After a rather unlucky start into the season 2019 of the Nascar Whelen Euro Series, Jesse Vartiainen reached his best results in this season at Brands Hatch with his #2 Chevrolet Camaro of Alex Caffi Motorsports.
In 2019 Jesse Vartiainen starts in his first complete season in the Nascar Whelen Euro Series. Last year he had a guest start for the italian team of Alex Caffi in Hockenheim, where he did quite well with P11 and P6. In addition to the race in Hockenheim, Vartiainen was competing in the Northern European V8 Thunder. Despite some similarities, there is a lot he has to learn this season. “There’s a lot that is new to me, all tracks are new. I’m used to low profile tires, but here we use high profile tires”, said Jesse Vartiainen.
So far the rounds in Valencia and Franciacorta had not been successful for the Finn. In both races in Valencia he was experiencing problems and could not finish the races. In Franciacorta he could finish the first race, but was only on P19. In the second race he again had problems and was in the end classified on P26. He was hoping to end his losing streak at Brands Hatch.
However, the weekend did not start as planned for the Finn. “On Friday I couldn’t make a single lap due to problems with the gearbox. But on saturday, my lap times were surprisingly good. In qualifying it went well right from the beginning and I qualified for the Super Pole”, Vartiainen said. With P11 he reached his best result in qualifying in this season.
In the first race he could confirm the good speed of the #2. He started from P11 and within the first laps he could overtake some other cars and was on P8 when the safety car came out. After the restart André Castro in the #24 turned Myatt Snider in the #48 in Druids and Vartiainen avoided contact by driving through the green. He lost 8 spots and found himself on P16. In the following laps he managed to move up to P11 again, but in the last lap he lost 2 spots again and finished on P13. “The race went quite well until the safety car came out. After the restart there were some collisions. In the last lap I had contact with another car. One could say that in the beginning everything was good and in the end it just went worse.” He could benefit from the penalties against Nicholas Risitano with the #8 and Scott Jeffs with the #90 and was classified on P11 at the end of the day.
The friendly Finn started from P13 in the second race. “At the beginning I could improve a bit. But at some point one could neither gain nor loose a spot. Than again the safety car came out and mixed up the order again. I managed to gain one spot afterwards”, said Vartiainen. In the end he finished on P11, his best result in 2019. “It’s quite hard to overtake, I simply couldn’t pass the others. I have to say, with a little more speed we could be even further up.”
The next round of the Nascar Whelen Euro Series at the Autodrom Most on June 29 and 30 will prove whether Vartiainen and his team will find the missing speed.
