Alumitec Racing’s Gianmarco Ercoli sweeps American SpeedFest 12 at Brands Hatch after Liam Hezemans suffered a late retirement in Sunday’s race.
Gianmarco Ercoli has reclaimed his throne as the “King of Brands Hatch”. The Italian completed his second sweep in the UK after he secured victory in Sunday’s EuroNASCAR PRO race.
Ercoli’s Sunday victory was fortuitous when compared to his dominant Saturday win. Liam Hezemans was leading when mechanical issues forced the Dutchman’s retirement with only nine laps to go.
Ercoli, who was running second at that point, stormed to the lead and never looked back. Alumitec Racing‘s driver won by 0.703 seconds from Vittorio Ghirelli with Paul Jouffreau completing the final podium position.
Ercoli’s sweep brings his Brands Hatch win tally to five. This puts him equal with series greats Alon Day and Ander Vilariño as the drivers with the most American SpeedFest victories.
It also reinvigorated Ercoli’s championship bid, which had been on the backfoot after tough rounds in Valencia and Vallelunga. Ercoli now sits second in the championship with only six points separating him from leader and great rival Ghirelli.
Fans packed up Brands Hatch’s Indy Circuit for the start of EuroNASCAR PRO’s race, which began at approximately 13:49 local time. Liam beat Ercoli to the first corner from pole position, but action was short lived.
Ulysse Delsaux and Max Lanza were battling for 16th place when they made contact at the front straight. The contact sent Lanza into the barriers, collecting teammate Max Marzorati in the process.
Lanza and Marzorati crashed hard into the tire stack, destroying both of their machines. Both drivers walked out under their own power and were uninjured.
The crash also caused Lanza’s No. 88 Avangarde Group Camaro to be wedged in the tire barriers. Because of this and the damage in the barrier itself, the race was red flagged at the end of lap 5.
After 34 minutes, the race was resumed after two more laps behind the Hyundai Ioniq safety car. Liam retained his lead in the restart, but further behind Jack Davidson made a great restart and gained two positions to move up to sixth.
Brands Hatch’s nature as “Monte Carlo without houses” – as described by Claudio Remigio Cappelli – made it difficult for Ercoli to attempt an overtake maneuver on Liam.
For lap after lap, the Italian can only watch as Liam made his No. 30 Rette Jones Racing Ford as wide as he possibly can.
Then on lap 28, drama happened. Liam slowed down on the Cooper Straight, allowing Ercoli, Ghirelli and Jouffreau to pass by the Dutchman. Things worsened as he started his 29th lap and the No. 30 car eventually gave up the ghost at the Druids hairpin.
Now in the lead, Ercoli began to speed up his No. 11 Ford Mustang. With clean air in front of him, there was nothing stopping Ercoli to secure a back-to-back victory at Brands Hatch.
The Italian had been downplaying his victory chances throughout the weekend. He even refused to participate in EuroNASCAR’s pre-race hype video because he only wanted to talk about his chances of becoming the “king” on Sunday.
With his sweep, there was no need to be modest anymore. Ercoli was ecstatic with his victory, but the Italian also acknowledged Liam for his masterful defense.
“I told you, I’ll wait for Sunday for the crown and today I can touch it!” said Ercoli in Victory Lane. “I’m happy because I waited until the last few laps to overtake, but on this track it’s always so difficult to do.”
“It’s a long race because of the accident in the first lap. My speed was incredible and I battled with Liam who defended really well.”
“I waited and tried to pressure Liam, but he did a really good job. I think in the last laps, he had an error in the gearbox, but I don’t know.”
Ghirelli’s second place finish enabled him to maintain his championship lead. As the mid-season championship leader, Ghirelli also received the invitation by NASCAR to compete in NASCAR Canada’s Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières.
More on that will come in a follow-up article on World of EuroNASCAR.
Jouffreau wins the Junior Trophy classification with his podium result. The French admitted that the podium “felt like a victory” after his weekend was plagued by consistent engine problems.
Sebastiaan Bleekemolen held off a fast charging Thomas Krasonis to stay in fourth at the checkered flag. Davidson claimed sixth ahead of Thomas Toffel, the clear winner in Challenger Trophy.
Giorgio Maggi, Julien Rehberg and Vladimiros Tziortzis completed the top-10 positions. Cappelli initially finished ninth, but the Italian received a 10-second penalty for spinning Fabrizio Armetta on lap 21.
EuroNASCAR PRO Race 2 Results
EuroNASCAR PRO Championship Standings
Vittorio Ghirelli’s super consistent start to the 2025 season allowed the reigning champion to enter the summer break as the overall EuroNASCAR PRO championship leader.
With 212 points, Ghirelli has a six point lead over the rejuvenated Gianmarco Ercoli. Paul Jouffreau’s retirement in Race 1 drops the Frenchman down to third, now 18 points behind Ghirelli.
Jouffreau and Thomas Krasonis were actually tied for points in both the overall and Junior Trophy standings. However, Jouffreau won the tie as he had two wins compared to Krasonis’ one.
Sebastiaan Bleekemolen stays in fifth thanks to two consistent results in the UK. Liam Hezemans’ title chances have been hampered significantly, because the Rette Jones driver now has two DNF’s with only one being allowed to be dropped after the next round in Most.
Garrett Lowe, Vladimiros Tziortzis, Fabrizio Armetta and Julien Rehberg round out the top-10 overall positions.
Despite two tough races, Claudio Remigio Cappelli is still the leader of the Challenger Trophy. However, Academy Motorsport’s driver is only separated by one point to Davit Kajaia. Max Lanza’s crash left him with an 11 point deficit to Cappelli in the battle for the top Grade C drivers.
Full EuroNASCAR PRO Championship Standings
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