Vittorio Ghirelli and Thomas Krasonis shattered the existing Circuit Zolder lap records during Free Practice sessions for the 2025 EuroNASCAR Finals.
PK Carsport drivers Vittorio Ghirelli and Thomas Krasonis made a big statement in EuroNASCAR PRO and OPEN’s opening day at the 2025 NASCAR Euro Series Finals after they broke Circuit Zolder’s lap records in the Free Practice sessions.
Their respective times of 1:36.784 and 1:37.525 were faster than the existing qualifying and lap records for either division.
In Ghirelli’s case, his Practice pace was 0.071 seconds faster than Stienes Longin’s Qualifying record and also 0.117 seconds faster than Alon Day’s race lap record. Both of these were set in 2021.
Krasonis, on the other hand, beat the two lap records that Paul Jouffreau set en route to his 2023 EuroNASCAR 2 championship title. That year, Jouffreau set a new lap record of 1:38.078 and 1:37.641 for Qualifying and race lap respectively.
The lap record pace was an ominous mark for Ghirelli and Krasonis’ challengers, as both drivers are leading their respective championship standings heading to the races on Saturday and Sunday.
EuroNASCAR PRO Practice Recap
Vittorio Ghirelli was completely untouchable in EuroNASCAR PRO’s Practice sessions. The Italian was already hitting the 1:36’s in FP1 and was almost half a second faster than his closest challenger Paul Jouffreau at the end of the day.
Jouffreau still led the Junior Trophy drivers in second overall, but he faced stiff opposition from Liam Hezemans. Liam, who has an outside shot at the title, was within a tenth of Jouffreau.
Fourth place surprisingly went to Thomas Toffel, who was firing all cylinders at Zolder. The Swiss comfortably led his Challenger Trophy rivals during Practice, finishing seventh in FP1 before he went three steps ahead in FP2.
Thomas Krasonis was fifth in PRO, almost one second slower than Ghirelli’s record breaking times. Fabrizio Armetta just missed out on a top-5 finish in sixth.
Armetta also had a last-minute teammate in Marc Goossens. “The Goose”, who had been absent from EuroNASCAR lately to focus on his RedAnt Racing team manager duties, negotiated a late deal with Armetta to secure a seat in Club Competition’s No. 22 Toyota on Friday morning.
Goossens ended up 17th overall, 2.341 seconds behind Ghirelli and a tenth behind the returning Ryan Vargas.
Gianmarco Ercoli had a lot of homework to do after only finishing seventh fastest, 1.108 seconds behind his great rival Ghirelli. Garrett Lowe, Martin Doubek, and Davit Kajaia completed the top-10 positions.
Igor Stefanovski had problems in his first running as an EuroNASCAR driver. The Macedonian crashed his No. 20 Visit & Enjoy Macedonia Chevrolet Camaro on FP2, relegating him to 24th in the combined times.
EuroNASCAR PRO FP1 Results | EuroNASCAR PRO FP2 Results
EuroNASCAR OPEN Practice Recap
Krasonis was in charge right from the start. He set his lap record time in FP1, but the Greek then had difficulties in FP2 that left him tenth in the session leaderboards. However, no one else was able to beat his FP1 time.
Gil Linster was the one to take advantage of Krasonis’ FP2 struggles. The Luxembourger finished Friday as Krasonis’ closest opponent, ending his day just 0.2 seconds slower than the PK Carsport driver.
Bruno Mulders led an ever-competitive Master Trophy field in third. Sandro Tavartkiladze and Valentino Gambarotto followed suit to close out the top-5 positions.
Tavartkiladze and Kajaia’s Practice performances showed that Team Georgia had no problems with a changing support crew.
Team Georgia rekindled their support to Marko Stipp Motorsport for the Finals. Tavartkiladze and Kajaia had started their season as MSM drivers before they left to form their own team from Vallelunga onwards.
Thomas Toffel, Thomas Dombrowski, Martin Doubek, Claudio Remigio Cappelli and Melvin de Groot rounded out the top-10. Cappelli led the Legend Trophy classifications with his ninth place result, but de Groot remained close with only 0.127 seconds of deficit to the Italian.
Davide Frulio was the best of the returnees in 14th. Nick Strickler was 16th, while Reza Sardeha was only 19th fastest.
As the only female driver competing this weekend, Vanessa “Happinessa” Neumann – who was 21st in Practice times – had officially secured the overall Lady Trophy win in 2025.
EuroNASCAR OPEN FP1 Results | EuroNASCAR OPEN FP2 Results
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.