HOCKENHEIM, Germany – Loris Hezemans will be the man to beat on Oct. 5-6 in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Finals at Belgium’s Circuit Zolder.
The Hendriks Motorsport driver grabbed his fourth consecutive ELITE 1 win of the year Sunday at the Hockenheimring in an exciting dash to the checkered flag that saw him beat Nicolo Rocca by .203 seconds.
The Dutchman also stretched the championship lead he took over after Saturday’s race to 21 points over Rocca, making it a perfect weekend for Hendriks Motorsport. The team took three wins out of four races at the NASCAR GP Germany.
When polesitter and race leader Alon Day was sidelined by a technical problem in his No. 54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS on lap three, his teammate Thomas Ferrando was the quickest to take advantage of the moment and grabbed the lead. Hezemans was too strong for the Frenchman, and moved past the No. 27 CAAL Racing Mustang two laps later. He then fended off every attack from a charging Rocca brought in the remaining 15 laps until the checkered flag dropped.
Rocca fought hard to catch Hezemans, but had to settle for second when a couple of door-to-door battles were not enough for the PK Carsport driver to pass the Flying Dutchman.
“It’s been a great feeling to win the second race here at the Hockenheimring,” said Hezemans. “It wasn’t easy as Alon was driving very well until his car broke down. Hopefully he can compensate that at Zolder. When Alon slowed down Rocca and I were a little bit surprised, but then we saw Ferrando take the lead and I was thinking: ‘Wow, we gotta go!’ The team did a great job and we find a great way to have a fast car. In Zolder it’s all about bringing the car home and win the championship.”
Racers Motorsport’s Gianmarco Ercoli carved his way up to third after an intense battle against Racing Engineering’s Romain Iannetta and RDV Competition’s Frederic Gabillon, who closed the top-five.
Ioannis Smyrlis won the Challenger Trophy in the first NASCAR Whelen Euro Series weekend of his career. The Marko Stipp DF1 Racing driver edged Kenko Miura and Henri Tuomaala in the championship for bronze and silver drivers of the ELITE 1 Division.