V8OS in Venray: Maessen strikes back, Verberkt takes overall win
Barry Maessen dominates the first two rounds, Ralph Verberkt claims the victory in the day’s classification
For a long time, it looked like a perfect weekend for local hero Barry Maessen in the V8 Oval Series (V8OS) at Raceway Venray on 15th August. The Dutchman, who had already been hampered by technical failures several times this season, set the fastest time in both free practice sessions and also won the first two races of the day.
In the third and final race, Maessen was also heading for another victory. But shortly after the halfway point of the race, technical trouble struck again and robbed the #14 driver of any chance of taking the day’s overall win. A broken piston caused the engine to give up the ghost shortly before Turn 1.
The big beneficiary of the drama surrounding Maessen was ultimately championship leader Ralph Verberkt. The driver of the #2 car had already finished second in the first and second heat and, after the retirement of his compatriot Maessen, secured victory in the final heat, which ultimately also meant victory in the day’s classification with 239 points.
Jeroen van Eerd collected 211 points over the course of the day and thus reached second place in the final classification by a razor-thin margin ahead of Jentsen Adriaenssens with 209 points. The unlucky Maessen, despite his retirement in the final, still managed to score 203 points and thus came in fourth overall. The top 5 were completed by Jeffrey Hagemann, recording 170 points.
Sokolovskiy delivers a strong run in the final but scores no points at last
Yevgen Sokolovskiy, who celebrated his first win in Venray just a month ago, experienced ups and downs on his race day. In the first two races, the EuroNASCAR driver didn’t really get up to speed and finished eighth in each race.
In the final, things started to go better for Sokolovskiy. The driver of the #48 car, starting from eighth place, fought his way to a strong fourth place at the finish. But the joy of having made up ground did not last long – Sokolovskiy was disqualified shortly after the end of the race because of an unregistered tyre in the final.
Bachor bites his way through
For German Philipp Bachor, the race day was far from plain sailing. Problems with the steering already occurred in free practice when a servo hose burst. Recurring problems with the steering and later with the brakes gave the Bachor Racingteam a handful of work all along.
Against all technical odds, Bachor fought his way through the three heats and ultimately collected 153 championship points, amounting to seventh place in the day’s standings.
On 26th September, the V8 Oval Series will enter its next round at Raceway Venray. In addition to the fourth race day of the Dutch Championship, the annual EuroCup of the V8OS will also be on the line.
