VALENCIA, Spain – Vittorio Ghirelli had only one mission ahead of the EuroNASCAR 2 season finale at Circuit Ricardo Tormo on Sunday: to win.
The Italian was aggressive and focused from the very beginning of the race and gained position after position after starting ninth. On lap seven he made would what prove to be the championship deciding pass Tobias Dauenhauer to score the sixth NASCAR Whelen Euro Series victory of his career and capture the EuroNASCAR 2 title.
Technical issues in Saturday’s EuroNASCAR 2 race put Ghirelli in a must-win situation while his teammate Dauenhauer, who had an eight-point advantage ahead of the last round of the season, started from pole position and had to keep Ghirelli behind him to win the title.
The German struggled with his No. 50 Hendriks Motorsport Mustang in the early stages while Ghirelli was flying behind him. The Fasano native made spectacular passes at the wheel of his No. 18 Hendriks Motorsport Ford Mustang and climbed up to second place on lap two but a caution sent him back to fourth in the running order. At the restart, Ghirelli swiftly passed Nicholas Risitano and Vladimiros Tziortzis to move into second and in a few corners chased down Dauenhauer.
With a bold dive in turn two on lap seven, Ghirelli took the championship in his hands and was first under the checkered flag. Dauenhauer and Alessandro Brigatti, fourth and fifth under the checkered flag, finished second and third in points. The EuroNASCAR 2 podium was rounded out by Risitano and Tziortzis, who had an intense battle for second in the middle of the race.
“It was a very tough race but I had only one option and it was winning it,” said the new EuroNASCAR 2 champion in victory lane. “The car was perfect thanks to the awesome Hendriks Motorsport team. After the drama yesterday with the broken engine, I had to comeback from ninth on the grid and make it happen. We did it. Congratulations to my teammate Tobias, who is an incredibly fast race car driver. He really pushed me to the limits this year. Now I just want to celebrate this championship win.”
While the overall championship taken from him in the final race of the year, Dauenhauer was on top of the Rookie Trophy podium for newcomers. The German beat Alex Caffi Tziortzis and Julia Landauer. The 29-year-old New York native also won the Lady Trophy ahead of veteran Arianna Casoli. The Rookie Trophy race win went to Tziortzis ahead of Dauenhauer and Simon Pilate.
Casoli won the Legend Trophy for drivers age 40 and older. It was the first time that the two-time Lady Trophy winner grabbed the victory in the special classification. She was joined on the podium by Yevgen Sokolovskiy. Third place went to Mishumotors driver Eric Quintal. The final race in the Legend Trophy was won by Sokolovskiy, who finished ahead of Kenko Miura and Casoli.