Race Art Technology encountered many unique challenges in their return to oval racing at Raceway Venray, as spoken by team manager Paola Pellò and driver Thomas Toffel.
Race Art Technology completed their first race at Raceway Venray in last month’s NASCAR Oval GP. Venray’s high-speed nature presented plenty of challenges for Race Art and driver Thomas Toffel, both making their debut at the half-mile oval in the Netherlands.
The event marked the Swiss team’s first oval round in six years, having last competed at an oval during the 2018 Oval World Challenge at Tours Speedway.
This effectively meant that the team had to start over from the beginning, as acknowledged by team manager Paola Pellò.
“The NASCAR Oval GP was a very exciting race, but also a challenging and intense weekend, quite different from other competitions of the championship,” said Paola to World of EuroNASCAR.
“It’s our first time at Venray after a first experience in ovals at Tours in 2018 and for our driver Thomas, it’s his first time in this kind of race, so it’s practically a completely new context.”
Paola also spoke about the steep learning curve that ovals had in comparison to the more traditional circuit courses, acknowledging that oval racing is never as simple as it looks.
“The oval may seem like a simple race with two corners, but really it has several critical points,” said Paola on oval racing’s difficulty.
“For example, it requires constant concentration from the driver and management of the tires, both for pressure and for consumption.”
What’s also important is the need to have good communication, as it’s the key to find the right setup at an oval. This is something that Paola revealed to be the key in Toffel being able to secure the Challenger Trophy win in Sunday’s EuroNASCAR PRO race.
“All the team has worked strongly during the race weekend to prepare the best car setup that permits the driver to perform at the maximum and go fast. Not easy considering the little time available in this short race weekend and even the accidents occurred,” said Paola.
“The turning point came on Saturday evening after a very intense debriefing with telemetry and video analysis, understanding what points needed to be improved, both in setup and in cornering trajectory.”
“We found a good and right setup that allowed Thomas to drive well and fast, make a cool race and achieve the first place on the podium of Challenger Trophy and the 11th overall in PRO’s race.”
“We are satisfied after a weekend in increasing performances and it’s sure to be a good background for the next ovals!”
Toffel also acknowledged the difficulties of oval racing, admitting that turning left for more than 100 times was more taxing than any other race that he had previously.
The 33-year old driver did have a tough time at Venray, having crashed his No. 34 SIMATOK Camaro on Practice and spun his car around in the closing stages of the EuroNASCAR PRO race, but he ultimately found oval racing to be thrilling.
“For my first experience in oval racing, I can say that this kind of race is really cool, but now I understand that turning left during 100 turns is much harder for mental and physical condition,” said Toffel, currently third in the EN2 standings and also the overall leader of Challenger Trophy in ENPRO.
“It was not an easy weekend because we didn’t have experience of oval at all and we used a lot of time to understand and find the correct setup of the car. My Saturday was my hardest race mentally because I can’t go fast with my car, which was sliding too much.”
“Sunday was another thing. We worked strongly on Saturday after the first race to find a good setup and at the end I took good confidence with the car in the PRO race on Sunday afternoon.”
“I made a mistake when I tried to overtake the guys in front of me, but I finally finished 11th overall. It’s not what I hoped before the race weekend, but it’s not a bad way to finish my first weekend of oval racing.”
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