VALENCIA, Spain – Martin Doubek sped to victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Euro Series EuroNASCAR 2 opening round at Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
The Czech led all 15 laps to claim his third series win at the wheel of the No. 7 Hendriks Motorsport Ford Mustang. The 26-year-old, who started from the pole, crossed the finish line ahead of Academy Motorsport / Alex Caffi Motorsport’s Vladimiros Tziortzis.
It may have looked easy for Doubek as he managed to break away from the field in the second half of the race, but he had to overcome intense pressure in the beginning from Tziortzis and Tobias Dauenhauer, but the Hendriks Motorsport driver put together a perfect race and sailed to his first win at Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
“It was not that easy as it looked but also not that hard,” said the race winner. “Starting from Pole Position was the key to success and I’m very happy to be back in victory lane. I hope to confirm the momentum we have tomorrow. It was only the first race of the season but I’m confident that we can fight for the title in the 2021 EuroNASCAR 2 season.”
Tziortzis had to fight for his second-place finish. The Cypriot was passed by 2020 EuroNASCAR 2 runner-up Dauenhauer on the first lap but never gave up and kept pressuring the German ahead of him. On lap 12, he finally made the decisive move to take over second while Dauenhauer ended up third with a gap of 2.350 seconds from Tziortzis.
With his new team Double V Racing, Pierluigi Veronesi scored a strong fourth place driving the No. 27 EuroNASCAR FJ. CAAL Racing’s Max Lanza not only closed the top-five but also won the race in the Legend Trophy standings – the classification for drivers aged 40 and more.
Naveh Talor drove the wheels off the No. 90 Camaro. The Israeli missed qualifying due to a technical issue on his Not Only Motorsport car and started from 23rd, but then made up 17 positions to be sixth under the checkered flag. The 19-year-old also grabbed the four bonus points for the most positions gained. He was followed by Thomas Krasonis from Greece and Francesco Garisto from Italy.
Not Only Motorsport’s Alberto Panebianco topped the Rookie Trophy standings by finishing ninth.
Yevgen Sokolovskiy rounded out the top-10 and ended up second in the Legend Trophy. He was joined by Ian Eric Waden, who finished third in the special classification by claiming eleventh place in the overall standings. Arianna Casoli was 13th and beat Alina Loibnegger in her maiden EuroNASCAR 2 race – she finished 16th – in the race for the Lady Trophy.