Max Marzorati reflects on the tribulations that he had to experience during the American SpeedFest 12 at Brands Hatch.
Four British drivers arrived at the American SpeedFest 12 weekend with plenty of hopes. Some managed to perform beyond their expectations, while others were left reflecting on what could have been.
One of the drivers in the latter group is Max Marzorati. Marzorati competes in his second SpeedFest on the 7-8 June weekend. It’s his first as a driver for Italian powerhouse team CAAL Racing.
Marzorati was hoping that he’ll be able to fight for the top-10 positions on his second go round. His SpeedFest debut in 2024 saw the driver from Harrow on the Hill narrowly miss out on a top-10 finish.
Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. The issues began on Saturday’s Qualifying, which presented a big roadblock for Marzorati.
EuroNASCAR was forced to change its Qualifying format because overnight rain made it impossible to host the newly introduced single-car oriented format.
To keep the spirit from the single-car format, each driver was given just five flying laps to get their best lap time. This resulted in a lot of drivers going out as late as possible to maximize the track conditions.
On his flying laps, Marzorati encountered drivers who went out of the pits later than him. Some of them failed to move out of the way, making the Brit unable to set a competitive lap time in the session.
“A week on from Brands Hatch, we can reflect that it was disappointing for us,” said Marzorati to World of EuroNASCAR.
“The new qualifying format did not work out well for us. Although Gimmy [Gianmarco Ercoli] in the 11 car had great professionalism and peripheral vision to move out of the way on my flying lap, the 64 car did not have the same vision and sat in front of me for 2 laps.”
“My sixth lap, which obviously did not count, would have placed me just outside the top-10.”
This Qualifying struggles left Marzorati down on the last row on the grid. He only out-qualified Federico Monti, the sole driver to go out when the track was still damp.
The Saturday race didn’t fare better either. Marzorati was pushing as hard as he could, but he got hit with two 10-second time penalties for track limit violations. This relegated Marzorati down to 17th place in the final results.
Unfortunately, the worst then happened on Sunday. Marzorati got taken out of Race 2 in the opening lap for the second consecutive year.
Marzorati was racing in 19th place when teammate Max Lanza collided with Club Competition’s Ulysse Delsaux on the front straight. This contact sent Lanza’s to the left, straight into Marzorati’s racing line.
Marzorati was helpless as he and Lanza got sent into the tire barriers on the outside. Neither driver were uninjured, but his race was over.
“Race one was frustrating, but in race two we did not even complete a lap,” recounts Marzorati. “I had a great start and made up two places, overtaking up to Druids and positioning the car well for more overtakes.”
“The 22 car lost control coming onto the pit straight and hit the 88 car. Numerous videos and onboards show that I could only collect the 88 car at high speed. From there, my race was over.”
“My immediate concerns were for Max Lanza and I was pleased he was ok. He is a great guy. The driver of the 22 car [Delsaux] was professional and gracious. He immediately apologised for the incident as it was not deliberate.”
Despite all the struggles, Marzorati still has some positives to take from the SpeedFest. The Brit is no doubt going to try his best to put this all behind him when EuroNASCAR returns to Autodrom Most on 30-31 August.
“I wish I had qualified higher, but I cannot praise the Sharks Team Italia or CAAL enough,” concludes Marzorati. “They are a great team.”
“On a positive note, we are glad our Stetson hats went down so well with everyone. I would like to thank the great British fans who, as always, made the SpeedFest a great event.”
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.