Jordan O’Brien and Club Competition were denied a historic first win at Czechia after a post-race penalty left them with just 0.013 seconds of deficit to Thomas Krasonis.
The first EuroNASCAR OPEN race at Autodrom Most was initially shaping to be the greatest race in the careers of both Jordan O’Brien and Club Competition.
A massive opening lap kerfuffle and troubles to his closest chasers opened the path for O’Brien to bring the No. 22 Dinoil Camaro to the Victory Lane after 13 laps of hard racing at Czechia.
However, all of the joy and smiles dissipated when he was called to race control shortly after the race. Race control deemed O’Brien to have jumped the restart on lap 3 and administered a 5-second time penalty to the American.
The penalty was game changing, as O’Brien finished the race 4.987 seconds ahead of Thomas Krasonis in second. As a result, the Las Vegas resident was denied from his fantastic victory by a mere 0.013 seconds.
No doubt this penalty is going to sting, but the results still show that O’Brien and Club Competition have the keys to win in EuroNASCAR. It’s now a matter of whether they find the opportunity to return to the Victory Lane once again.
Krasonis was pleased with the win as it closed his considerable deficit to championship leader Melvin de Groot. However, he wasn’t happy with Valentino Gambarotto following the Italian’s divebomb in the first lap that started the chain reaction of incidents and penalties.
“Apparently some think that they will win in the first corner,” said Krasonis after the race. “They [Gambarotto] risked other drivers’ race for one move because they could see the leaders from seventh. It’s not possible to do so in Most.”
“Out of luck nobody took me in at the start, I managed to stay calm, put the pace in and bring the car home. It’s crazy what has happened.”
Gambarotto ended up retiring when the No. 11 Alumitec Racing Ford seized with just three laps to go. It happened only a few laps after Bruno Mulders crashed out of the race from second position.
Mulders was putting a lot of pressure towards O’Brien in the first half of the race. However, the front-right suspension in his No. 72 Toyota failed again on lap 9. The car then careened off into the tire barriers, ending the young Dutchman’s podium bids in a cloud of dust.
Mulders’ retirement promoted Claudio Remigio Cappelli up to second. However, with two laps to go he was overtaken by Martin Doubek. Doubek was set back by Gambarotto’s opening lap incident, dropping down as far back as seventh.
The two-time EuroNASCAR OPEN was set to maintain his second place result when he spun around by Cappelli after the Italian misjudged his braking point into the chicane on the final lap.
This contact allowed Sandro Tavartkiladze to sneak by and claim a surprise podium finish. Joining Krasonis and O’Brien in the rostrum, Tavartkiladze made history as the first Georgian driver to finish top-3 in EuroNASCAR.
Doubek recovered to fourth, but the drama didn’t stop there. As it turns out, both Doubek and Mulders set the same fastest lap of the race: 1:42.015.
After some deliberation, it was determined that Doubek will be the one to start Sunday’s Race 2 from pole position as he had a higher finishing position than Mulders.
Fifth went to Patrick Schober, who maintained his streak of consistent top-5 finishes. Club Competition brings both of their cars to the top-10 with Valerio Marzi finishing sixth in the flagship No. 55 car.
De Groot had an eventful race as well. The championship leader almost missed the start due to a broken rear driveshaft, but a quick repair by Team Bleekemolen mechanics gave him the room to finish seventh.
Andres Beers, Thomas Dombrowski and Dominique Schaak completed the top-10 ahead of Gil Linster.
Linster would’ve been the main beneficiary of O’Brien’s penalty as he finished second on the road. However, during the start incident, Linster failed to fully stop his No. 30 mirkaafenaerenauto.lu Ford Mustang after straight lining through the chicane.
This resulted in a 30-second penalty that dropped Linster down to eleventh place. With Linster’s title bid already at a thin edge following his Brands Hatch absence, the penalty has all but eliminated him from title contention.
Rookie Fabrice Pantani crossed the finish line in 15th place. The Monegasque was only half a second away from making it to the Legend Trophy podium.
The race was shortened from its initial race distance of 14 laps because of a formation lap incident involving Vanessa “Happinessa” Neumann.
Vanessa’s car, already struggling with engine issues in Qualifying, failed to start in the formation lap.
The stranded No. 77 OnlyFans Camaro necessitated the use of an additional formation lap because it hadn’t been recovered in time when the field circled back the first time around.
EuroNASCAR OPEN Race 1 Results
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