José Antonio Peñalta was crowned as the 2025 EuroNASCAR Rookie Challenge champion after a tense battle with Maxim van Laere in Zolder.
José Antonio Peñalta clinched the 2025 EuroNASCAR Rookie Challenge title after a spectacular showdown between the Spaniard and Belgium’s Maxim van Laere in the NASCAR Euro Series Finals at Circuit Zolder.
Maxim dominated the Rookie Challenge event at his home NASCAR GP, finishing first in both timed sessions. With double points on the line for Zolder, it meant that Maxim scored the maximum 160 points on offer.
It marked Peñalta’s first EuroNASCAR loss, having won all four previous Rookie Challenge rounds. Peñalta needed to finish in the podium on both sessions to maintain the lead that he had from the season opener at Valencia.
The SpeedHouse driver did just that, finishing third and second in the timed sessions. Scoring a total of 138 points, it was enough for Peñalta to hold on to his championship lead by just two points.
“I’m really happy that I’ve won the division!” said Peñalta. “We fought so hard all year long for it. I’m so excited and so happy to stand here and be the Rookie Challenge winner.”
Mike Wise completed the podium, his first top-3 result in any EuroNASCAR division. Wise narrowly beat Nuno Caetano by virtue of having the higher finishing position in the final session.
Both Wise and Caetano finished level on total points, so the results in the final session were used as the tiebreaker.
Robin Bleekemolen grabbed her maiden top-5 finish in Zolder, the track where she made her first test laps inside the EuroNASCAR stock car.
Thomas Pourrain, Alessandro Amedei, Andreas Kuchelbacher, Davide Frulio and Jonathan Meyer completed the top-10. Amedei and Meyer ran the Club Competition machines, which had an updated livery and a change in body style from Chevrolet to Toyota for the Finals.
Yann Cristovao, Daniil Shapka, Nicole Davidson and Daniel Boys rounded out the final points paying positions.
Chase Fernandez, Reza Sardeha and Vanessa “Happinessa” Neumann also ran in the Rookie Challenge sessions, but they all opted to withdraw their right to score championship points at Zolder.
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