Alberto Naska dominates the EuroNASCAR 2 at Autodrom Most
Alberto Naska has won both EuroNASCAR 2 races at the Autodrom Most – Liam Hezemans falls further behind in the battle for the championship
One thing is for sure: The EuroNASCAR 2 race weekend at the Autodrom Most was not boring despite two victories by Alberto Naska. Martin Doubek had to settle for second place in his home country. Liam Hezemans suffered from a setback and lost massive ground in the title battle, while Naska celebrated his maiden sweep.
On Saturday, things got off to a furious start: there were several crashes in the first three corners, which is why the safety car was busy collecting laps. It was only in overtime that Alberto Naska secured victory. Before that, the Italian had fought a gripping duel with Dubek, who had started from pole, throughout the race. Unlike the race in Vallelunga, the duel between the two drivers remained without incident this time.
“I was truly going to vomit inside the car because we spent half an hour warming up the tires!” joked Naska. “It was really hard to keep focus because even though it was a long race, I think I have the better pace so there was no problem in that but four restarts, it’s really hard! I spent the entire race with Doubek, who was always starting better than me, so that was really hard but the car was great. The team did an incredible job because yesterday we were struggling a lot and today the car was amazing.”
Tziortzis again finished third. In addition to the race win, Naska also prevailed in the Rookie Trophy against Claudio Capelli and Paul Jouffreau. The Frenchman finished the race in fourth place after a problem with the hood had set him far back. He also benefited from another accident on the final lap.
Yevgen Sokolovski rounded off the top-5 and also secured victory in the Legend Trophy. The Ukrainian in the colors of Marko Stipp Motorsport thus made it into the top-5 for the first time. Cappelli and Matthias Hauer completed the podium. In the Lady Trophy, Aliyyah Koloc climbed to the top of the podium. Alina Loibnegger and Arianna Casoli took second and third place.
On Sunday, it again was Naska who secured victory in EuroNASCAR 2. Even two safety car phases could not change that. However, the restart took place under Full Course Yellow due to the events of the previous day and the green flag was waved after turn 3.
“This was certainly unexpected because the way we started the weekend was not good!” admitted Naska. “We were not fast, we were struggling with the setup, but I think today’s victory is a conjunction between the teamwork and my experience because if this happened in the first race, I wouldn’t be able to win.”
Vladimiros Tziortzis completed the podium in third place, benefiting from a 30 second penalty against Tuomas Pontinen for an infraction on the second restart. The Finn was classified 16th.
Hezemans also received a time penalty from race control. He finished the race in 13th place and again lost important points in the battle for the championship. On Saturday, the Dutchman didn’t even make it to the finish line. Gil Linster and Ulysse Delsaux completed the top-5.
In addition to the race win, Naska was once again on the top step of the podium in the rookie standings. Paul Jouffreau and Patrick Schober finished second and third. In the Legend Trophy, Yevgen Sokolovsky secured victory, beating his teammate Miguel Gomes and Cappelli.
In the Lady Trophy, Koloc – despite spinning in the opening stages – prevailed over Luli Del Castello and Casoli. Del Castello also fought her way back after a trip into the gravel. The next race takes place on October 8-9 at Circuit Zolder, Belgium.
