Rette Jones Racing and M Racing made early headlines in the 2025 NASCAR GP Spain by putting the fastest Free Practice lap times.
The 2025 Valencia NASCAR Fest has seemingly turned into a happy hunting ground for NASCAR Euro Series newcomers.
After José Antonio Peñalta took home victory on his Rookie Challenge debut, it’s the turn of the new teams to shine. Both Rette Jones Racing and M Racing put their cars on top of the table during the Free Practice.
Liam Hezemans led the charge for Rette Jones after he topped the timesheets in EuroNASCAR PRO. The Dutchman set the initial benchmark of 1:41.263 in FP1. Although he failed to improve in FP2, the time was still enough for Hezemans to stay in the lead.
Paul Jouffreau’s efforts in FP2 came up short as his best lap of 1:41.290 was slower by just 0.027 seconds. This does mean that Hezemans and Jouffreau are once again neck-and-neck in the race for Junior Trophy.
Third place, unexpectedly, went to touring car legend Yvan Muller. With Yann Ehrlacher unavailable due to TCR’s testing rules, Muller is doing a one-off outing with his own team M Racing.
Despite not competing for many years, Muller showed that he still got it as he ran times that would put him in race winning contention come race day.
Reigning champion Vittorio Ghirelli was only fourth ahead of Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and new teammate Thomas Krasonis. Rival Gianmarco Ercoli was seventh ahead of iRacing star Garrett Lowe, who put on an impressive showing on his first offline NASCAR outing.
SpeedHouse teammates Vladimiros Tziortzis and Giorgio Maggi completed the top-10. Claudio Remigio Cappelli in eleventh is the fastest in the Challenger Trophy ahead of Davit Kajaia and Kenko Miura.
Further down the order, Michael Bleekemolen finished the day 21st fastest. The 75-year old makes his debut in EuroNASCAR’s top class after five seasons in EuroNASCAR OPEN.
PRO FP1 RESULTS | PRO FP2 RESULTS
In EuroNASCAR OPEN, M Racing leads the charge with Thomas Toffel. The Swiss took advantage of M Racing’s hefty pre-season testing programme into good use on their most important Valencia visit to date.
With a time of 1:41.988, Toffel is the only OPEN driver to set a lap time below the 1:42 mark. Toffel led from Krasonis, who put the No. 13 Costamare Inc. Camaro in second despite issues in FP1.
Cappelli placed his No. 5 Cremona Gronde Ford in third, placing the Italian as the top Legend Trophy driver. Patrick Schober was fourth ahead of Gil Linster, who briefly led Practice early in FP1.
Sixth place driver Thomas Dombrowski became the first Masters Trophy session leader with his good Practice times. A little worrying sign comes from defending champion Martin Doubek, who was only seventh fastest.
Bruno Mulders followed his Rookie Challenge podium finish earlier that day with eighth overall in OPEN’s Free Practice. Melvin de Groot and Kenko Miura rounded out the top-10 positions.
Georgia’s Sandro Tavartkiladze made a great impression on his first competitive outing. Despite issues in FP1, the Tbilisi-born driver made some strong laps in FP2 to put the No. 48 Georgia Automobile Sport Federation Camaro in eleventh overall.
Lady Trophy sees a tug-of-war between veteran Arianna Casoli and rookie Vanessa Neumann. They traded the top spots before Casoli put a lap time of 1:48.787 to decisively beat “Happinessa”.
OPEN FP1 RESULTS | OPEN FP2 RESULTS
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.