Guillaume Deflandre wins nail-biting ENES Round 3 at Watkins Glen

At the wheel of his #64 SpeedHouse Chevrolet, Guillaume Deflandre scored the second win of his 2021 EuroNASCAR Esports Series season at virtual Watkins Glen. In a spectacular dash to the checkered flag, the Belgian blocked Philipp Bereswill on the main straight to gain another 40 points for the overall standings. Deflandre now leads the classification by 8 points ahead of Tobias Dauenhauer, who was a close third in the battle for the win.

Watkins Glen, the birthplace of American road course racing after World War II, hosted Round 3 of the second virtual EuroNASCAR championship on iRacing. With it’s 3.949 kilometer long “Inner Loop” the NASCAR track provides thrilling and close racing. The famous 90 degrees first turn, esses and bus stop chicane are the highlights of the beautiful race track located in the federal state of New York.

Deflandre grabbed the pole position in Qualifying and thus the first starting position in the first of two Heats determining the grid for the Main Event race. The Belgian won his 10-minute race ahead of DF1 Racing’s Simon Pilate and a charging Bereswill at the wheel of the #479 American Fan Fest Chevrolet Camaro. The Hockenheimring representative showed a promising pace at the iconic road course.

In the second Heat, 2020 EuroNASCAR Esports Series Champion Andre Castro sped to victory at the wheel of the #122 DF1 Racing Camaro. The American, who’s engaged in a part-time schedule in the ENES due to his university commitments took the occasion to return to the grid and immediately contended for the top spots. Brands Hatch race winner Tobias Dauenhauer was second ahead of Deflandre’s teammate Paul Jouffreau.

As in 2020, the Main Event Race started with some frantic action in turn one. Several drivers were involved in a crash in the midfield – the likes of Chris Liemann, Gordon Barnes and Daniel Adam – but the Big One did not occur. The front runners got into rhythm quickly and built up a solid margin on the rest of the field. Castro, who started from the front row, was involved in an incident and fell down the order, but came back to twelfth position in the end in a battered car.

That left Deflandre, Bereswill and Dauenhauer at the front and the trio provided a fantastic show. All 24 laps long, the three drivers were battling for the lead but Deflandre was able to defend his position. In the very last lap, Deflandre found lapped cars battling for position on the way to the finish and his lead was in danger. The Belgian threw the block on Bereswill on the final straight to win the second Main Event race in 2021 after Daytona. Hendriks Motorsport’s Dauenhauer ended up third.

RDV Competition’s Frederic Gabillon was fourth. The Frenchman not only improved his equipment at home but also his virtual racing skills that make him now one of the fastest drivers on the ENES grid. Henri Tuomaala was fifth head of Davide Dallara, Jouffreau, Giorgio Maggi, Pilate and teamboss Roy Hendriks, who closed the top-10 and led the team members at Watkins Glen. Dallara collected the four bonus points for the most passes with a wild comeback from 27th to sixth place. Jakub Krafek, who represents the Autodrom Most in the ENES season, ended up 20th.

Round 4 of the 2021 ENES championship will take place on March 23, 2021 at the legendary Hockenheimring. The track was released a few days ago on iRacing. The race at the home of the popular American Fan Fest will start at 8:30 pm CET and will be streamed live on EuroNASCAR’s YouTube channel, Facebook page and Twitch profile, as well as on Motorsport.tv.

ENES ROUND 3 RESULTS | POINTS STANDINGS

ENES ROUND 3 @ VIRTUAL WATKINS GLEN RESULTS

Pos	Start	Car #	Driver	Laps	Interval	Led
1	1	64	Guillaume Deflandre	24	0	24
2	5	479	Philipp Bereswill	24	-217	0
3	4	150	Tobias Dauenhauer	24	-408	0
4	8	3	Frederic Gabillon	24	-18.092	0
5	7	23	Henri Tuomaala	24	-28.215	0
6	27	89	Davide Dallara	24	-31.072	0
7	6	264	Paul Jouffreau	24	-36.419	0
8	12	18	Giorgio Maggi	24	-38.546	0
9	3	166	Simon Pilate	24	-39.331	0
10	14	318	Roy Hendriks	24	-40.902	0
11	9	46	Santtu Vuoksenturja	24	-45.546	0
12	2	122	Andre Castro	24	-48.037	0
13	26	108	Alessandro Brigatti	24	-51.398	0
14	19	101	Vladimiros Tziortzis	24	-54.066	0
15	16	388	Luca Canneori	24	-58.723	0
16	34	88	Massimiliano Lanza	24	-1:11.586	0
17	30	189	Alberto Panebianco	24	-1:16.376	0
18	23	48	Yevgen Sokolovskiy	24	-1:17.724	0
19	10	354	Stefano Guastaveglie	24	-1:18.007	0
20	31	483	Jakub Krafek	23	-1 L	0
21	32	99	Justin Kunz	23	-1 L	0
22	18	346	Rien Janssen	23	-1 L	0
23	15	91	Leevi Lintukanto	23	-1 L	0
24	20	148	Francesco Garisto	23	-1 L	0
25	11	199	Alain Mosqueron	23	-1 L	0
26	28	190	Igor Romanov	23	-1 L	0
27	17	307	Patrick Hendriks	22	-2 L	0
28	22	458	André Wiegold	22	-2 L	0
29	29	322	Maximilian Heilek	22	-2 L	0
30	21	480	Daniel Adam	16	-8 L	0
31	24	191	Naveh Talor	5	-19 L	0
32	25	348	Chris Liemann	4	-20 L	0
33	13	246	Gordon Barnes	2	-22 L	0