Claudio Remigio Cappelli scored his first EuroNASCAR OPEN win in two years with a stunning charge from tenth to first in the wet conditions.
Nobody could have anticipated Claudio Remigio Cappelli winning from tenth on the grid when he and 22 other drivers took the green flag for the first EuroNASCAR OPEN race at Circuit Zolder.
And yet, that’s exactly what happened at the checkered flag. A sudden downpour on lap 2 – which brought out the red flag – levelled the playing field and Cappelli benefitted greatly from it.
The popular Italian driver moved up to third position after just two laps in the wet and following a brief caution for Maximilian Seth’s spin at Lucien Bianchibocht, Cappelli stormed his way to a lead that he would never surrender.
The race was shortened to 13 laps as the red flag period made it hit the time limit, but Cappelli didn’t mind it whatsoever.
“I was lucky,” said Cappelli, who won by almost eight seconds. “I’ve had nothing to lose while the others are risking the championship. I was free in my mind and I tried to drive with my experience in the rain. When the rain arrived, I made a little bit of a mistake because I went off, but the rain came and this happened! ”
Cappelli’s victory at Zolder gave him the overall title in the Legend Trophy. Family matters prevented his long-time rival Melvin de Groot from attending the Finals, meaning that Cappelli simply needed to finish Race 1 to clinch the classification title.
In addition, Cappelli also became the first driver to score both the win and most positions gained bonus points in the same race since Lasse Sørensen, who famously achieved it in his last-to-first drive at Brands Hatch in 2019.
Cappelli secured the bonus points with his charge from tenth to first. With nine positions climbed up, the CAAL Racing driver advanced one more position than Beitske Visser, who climbed eight places from where she started.
“I’m happy to win the Legend Trophy, but I’m sad that Melvin [de Groot] is not here to fight for the win,” said Cappelli on his Trophy triumph. “I’ve heard he had family matters to attend to, but this win is still special!”
The rain also greatly changed the complexity of the EuroNASCAR OPEN title battle. Second-place finisher Thomas Toffel gained a lot of points on Raphaël Lessard after the Canadian was forced to make an unscheduled stop.
Lessard would later explain that his issue came from the in-car fan, which left Lessard with no visibility in his No. 11 Alumitec Ford. He made the decision to fix the issues rather than risking a crash due to his lack of visibility.
Gil Linster completed the podium and almost gained second had he not missed his last corner overtake attempt on Toffel.
Thomas Dombrowski, Vladimiros Tziortzis, Martin Doubek and Jens Beeusaert trailed the Luxembourger to the finish with the latter securing a Master Trophy win in his home race.
Visser’s aforementioned charge landed her an eighth place finish, her first top-10 since the second round at Paul Ricard. She also took a commanding Lady Trophy win, finishing half a minute ahead of Mariam Davitidze who came home in 13th.
Master Trophy front runners Maxim van Laere and Florian Richard completed the top-10. Sandro Tavartkiladze struggled badly in the wet, having narrowly avoided being lapped by Cappelli with his 19th place finish.
There were zero non-finishers in this race despite the sudden downpour. Seth, who triggered the second caution for his spin, managed to rejoin the race after his car was extricated from the gravel trap. He finished 23rd and last, 3 laps down from the leaders.
OPEN Race 1 Results
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