Problems that were out of his control, both on and off-track, prevented Victor Neumann from repeating his Rookie Trophy heroics in the American Festival of Rome at Vallelunga.
Victor Neumann’s time in the Autodromo Vallelunga didn’t go as well as he had hoped for. After an impressive showing in Valencia where he scored a double Rookie Trophy podium, the Frenchman was prevented from repeating this feat due to issues that were out of his control.
Neumann’s weekend in NASCAR GP Italy started with a 21st and 13th place finishes in the combined Practice times for both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2.
The latter result was enough for third in Rookie Trophy, just behind his main rivals Julien Rehberg and Mario Ercoli. It gave him hope for a Trophy podium repeat, but Saturday’s results turned out to be more challenging.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t put everything together in Qualifying, and I was going to start the first PRO race P22 and the first EN2 race P14,” said Neumann on his Saturday performance.
“We fought hard to bring the car home in P16 in the first PRO race, winning our fights on both attack and defense.”
The first EuroNASCAR 2 race followed shortly after and Neumann managed to avoid Claudio Remigio Cappelli and Patrick Schober’s heavy incident on the opening lap, putting him up to ninth place for the Safety Car restart on lap 5.
On the restart, he challenged Ercoli and Melvin de Groot for eighth position on the run to the heavy braking zone at Cimini. Ercoli and de Groot then made contact, sending the Dutchman’s car into the path of Neumann.
De Groot and Neumann’s contact was inevitable and it took down the right-front tire of the No. 47 AIX Camaro. Forced to retire from the race, the incident also briefly triggered a Full Course Yellow period to allow marshalls to safely recover the Marko Stipp Motorsport machine.
“The first EN2 race saw us avoiding a crash in the first lap and making four positions in only a few corners,” Neumann said on what happened.
“At the Safety Car restart we were fighting for P7 at the first braking zone, before getting hit by a car right on my front right tire. It was my first DNF of the season and hopefully the last one.”
With no fast laps being set, Neumann had his work cut out for Sunday’s Race 2 as he was due to start the race from 22nd on the grid. However, his clutch was acting up during the morning warm-up and this meant further problems for the Frenchman.
“We were going to start EN2 Race 2 last, but it went worse,” revealed the 25-year old rookie. “A clutch issue in the morning warm-up meant the Marko Stipp Motorsport mechanics worked super hard to get me on track on time, but it didn’t work and we started from the pitlane, two laps down.”
“We kept up with the front runners who lapped us quite well, showing that it is a matter of putting everything together and a little bit more luck for us to fight for top-5’s on a regular basis.”
Neumann closed his luckless Vallelunga weekend with a 22nd place finish in the second EuroNASCAR PRO race, last of the lead lap finishers.
With the next race being at Brands Hatch, the Frenchman hopes that he and the No. 47 AIX Camaro team will be able to perform better at the site of his EuroNASCAR 2 debut last year.
“Let’s push hard in Brands Hatch on the June 8th weekend,” concludes Neumann. “Despite being in England, this is my home track and I’ve been there a lot in the past. I’m very ready to push harder than ever and show what I’m worth. See you there!”
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