2022 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Locations of the circuits that hosted a NASCAR Whelen Euro Series race in 2022
Alon Day won his record breaking fourth NASCAR Whelen Euro Series title in 2022.

The 2022 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series was the fourteenth Racecar Euro Series season, and the tenth under the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series branding. The season began on 14 May with the NASCAR GP Spain at Circuit Ricardo Tormo and ended on 30 October with the EuroNASCAR Finals at Automotodrom Grobnik.

Alon Day became the first driver to be crowned champion for four times after he clinched the title in the final round at Rijeka. Day scored five race wins, the most of any driver in the EuroNASCAR PRO class. Swedish driver Alexander Graff finished second after scoring his maiden victory at Brands Hatch while Gianmarco Ercoli finished third after scoring three victories. Nicolò Rocca, Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Patrick Lemarié scored a victory each at Valencia, Most, and Rijeka respectively with Lemarié's victory making him the oldest race winner in the EuroNASCAR PRO class at the age of 54 years old.[1]

Defending series champion Loris Hezemans did not defend his title as he moved to the NASCAR Cup Series to compete part-time with Team Hezeberg, but his younger brother Liam Hezemans was crowned as the EuroNASCAR 2 champion on his debut season after scoring six race victories and nine podium finishes. Italian driver Alberto Fontana, better known as the YouTube content creator Alberto Naska, finished 9 points behind Liam in second place after scoring five victories and nine podium finishes on his debut season in stock car racing. Cypriot driver Vladimiros Tziortzis finished third in the standings and is the only other race winner of the season, having won the season opening race at Valencia.

Hendriks Motorsport won the Team's Championship for four years in a row after the team's No. 50 car finished on top with 836 points while Hendriks' second team, the No. 7 car, finished second with 779 points. Finishing 10 points behind Hendriks' No. 7 car is PK Carsport's No. 24 team and Team Bleekemolen's No. 69 team, who finished the year with 769 points on their respective tallies. PK Carsport won the tiebreaker for third by virtue of better finishing results, having scored five victories compared to Team Bleekemolen's one.

EuroNASCAR PRO

Schedule

The provisional calendar for the 2022 season was announced on 29 October 2021.[98] All races of the 2022 season will be held on road courses, although the Winter Classic non-championship event is going to be held on an ice surface.

EuroNASCAR PRO

Round Race title Track Date
1 R1 NASCAR GP Spain – Valencia NASCAR Fest Spain Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia 14 May
R2 15 May
2 R3 NASCAR GP UK – American SpeedFest IX United Kingdom Brands Hatch (Indy), West Kingsdown 11 June
R4 12 June
3 R5 NASCAR GP Italy Italy Autodromo Vallelunga, Campagnano di Roma 9 July
R6 10 July
4 R7 NASCAR GP Czech Republic – OMV MaxxMotion NASCAR Show Czech Republic Autodrom Most, Most 3 September
R8 4 September
5 R9 NASCAR GP Belgium Belgium Circuit Zolder, Heusden-Zolder 8 October
R10 9 October
6 R11 EuroNASCAR Finals – Fracasso NASCAR GP Croatia Croatia Automotodrom Grobnik, Čavle 29 October
R12 30 October

EuroNASCAR 2

Round Race title Track Date
1 R1 NASCAR GP Spain – Valencia NASCAR Fest Spain Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia 14 May
R2 15 May
2 R3 NASCAR GP UK – American SpeedFest IX United Kingdom Brands Hatch (Indy), West Kingsdown 11 June
R4 12 June
3 R5 NASCAR GP Italy Italy Autodromo Vallelunga, Campagnano di Roma 9 July
R6 10 July
4 R7 NASCAR GP Czech Republic – OMV MaxxMotion NASCAR Show Czech Republic Autodrom Most, Most 3 September
R8 4 September
5 R9 NASCAR GP Belgium Belgium Circuit Zolder, Heusden-Zolder 8 October
R10 9 October
6 R11 EuroNASCAR Finals – Fracasso NASCAR GP Croatia Croatia Automotodrom Grobnik, Čavle 29 October
R12 30 October

EuroNASCAR Club Challenge

Round Race title Track Date
R1 NASCAR GP Spain – Valencia NASCAR Fest Spain Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia 13 May
R2 NASCAR GP Italy Italy Autodromo Vallelunga, Campagnano di Roma 10 July
R3 NASCAR GP Czech Republic – OMV MaxxMotion NASCAR Show Czech Republic Autodrom Most, Most 2 September
R4 NASCAR GP Belgium Belgium Circuit Zolder, Heusden-Zolder 7 October
R5 EuroNASCAR Finals – Fracasso NASCAR GP Croatia Croatia Automotodrom Grobnik, Čavle 28 October

Calendar changes

  • NASCAR GP Germany at the Hockenheimring will be returning to the series after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hockenheim is scheduled to host the opening round of the season on 9–10 April.
  • NASCAR GP Spain at Circuit Ricardo Tormo will keep its May date as the second round of the season. Last year, the round hosted the opening round of the season but had its date moved from April to May due to the schedule changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • American SpeedFest, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series' round at Brands Hatch, will be returning to its traditional June date after the round was hosted on 3–4 July 2021 to coincide with the American Independence Day.
  • NASCAR GP Italy will not host a championship round as Italy would host an All-Star Event in 2022. Autodromo Vallelunga will continue to host the All-Star Event, but on 4 November 2021 it was announced the track will use the Club Circuit layout instead of the International Circuit layout that was used in 2020 and 2021.[99]
  • NASCAR GP Czech Republic at Automotodrom Most is now scheduled to host the fourth round of the season, although they will keep the late August-early September date that the round had in 2021.
  • NASCAR GP Croatia at Automotodrom Grobnik will be scheduled to host the season finale, marking the first occasion that Croatia will host the final round of a NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season. The round at Automotodrom Grobnik is scheduled to be held on 29–30 October, effectively taking over the slot vacated by NASCAR GP Italy.
  • NASCAR Whelen Euro Series will be hosting NASCAR's first event on ice with the non-championship Winter Classic event that is scheduled to be held somewhere between late 2022 and early 2023. The venue and exact date of the event is currently unknown.
  • On 25 February 2022, it was announced that NASCAR GP Germany at the Hockenheimring has been cancelled due to "ongoing difficult circumstances for the event". The round at Autodromo Vallelunga, which was previously due to host an All-Star round, will now host the NASCAR GP Italy championship round as a result. It is subsequently revealed that Vallelunga's full layout will be used for the 2022 edition of NASCAR GP Italy.[100][101]

Rule changes

  • On 30 January 2022, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series announced the following changes to their qualifying format in 2022:[102]
    • EuroNASCAR PRO's qualifying system will now consist of two phases of knockout qualifying, marking the return of the qualifying format that was last used in the 2019 season. The first Qualifying session will be shortened from 30 minutes to 15 minutes while the fastest 10 drivers from the Qualifying session will advance to the 5-minute long SuperPole session.
    • EuroNASCAR 2's qualifying system retains the single-round format that the series used for both classes in 2020 and 2021, although the Qualifying session time is shortened to 20 minutes.
  • On 3 May 2022, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series announced a new partnership deal with VP Racing Fuels to become the new exclusive fuel supplier in the series, switching from a previously undisclosed fuel supplier. The series will now use VP's N20 Race Fuel, which incorporates 20% sustainable materials.[103]

Results

Standings

See also

References

Related Articles

Wikiwand AI