PRESS RELEASE from EuroNASCAR
Liam Hezemans led all laps and survived a late restart to emulate his brother Loris’ victory – The Hendriks Motorsport driver scored his maiden oval racing win
Loris Hezemans was the driver to take the victory in NASCAR Whelen Euro Series’ last visit to Raceway Venray in 2019. Five years later EuroNASCAR returned to the half-mile oval in the Netherlands where Loris’ younger brother, Liam Hezemans, was crowned as the NASCAR Oval GP Champion. After a thrilling race in EuroNASCAR PRO, the 21-year old Dutchman led all laps and kept his head cool during a late restart to clinch his third win of the 2024 season. Much to the joys of the home Dutch fans that witnessed the long awaited return of EuroNASCAR oval racing action.
Hezemans had a great start when the green flag dropped and by Turn 3, the Dutchman had completed his overtake on pole sitter Vittorio Ghirelli. The talented youngster made the theoretically slower inside lane work to his favor and opened the advantage as his rivals battled each other for position. He efficiently worked his way through traffic for the majority of the race, but a spin involving Thomas Toffel on lap 92 shuffled things up.
The Hendriks Motorsport driver chose to stay on the outside lane for the restart. The decision paid off when Gianmarco Ercoli, who started on the inside, got loose entering the first corner. With the race extended to 104 laps, Hezemans kept his composure and led the remaining laps to continue his winning streak in the 2024 EuroNASCAR season. To cap off the excitement of a home victory, he also brought home the top prize in the Junior Trophy for drivers aged 25 and under.
“It was a real survival job at the restart, but that’s NASCAR at its best!” said Hezemans in the Victory Lane. “I need to catch my breath because it was so intense, but it has been an awesome job! Thank you to all the Hendriks Motorsport team as they gave me a perfect car for our home race. Thank you to Gianmarco as well because the battle was really nice. He tried to pass me, but I stuck to my position and gave my maximum. I’m incredibly happy that we got it in the end!”
While it was all smiles for Hezemans, in true short track racing style, there were tensions brewing between his closest competitors. CAAL Racing’s Ercoli returned to the podium with a second place finish, but he had a heated discussion with Ghirelli following an incident in the opening lap that involved the two title contenders. Third place went to Paul Jouffreau in the #3 RDV Competition Ford Mustang, however, Ryan Vargas had a strong choice of words for the Frenchman after they made contact during the race.
Ghirelli and Vargas still came home with an impressive top-5 finish in the books. The American also contributed to his team, 3F Racing, winning the Endurance Teams classification battle when the results from both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2 were combined together. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen put in a strong race at home and delivered a sixth place finish as the last car finishing on the lead lap.
Tobias Dauenhauer, Marc Goossens, Thomas Krasonis and Victor Neumann completed the top-10 positions. Dauenhauer, Krasonis, Neumann enjoyed a fantastic battle with Academy / Alex Caffi Motorsport driver Vladimiros Tziortzis that saw all four drivers trading positions throughout the race. Despite his spin, Toffel still won the Challenger Trophy special classification for elite amateur drivers in the top division of the official European NASCAR championship.
The 2024 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series will now go to a Summer break with the NASCAR GP Czech Republic regular season finale at Autodrom Most on August 31th to September 1st. However, it is confirmed that the return of oval racing in Europe after five years was worth the wait for everyone involved. All qualifying and races will be broadcast live on EuroNASCAR’s YouTube channel and several TV networks from all around the world.
