Images via Justin Melillo
Three-time NASCAR Whelen Euro Series champion Alon Day scored his second straight DBOX eNASCAR International iRacing Series presented by Digital Motorsports victory in Saturday’s action from Circuit Zolder. Day, who swept both rounds when the track hosted its first Euro Series event in 2015 and won its most recent round last year, put forth another impressive drive to take the checkered flag by more than 24 seconds at the historic Belgian circuit.
Belgium’s own Simon Pilate, winner of the inaugural International Series race at Brands Hatch last summer, took advantage of an earlier pit stop to get ahead of Paul Jouffreau and Victor Barrales Jr. and hung on for second as the trio were separated by just over a second at the finish. Jouffreau completed an all-Euro podium in third, with Barrales and Jake Cosio completing the top five on behalf of the NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series.
Unlike last week’s race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where some drivers elected not to pit at all because they had enough fuel to go the distance, everyone needed to pit in the 30-lap race at Zolder. That contributed to a big difference in how many drivers stayed on the lead lap; where 17 of the 25 drivers who started in Canada completed all 30 laps, just under half of the 27-car field, the largest in series history, could manage the same in Belgium.
Both Rajah Caruth, winner of the opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and last week’s runner-up Tobias Dauenhauer were among the group that couldn’t. Caruth took contact in multiple instances, the last of which came from Diego Ortiz in the closing laps, and fell to 24th; Dauenhauer led the first eight laps, but took contact of his own around midway and ended up a lap down himself in 16th. The resulting points shuffle yielded the championship lead to Barrales with two races remaining.
DBOX eNASCAR International iRacing Series presented by Digital Motorsports results from Circuit Zolder were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Name |
Manufacturer |
Laps |
Interval |
Led |
Best |
Pts |
| 1 | 3 | 21 | Alon Day | Chevrolet | 30 | 22 | 1:36.730 | 40 | |
| 2 | 2 | 8 | Simon Pilate | Chevrolet | 30 | -24.705 | 0 | 1:36.725 | 35 |
| 3 | 5 | 64 | Paul Jouffreau | Ford | 30 | -25.299 | 0 | 1:39.825 | 34 |
| 4 | 6 | 39 | Victor Barrales | Ford | 30 | -25.783 | 0 | 1:37.878 | 33 |
| 5 | 9 | 51 | Jake Cosio | Ford | 30 | -35.455 | 0 | 1:38.045 | 32 |
| 6 | 4 | 10 | Ulysse Delsaux | Chevrolet | 30 | -41.333 | 0 | 1:37.412 | 31 |
| 7 | 7 | 3 | Frederic Gabillon | Ford | 30 | -48.947 | 0 | 1:37.956 | 30 |
| 8 | 25 | 14 | Alex de Alba | Ford | 30 | -49.495 | 0 | 1:38.667 | 29 |
| 9 | 20 | 19 | Jaiden Reyna | Chevrolet | 30 | -1:17.086 | 0 | 1:39.424 | 28 |
| 10 | 12 | 20 | Treyten Lapcevich | Chevrolet | 30 | -1:32.898 | 0 | 1:38.833 | 27 |
| 11 | 14 | 148 | Gordon Barnes | Chevrolet | 30 | -1:33.776 | 0 | 1:38.851 | 26 |
| 12 | 22 | 81 | Justin T Campbell | Chevrolet | 30 | -1:54.657 | 0 | 1:39.777 | 25 |
| 13 | 11 | 6 | Diego Ortiz | Toyota | 29 | -1 L | 0 | 1:38.559 | 24 |
| 14 | 18 | 88 | Massimiliano Lanza | Chevrolet | 29 | -1 L | 0 | 1:43.568 | 23 |
| 15 | 15 | 46 | Miguel Gomes | Chevrolet | 29 | -1 L | 0 | 1:39.046 | 22 |
| 16 | 1 | 50 | Tobias Dauenhauer | Ford | 29 | -1 L | 8 | 1:36.731 | 21 |
| 17 | 16 | 69 | Giorgio Maggi | Ford | 29 | -1 L | 0 | 1:39.713 | 20 |
| 18 | 23 | 2 | Abraham Calderon | Chevrolet | 29 | -1 L | 0 | 1:40.044 | 19 |
| 19 | 19 | 18 | Alex Tagliani | Chevrolet | 29 | -1 L | 0 | 1:41.220 | 18 |
| 20 | 17 | 1 | Vladimiros Tziortzis | Ford | 28 | -2 L | 0 | 1:39.854 | 17 |
| 21 | 24 | 48 | Yevgen Sokolovskiy | Chevrolet | 28 | -2 L | 0 | 1:40.825 | 16 |
| 22 | 27 | 77 | Jocelyn Fecteau | Chevrolet | 28 | -2 L | 0 | 1:42.770 | 15 |
| 23 | 10 | 90 | Davide Dallara | Chevrolet | 27 | -3 L | 0 | 1:38.761 | 14 |
| 24 | 8 | 13 | Rajah Caruth | Chevrolet | 26 | -4 L | 0 | 1:37.986 | 13 |
| 25 | 26 | 89 | Alberto Panebianco | Chevrolet | 26 | -4 L | 0 | 1:42.104 | 12 |
| 26 | 13 | 22 | Andres Perez de Lara | Ford | 22 | -8 L | 0 | 1:40.421 | |
| 27 | 21 | 5 | Aaron Cosio | Ford | 15 | -15 L | 0 | 1:39.331 |
DBOX eNASCAR International iRacing Series presented by Digital Motorsports points through three rounds are as follows:
- Victor Barrales Jr., 102
- Alon Day, 97
- Treyten Lapcevich, 94
- Simon Pilate, 92
- Alex de Alba, 90
- Rajah Caruth, 84
- Tobias Dauenhauer, 82
- Miguel Gomes, 81
- Justin Campbell, 78
- Diego Ortiz, 77
The DBOX eNASCAR International iRacing Series presented by Digital Motorsports season continues on Saturday with a return to the Daytona International Speedway road course. Live coverage will kick off on Saturday at 12PM ET on eNASCAR.com/live and iRacing.com/live. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
