Round 9 of the 2023 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season changed the landscape of the title battle in dramatic fashion. The drivers made the first EuroNASCAR 2 race in NASCAR GP Germany a memorable one: with intense battles and all across the field, there was plenty of action in the division’s first race at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. After sixteen exciting laps, Paul Jouffreau drew all the spotlight on himself with his second victory of the year. The RDV Competition star led the race from start to finish and beat Alberto Naska by six seconds, but they both came out as victors in the grand scheme of things because championship leader Vladimiros Tziortzis failed to take the start.
Starting from the pole, the driver of the #3 RDV Competition Ford Mustang managed to defend his lead at the first turn and tried to distance Naska. The Italian driver did his best to keep up with the talented youngster, but he lost some time in traffic and had to settle for second place. The win provisionally puts Jouffreau on top of the EuroNASCAR 2 standings with eight points on Naska and 30 on Tziortzis, but all drivers will drop their two worst regular season results at the end of the NASCAR GP Germany and that will further shake up the classification. With one race to go in the regular season, there will be plenty at stake for Round 10 on Sunday.
« For sure this victory is good! » said Jouffreau, who after Qualifying declared that he wanted to focus only on winning races to conquer the title. « The pace we have was just really good, but we had some issues with lapped cars that slowed Naska down. Since that moment, I think we both decided to lift off a little bit to preserve the tires for tomorrow. Every time I was lifting, Naska was doing it even more. We preserved our tires well, so I expect it to be a close fight tomorrow! »
Martin Doubek fended off multiple challenges from both his teammate Gil Linster and Claudio Cappelli to claim the final podium position. A slow puncture put a stop to Linster’s offense, but there was no such issue for Cappelli. Fourth under the checkered flag, the Italian came close to his first overall podium of the season and was rewarded with the win in the Legend Trophy for drivers aged 40 and above. Patrick Schober secured fifth ahead of Melvin de Groot, who was also second in the Legend Trophy ranks.
A five-second time penalty for a false start did not stop Thomas Toffel. The Swiss driver finished seventh, more than seven seconds ahead of Thomas Dombrowski at the line. The two also climbed the Rookie Trophy podium in the same order. Riccardo Romagnoli completed the top-3 in Legend Trophy in ninth with Roberto Benedetti rounding out the top-10 finishers. The final spot on the Rookie Trophy podium was filled by Jack Davidson, who had to put up a comeback after an incident with his teammate Nick Schneider on lap five. Arianna Casoli scored her seventh Lady Trophy win of the year in 20th place.
Reza Maulana,