Euro NASCAR: Maggi still has to tremble 🎥
WIN AND P5 IN HOCKENHEIM Giorgio Maggi celebrated his third win of the season in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series at Hockenheim. The finale in Belgium will see a showdown between the Swiss and the Dane Lasse Sörensen. Not only because of the proximity, many spectators from Switzerland attended the American Fan Fest in Hockenheim with the NASCAR [...]
Not only because of the proximity, many spectators from Switzerland attended the American Fan Fest in Hockenheim with the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series taking center stage. With Giorgio Maggi from Hergiswil, a Swiss also leads the overall standings in the Elite 2 division of Rookies, Legends and Guest Drivers. Initially, he also expanded these.
Another exclamation mark in practice and race 1
With a time of 1'32.309 on the 3692-meter-long version of the Hockenheimring (without the Parabolica hairpin), the driver from Nidwald not only secured pole position for both races for the third time this season. This time would also have been good enough for third place on the grid in the Elite 1 of the pros. There, his Dutch teammate Loris Hezemans was fastest with the #50 Ford Mustang used by both Hendriks Motorsports drivers.
They also celebrated victory in their first of two 16-lap semifinal races on Saturday.
Giorgio Maggi: "I lost the lead briefly after the start but soon regained it. I like Hockenheim because I've already contested a few successful races here."
Saturday's highlights from both divisions are shown in this short summary:
Maggi or Sörensen
With a 25-point lead over the Dane Lasse Sörensen, Maggi once again started the second race from the best grid position on Sunday. However, with increasing problems with the brakes in the Mustang, the man from Central Switzerland dropped back to 5th place in the course of the half hour.
Giorgio Maggi: "Everything was going perfectly until then. When I wanted to attack, the brake problems started. You always have to pump a bit on the straights to build up brake pressure, but this time it didn't have much effect. We don't know what the reason was either."
Meanwhile, Sörensen claimed his fifth win of the season after finishing second the day before. He thus reduced the gap to Maggi to eleven points (424 to 413). Only Maggi and he can still clinch the Elite 2 title at the final on October 5 and 6 in Zolder.
Hugo de Sadeleer made a strong debut. The Lausanne native, who competes with a Monegasque license, received an invitation to participate from a Spanish team at short notice. Without prior testing with the Ford Mustang, the second Swiss in the 26-strong field drove from third on the grid to third and second place.
The highlights from Sunday:
Showdown on October 5/6
The man from Nidwald knows the Belgian circuit inside out since winning the 24 Hours of Zolder (with a Norma sports car), and he also tested there in the spring with the Ford Mustang (5.7-liter V8 with 400 hp and 1225 kilos dry weight). But that doesn't mean anything yet.
Giorgio Maggi: "Lasse won't be slow there either, he's also very consistent. It won't be easy because Zolder, with its high curbs and hard braking zones, is very hard on the material. So qualifying will be the most important thing again. I just want to start in front of him and work out a gap."
Loris Hezemans also leads his classification. The Elite 1 championship is now only decided between him and Italian Nicolo Rocca, who is 21 points behind. The prize for the overall winner of Elite 2 is a NASCAR race in the USA in a series below the premier class.
