Euro NASCAR trophies: the battle inside the battle

On October 20-21 at Circuit Zolder in Belgium, alongside the closest battle for the Euro NASCAR title in the ELITE 1 Division and a spectacular duel for the ELITE 2 Division crown, five between trophies and cups will have their 2018 winners. With a NASCAR race in the US on the line for each special classifications,  trophies and cups always provide intense door-to-door NASCAR racing across the field and great entertainment both for the fans and the competitors. 

The Euro NASCAR Finals at Circuit Zolder will decide who is the best NASCAR driver in the following categories.

ELITE 1 Division

Junior Trophy: drivers aged 25 and under

The Semi Final weekend at the Hockenheimring turned the Junior Trophy classification upside down and third-placed Loris Hezemans jumped to the top of the charts with a 42-points advantage on Gianmarco Ercoli thanks to his first ELITE 1 win and a second place in Germany. Thomas Ferrando fell to -54 from the lead, just ahead of Martin Doubek, Alex Sedgwick and Justin Kunz.

If Hezemans can count on a solid margin for the last two races of the season, the 2018 Junior Trophy crop proved to be outstanding, totaling two wins – Gianmarco Ercoli became the first ELITE 2 Champion to climb the top step of the podium in the top division –13 top-5 and 33 top-10s, putting many emerging talents under the spotlight on the biggest stage of NASCAR in Europe.

Challenger Trophy: silver and bronze drivers 

Mauro Trione took the Challenger Trophy by storm in the NASCAR GP Germany and moved from third to first in his rookie season in Euro NASCAR, scoring his second ELITE 1 top-10 of 2018. Returning behind the wheel after a 23-year hiatus, Trione steadily  improved both for pace and results in a trophy that saw seven different winners this season.

The race for the Challenger classification will be tighter than ever at Zolder since the Swiss driver of the #31 Race Art Tech / Blu Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro has a 3-point advantage on former leader and 2016 Challenger Trophy winner Dario Caso and a 6-point margin on Kenko Miura. With double points awarded in the Finals, three positions on track are all there is between the contenders.

ELITE 2 Division

Rookie Cup: drivers making their Euro NASCAR debut

The NASCAR GP of Germany put some distance between Rookie Cup leader Florian Venturi and the rest of the field, led by Nicholas Risitano with a 32-point disadvantage to overcome. 17-year-old Venturi has been very effective in his debut season at the wheel of the #32 Go Fas Racing Ford Mustang, but his NASCAR race in the US is not won yet and he will have to carefully navigate through two double-points races in Belgium. 

Risitano will be in a must-win situation, while the battle for the last place on the final Rookie Cup podium will be a tight one with four drivers separated by 24 points: Pierluigi Veronesi, Maxim Pampel, Cycling World Champion Tom Boonen and Kenko Miura.

Legend Trophy: drivers aged 40 and over

Jerry De Weerdt is on the verge of conquering his third consecutive Legend Trophy, an absolute first across both the NWES divisions, thanks to a margin that grew to 40 points on second-placed Francesco Parli and 41 on third-placed Arianna Casoli. 

The expert Belgian driver, who can count on 5 trophy wins this year, knows that having a solid weekend at his home track of Zolder will be fundamental and will do his very best to grab a spot in the NASCAR Hall Of Fame ceremony that will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, on December 6 to 8.

Lady Cup: female drivers

For the second time Carmen Boix Gil and Arianna Casoli will face each other in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Finals to determine who will win the Lady Cup.  Boix Gil will enter the Zolder event with just 5 points on her Italian rival, making the last two double-points races of the season crucial. 

Boix leads the score in 2018 with seven wins against Casoli’s three and the Spaniard grabbed both wins in Belgium in 2017, but counting Casoli out would be a mistake, because she won the two Zolder races en route to her Lady Cup title in 2016. 

Fans all over the world can enjoy the action of the October 20-21 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Finals at Circuit Zolder live on Fanschoice.tv, the EuroNASCAR Facebook page and Youtube Channel, the EuroNASCAR Twitter account, Motorsport.tv and a vast network of websites and social media profiles.

NASCAR Euro Series PR