SpeedHouse’s José Antonio Peñalta wins on his Rookie Challenge debut at home in Spain after he secured enough points to beat fellow rookie Maxim van Laere.
The 2025 EuroNASCAR Rookie Challenge season started off with a memorable first-time winner. EuroNASCAR’s return to Valencia resulted in a popular home win for Spain’s newest stock car talent, José Antonio Peñalta from SpeedHouse Racing.
Peñalta claimed victory in his debut thanks to his consistency. In the two sessions held at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Peñalta was classified in first and fourth positions. That gave Peñalta a total of 73 points, giving him an advantage of just a single point in the final results.
“It was nice!” said Peñalta after his victory. “Yesterday I couldn’t train too much because of the red flags. It was difficult, but we have a good consistency and I think we can fight well for the season!”
Finishing runner-up is a fellow rookie in Maxim van Laere. Maxim took the top spot in the second session, but was fifth in the first one. With only 72 points scored, the Belgian had to settle for the runner-up spot.
Third place went to another rookie, Team Bleekemolen’s Bruno Mulders. Mulders is set to compete in EuroNASCAR OPEN, but he’s allowed to take part in Rookie Challenge thanks to the updated provisions.
Mulders finished runner-up in both sessions, which by itself gave him 70 points. Crucially, Mulders also picked the second fastest reference time of the round. This gave Mulders two bonus points, allowing him to equal Maxim’s tally of 72 points.
Reigning champion Federico Monti was only fifth, being sandwiched by two SpeedHouse drivers. Former Isle of Man TT rider Nuño Caetano was fourth, beating teammate Andreas Kuchelbacher who ended up in sixth.
As a side note, Kuchelbacher swapped rides with Penalta prior to the start of the event. The Austrian was initially listed to compete in the No. 14 Ford Mustang.
Russian-born Italian and Sharks Team Italia driver Daniil Shapka finished seventh. Yann Cristovao was only eighth ahead of Yann Schar and Mike Wise.
Another PRO / OPEN driver to use their provision and compete for the Rookie Challenge championship is Vanessa Neumann. “Happinessa” previously competed at Most last year, but her second outing only resulted in an eleventh place finish.
Nicole Davidson, Davide Frulio and Daniel Boys rounded out the field. Frulio is the sole driver of the No. 89 CAAL Racing Camaro for the event. As it turns out, the car is the BS+ Competition test car that Garrett Lowe drove on his maiden EuroNASCAR test.
Frulio is particularly ambitious at Valencia as he picked the fastest reference time out of anyone. Given that he only finished 13th, suffice to say that his decision had backfired.
There is, however, a small consolation for Frulio. As hinted in Bruno Mulders’ paragraph, EuroNASCAR is rewarding drivers that picked the fastest reference times in Rookie Challenge.
Because Frulio’s reference time is the fastest, the Italian received three bonus points as a reward for his daredevil act.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.