Vittorio Ghirelli and Patrick Schober blitzed past the previous track record on their way to pole position in Qualifying for the 2024 NASCAR GP Czech Republic.
Vittorio Ghirelli and Patrick Schober were lightning fast in Qualifying for the 2024 NASCAR GP Czech Republic at Autodrom Most. The Italian and the Austrian not only claimed pole position in their respective classes, but they also broke the existing track record during the session.
Ghirelli went sub-1:40 to secure his seventh pole of the year, while Schober took his first career pole position in the process. With the Czechia round being the final event of the regular season, Ghirelli and Schober gained an edge that they aim to turn into good finishing results.
Friday Recap
The weekend action began on Friday morning with the return of EuroNASCAR Club Challenge, the regularity based division having their first round since Vallelunga in May.
Rookie Reza Sardeha was the one to take the victory, defeating fellow debutant Bruno Costa by the slimmest of margins. The recap for Club Challenge can be read in the link here.
Two Free Practice sessions for both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 soon followed and in the top class, Ghirelli once again came out on top. A winner of two previous Most races, the Italian led both sessions and finished the day with a best lap time of 1:40.307.
Fabrizio Armetta, one of the 2024 season’s big surprises, nailed the setup immediately and went to second in the combined timesheets. He was 0.331 seconds behind Ghirelli, with Sebastiaan Bleekemolen a further 0.029 second behind in third.
Marc Goossens and Gianmarco Ercoli completed the top-5 as the last cars in the 1:40 range. Paul Jouffreau led the Junior Trophy in sixth ahead of his main rival Liam Hezemans. Tobias Dauenhauer, Martin Doubek and Vladimiros Tziortzis rounded out the top-10.
Thomas Toffel was the fastest of the Challenger Trophy contenders in 12th place, four places ahead of Ryan Vargas who was struggling due to a broken shock absorber in his No. 30 Critical Path Security Camaro.
Liam Lambert and Simone Giussani also had problems, both drivers not taking part in FP2 due to mechanical and crash damage respectively. Only 23 drivers took to the track as Julien Rehberg’s entry was withdrawn prior to Free Practice.
EuroNASCAR PRO FP1 Results | EuroNASCAR PRO FP2 Results
In EuroNASCAR 2, Gil Linster copied Ghirelli’s copybook by topping both sessions and ending the day as the fastest in the combined times with a time of 1:41.172.
Just like in ENPRO, there was a surprise second place finisher in the form of Melvin de Groot. The tall Dutchman outpaced home crowd’s favorite Martin Doubek by three tenths of a second to take second.
Patrick Schober, Toffel and Jack Davidson got the ground running with their top-6 finishes. Mario Ercoli – his car now running Dale Jr.’s DEI font – was comfortably ahead in the Rookie Trophy in seventh overall, with nearest rival Veeti Rajala only eleventh in the end.
Rajala was beaten by Thomas Krasonis, Thomas Dombrowski and Claudio Remigio Cappelli to the top-10 positions. Luli del Castello topped the Lady Trophy ranks in 16th place.
EuroNASCAR 2 FP1 Results | EuroNASCAR 2 FP2 Results
Qualifying Recap
With the sun shining brightly at Autodrom Most, the fans that arrived early on Saturday morning were treated with a record breaking Qualifying session. The main headline was grabbed by Ghirelli, who took two new records in ENPRO’s Qualifying and Superpole.
Not only did Ghirelli break Alon Day’s previous Qualifying track record of 1:40.066 with the Italian’s pole time of 1:39.774, the PK Carsport driver also became the first ENPRO driver to secure five consecutive Qualifying Pole Awards.
Ghirelli had to truly earn his records because Paul Jouffreau pushed the Italian to the limits in Superpole. The Frenchman also broke the 1:40 barrier with a final time of 1:39.774, good enough for a front row start on Saturday’s race and first in Junior Trophy.
“It was a really amazing session,” said Ghirelli after Qualifying. “It was close in the end, I gave a nice slipstream to Paul and he probably improved by two or three tenths, but he was really fast so I had to push a lot.”
“Everything went good and clean in the last lap and the car was flying. It’s a super job by PK Carsport and now I want to take seven out of seven this year.”
Team Bleekemolen continued their good weekend with a third and fifth place for Goossens and Sebastiaan respectively. Sandwiching them is Liam, who will start Race 1 from fourth on the grid.
Armetta, Gianmarco, Doubek, Lucas Lasserre and Ulysse Delsaux completed the top-10 positions. Tziortzis, Dauenhauer and Vargas just missed out on the Superpole while Toffel was fastest in the Challenger Trophy, 14th overall for the Swiss driver.
EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying & Superpole Results
EuroNASCAR 2’s Qualifying also saw the top-2 qualifiers breaking the previous track record of 1:40.752 set by Doubek, but they went a step further by having an even tighter final result.
Melvin de Groot looked to have pole secured with a time of 1:40.684, but Schober swooped in the last few minutes. By going just 0.015 seconds faster than de Groot, the Austrian successfully claimed his first career pole position on the track where he took his first podium last year.
“It’s amazing, I’m really proud of the team,” said Schober after his excellent showing. “They did a good job throughout this weekend and I finally got the Pole Award. I can place it over my simulator at home, look at it and say that ‘I’m a EuroNASCAR pole winner.’”
Doubek could only muster up a third place finish yet again, but crucially for the Czech driver he was ahead of his nearest rival Gil Linster. The Luxembourger was only fourth, having been unable to find the extra edge he needed to beat his teammate.
Cappelli qualified a strong fifth, but was beaten by de Groot in the Legend Trophy race. Davidson, Toffel, and Dombrowski followed next with Simone Giussani fastest among the Rookie Trophy in ninth. Thomas Krasonis was tenth.
Del Castello also struggled to find speed in Qualifying, only qualifying 18th and two positions ahead of Arianna Casoli. Nick Strickler failed to set a lap time due to a mechanical issue on his No. 48 Sequent Camaro.
EuroNASCAR 2 Qualifying Results
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.