It’s advantage for Vittorio Ghirelli in the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Playoffs. The Italian closed his NASCAR GP Germany weekend with a dominant victory in the EuroNASCAR PRO Playoffs 02 race. Ghirelli led from the opening lap and fended off all challenges from rival Paul Jouffreau to score his sixth victory of the year – the ninth of his career – and add more important points to his tally in the overall championship battle. The driver of the #24 PK Carsport Chevrolet Camaro therefore retains the red Whelen banner and will be the man to beat in the EuroNASCAR Finals in October.
NASCAR GP GERMANY LINKS: INFO & TICKETS | SCHEDULE | ENTRY LIST | LIVE TIMING | WATCH LIVE“The points were very important, but this race was so hard!” said Ghirelli in Victory Lane. “I got a power steering failure on lap 5 and did nearly all of the race without it. I was literally starving, it was the hardest race of my life! I had to wrestle the car to make it turn and the #3 was very fast. He was coming into me, but we managed to get the win in the end. Many drivers would stop after two laps, it’s almost impossible to drive without the power steering. This was for my personal trainer, we train a lot and I wouldn’t be able to do it without him!”
After getting into trouble on Saturday, this time Ghirelli cleared the tricky first corner of Motorsport Arena Oschersleben and defended his lead from Jouffreau, who started on the front row. Both drove to the limit and showed the essence of Playoffs: pushing hard at all times. The Frenchman had some disagreements with the Italian’s driving, but he took home numerous trophies at the end of the 22-lap race. Not only did he finish second overall, he also scored first place in the Junior Trophy and helped his team RDV Competition to another victory in the Endurance Teams Championship.
There were plenty of celebrations on the podium as Thomas Toffel grabbed his first top-3 finish in EuroNASCAR PRO in what is his sophomore season in NASCAR. Contesting in the Challenger Trophy for elite amateur drivers, the Swiss driver demonstrated that he can stand his ground against the best drivers in Europe’s official NASCAR series. Liam Hezemans put up a fight against the Race Art Technology driver, but a mistake with six laps to go sealed Toffel’s maiden top-3 finish. Hezemans was fourth overall and second in the Junior Trophy. Both Hezemans and Ghirelli praised Toffel for his drive and there’s sure to be more strong results to come from the Challenger Trophy winner in the future.
Consistency propelled Lucas Lasserre up to fifth position, having saved his Hoosier tires enough to pass both Thomas Krasonis and Gianmarco Ercoli in the closing stages. Krasonis took his career-best EuroNASCAR PRO finish in sixth and also came home third in the Junior Trophy. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Martin Doubek and Marc Goossens completed the top-10. Dario Caso in 14th position was second in the Challenger Trophy and despite retiring on lap 8, Liam Lambert did enough to secure the final podium position in the special classification.
Ryan Vargas had an incident in the opening lap with Max Lanza that compromised the race for both drivers. Lanza retired from the race and with his car stranded on the track, the Safety Car was called to safely retrieve it. As for Vargas, the American had to recover from last and fought his way up to 13th position when the checkered flag dropped but received a 30-second penalty for the contact with Lanza. Constantin Scholl in 13th place took the bonus points for most positions gained.
Ghirelli’s sixth win of 2024 will give the Italian a 23 point lead over reigning champion Ercoli in the overall standings. Junior Trophy leader Jouffreau is only a point behind Ercoli in third and Trophy rival Hezemans a further four points behind in fourth. Lasserre completes the top-5 with a deficit of 42 points. Toffel’s overall podium gave the Swiss driver enough points to retake the lead of Challenger Trophy from Lanza. With two more double points races to come in Belgium, anything is still possible.
Buckle up your seat belts because the next round will be the one that decides it all, the EuroNASCAR Finals at its traditional home of Circuit Zolder in Belgium. With four double points races scheduled, two for each class, it’s going to be a thriller as everything can and will happen in the EuroNASCAR Playoffs. Watch the action live on 12-13 October through the broadcasts provided by EuroNASCAR’s YouTube channel and several TV networks from all around the world.
EuroNASCAR PRO Results | EuroNASCAR 2 Results
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