge round.
Gordon Barnes went on to win from rookies Bruno Costa and Reza Sardeha. A recap from Club Challenge can be read in the link here.
The Free Practice sessions followed suit and the drivers that led the practice at Valencia also topped the times in Italy.
Ghirelli, eager to make it two years where he won at home, set a lap time of 1:40.597 in the second session that placed the PK Carsport driver at the top in EuroNASCAR PRO.
No one else set a time in the 1:40’s on Friday, with second placed Liam Hezemans being only able to set a time of 1:41.178. Liam, fastest in Junior Trophy, finished the day with a 0.208 second advantage from Fabrizio Armetta in third.
Team Bleekemolen’s pairing of Marc Goossens and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen edged out Vladimiros Tziortzis for the top-5 positions. Tziortzis, who is now at the No. 1 Academy team, carries an updated blue livery on his Ford Mustang from his new sponsors HTFX.
Paul Jouffreau is seventh ahead of reigning champion Gianmarco Ercoli, who is struggling to find speed that’s capable of matching his Italian compatriot. Martin Doubek and Ulysse Delsaux rounded out the top-10 positions, both just one second behind Ghirelli.
Thomas Toffel was once again the top driver in the Challenger Trophy. The sole non-Italian in the sub-classification was thirteenth overall with a time of 1:42.346.
One driver to take note is Granducato Speed’s Mario Buscemi. Buscemi struggled to find his footing with the EuroNASCAR stock cars and ended the day with an 18 second deficit to the leaders.
Only 26 drivers took part in the Practice sessions as two drivers did not hit the track. Julien Rehberg was sidelined all-day long because of a terminal gearbox issue while Patrick Lemarie was not present at the track. The Frenchman ultimately had his entry withdrawn by Academy Motorsport.
EuroNASCAR PRO FP1 Results | EuroNASCAR PRO FP2 Results
Linster is competing with only one goal in mind: Winning. The Luxembourg driver made his intent clear with his time of 1:42.026 in the second session, which is nearly sixth tenths ahead of his teammate Doubek.
Linster’s domination in the EuroNASCAR 2 Free Practice is aided by technical problems for Doubek. This issue prevented the Czech driver from setting a lap in FP2 and nearly made him lose second overall from Patrick Schober, who came up short by just 0.013 seconds.
Toffel once again performed admirably and ended his day in fourth place, just 0.014 seconds behind Doubek. A driver that made a lot of impression is top Rookie Trophy driver Simone Giussani, fifth overall in the combined times.
Already familiar with Vallelunga thanks to legend cars and EuroLegend Cup racing, the Italian impressed many people by setting lap times that matched the division’s more experienced drivers.
Roberto Benedetti set the benchmark for the Legend Trophy competitors in sixth. Thomas Krasonis started his weekend strongly in seventh ahead of Melvin de Groot, Claudio Remigio Cappelli and Jack Davidson.
As mentioned before, Rehberg was unable to take part in the Free Practice sessions because of his gearbox issues. Another driver hampered with problems was Veeti Rajala, the Finn finishing last after failing to set a competitive lap time in FP2.
EuroNASCAR 2 FP1 Results | EuroNASCAR 2 FP2 Results
Qualifying Recap
Cloudy conditions greeted the competitors for the Qualifying sessions on Saturday morning. EuroNASCAR PRO drivers took to the track first and Ghirelli once again dominated the field with a time of 1:40.116.
The driver of the No. 24 infitto.eu Camaro was more than half a second ahead of Jouffreau with Delsaux taking a surprise third place result ahead of 2023’s main title contenders Ercoli and Lucas Lasserre.
Sebastiaan, Liam, Goossens, Dauenhauer and Doubek managed to squeak out fast times to secure their spot in Superpole. Armetta was unlucky to miss out in eleventh, as did Tziortzis and Ryan Vargas who were only 13th and 14th respectively.
However, just as they were about to hit the track for Superpole, rain began to fall at Autodromo Vallelunga. The session was delayed in anticipation of a total wash-out, but the rainfall was short enough that everyone opted to stay in the slicks.
It did made the track slippery, but it was not a problem for Ghirelli who continued his heroics. He was the only driver to set a lap time in the 1:40’s in the challenging conditions, with a time of 1:40.535 being more than enough to secure pole position.
“I had a very good car and I had a lot of grip,so I could really push to the limit,” said Ghirelli on his secrets to Andre Wiegold. “The rain that came in the Superpole made things a little bit tense.”
“We didn’t know if slick tires or rain tires were the right choice, but we went out on slicks. The track was slippery, but it was quite dry and I just nailed it in the last lap. I’m very happy to start from pole position in front of so many fans and my family!”
Jouffreau again was the closest driver to Ghirelli in the shootout, ensuring a front row start and the top spot in Junior Trophy for the RDV Competition driver. The mixed track conditions proved to be a blessing for Dauenhauer, managing a third place result in Superpole.
Goossens surprised himself with a second row start in fourth position ahead of Gianmarco and Lasserre. Delsaux, Hezemans, Sebastiaan and Doubek completed the top-10, but Sebastiaan had to take a 10-place grid penalty as a result of his involvement in the Valencia Big One.
Armetta thus will start tenth ahead of his teammate Riccardo Romagnoli, the best of the Challenger Trophy drivers. Buscemi’s pace in Practice proved to be too slow and Granducato Speed decided to not run him for the rest of the weekend.
EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying Results | EuroNASCAR PRO Superpole Results
A similar story followed in the Qualifying session for EuroNASCAR 2 as Linster once again took the top spot. A time of 1:41.338, achieved in just five flying laps, was enough to secure his third consecutive pole position of the 2024 season.
Surprisingly, it was not a Hendriks 1-2 in the results because Claudio Remigio Cappelli fought until the dying stages to beat Doubek and secure the first front row start in his career.
Crucially, Cappelli needed to run 11 laps with his new set of Hoosier tires. This makes things more challenging for the Italian because he used more compared to both Linster and Doubek – the latter only spending seven laps on the track.
“It was really tricky because we had some sprinkles of rain at the beginning, but I’m very happy with the car,” said Linster after the Qualifying. “The car was amazing to drive and I only have five laps with the tires, so we’ll be in a good position for the race.”
Another major talking point during Saturday’s Qualifying is the surprise that awaits the EuroNASCAR 2 competitors. Tziortzis has decided to make a last-minute entry and qualified fourth despite zero track time in the division’s Practice sessions.
Legend Trophy drivers proved to be highly competitive at Vallelunga. Not only did Cappelli clinched a front row starting position, his closest rivals Melvin de Groot and Roberto Benedetti set a lap time fast enough for a third row lockout.
Davidson was also impressive with a seventh place result, just half a second behind Linster. Schober and Toffel will have their work cut out from eighth and ninth respectively while Mario edges out Giussani in the battle of the rookies.
Rehberg recovered from his Friday issues to qualify 13th, but someone else would inherit his misfortune. Arianna Casoli could only do three flying laps before she had to park her car due to a mechanical issue, forcing her to start last for the first race of the Vallelunga weekend.
EuroNASCAR 2 Qualifying Results
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.