Vittorio Ghirelli and Venray: An oval racing love story
Vittorio Ghirelli fell in love with oval racing after his EuroNASCAR 2 win at Raceway Venray in 2019
“I love oval racing!” This is the first sentence Vittorio Ghirelli tells ‘Leadlap.net’ when he was asked about his season highlight. The Italian, who won the EuroNASCAR 2 race at Raceway Venray, is impressed by this kind of motorsport and plans to come back to the half mile short track in the Netherlands next year.
“I was confident straight away”, says the Italian, who was part of Racers Motorsport and PK Carsport in the 2019 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series (NWES) season. “PK Carsport gave me a good car. In addition to that, my teammate Nicolo Rocca and team boss Anthony Kumpen gave me some very good advice.”
The Italian will always look back at the “awesome race” in his career with a big smile on his face. It was his first ever NWES season and Venray was his first ever EuroNASCAR win. That’s why the race on the 880 meter long oval owned by Harry Maessen is his personal highlight of the year.
Ghirelli had no experience on ovals before that race, what makes his win in the 70 laps long regular season round without any caution even more impressive. He also led all of the 70 laps, from the green flag to the checkered flag. “It was hard, but it felt so good to spray some champagne in the end”, says Ghirelli.
The 25-year-old race driver wants to return to the NWES in 2020 and to give the former ELITE 1 Division, the EuroNASCAR Pro championship, a try. He says: “I work to put the budget together. Probably I will race in the EuroNASCAR Pro championship next year.”
The teams should have the Italian on their lists, as he made an impressive NWES debut in the 2019 season. Ghirelli was a title contender until the very last weekend and scored one win and eight top-5 finishes. He was third in the point standings and the Rookie Trophy behind champion Lasse Soerensen and Giorgio Maggi.
