BRANDS HATCH, Great Britain — Tobias Dauenhauer scored his first victory of the season Sunday afternoon at Brands Hatch’s 1.94-kilometer Indy Circuit in the EuroNASCAR 2 division.
The German took the lead at the start and led all 30 laps to be first under the final checkered flag of the NASCAR GP UK 2021. Dauenhauer also took the EuroNASCAR 2 points lead from his teammate Martin Doubek.
Dauenhauer made a great start on the outside from second and got past Saturday’s race winner Advait Deodhar at Paddock Hill Bend.
The 23-year-old pulled away from his chasers and sped to victory after 30 laps under green. It was the first win of the season for the driver of the No. 50 Hendriks Motorsport Ford Mustang, who was handed the red Whelen banner for being the Championship leader.
“It was just amazing,” said Dauenhauer, who scored the fourth EuroNASCAR 2 win of his career. “To score the first victory of the season is just awesome. It was also great to have some fans back at the race track and hopefully we entertained them all here on the grandstands. The team did an amazing job and gave me a great Ford Mustang. We showed a really good pace and I’m so thankful.”
While Dauenhauer cruised to the checkered flag, DF1 Racing’s Simon Pilate had an exciting race at the wheel of the No. 66 Chevrolet Camaro. The Belgian started from third and tried several times to get past Deodhar for second.
As his time was running out, Pilate made the move on lap 27 and overtook Deodhar to score his best EuroNASCAR 2 result so far. The first Indian to win a EuroNASCAR race had to settle in third after a solid performance at the wheel of his No. 56 CAAL Racing machine.
Not Only Motorsport’s Naveh Talor started from fifth and had to deal with local hero Shaun Hollamby in the No. 77 DF1 Racing Chevrolet Camaro. The Israeli went bumper to bumper with the Brit until lap 11 when he got past Hollamby to take over fourth.
Hollamby lost another position against Academy Motorsport / Alex Caffi Motorsport’s Vladimiros Tziortzis, who rounded out the top five, while the Brit ended up sixth.
Hollamby topped the Legend Trophy classification for drivers aged 40 and more ahead of Max Lanza and Yevgen Sokolovskiy.
Doubek, who entered the race as the Championship leader, was involved in an accident on lap five. After a contact with 42 Racing’s Francesco Garisto, the Czech tried to recover from the setback but only ended up 13th when the checkered flag waved.