Tobias Dauenhauer living the dream: The German sweeps the season opener
He came and won: at his debut in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, Tobias Dauenhauer made the perfect sweep
Saturday in Vallelunga was a perfect start into the season for Tobias Dauenhauer (Hendriks Motorsport). The German won both races of the EuroNASCAR 2 championship and secured 80 championship points.
In a turbulent first race of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series (NWES), marked by a number of incidents and safety car phases, the rookie scored a flawless start-finish victory. In the second race, he outperformed the competition without any problems.
After the green flag waved, he took advantage of his pole position and grabbed the lead of the field. Behind him, a fierce battle for further places raged between Simon Pilate (Feed Vict Racing), Vittorio Ghirelli (Hendriks Motorsport) and Andreas Jochimsen (DF1 Racing).
Pilate provided the first safety car phase of the race with a spin on the first lap. After the restart Dauenhauer defended his lead against Ghirelli, who exerted a lot of pressure.
Up to this point it was also a solid debut in the NWES for the Slovenian Gasper Dernovsek (Marko Stipp Motorsport). However, this was abruptly ended on the tenth lap after a crash and again the safety car had to move out – also because Garisto (42 Racing) in the #42 car was stuck in the gravel trap elsewhere on the track.
Rookie Dauenhauer celebrated his first victory in his first race under yellow and was overjoyed in an interview with the ‘NWES’: “I’m absolutely happy and can’t put it into words, hopefully I can repeat this in the second race!”
The podium was completed by Ghirelli and Alessandro Brigatti (Feed Vict Racing), who also gave the team of ex-Formula 1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve a podium finish.
Dauenhauer also prevailed in the rookie classification against Alex Ciompi (42 Racing) and Kris Richard (Marko Stipp Motorsport). The duel between the two ladies in the field was won by Julia Landauer (PK Carsport), while Eric Quintal (Mishumotors) won the Legend Trophy.
As in the first race, Dauenhauer started from pole position in the second race. The German quickly pulled away at the top, but behind him some exciting duels developed, which did not always end smoothly.
The second car of Marko Stipp Motorsport was also hit a few laps before the end. Richard and Landauer were involved in a crash which meant the end for both of them.
Meanwhile Dauenhauer was heading for an unchallenged start-finish victory. Behind him, Brigatti crossed the finish line in second place. Nicholas Risitano (Solaris Motorsport) was third, ahead of Ghirelli and Andreas Jochimsen (DF1 Racing). Arianna Casoli (CAAL Racing) finished eleventh, winning not only the Lady Trophy but also the Legend Trophy.
“It was a perfect weekend for us, especially for me as a rookie. Many thanks to Hendriks Motorsport, I can’t put it into words”, said Dauenhauer in the winner’s interview after the race. “I’m looking forward to the next races and can hardly wait.
The next NWES race weekend is planned for October 3 and 4 at the Circuit Zolder in. This weekend will also see the Club Challenge, the NWES uniformity test, held for the first time.
