A retirement in Oschersleben won’t stop Max Lanza’s ambitions to become the Challenger Trophy winner as he still has a shot to win at the Zolder Finals.
Max Lanza experienced a challenging weekend at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben where he once again acted as the solo driver for CAAL Racing’s No. 88 Avangarde Group Camaro across EuroNASCAR’s two main divisions.
“It was a shame because we could have been much further ahead. We’ve always struggled on this track, but we still found a good balance for this weekend,” comments Lanza on his post-race press release.
Roberto Benedetti did take to the track in the regularity-based EuroNASCAR Club Challenge to assess his recovery progress. Positive signs were recorded in Germany, but it’s unknown whether the 49-year old will be fit for the season finale at Zolder.
After Benedetti’s time was up, Lanza was in charge of the No. 88 machine and started to work on getting the setup right for the races.
Practice went promising as he finished as the top Challenger Trophy driver in 13th overall. He was beaten by Liam Lambert on Qualifying, but Lanza was only 0.036 seconds behind Lux Motorsport’s rookie driver.
However, Lanza was unable to capitalize on his strong starting position. Club Motorsport’s Riccardo Romagnoli was the class of the Challenger Trophy on Saturday and a spin for Lanza meant that he had to accept a 17th place finish.
Despite this, he managed to find his way on the Challenger Trophy podium because Lambert had a collision with the recovering Vittorio Ghirelli that compromised the Brit’s chances.
For Sunday, Lanza lined up in 16th on the grid. He started alongside Romagnoli, but the fastest Trophy qualifier was Toffel, who started in third place amongst the championship contenders.
This midfield starting position would come to bite Lanza. Ryan Vargas, who started 14th, ran wide on Hotel and tagged the Italian into a retirement.
Toffel, on the other hand, maintained his position to the checkered flag and secured his first overall podium finish.
The results meant the Swiss took over the Challenger Trophy lead with 266 points, but Lanza is only 13 points behind and will give everything that he can to secure his first overall Trophy win.
“On Saturday, we take the maximum from the race, stepping onto the podium in the Challenger Trophy and keeping our competitors in check,” said Lanza on the races at Oschersleben.
“We would have kept the lead in the standings on Sunday as well, managing our advantage. Unfortunately, contact at the first corner sent me violently into the wall, and the race ended there.”
“We lost all our advantage and now have to recover 13 points, but I’m not worried: with double points, we’re still perfectly in the contention. There’s no room for error at Zolder. The dream continues!”
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Last Updated: 14 December 2024