Spanish sports legend to drive in Saturday’s ELITE 2 opening round
World famous retired Spanish goalkeeper Santiago Cañizares had his first taste of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series this weekend at the Circuit de la Comunitad Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, in the contest of the EuroNASCAR season opener. The 45-year-old Madrid-native took the wheel of the #4 Efficaciter S.L Team Racing Ford Mustang during Free Practice and immediately appreciated the car’s behaviour.
“Santi” will take part in the first ELITE 2 race of the Spanish weekend on Saturday, starting at 5:20 PM CET. “The car is really nice and fun to drive,” said the former goalkeeper of the Valencia Club de Fútbol and the Spanish “La Furia Roja” National Team. “With the rear wheel drive and a lot of power under your right foot, you have to be smooth on the throttle and it’s definitely a great feeling. I look forward to a great race tomorrow”
With his 397 games for the Valencia team between 1998 and 2008, Cañizares is a sports legend in Spain and especially in the city hosting the 2015 EuroNASCAR’s first event, but is also a passionate rally driver.
On Sunday it will be Moises Soriano to take the wheel of the #4 Ford Mustang. The 20-year-old Valencia-native talent, coming from karting and Formula 3, will make his NASCAR debut in his home race at 10:30 AM CET.
After a hugely successful first edition – over 14.000 fans attended the event last year – Spain will host once again the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season opener at the Circuit De La Comunidad Valenciana Ricardo Tormo in the contest of the Valencia American Fest.
Ander Vilariño (Chevrolet)
With all the contenders from a record-setting 2014 season coming back and some more added to the list, there are all the premises for another thrilling battle for the European NASCAR Championship title, as well as for Trophies and Cups.
29 cars and 55 drivers from 13 different nationalities are scheduled to take the green flag for the first round. In the ELITE 1 Division all the five 2014 title contenders are back and at least ten drivers will nurture legitimate title ambitions. Anthony Kumpen (#24 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) will look to defend his title, while Ander Vilarino (#2 TFT-Banco Santander Chevrolet SS) will try to get his crown back. 2014 race winners Eddie Cheever III (#51 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS), Borja Garcia (#1 Active Racing Competition) and Frederic Gabillon (#3 Tepac RDV Competition Ford Mustang) will try to bring home the EuroNASCAR title, as will Bert Longin (#11 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS), Freddy Nordstrom (#44 GDL Racing Ford Mustang), Christophe Bouchut (#66 DF1 Racing Chevrolet SS), Romain Iannetta (#7 TFT Chevrolet SS), Nicolò Rocca (#56 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) and Alon Day (#54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS).
Borja García
It will go down to an “each against all” battle in the ELITE 2 Division, where the title is vacant and many drivers have title ambitions. Thomas Ferrando (#37 Knauf Racing Ford Mustang), Philipp Lietz (#67 GDL Racing Ford Mustang) and Denis Dupont (#32 RCP/Marc VDS Toyota Camry) have all won in 2014 and will be among the favourites. Salvador Tineo Arroyo (#1 Active Racing Competition Ford Mustang), Gianmarco Ercoli (#9 Double T by DAV Racing Chevrolet SS) and Stienes Longin (#11 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) didn’t win, despite clearly demonstrating to have what it takes, but many of the newcomers will try to surprise the opponents in the 2015 season opener.
Valentino Rossi takes a sensational victory after a masterful ride at the Gran Premio Red Bull de la República Argentina.
Valentino Rossi
The sun had come out and track temperatures had risen to 37 degrees for the start of the MotoGP™ race at the Termas de Rio Hondo. The reigning MotoGP™ World Champion Marquez, along with CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, decided to switch to the hard rear tyre on the grid, unlike Rossi and Lorenzo who both decided to use the extra hard compound rear.
This would prove crucial later on in the race, but it was Aleix Espargaro who led the pack into turn one on the Team Suzuki Ecstar, but it didn’t take long for Marc Marquez to make his move for the lead. The Spaniard was able to make a break at the front almost immediately to lead by 0.8s at the end of the first lap.
Marquez took advantage of his hard tyres extra grip early on in the race to extend his lead to over 4 seconds, all the while though Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi was making his move through the field. “The Doctor” moved into 2nd place at the expense of Dovizioso on the Ducati Team GP15 with 15 laps to go.
Rossi then set about hunting down Marquez, as the Spaniard’s tyre performance started to fall away, and it suddenly became apparent he would be able to catch the Honda.
It was like watching a ticking time bomb as Rossi made huge in-roads into Marquez’s lead, finally catching him with just 2 laps to go. Marquez was not going to let the Italian pass him without a fight though, and in the ensuing battle the riders touched a couple of times, before Marquez clipped the back of Rossi’s bike and crashed out of the race. Although Marquez was not best pleased, Race Direction ruled it as a “racing incident” and took no further action.
This left Rossi on his own to take the victory by over five-seconds, with Andrea Dovizioso taking advantage of Marquez’s crash to claim 2nd. CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow left it until the very last corner to pass Andrea Iannone to claim the final podium place, managing to hold off the Ducati Team GP15 on the run to the line to take 3rd and finish as the leading satellite rider.
Rossi’s teammate Jorge Lorenzo had no answer to the pace of the guys at the front, and finished in rather a lonely fifth place, over 9 seconds ahead of the Satellite Monster Yamaha Tech 3 bike of Bradley Smith in 6th.
Aleix Espargaro ended the race in 7th, ahead of his brother Pol, with Scott Redding and Maverick Viñales completing the top ten.
Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci finished in 11th, but was later given one penalty point by Race Direction for irresponsible riding that led Hiroshi Aoyama to crash.
CWM LCR Honda’s Jack Miller took the Open class victory as he finished in 12th, just 0.075s ahead of Hector Barbera on the Avintia Ducati and Athina Forward Racing’s Loris Baz, with his teammate Stefan Bradl in 15th.
Rossi now has a six-point lead over Dovizioso in the Championship standings, and is 30 points ahead of Marquez.
A tough day for Roberto Merhi in Barhain. The Spaniard finished his thrid consecutive race, this time in seventeenth position, but he didn’t have an easy task and he couldn’t drive at the level he expected.
At the start he managed to overtake Stevens and get behind Kvyat, but that was all the Castellon born driver could do, as after the first laps traction problems because of intense tyre wear began, a situation repeated with all the sets of tyres, two softs and one hard, he used during the 57 laps of the Grand Prix of Bahrain.
Next weekend Roberto is facing his third consecutive racing event with the beginning of the World Series by Renault at Alcañiz. It will be a radical change for the Valencian as at the Renault championship he’s among the favourites to fight for the win after his great 2014.
Roberto Merhi:“I had a very hard race. I didn’t have any traction, the tyres went away very quickly, even trying to take care of them. If I pushed a bit there were a lot of risks of going off track so we have to see what happened as, to be honest, I was hoping for a bit more. From the team viewpoint we’ve had a positive weekend as Stevens showed that we have a good pace and everybody did a great job. Each time it is more evident that we are getting closer to our rivals.”
Marc Marquez heads to the Termas de Rio Honda circuit in Argentina full of confidence after his emphatic victory in the US.
Marc Marquez
Next stop for the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship is the Gran Premio Red Bull de la República Argentina. The MotoGP™ paddock returns to the South American country for the second year in a row, and the 12th time in total.
The first Argentinean GP took place in 1961 in Buenos Aires; the first time that a Grand Prix had taken place outside of Europe. The MotoGP™ World Championship returned to the country for the first time in ten years in 2014 at the 4.8 km Termas de Rio Hondo, making Argentina the 18th country to host a MotoGP™ race since the category was introduced in 2002.
Marc Marquez will head to Argentina in buoyant mood after easing to victory at the Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas. The win in Austin was the 20th of his fledgling career, and equalled the number achieved by two-time 500cc World Champion Freddie Spencer.
The reigning MotoGP™ World Champion has even more reasons to be confident as his Repsol Honda team completed a 1-2 last year at the circuit, with Marquez leading home his teammate Dani Pedrosa ahead of the Movistar Yamaha’s of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.
Rossi flies to Argentina as the current leader in the Championship standings, adding his third placed finish in Austin to the victory in Qatar. As it stands, he is 1 point ahead of Andrea Dovizioso who made it two second-placed finishes in a row for his Ducati Team in the US.
The new GP15 proved that it could be competitive at a completely different track in Austin, having fought for the race win in Qatar, although the Factory Ducati rider did not have a great time in Argentina last year, finishing down in 9th.
His teammate Andrea Iannone actually enjoyed more success last year at the same race, as he finished 6th on the Pramac Racing Ducati, and he will be looking to do even better this year having made the step up to the Factory team for 2015.
Jorge Lorenzo showed that even bronchitis couldn’t stop him in Austin, as he fought back to finish 4th despite being ill throughout the weekend. While his two fourth-placed finishes may not have been how he dreamt of starting the season, after the helmet issue in Qatar and his physical condition in Austin he will take heart from the fact he only trails his Movistar Yamaha teammate Rossi by 15 points, as the gap could have easily been much bigger.
Bradley Smith looks set to continue his battle to be the leading Satellite rider with his compatriot Cal Crutchlow with both men currently tied for 6th place in the Championship standings on 18 points. The Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider Smith should have an advantage at the Termas de Rio Hondo after beating his teammate Pol Espargaro to 7th in Argentina last year, while Crutchlow has never ridden at the circuit before after he was forced to miss the 2014 race through injury.
Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Racing’s Scott Redding will want to show that he has not lost any of the new found confidence he was showing on the Honda RC213V in Austin before his crash on the first lap of the race, while Team Suzuki Ecstar will look to build on their encouraging start to the season, which saw both of their riders finish inside the top ten in the US.
Yonny Hernandez will be looking to bounce back from his crash in Austin with a better finish than the 12th place he managed in Argentina in 2014, while his Pramac Racing Teammate Danilo Petrucci will want to follow up his first top ten finish for the Satellite team at the weekend with another impressive performance.
In the battle of the Open class, it’s currently Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera who leads the way with 5 Championship points, two more than Nicky Hayden on the Aspar MotoGP Team Honda RC213V-RS. Keep an eye out for CWM LCR’s Jack Miller in Argentina as he continues to adapt to his Open class Honda after he finished last year’s Moto3™ race at the circuit in 3rd.
The Factory Aprilia Racing Team Gresini grabbed their first MotoGP™ Championship points in Austin as Alvaro Bautista finished in 15th place, although they will be hoping to have both riders complete the race this time after Marco Melandri had to retire with gearbox problems in Austin.
Moto2™ returns to Argentina with a rookie leading a tight and close championship battle.
2014 saw Tito Rabat lead every lap of the Gran Premio Red Bull de la República Argentina after starting from pole, one of eleven victories that season. The Moto2™ champion is currently tenth in the standings after finishing fourth in Austin following a DNF in Qatar. He and Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS teammate Alex Marquez are looking for a drama free weekend after multiple crashes in Austin.
A debut podium in the US saw Alex Rins take a surprise lead in the Championship after moving up from Moto3™. The Spaniard has taken a calm and steady approach so far, settling inside the top ten before battling the podiums come race day, adding his third place finish in the US to the fourth he achieved in Qatar. Argentina has also been kind to his teammate Luis Salom, who secured third at the Termas de Rio Hondo last year along with the fastest race lap.
Austin left a sour taste in the mouth of Xavier Simeon as contact with Johann Zarco saw the Belgian rider end his race in the gravel. Simeon will have his chance to again challenge for the podium this weekend in Argentina, a track where he has finished second in the past, meanwhile Zarco failed to score points last year.
A debut win for Sam Lowes last weekend delivered on the potential he has shown throughout testing and in Qatar. Like Rabat, Lowes will be aiming for a crash free weekend as the British rider left Texas with a plethora of bruises along with his winner’s trophy, as a result of three big crashes during Free Practice and Qualifying.
Anthony West has the most experience in Argentina, having finished eighth in the 250cc race in 1999. The Australia battled to seventh in Austin, his first top ten finish since Valencia last year and his best finish since he won at Assen in 2003.
With Danny Kent taking the largest ever dry weather victory in the Moto3™ class, he will surely be the man to beat in Argentina.
Last year’s Grand Premio Red Bull de la República Argentina saw a fairing bashing battle go down to last few corners, with Romano Fenati taking his first win of the season. With just eight points to his name this season, the Italian will be hungry to repeat this success.
Danny Kent will again be the man to beat; the World Championship leader has been competitive in almost every session so far this season. The British rider does not have fond memories from Argentina, contact with Niklas Ajo, his then teammate, saw him crash at the finish line in 2014.
Jorge Navarro and Fabio Quartararo
Austin saw Fabio Quartararo claim his debut Moto3™ podium, still just 15 years of age. Termas de Rio Hondo will be yet another new track for the French youngster to learn before the MotoGP™ paddock returns to Europe, and tracks he is familiar with. With just one previous visit to Argentina, the field will have less of an advantage than in Qatar and Austin.
KTM have yet to score a podium this year after being the dominant manufacturer in the championship in previous seasons. Most disappointing has been Miguel Oliveira’s two non-point scoring results due to crashes. Red Bull KTM Ajo teammate Brad Binder leads the KTM effort from seventh in the Championship.
A crash for Francesco Bagnaia ended Mahindra’s chance of a podium in Austin, but if the young Italian can avoid mistakes he will be a threat for the top three. Mahindra have increased their effort in the lightweight class this year, supplying nine bikes.
Livio Loi scored his best ever result of fifth in Argentina last year and will be looking to repeat that form now he is on a competitive Honda machine.
The Spanish driver Roberto Merhi again completed the task assigned to him by the Manor team, which was to bring the car to the chequered flag in a F1 Grand Prix, the Castellón born driver finishing sixteenth in the Chinese race.
At the start, Roberto lived up to his reputation by confidently passing his team mate and getting close to the McLarens, but the performance of his first set of soft tyres quickly started to degrade so he was passed by Stevens after eight laps. After his first pit stop, Merhi made good progress with the second set of hards, and with the third set , again the softs, and with less fuel, he was consistently cutting down the gap to the fight for the 15th position. Sadly there was no time left to complete the recovery, especially with the deployment of the safety car.
With almost no rest, Roberto is flying tonight to Dubai and from there to Bahrain next Wednesday to face the fourth Grand Prix of the season in the small country on the Persian Gulf.
Roberto Merhi:“I didn’t feel comfortable at the beginning of the race, despite making a good start and gaining a position. With the full load of fuel and the softs, the tyre performance went down too soon so I lost a lot of time in the first stint and later, even if I improved my pace a lot I couldn’t recover it. With the third set of tyres, again softs, is when I felt more comfortable. My lap times were quite good and consistent and I think that I’d have fought to finish one position better.
Anyway, the most important thing for this weekend was the whole progress of the entire team, and in that sense we can feel very happy. We improved a lot, in the race we have had the two cars lapping less than four seconds behind Hamilton’s fastest lap, and compared with the three laps we lost in Malaysia, here they have been just two, on a track with a lap time almost identical to Sepang. That means a lot of seconds of improvement during the 60 laps. In five days time it is starting all over again in Bahrain and I’m pretty sure that there we’ll take yet another step forward. It’s very encouraging to see how the huge effort of all people at Manor team, since the start of the season, is beginning to pay off.”.
Marc Marquez stamps his authority on the MotoGP™ World Championship by winning in Austin by more than 2.3 seconds.
The reigning MotoGP™ World Champion Marquez sent a message out to the rest of the paddock that he was back after his mishap in Qatar, as he dominated the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas, at one point leading by over 5 seconds.
Marc Marquez
Marquez took the lead on lap 5, and didn’t look back as he went on to leave the rest of the field behind to maintain his 100% record at CoTA, before relaxing towards the end of the race.
Andrea Dovizioso made it another podium for the resurgent Ducati Team, as he won the fight for 2nd ahead of the Movistar Yamaha of Valentino Rossi, who leads the Championship standings.
Rossi’s teammate Jorge Lorenzo left it late, overtaking the Ducati GP15 of Andrea Iannone with only 3 laps to go to snatch 4th place from the Italian, with Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith rounding out the top 6.
First two MotoGP™ practice sessions took on an extra importance as rain is predicted to play a major part over the weekend at the #AmericasGP. This meant that riders not only had an opportunity to collect vital data in the wet conditions for their teams, but also had one eye on making it through to Q2.
Marc Marquez
In FP1 it was the Ducati Team GP15 of Dovizioso who had set the fastest time, just beating Marc Marquez into second as the session ended, with the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Racing Honda of Scott Redding finishing in an impressive 3rd.
It was all change for FP2, with the track drying and the rain holding off it gave riders a chance to head out and attempt to set what could be their fastest lap of the two days of practice. The time’s from FP2 might be very important, as with more rain forecast for tomorrow they could decide who makes it through to the second qualifying session on Saturday.
Riders initially headed out on wet tyres to get a feel for the track conditions, but came back in to switch to slicks as the racing line began to dry with about 20 minutes to go. This led to a frantic end to proceedings, as riders attempted to take advantage of what could be the only dry session of the weekend.
Repsol Honda’s Marquez was the only rider to break the 2’05 barrier, as he set a 2’04.835 to finish three-tenths ahead of the CWM LCR Honda of Cal Crutchlow (+0.327s) who is benefitting from a chassis and seat upgrade to his RC213V in Austin, and was the fastest of the Satellite riders.
Completing the provisional front row was the Ducati Team GP15 of Andrea Iannone (+0.355s). Seven-tenths back from Marquez was Aleix Espargaro (+0729s) on the Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR in 4th, with Andrea Dovizioso (+0.811s) in 5th on the second Factory Ducati. Valentino Rossi (+0.856s), the man who rolled back the years to claim the race win in Qatar, ended the day in 6th on the leading Yamaha.
Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith crashed out during the session but was unhurt, while Stefan Bradl (+1.155s) was the leading Open class rider in 8th place.
Moto2
Moto2™ was struck by delays at the beginning of FP1 due to track conditions on a tricky day at the Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas for all the classes. The sun came out for the second session, allowing riders to run slick tyres throughout the session. Rain is predicted for both Saturday and Sunday.
Tito Rabat, the current Moto2™ champion has been eager to improve his riding in the rain, and got his chance during FP1. Last year he felt that this was his greatest weakness; he finished third on the opening day of practice at Austin with crashes in FP1 and FP2.
Moto3
Jorge Navarro
The first practice of the day for Moto3™ was delayed by almost an hour. When action did get underway it was a wet affair, with Texas not quite living up to its reputation for sun and heat. It looks as though the rain will stay for the majority of the weekend, which could cause some interesting results come race day.
All riders improved their times in Free Practice 2 as the sun came out and the track began to dry. This is the first year that Austin has had a wet session and the track showed that it dried quickly. If there is only a morning shower tomorrow, there may still be a chance of dry Qualifying.
A 2’31.668 had Niccolo Antonelli leading the way in FP1, putting him comfortably at the top of the session. As conditions improved in the afternoon the Italian was pushing to claim the top spot before falling at Turn 12. He is having a much better year on the Honda and will be one to watch in Qualifying.
Andrea Locatelli of the Gresini Racing Team Moto3 had a strong opening day in America. The young Italian was third in FP1 and was challenging for the top spot in FP2 from early in the session. A 1’29.305 saw him finish second in combined times, just being beaten on the last lap by Masbou.
Much like last time out in Qatar, Danny Kent impressed on his Leopard Racing Honda. The British rider improved his FP1 time by over a second in FP2 as the track dried quickly, putting in a 2’29.843 before sitting out the second half of the session. Kent helped to complete a top five lock out for Honda.
Championship leader Alexis Masbou was down in14th during FP1 before improving on his final lap of FP2 to go first. A 1’29.267 put him just 0.038s clear of Locatelli in second. The experienced French rider is on a strong run of form after claiming pole and a win at Qatar.
Spaniard Alex Palou posted the fastest time on day two of pre-season testing in Valencia. The Campos Racing driver edged out ART Grand Prix’s Marvin Kirchhöfer by a mere 0.012s with a blazing laptime of 1:20.880 set in the morning session. Jenzer Motorsport’s Pal Varhaug recorded the quickest time in the afternoon.
Sunshine and warmer temperatures set the scene for the final day of testing at Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo. It was a frenetic start to the proceedings with the majority of the best laptimes registered within the first hour. Fastest driver from yesterday morning, Palou, was the early pace-setter and was first to dip into the 1m21s. Kirchhöfer joined the Spaniard in the time bracket, less than a tenth shy.
Esteban Ocon also broke into the 1m21’s, 0.068s adrift of Palou with Koiranen GP’s Jimmy Eriksson in fourth. In a trouble free-session, the teams mainly focused on race simulations and qualifying runs. Kevin Korjus found some extra pace to sneak into P4, with Jenzer Motorsport’s Matheo Tuscher rising to P5.
Alex Palou (Campos Racing)
Palou, Kirchhöfer, Ocon, Korjus and Tuscher completed the top five at the chequered flag. Eriksson, Alfonso Celis. Jr, Ralph Boschung, Matthew Parry and Varhaug rounded out the top ten.
The afternoon session got underway after a one hour break with Eriksson leading the way in front of Antonio Fuoco and Parry as the drivers concentrated on race simulations. In the final hour, there were two short stoppages covered by red flags; firstly when Kirchhöfer stopped on track at turn 12 and secondly Parry a few moments later.
Once the action resumed, Eriksson remained in control of the timesheet whilst Seb Morris and Varhaug were on the move, jumping up to P2 and P3 respectively. Varhaug continued to improve and was first to break into the 1m21’s in the afternoon to shoot to the head of the timings.
Mitch Gilbert made a last minute dash to take P2 with Korjus close in pursuit. At the chequered flag, Varhaug finished ahead of Gilbert, Korjus, Eriksson, Morris, Oscar Tunjo, Fuoco, Parry, Kevin Ceccon and Alex Fontana.
The third and final pre-season test will be held in Barcelona, Spain on 22-23 April, ahead of the Series’ opening round at the Circuit de Catalunya in May.
The GP3 Series travels to Valencia in Spain for the second pre-season test session ahead of the 2015 season. Circuit Ricardo Tormo hosts the two day test which will provide the teams with valuable data and set-up time with Round One fast approaching.
The line-up has one addition compared to the entry list at the opening pre-season test in Estoril, Portugal last month. Former GP3 driver Samin Gomez (Venezuela) will drive the #25 car with Campos Racing completing a full quota of drivers for the test. The remainder of the entry list is unchanged.
Day one of the test will see a two hour break in proceedings.
Day One – Thursday 9th April Timetable:
09.00 – 12.00 // Two hour lunch break
14.00 – 17.00
Rellena todos los campos del formulario para poder realizar tu solicitud de devolución, recuerda tener a mano el localizador de la compra y las entradas físicas para poder digitalizarlas y enviarlas.
La devolución será UNICAMENTE de las entradas que se adjunte en las imágenes cargadas.
El importe será devuelto en la cuenta bancaria que se indique en el formulario adjunto.
Fill in the fields to request a refund. Remember to have the purchase reference and the image of the tickets to be able to send them.
The refund will ONLY be for the tickets you upload in the images. The amount will be refunded to the bank account you indicate in the form.
Devolución entradas digitales
Rellena todos los campos del formulario para poder realizar tu solicitud de devolución, recuerda tener a mano la eferencia de la compra que encontrarás en las entradas.
La devolución será integra de todas las entradas que componen la compra, no es posible la devolución parcial.
Fill in the fields on the form to request your refund, remember to have the purchase reference, which you will find on the tickets.
The refund will be for all the tickets that make up the purchase, partial refunds are not possible. The amount will be refunded to the card/account with which the payment was made.
