Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
Vladimiros Tziortzis and Alberto Naska shared the wins at Autodrom Most in a round that saw both of them encounter troubles in the race where they didn't win.
NASCAR GP Czech Republic proved to be a challenging round for EuroNASCAR 2's race winners Vladimiros Tziortzis and Alberto Naska. Tziortzis recovered from a potential DNS to win Saturday's race while Naska was hit with mechanical gremlins that left him way down the running order.
A reversal of fortunes was in order for Sunday however, as it's Naska's turn to visit the Victory Lane. The Italian was dominant in heavy rain conditions while his rival had to retire early due to a mechanical trouble of his own. Tziortzis' retirement bunched up the 'Big Three' in the overall standings heading to next month's round at Oschersleben.
The recap of the races can be checked in the sections below.
Race 1 Recap
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series
The first race for the EuroNASCAR 2 drivers was due to go to green at 17:20 CEST, but it had to be delayed because Stefani Mogorović's car broke down before the race had even started. As a second formation lap was needed to recover her Ford Mustang, the officials decided to shorten the race by one lap.
And so it was pole sitter Vladimiros Tziortzis who led a 22-car field to the start of the 13-lap race. Drama came almost immediately as Alberto Naska and Paul Jouffreau had a tangle together on the run to the chicane, causing both of them to miss it completely.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
The biggest troubles, however, came to the No. 8 Italicus Camaro of Paolo Valeri and the No. 65 UTOR srl Camaro of Riccardo Romagnoli. Romagnoli hooked and climbed over Valeri's car, sending both drivers into an immediate retirement. Both Italian's argued heavily shortly after, but no punches were thrown by either driver.
Their stranded cars led to a lengthy caution period, but eventually the race was restarted on lap 5. While there was a brief Full Course Yellow interruption late in the race as a result of Claudio Remigio Cappelli beaching his car in the gravel trap, Tziortzis eased away from his rivals to score his fifth victory of the season.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Japo Santos
The Cypriot driver was very relieved with the result as he revealed post-race that the team had to change the gearbox on his No. 5 Academy FJ after the issues that he had in the preceding EuroNASCAR PRO race. He admitted that he was close to not starting the race had the team failed to change it in time.
"It was a good race after a stressful two hours!" said the Academy Motorsport star in the Victory Lane. "We had to change the gearbox because in the last two corners of the EuroNASCAR PRO race, I lost second and third gear. We nearly lost some positions there, but this one was a perfect race."
"We didn't push over the limit and the key was in the restarts and Full Course Yellows. We did everything right and I'm happy that the team allowed me to race in just two hours because it would have been such a shame not to race this one after the podium in EuroNASCAR PRO!"
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Japo Santos
Gil Linster ran second for most of the race, but he lost a podium chance towards the end of the race. Both Jouffreau and Patrick Schober got past him on the penultimate lap, relegating the Luxembourger down to fourth as Jouffreau and Schober celebrated a podium finish at Most.
Jouffreau's podium was his sixth in seven races while Schober celebrated his and Double V Racing's maiden podium finish. Unfortunately for the Austrian, his hand slipped while he tried to open the champagne bottle. The 'incident' shattered his bottle to pieces, forcing the officials to clean up the podium area before the Trophy podiums can be hosted.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
Rookie Trophy started the podium for the trophies once the spill was cleaned away, but cruelly Jack Davidson did not get to celebrate there. For some reason the Briton was penalized immediately after the race, but the stewards later reversed their decision and Davidson got his first top-5 career finish with the top Rookie Trophy silverware in his hands.
Davidson led a quartet of Rookie Trophy drivers as Thomas Dombrowski, Nick Schneider and Valerio Marzi all missed out on the victory in the sub-classification. The latter received bonus points for most positions gained after moving up 13 places, having started from dead last due to a 10-place grid penalty.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Japo Santos
A new career-best finish was achieved by Alina Loibnegger on her return to the junior class, finishing ninth overall to take the win in Lady Trophy. The Austrian avoided any mistakes and had a great pace, clearly showing just how much she has learned from the top drivers in EuroNASCAR PRO.
Roberto Benedetti closed out the top-10 and brought home the top spot in Legend Trophy despite being penalized for moving out of the restart formation before the start/finish line was crossed. Sven van Laere just missed out on his first career top-10 finish in eleventh ahead of Matthias Hauer.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Japo Santos
Martin Doubek was fifth on the line, but was penalized to 13th place after causing a collision with Melvin de Groot. The favorite of the fans in the Czech Republic did score the fastest lap of the lap though, narrowly edging out Naska for both finishing position and pole in Race 2.
Retirees Thomas Toffel and Michael Bleekemolen were classified in 15th and 16th respectively, ahead of Arianna Casoli who was 17th after she made an unscheduled stop. Cappelli still finished, albeit in 18th as the last car still running. De Groot, Valeri, Romagnoli and Mogorović completed the classified starters.
One driver who did not take the start is Eric Quintal. The co-driver of SpeedHouse's flagship No. 64 Ford Mustang withdrew from all Saturday on-track activities because he was feeling unwell. Thankfully, he was fit to compete for Sunday.
EURONASCAR 2 RACE 1 RESULTS
Race 2 Recap
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Japo Santos
The weather was still dry for the morning Warm-Up, but heavy rain arrived by the time EuroNASCAR 2's drivers were preparing for their second race of the weekend. The rain caused Nick Schneider and Alina Loibnegger to spin off on their sighting lap, but they were able to join the other drivers for the start of the race.
To ensure the safety of everyone involved, the first lap of the race was done behind the Safety Car so that the drivers can familiarize themselves with the wet track at Most.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Japo Santos
Once the Corvette pace car pulled off, pole sitter Martin Doubek was able to make some gap to Alberto Naska and Paul Jouffreau, who were busy battling each other for second place.
Doubek's advantage didn't last long as Naska was already at his tail by lap 3. The driver of the No. 7 Orion Ford tried his best to defend his lead, but Naska's pace was too strong and the Italian was able to find a way past two laps later.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
It was a lead that Naska would never relinquish. Despite some issues towards the end with the intensifying rain, the 33-year old driver held on for his second win of the season and his third victory at the Czech Republic.
"CAAL Racing always told me that the car is great in wet conditions, but I never had the chance to try it. Today was the first time and I got to say 'Yeah, they're really good at making cars!'" said Naska in Victory Lane.
"Since the beginning I saw that I had a much better pace, so I began to look at where I could pass Doubek. As soon as I passed him, I started to push. In the end I was struggling a bit because I suddenly lost grip. The pace went down by two to three seconds a lap, but I won so that's the most important thing!"
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Japo Santos
Doubek was soon caught by Jouffreau, but the Frenchman briefly turned his No. 3 Cartolux Ford Mustang into a rallycross machine after he outbraked himself when he tried to overtake Doubek on lap 7.
Jouffreau lost a lot of ground to both Doubek and Gil Linster, but he recovered to finish second after passing Linster on lap 11 and making a daring last lap pass to the Czech driver on the last lap.
Home crowd hero Doubek did make it to the podium in the end, finishing third ahead of his teammate Linster who once again was fourth - the sixth time he finished there in 2023.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
Claudio Remigio Cappelli charged his way up to fifth and looked to be challenging for the podium positions midway through the race after setting multiple fast laps. Sadly, he spun his No. 18 Cremona Gronde/Vidby Ford Mustang as he pushed hard to make ground on Linster and Jouffreau.
He managed to retain his position as he was far ahead of sixth placed man Jack Davidson. Cappelli went on to claim his first top-5 finish of the season, a result that handed the Race Art Technology driver the top spot in Legend Trophy.
Cappelli, who also ran in EuroLegend Cup this weekend, was a natural in the wet conditions. Series commentator Adam Weller, who also commentated in EuroLegend Cup, said on the booth that if Cappelli wasn't the fastest driver out there, then he'll have spun his car.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
Davidson continued his good omens at Most as he successfully swept the Rookie Trophy honors with a sixth place finish. Davidson celebrated this achievement by bringing his Rookie Trophy silverware from Saturday to the podium, allowing the Brit to brandish both of his trophies to the fans in the Victory Lane area.
Thomas Toffel was seventh ahead of Roberto Benedetti with Melvin de Groot and Riccardo Romagnoli completing the top-10 positions. The 73-year old Michael Bleekemolen finished eleventh as the last car still running on the lead lap.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Japo Santos
Vict Motorsport teammates Valerio Marzi and Paolo Valeri finished 12th and 13th after they let Naska through at the back straight on the final lap. Sven van Laere gained important wet weather experience with his 14th place finish.
Alina Loibnegger once again topped the Lady Trophy rankings in 15th place, finishing one minute ahead of Arianna Casoli. Damage from early contact caused Thomas Dombrowski to finish in a lowly 17th place. He finished ahead of Stefani Mogorović, who completed the list of finishers in 18th place.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series
Further down the field, Naska's biggest championship rival Vladimiros Tziortzis suffered his first retirement of the season. Tziortzis, already dealing with gearbox issues on Saturday, struggled with another mechanical issue and eventually the car stopped working altogether on lap 4.
He was joined in the retirement list by Patrick Schober, who had to retire at the same lap because his car's defogging device failed to work properly. Eric Quintal also retired on the pits a few moments later, presumably due to the after effects of his illness from Saturday.
Schneider's day went from bad to worse as he made contact on the run to the chicane in the first green flag lap, causing significant damage to his Chevrolet. Closing out the field is Matthias Hauer, who retired a few moments before Schneider did due to crash damage to his Ford Mustang.
EURONASCAR 2 RACE 2 RESULTS
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
Vladimiros Tziortzis retained his position as the championship leader in EuroNASCAR 2, but his advantage was significantly reduced after his early retirement in Race 2 at Autodrom Most. The Cypriot now has 283 points to his name, only three ahead of Paul Jouffreau and six ahead of Alberto Naska.
"Mr. Fourth Place" Gil Linster stays true to his reputation by maintaining his position in the standings, 19 points behind Tziortzis. Dombrowski's strong performance on Saturday was enough for him to stay in fifth with 230 points, 33 ahead of Jack Davidson in the Rookie Trophy battle.
Claudio Remigio Cappelli continues to be the leader of Legend Trophy with 215 points, good enough for seventh in the overall standings. First-time podium finisher Patrick Schober, Davidson and Michael Bleekemolen closed out the overall top-10 drivers.
Lady Trophy leader Arianna Casoli is still in 15th position overall with 158 points. Alina Loibnegger is tied in points with Kenko Miura for 26th place, but she won the tiebreaker thanks to her ninth place finish on Saturday. Stefani Mogorović was classified in 32nd place after her debut at Most.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.
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