Vittorio Ghirelli brings joy to the tifosi with his dominant pole-to-checkered flag victory in EuroNASCAR PRO’s Sunday race at Vallelunga.
Vittorio Ghirelli ensures that Italian tifosi get to celebrate the achievement of their motorsport heroes this weekend. While Ferrari are back to being clowns in Imola, Ghirelli returns to the Victory Lane at Vallelunga after he secured his first EuroNASCAR victory in 2025.
Ghirelli was untouchable in Sunday’s EuroNASCAR PRO Race 2. The 2024 EuroNASCAR champion drove off to the lead from pole position and never looked back.
Only Liam Hezemans was able to keep up with the Italian. Liam’s fresher tires – thanks to his Saturday DNF – kept the gap down to half a second, but Ghirelli’s masterful defense left no room for the Dutchman to make a challenge for the win.
“It was a really hard race,” said Ghirelli in Victory Lane. “Liam was very fast, so I didn’t really make any mistakes. He was on fresher tires and it was tough to keep the rhythm.”
“I tried to cool down the tires for a few laps, but then they overheated again. I was sideways around every corner, I really fought for this.”
“Thanks to my sponsors for all their support here. I have around 100 people, friends and sponsors who came to support me. The team deserved this, we struggled in the beginning of the season but the car is now spot on thanks to PK Carsport!”
Thomas Krasonis’ third place finish secures a double podium for PK Carsport. PK Carsport celebrates this achievement with their special guest Pedro Cueto, the first amputee racer in WSK karting.
Martin Doubek finished fourth, this time with no scooters and a fully working gearbox. Gianmarco Ercoli and Paul Jouffreau struggled to match their speed from Saturday and could only finish fifth and sixth respectively.
Seventh went to Claudio Remigio Cappelli, who got off to a great start in the first half of the race. Cappelli picked off Jouffreau in the opening lap and almost passed Gianmarco on lap 9.
Jouffreau managed to re-overtake Cappelli when the Italian’s tires started to fall off. The Academy Motorsport driver then paced himself to the finish, easily securing the Challenger Trophy win in the process.
Fabrizio Armetta, Garrett Lowe and Vladimiros Tziortzis completed the top-10. Armetta’s new racesuit brought an interesting talking point as it showed the logos of Tresor Competition, Audi’s main team in GT World Challenge.
Sunday’s PRO race also saw an unexpected debutant at Team Bleekemolen. Michael Bleekemolen chose to sit out the race and hand over the No. 72 Toyota Camry to Bruno Mulders, giving the 17-year old a surprise debut in EuroNASCAR’s top class.
Despite the last-minute call-up, Mulders performed competitively. The young Dutchman brought the No. 72 car from 18th to 12th, securing the four bonus points for most positions gained.
Mechanical issues once again hit Davit Kajaia, whose Team Georgia car slowed to a crawl late on. Marc Goossens and Jack Davidson also retired from mechanical gremlins, while Max Marzorati had to make an unscheduled stop for the same reason.
Neither Ulysses Delsaux, Yvan Muller or Julien Rehberg were present in this race. With their cars totaled from Saturday’s EuroNASCAR OPEN crash, they are faced with a race against time to get their cars ready before American SpeedFest 12 on 7-8 June.
EuroNASCAR PRO Race 2 Results
EuroNASCAR PRO Championship Standings
Vittorio Ghirelli’s Sunday win makes for a very tight EuroNASCAR PRO championship battle heading to the next round in the UK.
With 142 points, Ghirelli is only three points behind championship and Junior Trophy leader Paul Jouffreau. The Junior Trophy battle is also closely contested, with Thomas Krasonis only four points behind the Frenchman.
Gianmarco Ercoli and Sebastian Bleekemolen are fourth and fifth, 19 and 25 points behind Jouffreau respectively. Garrett Lowe, Liam Hezemans, Vladimiros Tziortzis, Fabrizio Armetta and Martin Doubek round out the top-10 positions.
With Davit Kajaia suffering from a double DNF, Claudio Remigio Cappelli moves up to the top spot in Challenger Trophy. Cappelli – with 92 points – leads fellow countryman Max Lanza by six points.
Full EuroNASCAR PRO Championship Standings
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.