Autospeedway in Venray: Exciting races in four stockcar classes
The Stockcar F1, Stockcar F2, 2l Saloon Stockcars as well as F2 Juniors were at the start last Sunday at the Raceway Venray – These are the winners
The Raceway Venray invited last Sunday to the Autospeedway races on the 350 meters long oval in the infield of the motorsports complex in the Netherlands. At the start were the Stockcar F1, Stockcar F2, 2l Saloon Stockcars and the F2 Juniors for the youngsters. A look at the results reveals just how much excitement there was on this race day.
Stockcar F1: Four races, four different winners
A total of 23 drivers competed in September in Stockcar F1, the premier class of short oval racing with its roots in Great Britain. The winner of the day was Wesley Schaap in the #77 car. The veteran collected a total of 60 points, beating former champion Geert-Jan Keijzer by three points. Ivan Renneberg rounded off the top 3. There were four different winners in four races, so it wasn’t an easy task for Schaap.
Video: Highlights of the race day at Raceway Venray
In the first race Raymond Surik prevailed over the competition. The Dutchman finished half a second ahead of Renneberg, who kept Keijzer behind him. Renneberg then won the second heat ahead of Roy Maessen and Mark Veenstra. The third heat went to Danny van Wamelen, who kept Schaap and Veenstra at bay. Day’s winner Schaap finally won the finale ahead of Maessen and Keijzer.
Stockcar F2: Claes takes race wins, Peeters tops the daily standings
In Stockcar F2, the race wins were fairly split between Wim Peeters Jr. and Senna Claes. However, it was Peeters who clearly came out on top in the daily standings as he was much more consistent than the competition. He scored 39 points, finishing ahead of Nick Coenen with 32 points and Jan Bekkers from Belgium, who collected 30 points. Claes finished eighth in the day’s standings.
It was also Claes who decided the first race of the day in his favor with starting number 277. He finished about one second ahead of Bekkers, who had Kay Lenssen in tow. The second race also went to Claes, who this time finished ahead of Peeters. Bekkers completed the top 3 in Heat 2. Then the dominance of the champion began: Peeters won the third heat ahead of Pieter van der Beek as well as Onno Vullings and also won the final ahead of Sebastiaan Vowinkel as well as Coenen.
2l Saloon Stockcars: Fabian Mertens storms to the top
Fabian Mertens made it to the top of the daily standings in the 2l Saloon Stockcars class. The Dutchman collected 47 points, relegating current champion Jeremy van de Kraats to second place – who scored 42 points. Patrick Rutters rounded off the top 3 in the day’s standings, also with 42 points.
It was Rutters who won the first race of the day. He finished 0.204 seconds ahead of Mertens. Saloon Stockcar veteran Bas Hagen rounded out the podium behind him in third. Mertens really turned it up in the second and third runs. He took two commanding victories ahead of Rutters and van de Kraats, and Hagen and van de Kraats. In the final, however, the current champion van de Kraats was victorious. He finished ahead of Mertens and Rutters.
F2 Juniors: Ministox champion Nico Storb turns up the heat
The numerous German fans had every reason to celebrate in the F2 Junior class for the young stockcar offspring: the newly-crowned Ministox champion Nico Storb showed a phenomenal performance and secured the day’s victory. The German from Gelsenkirchen scored 41 points, leaving Nico Klumpen behind. Rounding off the podium was Jorden Vowinkel.
The first race win of the day went to Donny Schaap’s #007 car. Vowinkel followed ahead of Andy van t’Veer in second place. Then Storb’s show began: he won the three other heats against the competition and thus bagged a sure win on the day. In the second heat, Schaap and Wessel Drost finished on the podium, and in the third race it was Schaap and Klumpen. In the finale, Vowinkel and Klumpen were allowed to join Storb on the podium.
Raceway Venray will host the 2021 season finale on October 24, with the track championships at stake on that race day. More than 20 races are expected, promising pure excitement and action.
