Weekend tip: Lots of Swissness in Euro NASCAR 🎥
A LOT TO SEE AT THE END OF THE WEEK There is a lot of varied automotive sports to watch this weekend, especially on the web. For example, the season opener of the European Nascar series with teams and drivers from Switzerland.
Thus, the increasingly broad-based racing company RacingFuel from Horgen, headed by brothers Wani and Ferruccio Finkbohner, has decided to become involved in the European offshoot of the famous American NASCAR.
Three Swiss in the two Chevrolet Camaro
The Racingfuel Motorsport team is fielding two Chevrolet Camaro cars driven by four drivers, some of them well-known. The internationally successful professional Lucas Luhr shares the #58 car (gallery left) with Christoph Lenz. The German drives in the top EuroNASCAR PRO class, the Swiss in EuroNASCAR 2.
In the second Chevy #94 (center gallery), Bruno Staub and Roger Mettler are two drivers from Switzerland. For all of them, this racing series is new territory. But because the European races - unlike in the USA, where speedways dominate - are held exclusively on conventional circuits, it is no witchcraft for experienced and talented race drivers.
A new driving experience
However, the archaic racing touring cars with unit chassis, silhouettes of the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang and Toyota Camry and around 400 hp V8 engines do not feature any driving aids such as ABS and ESP or semi-automatic transmissions.
Therefore, they are a new experience for all Racingfuel pilots.
Christoph Lenz: "At the moment, the challenge is to get to know the peculiarities of the Nascar car so that we can exploit its full potential."
Veteran Maggi finally wants to win
Against the Racingfuel quartet, Giorgio Maggi is an old hand despite being only 24 years old. The driver from Nidwald is already tackling his fourth EuroNASCAR season at the Valencia Circuit in Spain, his third in the PRO class.
For 2022, Maggi has allied himself with Race Art Technology. The Italian-Swiss team based in Balerna TI is fielding a Toyota Camry (gallery on the right) for him.
Maggi's goal for the season has to be his first win, after a second-place finish in Croatia in 2020 and two other top-five finishes were his best results to date. Last year, Maggi scored three wins in the Junior Trophy for riders aged 25 and under, finishing seventh overall.
No fewer than 37 EuroNASCAR cars with female drivers (5) and male drivers from 22 nations are on the starting list for Valencia. All qualifying sessions and races on Saturday and Sunday (one per class and day) can be seen live on the YouTube channel of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, as the series is correctly called.
New GT team from Liechtenstein
Other international races attract viewers to YouTube. For example, the 12 Hours of Hockenheim, the fourth round of the 24H Series. According to the current starting list, Switzerland will be represented only by Jasmin Preisig with the Audi RS3 LMS TCR from Wolf-Power Racing.
Maniack Racing, a team from Liechtenstein with a Mercedes-AMG GT4, is a newcomer. It is supported by Autorama Motorsport from Wetzikon. The drivers are Martin Wachter and Dario Pergolini from Liechtenstein and Constantin Kletzer from Austria. Pergolini is also team manager and, like Stefan Tanner from Autorama, a shrewd race engineer.
Part 1 of the half marathon will be completed on Saturday from 1:50 p.m. to 7:55 p.m., and Part 2 on Sunday from 2 p.m. to 7:55 p.m., before absolute engine silence must prevail at the Motodrom. Here are the direct links to the Livestream and to the Livetiming.
Ricardo Feller with the Kangaroos
There's more automotive sport on YouTube from the Bathurst 12 Hours in Australia. In the first round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Aargau GT works driver Ricardo Feller is competing in a local team supported by Audi Sport. Here the direct Link.
Not only the 6.2-kilometer Mount Panorama Circuit is considered unique, but also the race, which starts on Sunday morning at 5:15 a.m. local time (9:15 p.m. Saturday CEST) in the dark.
Niederhauser and Marciello in the GT3 points chase
On the YouTube channel of the worldwide GT organizer SRO, the two sprint races of the GT World Challenge Europe at Magny-Cours will also be shown with German commentary this weekend. The first on Saturday evening from 7 pm, the second on Sunday at 3 pm.
Representing the Swiss colors are Patric Niederhauser with Frenchman Aurelien Panis in the Saintéloc Racing Audi R8 #25 and Raffaele Marciello from Ticino with Bulgarian Timur Boguslavskiy in the Mercedes-AMG #89.
ELMS with Delétraz, Scherer and Frey
On Sunday, the Imola GP circuit will be the venue for the second race this year for victories and points in the European Le Mans Series, to be seen on the YouTube channel of the race series. The start of the race over four hours is at 11.30 am.
The opening race in mid-April at Le Castellet was won by the LMP2 team with defending champion Louis Delétraz from Geneva. Fabio Scherer in LMP2 and Rahel Frey in a Ferrari in the GT class are also aiming for podium finishes.
Formula E double run in Berlin
Finally, it's quieter at the two Formula E World Championship races on the Tempelhof circuit in Berlin. These can be seen on free-to-air television in Switzerland on MySports One and ProSieben, and on the Internet at Ran.com to see.
Both races with preliminary reports and subsequent analyses on Saturday and Sunday from 2.30 to 4.30 p.m. (start at 3.04 p.m.). A livetiming is available here.
After scoring nil points in the last two races in Rome and Monaco, Edoardo Mortara has slipped from the top of the standings to fifth place. Sébastien Buemi, who finished eighth in Monaco in the Nissan - as good as only in Mexico before - is in a disappointing 14th position. His problem is his poor performance in qualifying so far.
Mercedes driver Stoffel Vandoorne traveled to the German capital as the world championship leader after his Monaco victory.
intercontinentalgtchallenge.com
