Americans Garrett Lowe and Logan Bearden leads the charge on the Junior Trophy and Challenger Trophy in V8GP – Four different drivers took the Trophy wins at Le Castellet
- Garrett Lowe maintained his advantage in the Junior Trophy
- The BS+BREMOTION driver took his second classification win at Circuit Paul Ricard
- Consistency pushed Logan Bearden to the lead of the Challenger Trophy
NASCAR GP France delivered close battles for not just the overall victory, but also the special classifications that are contested in V8GP, the top division of NASCAR Euro Series. Four different drivers brought home wins in the Junior and Challenger Trophy across the two races held in Le Castellet, but the American-style pure racing action that was watched by 50,800 fans at Circuit Paul Ricard greatly benefited Garrett Lowe and Logan Bearden, two American stars of V8GP. A second Junior Trophy win for Lowe was enough for the BS+BREMOTION driver to retain his overall lead in the battle of the talented young drivers, while two podiums promoted Bearden to the top of Challenger Trophy for elite amateurs.
Lowe was only fourth fastest among the Junior Trophy contenders after qualifying, but the Gastonia native kept his #99 Chevrolet Camaro clean while his rivals ran into trouble in Round 3. After a penalty was imposed to Paul Jouffreau for contact with Thomas Krasonis, Lowe was able to take the victory ahead of Jack Davidson and Bremotion teammate Julien Rehberg. Jouffreau struck back in Round 4: The driver of the #3 RDV Competition Ford Mustang led all laps and secured a spectacular home victory on both the overall and Junior Trophy results. Krasonis and Vinnie Meskelis completed the Junior Trophy in second and 11th, therefore securing important points for their Trophy aspirations.
Circuit Paul Ricard’s status as NASCAR Euro Series’ newest venue gave the opportunity for Challenger Trophy drivers to shine. Everyone is at the same playing level in France, something that Thomas Toffel and Davit Kajaia capitalized with their impressive results. Toffel, the Round 3 Challenger Trophy winner, came within 0.347 seconds of the overall podium while Kajaia grabbed a career best sixth place finish. Kajaia followed it with an eighth place finish to claim a Challenger Trophy win in Round 4, but Bearden quietly collected the points in both rounds, securing two third place finishes to move into the lead of the special classification.
After two rounds in Spain and France, Lowe maintains an eight point lead to Jouffreau in the Junior Trophy race. Krasonis is within 20 points of the two leaders in third with Rehberg, Davidson and Meskelis completing the list of contenders. Bearden’s consistency gave him the lead of Challenger Trophy in seventh overall. The Rette Jones Racing by Hendriks driver led by a slim margin of four points to Kajaia with Giovanni Cartechini only 10 points behind in third. Toffel, Brad Ranson, Kenko Miura, Alex Caffi, Davide Frulio, Alain Grand and Brenna Schubert rounded the classification standings.
The fantastic battles for the Junior and Challenger Trophy will be continued in the next stop of the calendar: NASCAR GP UK, held on 6-7 June. With two V8GP races set to be contested in short but tricky Brands Hatch, close encounters and fierce wheel-to-wheel duels will be the name of the game at the legendary 1.944 kilometer circuit.
Featured image by NASCAR Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
