The Endurance Team Championship introduced a new format in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series for 2024. Each car’s Laps completed and race times across all four races were summed up and the crew completing the most laps in the shortest time was awarded with 40 points in the teams standings. Consistency is key to maximize the results over a full EuroNASCAR event and Thomas Toffel proved to be the best driver by pulling double duty aboard of the #34 Chevrolet Camaro. Thanks to the stunning performance of the Swiss, Race Art Technology tops the Endurance Team Championship with 40 points, five ahead of the #72 Team Bleekemolen Toyota Camry.
Toffel had a blast of a weekend across both championships. The Race Art Technology driver tested at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in winter and followed an intense preparation for the 2024 NWES season. That paid off! The Swiss finished sixth twice in the EuroNASCAR PRO races and added two fourth places in EuroNASCAR 2. According to the new format that takes the total laps and race time into account, he clocked 65 laps in a time of 1:58:09.994 hours. He was 41.690 seconds faster than the #72 Team Bleekemolen entry driven by Belgian Endurance legend Marc Goossens in EuroNASCAR PRO and racing veteran Michael Bleekemolen in EuroNASCAR 2.
“There are no secrets,” said Toffel on the keys to his success in 2024. “I was here during the winter, so I practiced a lot on this track. At the beginning of the weekend it was difficult because the temperature between the winter training and now is totally different, so I have to improve and work to get a good feeling. I also drove on the simulator during the winter and it helped me a lot. I hope that I pass the next step and I can be in the front for all the races.”
The #72 crew earned 35 points in second just ahead of the #33 Speedhouse Ford Mustang shared by Lucas Lasserre in EuroNASCAR PRO and Florian Richard in EuroNASCAR 2. Only 0.785 seconds separated Team Bleekemolen and Speedhouse after four races at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. CAAL Racing’s #88 Chevrolet Camaro of Max Lanza in EuroNASCAR PRO and Roberto Benedetti in EuroNASCAR 2 ended up fourth, while Vict Motorsport’s #8 Chevrolet of Dario Caso and Mario Ercoli rounded out the top-5. A total of eight cars went the full distance of 65 laps over the weekend: the #46 Marko Stipp Motorsport Chevrolet (Thomas Krasonis), #14 Speedhouse Ford Mustang (Ulysse Delsaux, Arianna Casoli) and #54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet (Gianmarco Ercoli, Sven van Laere) completed the top-8.
The points system in the Endurance Team Championship mirrors the one in the drivers standings but points are only awarded after all four races of a race weekend. The winner gets 40 points, the second placed team 35 points, while the third placed crew receives 34 points and so on. The next stop of the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series is the Autodromo di Vallelunga close to Italy’s capital city of Rome. Qualifying and all races will be broadcast live on EuroNASCAR’s YouTube Channel and several TV networks from all around the world.
NWES PR
