Whelen Euro Elite 1: What A Day!
Alon Day (#54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) dominated the last ELITE 1 race of the 2016 American Speed Weekend Semi Finals, leading unchallenged from green to checkered and crossing the finish line with an impressive 9.470 seconds advantage over second place Anthony Kumpen (#24 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS). The Israeli won his third race of the season – the sixth in his NASCAR career – reducing his gap in the standings down to 29 points over the 2014 NWES champion.
Day started from the pole thanks the fastest lap in the Saturday Race, in which he finished second behind Kumpen. When the green flag dropped, the #54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS immediately pulled away from the field building an insurmountable lead.
Starting from the front row, Frederic Gabillon (#3 Tepac RDV Compétition Ford Mustang) dropped two positions at the start but climbed his way back to a third place finish.
Bert Longin (#11 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) took advantage of a battle between Nicolò Rocca (#56 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) and former Formula 1 driver Alex Caffi (#23 Alex Caffi Motorsport Ford Mustang) making a daring move to overtake both in the same corner on lap 18 and finishing fourth. Caffi made a huge impression in his NASCAR debut as a driver/team manager, scoring his first career top-5 in his home race ahead of Rocca.
Martin Doubek (#5 Dexwet Renauer Team Ford Mustang) completed a solid weekend with his second consecutive top-10 in the ELITE 1 Division. Wilfried Boucenna (#73 Knauf Racing Team Ford Mustang), Thomas Ferrando (#37 Knauf Racing Team Ford Mustang) and Gianmarco Ercoli (#9 Double-T by Nocentini Ford Mustang) rounded out the top-10.
Dario Caso (#8 Vict Motorsport Ford Mustang) led the Challenger Trophy in 12th place.
After a dominating weekend, Kumpen will lead the standings entering the Circuit Zolder Finals on October 8-9 thanks to his 19-point margin over Gabillon. PK Carsport has both cars on top of the Teams Championship standings, separated by just 2 points and followed by CAAL Racing’s #54 Chevrolet SS seventeen points further back.
The 2016 Circuit Zolder American Festival Finals will take place on October 8-9 and all the races will be streamed live on Fanschoice.tv.
