Brands Hatch, UK – In front of the over 50 thousands of fans that filled the 10th edition of the Brands Hatch American SpeedFest, Max Lanza and Roberto Benedetti were once again big protagonist of the two EuroNASCAR Divisions. The #88 Camaro duo has conquered the class Top3 in the two Saturday races: Lanza gained the bronze medal of the Challenger Trophy, while Benedetti grabbed the third place in the Legend Trophy. The good performances could have been confirmed on Sunday, but a spectacular crash during the EuroNASCAR Pro race early ended the Lanza race and forced Benedetti to skip the EuroNaSCAR 2 race.
Max Lanza started in the best way the English weekend, fighting for the lead of the Challenger Trophy since the practices. The Italian driver posted the class second fastest time on Friday and the third in the qualifying session. After a huge battle on track, Lanza confirmed his third place also at the end of Race 1. “I’m very happy about what we did also here in UK, despite the track conditions have changed many times and we had a lot of work to do. We find the way to catch another Challenger Trophy podium after a very difficult race, with many battles on track on a very tricky and slippery track. It was not easy this time, but we brought home a very good result” commented Lanza, protagonist of a spectacular crash in Race 2 that early ended the #88 Camaro weekend. “Unfortunately the track was very slippery and I was too long in Turn 1, the car jumped on the sand and…the wall was there. One of the toughest crash of my career, I flipped over, but I’m grateful to NASCAR and EuroNASCAR to provide us so safe cars. The crash was very heavy, my #88 sacrificed itself to protect me in the best way, I escaped completely unhurt! I’m very sorry for Roberto, who had to skip the Sunday race due this. It’s part of the ‘game’, but we look forward: next stop Vallelunga surrounded by the tons of Italian Tifosi in few weeks!”
Also Roberto Benedetti started the weekend in a very fascinating way in the EuroNASCAR 2 Division, with two overall Top10 and the fifth row in qualy far just 0.02 of second. The Rome native driver had a great Race 1, thanks to a big determination and a very strong pace, coming back until P7, very close to the Top5. A solid result that gave him the second place in the Legend Trophy. “Second racing weekend and second podium finish! It was very difficult because here it’s very hard find the right room to overtake and to make a mistake is very easy. We fought for all the weekend long for a place on the overall Top10 and this is most important thing. Yes, it was a pity for Race 2, but luckily Max is ok and that’s it. We see the good part of that: in Vallelunga we will have a completely brand new Camaro!” ended joking Benedetti. After the race the Italian driver was penalized with 5 seconds by the Race Direction, which kept him in the overall Top 10 but moved down to third in the class trophy.
Now it’s the turn of Italy to host a new EuroNASCAR racing weekend. The circuit of Vallelunga will be the theater of the third round of the season on 8th and 9th of July, when the powerful V8 american V8 engines will roar in front of the 20 thousands ‘tifosi’ that will reach the Italian track.