NASCAR Whelen Euro Series: Recap Of The Adria Weekend

After the fifth race weekend of the season, the fight for the championship in both classes of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series is still on. The races took place at the Adria International Raceway in the north of Italy, a 1.6-mile road course where the series was competing for the first time.

It was the first of the two race weekends that make up the playoffs, a format similar to the Chase. Both this and the final weekend of Zolder, Belgium pay double points and are thus crucial for the crowning of the champion. Two races were held for each class one on saturday and the other on sunday. If in the Elite 2 class the Belgian Stienes Longin looks to have a comfortable lead in the point standings before the final round, everything is still possible in Elite 1.

Let’s now take a look at how the weekend progressed.

SATURDAY: Championship leader Anthony Kumpen wins in Elite 1, Gabriele Gardel gets his first win of the season in Elite 2.

This last weekend was pretty much dominated by PK Carsport, the Belgian team that won three of the four races held in Adria. On saturday it was the champion of the 2014 season (and uncle of Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen) Anthony Kumpen to dominate the first race of the Elite 1 division. He quickly worked his way around his competitors Alon Day and Bert Longin and was able to stretch out, putting the #24 car in victory lane easily.

In Elite 2 it was a one-two finish for PK Carsport with the #24 of Gabriele Gardel crossing the finish line first ahead of the #11 of the championship leader Stienes Longin. It was the first win of the year for Gardel, in a season dominated by his teammate. Third was the russian Roman Mavlanov in the #1 car.

SUNDAY: Day dominates in Elite 1 and closes in on Kumpen in the championship standings; Longin gets his seventh win of the season in Elite 2.

On sunday things changed a little bit. In Elite 1 it was Day who broke the PK Carsport domination. The Israeli driver, member of the NASCAR Next program, has raced in two XFinity races this summer with impressive results and is still in the championship hunt in the Whelen Euro Series. On sunday he started on pole and never left the first position, winning with a nine-second advantage.

In Elite 2 though PK Carsport was back on top with the victory for Stienes Longin and the second place for Gardel. The two were close to each other for most part of the race but never really set up a fight.

The championship point standings now see Kumpen in the lead in Elite 1, followed closely by Frederic Gabillon (-19 points) and Day (-29 points). In the other class Longin has a comfortable lead of 80 points over Gardel. The last round of the season will be in Zolder, Belgium during the second weekend of October.