The development of the NASCAR Euro Series is a unique success story in the European motorsports landscape. Rarely has a racing series gone through such a fast and fascinating growth as EuroNASCAR. That’s why we look back on more than ten years of V8 thunder and Pure Racing.
The green flag over what would eventually become the NASCAR Euro Series was waved in 2008 when TEAM FJ, in the person of EuroNASCAR President and CEO Jerome Galpin and his wife, EuroNASCAR COO Anne Galpin, founded the Racecar Series with the goal to bring the American racing spirit to Europe. In the beginning, the V8 cars only raced in France, on famous tracks like the Le Mans and Dijon. The first season, articulating over six meetings in 2009, saw Lucas Lasserre win the PRO Division, while Wilfried Boucenna took the OPEN Division and the overall championship.
In 2010 the series was internationalized under FIA sanctioning and renamed as the Euro Racecar Series. The first race outside France took place at the iconic Nurburgring in Germany. Lucas Lasserre grabbed the checkered flag in one of the races and notched two more wins to take the title. More international tracks were added to the series’ six-event calendar in 2011, the likes of Zandvoort in the Netherlands and Brands Hatch in Great Britain. Motorsport legend Eric Helary was the PRO Champion at the end of the season.
In 2012, the series reached an historic milestone: TEAM FJ announced a partnership with NASCAR, and the series became the official European NASCAR championship and held the first NASCAR events on European soil under the Euro Racecar NASCAR Touring Series name. The 2012 season was more international than ever before: the series visited four different countries and six different tracks: Nogaro (France), Brands Hatch (UK), Spa (Belgium), Tours (France), Valencia (Spain) and Le Mans (France).
History was made at Tours Speedway, an exciting short track oval built by TEAM FJ in the centre of the French city of Tours. Ben Kennedy, the current Executive Vice President at NASCAR and grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France, took the win in the first ever NASCAR oval race in Europe.
The first European NASCAR Champion was Ander Vilarino, who still is one of the most successful EuroNASCAR drivers in history. The Spaniard secured the title three times in his career: in 2012, 2013 and 2015. With 22 victories, Vilarino also topped the all-time winners leaderboard for several years.
In 2013 the championship reached another historic milestone. With the arrival of title sponsor Whelen Engineering, the series became the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. A long-term agreement was announced under the Tour Eiffel.
In 2014 Anthony Kumpen and his team PK Carsport secured the title. The Belgian repeated the feat in the 2016 season, which is why he is also one of the top drivers in EuroNASCAR history. Kumpen was also among the drivers from Europe who used the EuroNASCAR as a bridge to the USA. In his career, the Belgian amassed six starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, including one at the famous Daytona International Speedway. Now, Kumpen is acting as the team owner/manager of PK Carsport. The 2014 season also saw the first EuroNASCAR oval race under the rain. At Tours Speedway, France, Mathias Lauda won the historic event in a DF1 Racing car.
2017 marked the beginning of the Alon Day era. The Israeli won the EuroNASCAR title two years in a row with CAAL Racing and made history by becoming the first EuroNASCAR driver to race in the NASCAR Cup Series. He made two starts in the Cup Series: at Sonoma in 2017 and at Richmond in 2018. He also took part in NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR NASCAR Truck Series races.
More than 25 EuroNASCAR drivers benefited from the NASCAR Euro Series position in the NASCAR ladder to race in the US over the years. Ander Vilarino, Frederic Gabillon, Thomas Ferrando and Ulysse Delsaux – both Frenchmen were OPEN champions – raced in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, Justin Kunz has a NASCAR Truck Series start in Mosport in his resume, Jerry De Weerdt started in the ARCA race in Daytona and the new two-time NWES champion Loris Hezemans competed in several NASCAR Xfinity Series races. But these are just a few examples that prove that the EuroNASCAR is the perfect bridge to the USA for European drivers.
The 2018 season not only stood out for the impressive performances of Alon Day, but also for another important milestone in the series’ young history. A legendary NASCAR champion and member of the NASCAR Hall Of Fame set off for Europe to fight for points in the PRO championship. 2000 NASCAR Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte drove at all six race weekends for veteran team RDV Competition. Jennifer Jo Cobb, Max Papis, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Julia Landauer, Myatt Snider are all among the American NASCAR drivers who raced in EuroNASCAR. The series also took part in exchanges between International NASCAR championships, welcoming JF Dumoulin from Canada and Ruben Garcia Jr. from Mexico.
The year 2019 was not only the tenth anniversary of the series, but also went down in history as the first season with seven events were held in seven European countries. The start of the season was in Valencia, followed by Franciacorta in Italy. The next stop was Brands Hatch in Great Britain, before the first trip East for NWES at the Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic celebrated a strong debut.
The regular season ended at the Raceway Venray, the half mile oval in the Netherlands. In the playoffs the series traveled to Hockenheim in Germany for the Semi Finals and then to Circuit Zolder in Belgium, where the EuroNASCAR champions and Trophy winners were crowned. Loris Hezemans came out of it as the youngest champion in EuroNASCAR history.
In 2020, Day moved to PK Carsport and became an official Monster Energy athlete. In the team of his former arch-rival Kumpen, Day completed a fantastic season to grab the 2020 Championship thanks to four wins over the course of a pandemic-shortened 10-race campaign. Lasse Soerensen, who won the 2019 EuroNASCAR 2 Championship, ended up second after a strong year with DF1 Racing. With his third title, Day tied Vilarino’s all-time record and at the same time passed the Spaniard at the top of the all-time wins leaderboard.
A new tire supplier entered the series in 2021: Hoosier! In addition to that, EuroNASCAR visited Automotodrom Grobnik and Autodromo Vallelunga for the second time since their debut in 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hockenheim in Germany was forced into a break.
Day moved back to his old love CAAL Racing in 2021. Despite three wins, the Israeli was not able to defend his title and become the first four-time NWES Champion. It was Loris Hezemans who clinched his second title in the very last race of the season in an exciting all-out battle between Loris Hezemans, Vittorio Ghirelli, Gianmarco Ercoli and Lucas Lasserre, becoming the youngest two-time EuroNASCAR PRO Champion in history. In addition, Hendriks Motorsport Team became the first one to win all three NWES titles: EuroNASCAR PRO (Loris Hezemans), EuroNASCAR 2 (Martin Doubek) and Teams Championship (#7 Ford Mustang).
In addition, Hezemans’ father Toine and his business partner Ernst Berg formed a new NASCAR Cup Series organization in the US called Team Hezeberg – the first US NASCAR team with roots in EuroNASCAR. Not only did Loris Hezemans become the first former EuroNASCAR champion to compete in a dedicated campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series, he also brought a former Formula One champion back to the mix: Jacques Villeneuve, who was on hand to bring the #27 Team Hezeberg Ford Mustang to the starting grid for the Daytona 500, the biggest race in NASCAR. Villeneuve and Hezemans had been competing against each other in the NASCAR Euro Series for three seasons, but in 2022 two of EuroNASCAR’s biggest names joined forces to make something unforgettable.
Hezemans’ departure to the US didn’t necessarily mean that the Hezemans name is gone completely. His younger brother Liam stepped up to the OPEN division and immediately placed himself in a thrilling three-way title battle with rising star Vladimiros Tziortzis and YouTube sensation Alberto Naska. The duel went to the wire in the Finals in Croatia where Liam clinched the title on debut, winning six races including the last four consecutively.
Croatia was also the site where the 2022 PRO championship was decided. With PK Carsport returning, Alon Day immediately rejoined Anthony Kumpen’s squad and scored five wins en route for his fourth championship title – the first to achieve this feat. The season proved to be highly competitive, with three new PRO race winners being crowned: Championship runner-up Alexander Graff, motorsport veteran Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Patrick Lemarie, the oldest winner in PRO history.
Gianmarco Ercoli presented himself as a bonafide star with three race wins in 2022 and in 2023, the Italian fulfilled his dream. Driving the #54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet Camaro, Ercoli became the first Italian driver to win the PRO championship title after a season-long battle with Lucas Lasserre and Vittorio Ghirelli. Ercoli also became the first driver to win the championship in both PRO and OPEN, having won the second division title back in 2015. The season also saw EuroNASCAR’s return to Germany with a new venue: Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.
Another star was also established in 2023. Paul Jouffreau started his season alongside EuroNASCAR legend Frederic Gabillon, but midway through the year he was entrusted to race the #3 RDV Competition Ford Mustang in both classes and responded beautifully. Not only did the Frenchman win the OPEN championship title after an exciting battle with Vladimiros Tziortzis, Gil Linster, Patrick Schober and Alberto Naska, he also scored several wins in PRO and became the youngest race winner in EuroNASCAR’s top division.
2024 was the year for another Italian to become the conqueror: Vittorio Ghirelli. The 2020 OPEN champion Ghirelli joined the highly proven team of PK Carsport and instantly set the sport alight, scoring seven wins and sweeping all Pole Position Awards en route to his first PRO championship success. Jouffreau stepped up to full-time PRO competition and proved that he’s not just a flash in the pan, finishing second in the standings and only eight points shy of the title.
The 2024 season also saw the return of oval racing to EuroNASCAR and fittingly, it was the home hero who won: Liam Hezemans, a winner of three PRO races. It also introduced a new format for the teams title with the EuroNASCAR Endurance Teams Championship, where results are determined by the team who completed the most laps in the shortest time possible. RDV Competition with their highly talented young duo of Jouffreau and Schober was crowned as the inaugural champions of this new format.
EuroNASCAR then entered a new era after the 2024 season. With NASCAR becoming the prominent brand, the series has been rebranded into the NASCAR Euro Series and the opportunities for drivers to become a NASCAR star in the United States from the official NASCAR championship in Europe has become bigger than ever.
NASCAR and TEAM FJ already have an agreement to make a long-term commitment to EuroNASCAR up until 2030. This commitment is the cornerstone for further growth and success. The NASCAR Euro Series has become the most exciting touring car series in Europe, but the success story will certainly continue …
Featured image by NASCAR Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
