Melvin de Groot grabs a sensational first career victory in American SpeedFest 12 after surviving all kinds of madness in Saturday’s OPEN race.
American SpeedFest 12’s EuroNASCAR OPEN Race 1 has cemented itself as one of the craziest and most bizarre races in the championship’s history.
The insanity was very much over the top. There were surprise leaders, unexpected performances, a new race winner, and the craziest of all, a rainfall that’s so heavy that it cut out the electricity and internet at Brands Hatch.
Amidst the broadcast issues, one man stands tall as the clear winner: Team Bleekemolen’s Melvin de Groot. De Groot took advantage of mistakes from Matthew Ellis and Thomas Toffel to clinch his first victory in the series.
De Groot did not put a foot wrong throughout the race, which was shortened due to the 40 minute time limit. His performance in the rain would certainly make fellow Dutchman Max Verstappen proud.
To cap it all off, de Groot also jumped up to the lead of the overall standings. The Team Bleekemolen driver holds a five point lead to Thomas Dombrowski heading to Race 2, which has a long way to go to live up to the hype from Race 1.
Rain threats were the name of the game at Brands Hatch on Saturday. Overnight rain had forced EuroNASCAR to change their Qualifying format. Drizzles had also been spotted in EuroNASCAR PRO’s Saturday race, but rain ultimately played no factor there.
In between EuroNASCAR PRO and OPEN’s races, British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) was hosting their Qualifying session at Thruxton – 100 miles southwest from Brands Hatch.
This Qualifying shootout – which was won by Ashley Sutton – was held in wet conditions. More importantly, radar showed that rain and wind from Thruxton was heading northeast – straight to Brands Hatch.
This rain arrived right as EuroNASCAR OPEN started their formation lap, drenching the circuit within minutes. The extended formation lap gave the opportunity for nearly everyone to make an unscheduled stop, as they had chosen to start the race on slicks.
However, not all went to the pits. Five drivers started the race on wets: Dominique Schaak, Andres Beers, Florian Richard, Sven van Laere and Vanessa “Happinessa” Neumann, and they all stayed out throughout the formation lap.
Schaak, who qualified in 14th, found himself as the unexpected race leader when the green flag dropped. Beers got past the German shortly after, but then came a really bizarre moment.
The track’s electricity suddenly switched off. With no electricity, the broadcast soon went offline – right as Beers aquaplaned his No. 1 Icefactory Europe Ford at Surtees.
With dangerous conditions and no electricity, race control had to stop the race. Electricity returned minutes after and rain eased to safe conditions. This allowed race control to restart the race at 17:15 local time – 22 minutes after it was stopped.
However, it soon became apparent that internet systems at Brands Hatch are still unstable. The renewed stream got cut off again right when the race resumed.
Numerous attempts were made by EuroNASCAR to try and get their stream back up. Unfortunately, the internet’s volatility meant that EuroNASCAR was only able to restart their stream with eight laps to go.
EuroNASCAR apologized to the fans for the unexpected technical difficulties. The series is currently working hard to get a full race replay uploaded in the near future.
Back on the track, the race was resumed after five laps of caution period. Roberto Benedetti, Jordan O’Brien and Michael Bleekemolen were trapped a lap down, while Patrick Schober got the free pass.
While the field circulates behind the safety car, Cappelli and Vanessa were forced to make unscheduled stops due to mechanical issues on their Academy and Bremotion machines.
Schaak quickly got jumped by Thomas Toffel at the restart on lap 7. Toffel had risen back up to third when the race was red flagged. The German ultimately was a non-factor, circulating seconds off the leader’s pace.
Before the lap had even been completed, Matthew Ellis came by to overtake the Swiss. This handed the Brit a surprise lead in Lux Motorsport’s No. 21 GT Omega Camaro.
Ellis has raced in Brands Hatch countless times, so he knows the perfect line to drive in the treacherous conditions.
The Brit led from lap after lap, keeping his opponents at bay by about four seconds. However, mistakes started to creep in and he ran off at Paddock Hill on lap 20, losing the lead to Toffel.
Ellis then aquaplaned at Surtees on the very same lap. He managed to rejoin the race in eighth position, but chances for an incredibly unlikely victory have now disappeared.
Unfortunately for Toffel, his lead was short-lived yet again. De Groot got past the Swiss at the start of lap 21 in what is perhaps one of the greatest overtakes in series history.
De Groot bravely pulled a Mika Häkkinen-esque overtake by going to the inside of Vanessa Neumann’s lapped car and then the outside of Schaak’s lapped car to get the move done at Paddock Hill.
This was a lead that de Groot did not relinquish until the checkered flag. With de Groot finishing first, he also took home victory in the Legend Trophy classifications.
Toffel was relieved to finish second after his Vallelunga woes. Martin Doubek initially crossed the line in third, but the champion received a 10-second penalty for spinning Beers on lap 9.
This promoted Bruno Mulders to the final podium position, securing Team Bleekemolen their first double podium in the overall results. Mulders also grabbed the win in Master Trophy and four bonus points for having the most positions gained.
Mulders’ Master Trophy rivals Thomas Dombrowski and Sandro Tavartkiladze completed the top-5. Doubek drops down to sixth with Schober finishing a quiet seventh. Ellis and O’Brien rounded off the drivers in the lead lap in eighth and ninth positions.
O’Brien’s performance was particularly impressive. Despite having zero experience with EuroNASCAR stock cars, the American showed plenty of speed in his Club Competition Camaro.
His speed was such that he managed to get past the leaders by lap 15, putting him back on the lead lap on his own power. O’Brien also secured the fastest lap, handing him and Club their first ever pole positions.
Richard was the first of the lapped cars in tenth ahead of Beers and Benedetti. Davide Frulio, Mike Wise and Gordon Barnes kept their cars clean and finished in 13th, 14th and 15th respectively.
In spite of the chaos, only two cars retired from the race: Thomas Krasonis and Bleekemolen, retiring after completing 16 and 14 laps due to mechanical troubles.
Cappelli rejoined two laps down, while Vanessa slowly crawled her way to last as she rejoined 14 laps down from the leaders. Despite this, Vanessa took a Lady Trophy win by default as the sole competitor in the classification.
She gracefully wore Arianna Casoli’s shirt at the trophy ceremony, reminding the fans that the paddock eagerly waits for her return after the injury that Casoli suffered at Vallelunga.
EuroNASCAR OPEN Race 1 Results
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.