Thousands of passionate Czech fans witnessed an intense duel between Lasse Soerensen and Giorgio Maggi for the ELITE 2 Round 8 under a bright blue sky at Autodrom Most. The two put up an outstanding 14-lap battle for the lead and it was Soerensen who came out the winner ahead of the championship leader.
Soerensen started from second and took over the lead in the first corner of the race. The Dexwet-df1 Racing driver sustained a huge pressure during the whole race but kept Maggi at bay to take his fourth win of the season. In his first six NWES starts, the Dane always finished in the top-3. With Sunday’s win, Soerensen climbed up to third in the overall standings and reduced his gap from Maggi to 33 points.
UPDATE: After the final points calculation Soerensen sits fourth in the overall standings with a gap from Maggi of 38 points.
“It was a really tough race, but I had a good start and I was able to overtake Giorgio on the outside of turn 1,” said Soerensen, who is quickly emerging as one of the top title contenders in 2019. “It seemed that I was faster in the first one and a half sectors and he was better on the rest of the track. We had an almost identical pace. I think I had him under control, I’m happy for the whole team and my sponsors back home.”
Maggi, who started from the pole, spent the entire race on Soerensen’s rear bumper. After winning the inaugural ELITE 2 race at the Autodrom Most, Maggi ended up second in Round 8 to increase his championship lead to 16 points on Vittorio Ghirelli, who got a one championship point penalty for not giving back one position after a turn 1 shortcut.
“It’s great to expand the championship lead,” said Maggi. “The start was okay, but Lasse was able to overtake me. I tried a few times to make a move in turn 1. He blocked very well, so there was nothing I could do. I tried to force him into a mistake but he was very consistent. In the end I’m happy with the second place. I’m looking forward to Venray as I have some experience there. It’s something new for me and I’m very excited.”
PK Carsport driver Ghirelli ended up third under the checkered flag. By grabbing his third podium finish of the 2019 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season, the Italian only lost one point to Maggi and still sits second in the ELITE 2 championship. The overall podium mirrored the Rookie Trophy classification.
Nicholas Risitano finished fourth on his #8 Racers Motorsport Camaro securing his second top-5 finish so far this year. The Rome-native capped the Czech weekend with a solid performance by coming from ninth on the grid. Coming from a strong weekend in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, Myatt Snider gained six positions on track to close the top-5 for the second time since debuting in Euro NASCAR.
After finishing in the top-10 for the first time ever on Saturday, Freddie Hemborg doubled up with another strong performance on Sunday. The Memphis Racing driver from Sweden started twelfth and crossed the finish line sixth.
Advait Deodhar went on a spin in the very first corner of the race, but produced an impressive comeback in his #31 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS securing seventh place at the end. Deodhar now sits fourth in the overall ELITE 2 standings, 36 markers behind the leader.
UPDATE: With a gap of 36 points from the leader Deodhar still sits third in the ELITE 2 overall standings.
Naveh Talor had to start from 16th after a massive crash in the early stages of ELITE 2 Round 7. The Israeli gained position after position to bring home his second NWES top-10 finish with the eighth place in Round 8.
Another impressive comeback was executed by Alessandro Brigatti. After a crash in the first lap of Saturday’s ELITE 2 race, the Italian found himself in 22nd on the grid, but his pace was impressive in the race. With his ninth place, he managed to take his third top-10 finish of the season ahead of Justin Kunz.
The German was penalized for a contact with Andre Castro in the second corner, but after serving the drive-through penalty he had a sensational comeback to finish 10th and keeps himself in the fight for the title.
Castro got stuck in the gravel and had to retire without completing a lap in the second race. In the first four events of the 2019 NWES season, the Chicago-native endured some tough luck and has yet to put together two solid results in the same weekend.
Ian Eric Waden won the battle in the Legend Trophy by finishing twelfth ahead of Michael Bleekemolen and Mirco Schultis, who closed the top-3 in the classification for drivers aged 40 and over. Arianna Casoli won the Lady Trophy by securing a solid 17th position.
The ELITE 2 Division will be back in action at Raceway Venray on July 13-14. The only oval weekend of the 2019 season will be streamed live on Fanschoice.tv, Euro NASCAR YouTube and Facebook channel, Motorsport.tv and a vast network of websites and social media pages from around the world.
