Paul Jouffreau closes the 2024 EuroNASCAR PRO regular season with a victory - Speedway Digest

The regular season of the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season closed with a thriller in EuroNASCAR PRO Round 9 at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic. After a red flag period triggered by a multi-car incident, Paul Jouffreau led from start to finish to take his first win of the season and propel his title ambitions. In the process, the young RDV Competition talent also took a commanding victory in the Junior Trophy and brought home the titanium ring awarded with the Tijey Fastest Driver Award.

“Ghirelli’s done an amazing job, he worked really well so big congratulations to him,” said Jouffreau, pointing out on the challenge that Vittorio Ghirelli brought to him in Round 9. “When you start first there’s no way something goes wrong if you did everything right. I’m so happy, I’ve been chasing this win since Valencia and the job by everyone this weekend is amazing. Thanks to all my sponsors that made this possible because without them I won’t be able to live on the dream and I hope that it’ll be a long time before this ends.”

In a situation that brought up memories of the Round 2 start at Valencia in Spain, the race was interrupted following a major incident that eliminated four cars: Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Fabrizio Armetta, Ulysse Delsaux and Thomas Dombrowski. All competitors were able to walk away under their own power. Race control deemed Thomas Toffel responsible for the crash and disqualified the Race Art Technology driver. After the cleanup procedures, the race restarted for the full distance of 17 laps.

Ghirelli didn’t have the best launch when the green lights showed for the first time, but on the second opportunity he climbed up to second as quickly as possible. The PK Carsport driver couldn’t find a way past Jouffreau in the closing stages of the race and had to settle for second place to solidify his lead in the championship ahead of the all-important playoffs. Marc Goossens took a double podium in the Czech Republic with another third place finish, which allowed the Belgian to make up for the races he missed in Brands Hatch.

Lucas Lasserre was flying during the race and charged his way up from 22nd on the grid to fourth, easily securing the bonus points for most positions gained. The Speedhouse driver crossed the line in third, but a contact with Goossens on the final lap relegated the Frenchman down one position. Martin Doubek capped off a strong weekend on home soil with a top-5 result, beating teammate Liam Hezemans who took second place in the Junior Trophy. Hezemans was struggling with his car after he was involved in the first lap mayhem.

Gianmarco Ercoli and Vladimiros Tziortzis were seventh and eighth respectively. Tobias Dauenhauer, who received a 10-second penalty for a contact with Tziortzis, was ninth with Ryan Vargas in tenth rounding out the Junior Trophy podium. With Toffel’s disqualification, Riccardo Romagnoli won the Challenger Trophy ahead of Max Lanza and Dario Caso. Lanza was thankful for the red flag period because the CAAL Racing driver had broken his rear axle on the initial start and his team changed the part in record-time. The strong results from both Jouffreau and EuroNASCAR 2 teammate Patrick Schober allowed RDV Competition to take home the victory in the Endurance Teams Championship.

After nine exciting races in five rounds of the 2024 season, Ghirelli will enter the playoffs as the EuroNASCAR PRO championship leader with 283 points on his tally. Hezemans leads the Junior Trophy rankings in second overall, just eight points away from Ghirelli. Jouffreau, second in the overall Junior Trophy classification, sits two points behind Hezemans in third with Ercoli and Lasserre completing the top-5. Ryan Vargas in his first season in EuroNASCAR PRO is tenth overall and third in Junior Trophy. Lanza, Toffel – the Swiss could not drop the zero-point result from Most because of the penalty – and Dario Caso are the top-3 drivers in the Challenger Trophy in 14th, 16th and 17th respectively.

With the regular season of the 2024 EuroNASCAR season concluded, the focus for drivers and teams will shift to the double points playoffs: four races, including the next round at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben on 21-22 September, in which no mistakes are allowed and the slightest position difference can lead to massive changes in the points standings. Be sure to tune in because all qualifying and race sessions will be broadcast live from EuroNASCAR’s YouTube channel and various TV services around the world.

EuroNASCAR PRO Results|EuroNASCAR 2 Results

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