At the end of a 30-lap battle with Frederic Gabillon (#3 Tepac RDV Compétition Ford Mustang), Anthony Kumpen (#24 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) won his third race of the season, the first at Brands Hatch, beating the Frenchman to the line by just 3 tenths of a second.
“It was a tough race. With a warm weather and high humidity levels you don’t get a lot of air. I have very sensitive eyes so I drive with the visor down and it was really hot in the car. We had a little bit more of understeer than we are used to, but I’m very happy because I started from pole position, I led all the laps and I increase my lead in the championship. That was the goal today,” said the 2014 Champion.
Kumpen started from the pole and and gained a little margin as Gabillon battled with Bert Longin (#11 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) for second during the first lap. Gabillon got the better hand and managed to close the gap with Kumpen in what looked like a replay of the season opener in Valencia. Gabillon tried his best for the remainder of the race, trying also to take advantage of lapped traffic, but Kumpen closed every door on the way to his fifth career NASCAR win. Gabillon finished second for the third time this year.
Alon Day (#54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) won the battle for third and led the Junior “Jerome Sarran” Trophy, while Marc Goossens (#90 Brass Racing Ford Mustang) further improved his best career NASCAR result with the fourth place and Borja Garcia (#1 SPV Racing Ford Mustang) finished in the top-5 for the fifth time in five races this year.
Freddy Nordstrom (#44 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) ended up sixth ahead of the Knauf Racing Team duo of Wilfried Boucenna (#73 Knauf Racing Team Ford Mustang) and Thomas Ferrando (#37 Knauf Racing Team Ford Mustang). Florian Renauer (#5 Dexwet Renauer Team Ford Mustang) was ninth and Bert Longin (#11 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) closed the top-10 after a contact with Nicolò Rocca (#56 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) that resulted in a penalty for the Italian sent him backwards on lap 18.
Eric De Doncker (#98 Motorsport 98 Ford Mustang) brought home the Challenger Trophy with the 13th place under the checkered flag.
Kumpen brought his points lead up to 14 points on Gabillon and 20 on Garcia and will start fourth in Sunday’s ELITE 1 Race 2. Day posted the fastest lap of the race and will start from the pole, alongside Gabillon and ahead of Rocca. The race will start at 12:55 GMT (13:55 ET and 7:55 CET) and will be streamed live on Fanschoice.tv.
ELITE 1 RACE 1 RESULTS | RACE CENTRAL LIVE | POINTS STANDINGS | LIVE STREAMING
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard
