Thomas Krasonis said that his feat of breaking Ander Vilariño’s 13-year old lap record at Brands Hatch is proof that his speed improves “every single time I hit the track”.
EuroNASCAR’s longest standing lap record was shattered in American SpeedFest 12. Ander Vilariño’s 13-year old lap record at Brands Hatch was beaten by a driver that has been making a lot of impressions in the 2025 EuroNASCAR season: Thomas Krasonis.
Krasonis shattered the lap record in Sunday’s EuroNASCAR OPEN race with a time of 48.771. The Greek driver became the first driver to ever set a 48-second race lap time at Brands Hatch in EuroNASCAR stock cars.
The pace on Sunday’s running of American SpeedFest 12 is the fastest on record for stock cars at the 1.944 kilometer-long Indy Circuit.
This was proved earlier that day, when Liam Hezemans claimed the unofficial lap record in EuroNASCAR PRO. The Dutchman set a fastest lap time of 49.020, beating Vilariño’s record by 0.012 seconds.
No one, however, expected Krasonis to also lower the mark in the EuroNASCAR OPEN race. Shortly after the restart, Krasonis put in the lap of his life and smashed the lap record even further.
“The pace from Krasonis is absolutely spectacular!” exclaimed EuroNASCAR’s lead commentator Adam Weller on the live broadcast. “He’s done multiple laps under 49 seconds.”
“His best of the race, a 48.771, is the quickest race lap in NASCAR Euro Series history in either the PRO and OPEN division. The fastest lap before this weekend in PRO was a 49.0, a 49.2 was the fastest lap of all-time in the OPEN division!”
“Thomas Krasonis is, multiple times in this race, breaking the lap record for race conditions here in the NASCAR Euro Series, which is hugely impressive.”
Speaking after the race weekend, Krasonis revealed the key elements that allowed him to demolish the 13-year old record and became the fastest EuroNASCAR driver in the United Kingdom.
“I have to say that this was no easy task and it is also something that came naturally,” said Krasonis to World of EuroNASCAR.
“For the past two years, I have been training non stop under the guidance of four-time champion Alon Day. I try to be like him and learn everything that I can.”
“After that, it was all a matter of putting everything together. From race 1 of this season, I showed that I have gained a lot of speed and now can compete with the front of the pack.”
“The lap record just proves that even though the results were not ideal, my pace improves every single time I hit the track.”
The lap record is, undoubtedly, one of Krasonis’ biggest achievements in his long NASCAR Euro Series career. However, the Greek also was wondering at “what could’ve been” in Brands Hatch.
Mechanical issues in Saturday’s wet race deprived Krasonis of crucial points in the EuroNASCAR OPEN title battle. This costly retirement relegated the 23-year old down to fifth in the standings, 16 points behind new championship leader Melvin de Groot.
Krasonis acknowledged the situation in his post-race press release. However, he also promises to “never give up” and is looking forward to going back to Victory Lane in the next round at Autodrom Most.
“The truth is that luck was not on our side at Brands Hatch on Saturday,” said Krasonis. “Nothing went as we had planned and as we wanted it to, with the consequence that we were unable to continue the winning streak we had built up in the first races of the season.”
“But there are such things as that in racing. It’s just that sometimes things go wrong, as happened to us on Saturday.”
“All these years in the NASCAR Euro Series we have learned to never give up. That’s what we did at Brands Hatch and we were vindicated by the result of Sunday’s OPEN race. It was a very important podium, especially because of the conditions under which it came. Stability is key.”
“Brands Hatch is already a thing of the past. After the cancellation of the Dutch race, we have more than two months to go until the next race, at Most in the Czech Republic.”
“We’ll recharge the batteries by taking a few days off and keep going strong. There’s no room for relaxation. Our goal is to go into the Playoffs as high in the standings as possible and to do that we need to stay totally focused.”
“We are now out of joker’s, so we need to finish as high as possible in Most!”
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