Danny van Wamelen brings the Stockcar F1 Worldcup to the Netherlands
The Stockcar F1 Worldcup stays in Baarlo, the Netherlands – Danny van Wamelen beat Luke Davidson in an intense race to take the big cup
The World Cup weekend at Raceway Venray is the most popular event on the Dutch oval’s calendar. With the grandstands almost completely filled, Sunday’s Worldcup race of Stockcar F1 was a real treat for thousands of stockcar fans. After 25 exciting laps, the Dutch spectators celebrated local hero Danny van Wamelen, who brought the big trophy to Baarlo after the race.
The driver of the #47 car has for many years been one of the top Dutch drivers in Stockcar F1, in which over 600 horsepower monsters are driven. The Worldcup race itself was interrupted several times due to dozens of incidents, but the Dutchman did not let this get him down. With a spirited maneuver, he overtook the 2019 Worldcup winner and defending champion Luke Davidson to win the race.
On the last lap, the Briton in second place tried to get past van Wamelen once again with a “last bender”, but the Dutchman had seen that coming, which is why he cleverly defended himself to take the win. Third place went to Rick Lenssen ahead of Stockcar F1 legend Frankie Wainman Jr. and Jordy Lemmens. Stockcar F2 Worldcup winner Wim Peeters was disqualified after the race, lying in fourth place, because his weight distribution in the car was not correct.
Before that, there had been many retirements. At the first attempt, the tire of Stockcar F1 World Champion Tom Harris burst after contact. The Briton was lucky that the race was stopped with the red flag and the teams were given ten minutes to repair the cars. Harris made it back on track only to retire just a few laps after the restart following contact with Geert-Jan Keijzer.
There was a scary moment when Harmen Zwerver rolled over on the back straight and the car caught fire. The trained race rescue forces were immediately on the scene, extinguished the fire and gave the all-clear with a thumbs up. With Jordan Falding, Roy Maessen and Patrick Kleijsen, three other candidates for victory dropped out early in the race. Despite the numerous yellows, van Wamelen eventually edged out Davidson, who is the current Dutch Champion, by 0.661 seconds.
On Saturday in the evening, Harris at least won the Long Track Memorial Trophy, which commemorates the great Stockcar F1 races at the one-kilometer Baarlo oval that closed in the late 1990s. Kleijsen won the Bev Greenhalf Memorial Trophy on Sunday. Simon Travis flipped spectacularly in this race but was fortunately uninjured.
In the day’s standings on Saturday, Colin Schutter was in first place with 58 points. He was followed by Gert Elzinga with 53 points, Wesley Schaap, Harris and Roy Maessen. On Sunday, Davidson took the lead with 49 points ahead of Kleijsen and Harris. Behind them, Jeroen van As and van Wamelen completed the top-5. As a result of the Worldcup victory, van Wamelen is entitled to wear two gold stripes on his roof spoiler from now until the next Worldcup in 2023.
