Coincidentally, in 2023 Lasserre returned behind the wheel of the #64 Ford Mustang for the season opener at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain. The 45-year-old won Sunday’s race and took over the championship lead. With the red Whelen banner on his windshield, the Frenchman has been pulling all the levers to continue his EuroNASCAR PRO campaign as an owner-driver for Speedhouse. In addition, Lasserre is one of the team’s leading engineers and serves as a driving coach for the talented drivers in his ranks.
Lasserre is considered the Swiss army knife of EuroNASCAR, and with his experience behind the wheel, at the pit command post and in the garage as an engineer, the 45-year-old is a guarantee for success in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. Like Richard Petty, Adam Kulwicki, Tony Stewart and most recently Brad Keselowski, Lasserre wants to be successful on and off the track with his team and add his name to the Whelen Hall Of Champions in the NASCAR Hall Of Fame. After six races of the 2023 NWES season, he sits in second place, just twelve points behind CAAL Racing’s Gianmarco Ercoli.
At the halfway point of the season, during the NASCAR GP Italy at Autodromo di Vallelunga, Lasserre said: « My qualifying wasn’t perfect, but I made up a lot of positions during the race to finish fourth and third. I’m looking at the big picture and I scored important points for the championship fight. We didn’t have the car to fight for the win, but we kept our consistency and maximized the results in every race. » The regular season concludes with four races between Most and Oschersleben, after which each driver will drop the two worst results out of ten. At the Finals in Zolder, double points will be on the line to crown the 2023 champions.
Arianna Casoli, Ulysse Delsaux, Neo Lambert, Igor Sicuro, Eric Quintal, Matthias Hauer, Florian Richard and Alan Mosqueron are the drivers in the Speedhouse colors. The team follows its motto of ‘racing, style and good times’ every weekend. For the 2024 season, Lasserre has already signed 17-year-old Spanish karting talent Dani Briz. Speedhouse is known for its long-term development programs, designed to give young drivers the best possible chance to become top drivers in the world of EuroNASCAR.
With all of these responsibilities, Lasserre is certainly a busy man, as he explained in the featured interview of the Extended Brands Hatch Highlights, available on YouTube: « My main job is to be the owner and manager of the team. The second job is to be a racing driver. I combine both and that certainly makes for long working days. I’m the leader of the team and that’s great because I’m unique in this championship. It’s exciting for me and the whole crew who do an incredible job every weekend. I’m really lucky to have great drivers and great team members around me all the time. »
Lasserre also founded the Speedhouse Academy, an initiative to support young karting talents and pave their way to EuroNASCAR. 12-year-old Alix Chanthaphasouk and 11-year-old Gianni Lasserre – Lucas’ son – are already part of the development program. With the Road to EuroNASCAR program, Lasserre is giving away a test at the NWES test track in Fontenay Le Comte winter camp in October 2023 to a young karting talent that’s part of the UFOLEP Karting Federation / MF KART. « I am committed to certain values such as passion, respect, team spirit, fair play and excellence on and off the track. I will choose a driver according to his results, regardless of the category and his ranking, but he must have the above-mentioned values. »
Speedhouse and Lasserre are recharging their batteries during the summer break, but with the NASCAR GP Czech Republic fast approaching, preparations for the second half of the season are in full swing. Qualifying and racing on August 26-27 will be broadcast live on EuroNASCAR’s YouTube channel, Motorsport.tv and several TV services around the world. Keep an eye out for Speedhouse’s #14, #40 and #64, and meet all-rounder Lasserre in the team’s garage during a visit to the beautiful and challenging Autodrom Most.
André Wiegold,