A dominant victory from Thomas Krasonis in Valencia allowed the PK Carsport driver to become Greece’s first top class race winner.
Thomas Krasonis has truly established himself as a star in the making. Just a day after scoring his EuroNASCAR OPEN victory, Krasonis followed it up with a historic first win in EuroNASCAR PRO.
Having blown up his start in the preceding EuroNASCAR OPEN race, the Greek learned from his mistakes by making sure that he got to the first corner in first position.
As it turns out, front row starter Paul Jouffreau had an engine issue that caused the Frenchman to be down in power. This helped Krasonis to maintain his lead in the opening lap.
To make things sweeter for Krasonis, Yvan Muller made a great start and jumped up from fourth to second. Muller’s move pretty much sealed Krasonis’ victory, as it took Vittorio Ghirelli and Jouffreu a long time to pass the touring car legend.
After 18 laps of maintaining his pace at the front, Krasonis crossed the finish line to become Greece’s first winner in EuroNASCAR’s top division.
“First of all, the basics: Costamare, Dodoni, Alon Day, my trainer, my friends, my family, my team boss, the guys from PK, everybody. Without them, this would not be happening!” said an emotional Krasonis in Victory Lane.
“This is not possible without our combined efforts. I don’t have anything to say, it’s been six years in this championship and in 24 hours we scored two wins!”
“We broke every record here this weekend and hopefully with the title in the end, we can break many more!”
It looked like “deja vu” had struck Ghirelli when he once again found himself in the back of Muller’s No. 34 M Racing Camaro. This time, however, Ghirelli came prepared.
The Italian wrestled past Muller on lap 5 and cruised to a second place finish. Therefore, PK Carsport secured a 1-2 finish for the first time since 2020. Ghirelli acknowledged that he wished he could pass Muller earlier, but he remains happy with his speed improvement.
Muller’s rock solid defense was a nightmare for Jouffreau in this race. The young Frenchman, who left Muller in the dust on Saturday, learned the hard way on just how well Muller can defend from his opponents.
Jouffreau made an overtaking attempt for lap after lap and every single time, the attempt was thwarted by Muller. Eventually, Jouffreau found an opening on lap 12 to secure his podium finish.
Muller had to settle for fourth, still showing the tenacity that made him so great in his days. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen completed the top-5 ahead of fellow countryman Liam Hezemans.
Garrett Lowe again had a strong race onboard the No. 99 BS+ Competition Camaro. The American finished seventh, proving that his preparations over the past year did not go away in waste.
Gianmarco Ercoli once again found himself behind Lowe in the final results. Gianmarco’s race was slightly impacted by an incident in the first FCY period, where he reacted too late and collided with Jouffreau. The impact caused a minor damage in the hood of his No. 11 Alumitec Ford.
Behind him, there was a fantastic scrap between full-time rookies Jack Davidson and Julien Rehberg. Davidson and Rehberg fought hard and traded paint with each other. At one point, Rehberg even pointed his finger to the Scotsman.
Davidson wound up having the last laugh, however, as he finished ahead of Rehberg. His ninth place finish was a consolation award for Lux Motorsport, who suffered from three DNF’s in Valencia.
Legend Trophy victory went to Davit Kajaia, but not without dramas. The Georgian found himself trying to pass the lapped down car of Michael Bleekemolen when they entered the final corner.
At the corner exit, Michael lost traction and spun right in front of Kajaia. With nowhere to go, Kajaia collided with Michael and they were dragged into the grass. Fortunately, neither suffered race-ending damage and they crossed the finish line in 14th and 18th respectively.
The win was fortunate for Kajaia, as he finished 13 seconds behind Claudio Remigio Cappelli on the road. However, Cappelli extended the track limits so much that he received three separate 10-second penalties.
Cappelli still finished ahead of Max Lanza, who also had a 10-second track limit penalty of his own.
SpeedHouse did not have a great race on Sunday. Only one of their cars finished the race, which was Vladimiros Tziortzis. Even then, the Cypriot dropped out of the top-10 positions despite starting from sixth on the grid.
EURONASCAR PRO RACE 2 RESULTS
EuroNASCAR PRO Championship Standings
Thomas Krasonis exits the season opening Valencia NASCAR Fest as the championship leader in EuroNASCAR PRO. Krasonis becomes the first Greek driver to lead a NASCAR sanctioned championship thanks to his breakthrough weekend in Spain.
Jouffreau’s third place finish on Sunday meant that he will be Krasonis’ closest opponent. Only one point separated them in not only the overall standings, but also the Junior Trophy.
Vittorio Ghirelli will have some work to do as he trails Krasonis by seven points. The defending champion is one point ahead of Yvan Muller, who is expected to only race in Valencia as a substitute for Yann Ehrlacher.
Liam Hezemans and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen are tied for fifth place. Garrett Lowe followed behind in seventh with Gianmarco Ercoli, Vladimiros Tziortzis and Julien Rehberg all completing the top-10.
Davit Kajaia leads the Challenger Trophy standings in 11th place overall. Like with Krasonis and Jouffreau in Junior Trophy, only one point separates Kajaia to his closest rival Kenko Miura.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.