PRESS RELEASE Tobias Dauenhauer
Last weekend from April 12th to 14th the season opener of the NASCAR European Championship took place at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia (Spain) in midsummer temperatures and bright sunshine. Tobias Dauenhauer started the new season again with his team Bremotion from Frankfurt. A strong field of 24 international drivers promises exciting racing action for this year’s championship.
Already in the training sessions on Friday, Dauenhauer felt visibly comfortable in his NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro and was able to finish fourth overall. The qualifying started on Saturday morning, in which the ADAC Hesse-Thuringia sponsored driver took third place and thus qualified for the Superpole (top 10 of the qualifying). Dauenhauer was able to show further improvement in Superpole and achieved second place on the grid for the first race on Saturday afternoon. At the start he was able to put the traction of his V8 car perfectly on the asphalt and gained the lead straight away. During the race, the 26-year-old was able to break away from the rest of the starting field and built a gap. Everything seemed to be going perfectly, but then the drama on the penultimate lap of the race happened: Dauenhauer had to park his Camaro due to a drive defect. What seemed like a certain victory turned into a retirement in the first race of the new season.
Dauenhauer kept his head up and focused directly on the upcoming second race on Sunday afternoon. Here, he started the race from the front row of the grid in second place again. At the start, Dauenhauer was on the outside lane, had to give up a position and ended up in third place. In a group of three, the leaders were able to pull away from the rest of the starting field. However, the ADAC Hesse-Thuringia sponsored driver was unable to find a way to pass the opponents in front of him and thus secured third place in the second race of the NASCAR GP Spain.
Dauenhauer after the race: “Of course it is unfortunate that we had a retirement so close before the end of the first race in the new season, even though the win seemed to be safe. Nevertheless, I am satisfied with the start of the season because we were able to show that we are fast and have the ability to win races. The podium finish in the second race was a conciliatory end to the race weekend. I would like to thank my team Bremotion, who worked hard this weekend and endured sleepless nights to prepare the car perfectly again.”
Dauenhauer is already looking forward to the further races and is focused to the NASCAR GP Italy from 17th to 19th May in Vallelunga (Rome), which is the next race on the program.
