CAVLE, Croatia – Alon Day equaled Ander Vilarino’s NASCAR Whelen Euro Series win record with his 22nd victory during Sunday’s EuroNASCAR PRO event at Automotodrom Grobnik.
The PK Carsport driver led all 17 laps extended his championship lead ahead of the Valencia doubleheader. The Monster Energy driver has now amassed 214 points – 15 more than second-placed Lasse Soerensen.
Day had a perfect start and pulled away from the rest of the field in the opening laps. Reigning NASCAR Whelen Euro Series champion Loris Hezemans followed in second on his No. 50 Hendriks Motorsport Mustang with PK Carsport’s Stienes Longin right behind him.
On lap seven, Lucas Lasserre’s No. 33 Camaro stopped on the main straight after a driveshaft failure, triggering a caution that brought the field back together. When the safety car pulled back into the pits with eight laps to go, Day made another brilliant restart and took the lead ahead of Hezemans. Once again, the Israeli opened a gap on his chasers to conquer his 22nd NASCAR Whelen Euro Series race win.
With the 40 points going to the winner, he also extended his championship lead and kept the red Whelen banner on the windshield of the No. 24 Camaro.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Day, who grabbed the pole position by posting the fastest lap in the first EuroNASCAR PRO race at Automotodrom Grobnik. “The PK Carsport team put so much work into the No. 24 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro. Unfortunately qualifying didn’t work out yesterday but we made the best out of the situation. I’m tied with Ander for the all-time record and that is something I’m really happy about.”
After having some technical issues on Friday and Saturday, Hezemans was back on the podium in EuroNASCAR PRO. The Dutchman never surrendered his second place and scored important points on his way to defend the title he won in 2019. The Hendriks Motorsport driver is now 25 points behind Day.
The battle for third offered some amazing door-to-door action and pure racing: Longin was holding on to the last spot on the podium until lap 11, when the Belgian was passed by his former teammate Nicolo Rocca. Longin then came under pressure from Soerensen and in an attempt to get the position back from Rocca, he ended up off track and lost several positions. The contact between the two led to a 30 seconds penalty for Rocca, who crossed the finish line third but was demoted to 13th in the final results.
Soerensen finished third and won the Junior Trophy ahead of a strong Marc Goossens at the wheel of the No. 98 CAAL Racing Ford Mustang. Gianmarco Ercoli started 12th – once again the Italian drove the No. 70 Mishumotors car – and fought his way up the ranks to fifth overall and second in the Junior Trophy. The Italian was able to salvage the weekend after his No. 54 Camaro was damaged in EuroNASCAR 2 qualifying. He’s now 18 points shy of Day in the overall standings.
DF1 Racing’s Justin Kunz had a solid run in Croatia and finished sixth. The performance lifted him to the final spot of the Junior Trophy podium.