Gianmarco Ercoli comfortably led Czech’s favorite Martin Doubek in the first Autodrom Most race to clinch his 13th career EuroNASCAR PRO victory.
Autodrom Most has not been kind for Gianmarco Ercoli in the past two seasons. In both 2023 and 2024, the Italian struggled to find the speed and was always on the backfoot when compared to his rivals. However, that is not the case anymore in 2025.
Ercoli translates his dominant Qualifying performance to an equally dominant pole-to-win result in Race 1. He led Martin Doubek by 4.442 seconds to cement his third consecutive win of the season.
The Alumitec Racing driver is elated with this victory as he acknowledged the trials and tribulations that he had to face to realize his dreams.
“It’s an incredible emotion because it’s my first win from the front row at this track,” said Ercoli in the Victory Lane. “Most hasn’t given me the best results in the past, so I stayed focused during the summer break.”
“It was an impressive job from the team because the car was perfect. We only had little problems at the end of the race, but I’m happy with the results and the starting position for tomorrow.”
Doubek tried to give his best to bring home a popular first EuroNASCAR PRO win, but he quickly realized that the No. 7 Orion Ford doesn’t have the speed to match Ercoli’s No. 11 Alumitec Ford.
The Litomsyl-born driver then conserved his car for what he hoped to be a better race on Sunday. Completing the top-3 finishers is Garrett Lowe, who became the first American to score a top class podium since Bobby Labonte in 2018.
The race itself proved to be a challenging one for Lowe. The so-called “hybrid racer” was not up to pace and lost positions to both Doubek and Thomas Krasonis in the first few laps.
Things changed for the better once the No. 99 BS+ Competition Camaro starts to dial in. Lowe fought hard to keep up with Krasonis and on lap 7, the iRacing talent completed the pass on the chicane to secure his best EuroNASCAR result to date.
Krasonis then struggled with overheating on his way to fourth. The Greek narrowly held on from Fabrizio Armetta, who took his first top-5 finish of the season.
Krasonis’ Junior Trophy rival Paul Jouffreau also had his fair share of struggles. Contact with Liam Hezemans left him with a 10-second time penalty and an off-track moment at the chicane further limited what the Frenchman could do in the race.
The penalty relegated Jouffreau from sixth to ninth in the final results. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Jack Davidson and Giorgio Maggi benefited from this penalty after all three drivers had a solid race in their respective machines.
Team Bleekemolen drivers Bruno Mulders and Michal Makes fought like hell and back for what turned out to be the final top-10 spot. Mulders was the victor of this battle, beating Makes by 0.723 seconds at the line.
Claudio Remigio Cappelli ran an uncharacteristically quiet race on his way to 12th overall. Despite this, 12th is still enough to clinch the Legend Trophy win ahead of Max Lanza and Federico Monti.
Thomas Toffel and Davit Kajaia suffered from pre-race issues that forced them to start from the pit lane. Both drivers also made unscheduled stops after the issues crept up again, but they all finished the race in 18th and 20th – two and five laps down from Ercoli.
The same luck can’t be said for Liam and Vittorio Ghirelli, who retired with fuel pump and brake issues respectively. Neither driver went down without a fight however, as they knew that fastest lap would determine their starting position for Race 2.
This fastest lap plan was successful and paid its dividends. Ghirelli’s lap time of 1:41.133 is enough to clinch pole position in Sunday’s race, while Liam’s time of 1:41.310 placed the Rette Jones Racing driver in third behind the great rivaling pair of Ghirelli and Ercoli.
EuroNASCAR PRO Race 1 Results
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.