Strong debut: Luli Del Castello scores first Lady Trophy win in second race
Luli Del Castello made her EuroNASCAR debut in the #54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet Camaro – She topped the Lady Trophy ranks in the second race
Italian Luli Del Castello has put her name on the Lady Trophy winner’s list right from her debut in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series (NWES). The CAAL Racing driver is already the tenth woman to finish first in the special EuroNASCAR 2 classification. The day before, there was already another debut winner in the Lady Trophy with Aliyyah Koloc.
On Saturday, the Italian drove the #54 Chevrolet Camaro she shares with Gianmarco Ercoli to a solid 18th place out of 32 starters in qualifying. She started behind Koloc, of all people, who was just 0.125 seconds faster than Del Castello in qualifying. Saturday’s race sparked a heated battle between the two debutants, which Koloc ultimately won in the Buggyra Ford.
While Koloc finished 17th in her first NWES race, Del Castello had to settle for 21st. She finished around four seconds ahead of Arianna Casoli, who as the current Lady Trophy champion in the Speedhouse car completed the top-3 in the special classification. With a total of four women in the EuroNASCAR 2 field, the NWES opener at Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo really got down to business.
On Sunday, Del Castello then took a big swing. The Italian impressed with a strong pace in the race and crossed the finish line in 14th place. In only her second EuroNASCAR race, she was already knocking on the door of the top-10. Alina Loibnegger from Austria made it to second place in the Lady Trophy with a 22nd-place finish, while Casoli was allowed to climb back onto the third step of the podium. Loibnegger and Casoli were separated by just 0.231 seconds when they crossed the finish line.
Koloc and Del Castello thus shared the Lady Trophy victories under the burning Valencia sun. Casoli took two podiums, while Loibnegger was on the podium once. Actually, Yasmeen Koloc, Aliya’s twin sister, was also supposed to start in Valencia, but the 17-year-old was still struggling with physical problems after a violent crash at Spa-Francorchamps, which is why Teo Calvet stepped in for Yasmeen Koloc at short notice.
In the overall standings, Del Castello is in 15th place after two solid races, which puts her in first place in the Lady Trophy standings. Aliyyah Koloc is 23rd, nine points behind, while Loibnegger and Casoli share third place in the special standings, each ten points shy of the leader. NWES travels to Brands Hatch in the UK on June 11 and 12, where the four-way battle for the Lady Trophy crown will hopefully turn into a five-way fight.
