In a heated event that saw tempers flaring between the top drivers, Liam Hezemans dominated the first EuroNASCAR PRO oval race in five years to secure victory in front of his home fans.
EuroNASCAR’s return to oval racing at Raceway Venray ends with the crowning of a new short track master. Liam Hezemans dominated and won the main event of the 2024 NASCAR Oval GP after he led all 104 laps of the EuroNASCAR PRO race.
The 21-year old Hendriks Motorsport driver emulated the feat of his older brother Loris, who won at the half-mile venue in 2019. Despite challenges such as starting from the disadvantageous inside lane and a late restart, the Dutchman conquered every obstacle that’s thrown to him.
While it was all smiles for Liam, in true NASCAR short track fashion, tempers flared up among the primary contenders at the end of the race.
An opening lap incident between Gianmarco Ercoli and Vittorio Ghirelli left both drivers with disagreements on how it went, while Ryan Vargas was unhappy with Paul Jouffreau after the Frenchman made contact with the American.
Practice & Qualifying Recap
Just like with EuroNASCAR 2 on Saturday, all sessions for EuroNASCAR PRO were done in a single day. The action started with two Free Practice sessions that ended very dramatically as the top two finishers were separated by just 0.001 seconds.
Jouffreau was the one that came out on top, his time of 19.713 barely edged Ercoli’s own time of 19.714. Ghirelli and Liam were third and fourth ahead of Marc Goossens, who made his return after he was forced to skip the SpeedFest due to a schedule clash with his role as Kalle Rovanpera’s mentor.
Vladimiros Tziortzis and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen were the last drivers to reach the 19-second mark in Practice. Doubek, Tobias Dauenhauer and Ryan Vargas completed the top-10 with Thomas Toffel finishing as the fastest Challenger Trophy driver in twelfth.
One driver who did not set a lap time in Practice was Thomas Dombrowski. While he was listed in the Entry List for EuroNASCAR PRO, the Frenchman’s entry was quietly withdrawn by Race Planet Team Bleekemolen.
EuroNASCAR PRO FP1 Results | EuroNASCAR PRO FP2 Results
The single-car Qualifying was both expected and surprising. The expected factor came from Ghirelli, who continued his perfect Qualifying pole streak. The Italian set a lap time of 19.507 to clinch his sixth pole position of 2024.
Liam, Ercoli and Jouffreau filling the top-4 positions were expected as well, but a surprise came from Vargas. The American found more speed in his 3F Racing machine and qualified a career-best fifth place with his No. 30 Critical Path Security Camaro.
Goossens, Doubek, Tziortzis, Bleekemolen and Dauenhauer rounded out the top-10 positions. Toffel once again was the fastest in Challenger Trophy, out qualifying the SpeedHouse Racing drivers who had a shocking time in the session.
Ulysse Delsaux was eight tenths off of Ghirelli in 14th place, while Lucas Lasserre had a 1.3 second deficit to the leaders and could only qualify in 16th position.
EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying Results
Race Recap
At approximately 15:30 local time, Ghirelli led a field of 18 cars to the green flag for the showdown at Venray. Martin Doubek sadly wasn’t able to take the start, opting to sit out the race after he experienced severe neck pain during Qualifying.
Ghirelli should have gained the advantage by starting on the outside, but Liam kept his No. 50 HOOSH Toyota alongside at the first corner. Ghirelli and Ercoli then made contact entering Turn 3, giving Liam the chance to complete the overtake.
Ercoli then passed Ghirelli on Lap 3 and quickly set his sights on Liam. However, try as he might, Venray’s single groove nature and lapped traffic made it difficult for the reigning champion to get by the Hendriks driver.
A lifeline was given to Ercoli when Toffel had a spin on lap 92, bringing out the only caution period. Liam and Ercoli restarted on the front row when the race got underway again on lap 99, but the Italian got loose in the middle of Turns 1 and 2.
Ercoli managed to save his No. 54 Steelduxx/HPM Camaro away from disaster, but it spelled the end of his victory challenge. Liam cruised by in the last six laps to take the checkered flag in front of the home fans.
“It was a real survival job, but that’s NASCAR at its best!” said Hezemans in the Victory Lane. “I need to catch my breath because it was so intense. It’s an awesome job, thank you to all the Hendriks Motorsport team as they gave me a perfect car for our home race.”
“Thank you to Gianmarco as well because the battle was really nice. He tried it (to overtake), but I stuck to it and gave my maximum. We got it at the end, so I’m incredibly happy!”
Liam also took the win in the Junior Trophy, solidifying his lead in the Trophy standings. Ercoli and Jouffreau completed the podium ahead of Ghirelli and Vargas, but as mentioned above, things got heated up between them post-race.
Immediately after Ercoli was interviewed by Andre Wiegold, he and Ghirelli entered an intense war of words as they talked about what happened in the opening lap.
A senior CAAL Racing team member had to physically separate the two Italians to prevent the breakout of a post-race fight.
“I don’t like the move in the first lap, he braked a lot earlier when he lost the position to Liam,” said Ercoli on his point of view of the incident. “He could’ve gone to the wall. He didn’t hit the wall because I braked a lot.”
“In Turn 3, he just didn’t brake and wanted to put me in the wall because I’m leading the championship,” said Ghirelli from his perspective. “He came to me and said that I braked early, but it was the first lap and I braked at the normal braking point.”
For Vargas, the American directly approached Jouffreau after the race to express his thoughts after both drivers made contact at Turns 1-2 on lap 35.
“He braked a lot at the apex and I touched him a little bit,” said Jouffreau on how it went. “He was really wide, I took the inside and afterwards it was two-wide at the second turn.”
“There’s no pushing, he was too focused on me. I don’t know why he thinks like this. We’re in Europe, there’s rules, we don’t touch drivers. You can’t do that and I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“He drove through me,” said Vargas from his perspective. “Paul got to my rear bumper, didn’t give me a chance and just drove through my rear end. It’s completely crap, my rear bumper was destroyed.”
“I ran hundreds of races on an oval and that was one of the most disrespectful moves that I’ve ever experienced and I want everyone to know that.”
Despite his frustrations towards Jouffreau, Vargas did get the upper hand on the Frenchman in the Endurance Teams Championship.
His aggregate time across both classes were faster than Jouffreau and Patrick Schober’s combined times, allowing 3F to secure their first Teams victory of the season.
Bleekemolen came home sixth as the last car in the lead lap, having got the free pass during the caution. Dauenhauer was seventh ahead of Goossens, who experienced a last lap trouble that dropped the Belgian down to eighth.
Marko Stipp Motorsport drivers Thomas Krasonis and Victor Neumann completed the top-10, having fought each other all race long. Toffel recovered in the restart to finish eleventh, again topping the Challenger Trophy in the process.
Tziortzis and Lasserre struggled for race pace and were only 12th and 13th in the end. Constantin Scholl was the best of the debutants in 14th. The Austrian also brought home the 4 bonus points for most positions gained.
The only retirement in the race was Liam Lambert, who had to park his car after completing 75 laps due to engine issues in Lux Motorsport’s No. 21 GT Omega Chevrolet Camaro.
Championship Standings
With power steering issues preventing Ghirelli from finishing on the podium, the Italian’s lead in the championship has been trimmed again. The PK Carsport driver still leads with 237 points, but Liam closed the gap as the new second placed driver.
Liam is seven points behind Ghirelli, with Ercoli a further two points behind in third overall. Jouffreau maintains fourth with 219 points as does Lasserre, still fifth with 204 points to his tally.
Dauenhauer and Delsaux also kept their sixth and seventh positions, but Doubek’s DNS relegated the Czech driver to tenth. Vargas and Krasonis now sits in a joint-eighth place on points, the American placed ahead due to a better best finish.
Toffel moved back to the lead in the Challenger Trophy with 156 points . While this came by default because none of his Trophy rivals competed at Venray, it gave the Swiss driver an additional result to fall back to later in the season.
EuroNASCAR PRO Points Standings