For the first time this season, the Rookie Trophy was not dominated by Thomas Dombrowski. The NASCAR GP Czech Republic saw a new face conquer the special classification for debuting drivers in EuroNASCAR 2: Jack Davidson. The weekend at Autodrom Most was his first time at the 4.212 kilometer long circuit, but he immediately fought alongside the best drivers in the division. A career-best third in Qualifying and back-to-back victories in the Rookie Trophy allowed Davidson to narrow the gap to Dombrowski down to 33 points heading to the home round of his team Marko Stipp Motorsport at Germany.
After finishing ninth overall in Practice, the driver from Stirling turned his performance level up to eleven. Already familiar with mixed weather conditions thanks to the notorious UK weather, Qualifying was the start of Davidson’s rise to the top. Davidson traded the provisional pole position with championship contenders Vladimiros Tziortzis and Alberto Naska before settling for third, just 0.271 seconds away from Tziortzis’ pole time. He retained his blistering pace in the races, finishing fifth in Round 7 and sixth in Round 8 to sweep the Rookie Trophy. Davidson now sits in ninth place in the overall standings with 197 points to his name.
For Thomas Dombrowski, the NASCAR GP Czech Republic was a bit of a mixed bag. He was the second fastest Rookie Trophy contender in Qualifying, but he was nearly two seconds behind Davidson. The Team Bleekemolen driver once again finished second to Davidson in Round 7 before disaster struck in Round 8. An early collision forced Dombrowski to make a lengthy visit to the pit lane, dropping him a lap down from the leaders. He still retained the lead in the Rookie Trophy and fifth place in the overall standings, but his lead to the driver behind has been reduced significantly.
Two familiar faces returned to the podium of the special classification at Autodrom Most: Nick Schneider and Thomas Toffel. Schneider completed the Rookie Trophy podium in Round 7 with the seventh place under the checkered flag – his best career finishing position to date – while Toffel retired with only a lap to go. Their fortunes were reversed in Round 8: Early contact in the wet conditions caused an early retirement for the Brazilian but the Race Art Technology driver was back on the podium, finishing just six seconds behind Davidson. Schneider is now third in the special classification’s standings while Toffel moved up to fifth. They were split by Sven van Laere, who once again earned important experience on his #56 CAAL Racing Chevrolet along learning process to switch from GT racing to NASCAR racing.
Vict Motorsport’s Valerio Marzi took his maiden Rookie Trophy podium during the NASCAR GP Czech Republic. Marzi received a grid penalty for Round 7 as a result of his dangerous contact with Nicholas Strickler in Italy, but he showed good pace and kept his car clean during the race. He narrowly missed out on the podium in eighth, but claimed the bonus points for most positions gained. The Italian driver struggled in the wet conditions and finished a lap down from race winner Alberto Naska in Round 8, but his twelfth place finish was still enough for third in the special classification.
Strickler, Maximilian Mason and Igor Sicuro are now sixth, seventh and eighth in the Rookie Trophy standings, but they did not take part in the Czech weekend. Marzi’s maiden podium moved him up to ninth ahead of Olivier Bec, who closes out the top-10. The final positions in the Rookie Trophy belong to Victor Neumann, Olivier Panagiotis, Gordon Barnes, Stefani Mogorovic and Cesare Balistreri. Mogorovic is the first Croatian female racer in EuroNASCAR and debuted in the Czech Republic as part of Academy / Alex Caffi Motorsport’s all-female driver line-up on the #1 Ford Mustang.
The rookies will be back in action at the end of the month when the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series visits Motorsport Arena Oschersleben for the first time. Tune in to the NASCAR GP Germany on 23-24 September where all qualifying and races will be streamed live on EuroNASCAR’s YouTube channel, Motorsport.tv and various television services around the world.
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