Alon Day (#54 CAAL Racing Toyota Camry) started the NASCAR GP UK weekend on the right foot and drove the #54 Toyota Camry to the top of the charts in practice, while Ulysse Delsaux was quickest in ELITE 2 on the #3 RDV Competition Toyota.
Both ELITE 1 practice sessions were extremely tight and the combined classification features 17 drivers in 1 second. Marc Goossens (#91 Braxx Racing Chevrolet Camaro) was quickest in the opening practice session, but Alon Day posted a blistering fast 48.474 seconds lap in Final Practice, going less than one tenth of a second from the track record held by Frederic Gabillon (#3 RDV Competition Toyota Camry) since 2013.
Two-time Champion Anthony Kumpen (#24 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) was second fastest, a mere .039 seconds behind Day. The two split the last four Brands Hatch races. Gianmarco Ercoli (#9 Racers Motorsport Ford Mustang) led the Junior Trophy in third overall, just ahead of Loris Hezemans (#50 Hendriks Motorsport Ford Mustang), while Gabillon rounded out the top-5.
Stienes Longin (#11 PK Carsport Chevrolet Camaro), Marc Goossens (#90 Braxx Racing Ford Mustang), Alexander Graff (#77 Memphis Racing Chevrolet SS), Francesco Sini (#12 Solaris Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro) and Christophe Bouchut (#66 DF1 Racing Team Chevrolet SS) completed the the top-10.
Ulysse Delsaux leads the ELITE 2 field
In ELITE 2 final practice 12 cars were separated by just 1 second and 24 cars by 2 seconds. Ulysse Delsaux (#3 Tepac RDV Compétition Toyota Camry), who was second in the Sunday race last year at Brands Hatch, topped the day ELITE 2 with a lap time of 49.169 seconds. Francesco Sini (#12 Solaris Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro) finished second with a gap of 0.052 seconds. Franciacorta race winner Felipe Rabello (#11 PK Carsport Chevrolet Camaro) ended up third 0.200 seconds behind the leader.
Wilfried Boucenna (#37 Knauf Racing Team Ford Mustang) and Florian Venturi (#32 Go Fas Racing Ford Mustang), who was the fastest rookie in practice, rounded out the top-5. Guillaume Deflandre (#77 Memphis Racing Chevrolet SS) confirmed his good form by finishing sixth with a lap in 49.557 seconds.
Kenko Miura (#2 Alex Caffi Motorsport Toyota Camry) was second fastest among the rookies. The Japanese ended up seventh in the overall practice results. Freddy Nordstrom (#33 Mavi Mishumotors Chevrolet SS) was eighth in his comeback right ahead of NASCAR GP Italy winner Guillaume Dumarey (#24 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) and Julien Schell (#29 Pegasus Racing Chevrolet SS), who completed the top-10.
Jerry de Weerdt (#78 Braxx Racing Ford Mustang) was the fastest Legend Trophy driver and Carmen Boix Gil (#1 Alex Caffi Motorsport Ford Mustang) topped the Lady Cup standings.
There will be plenty of action on Saturday. Qualifying for ELITE 1 and 2 kicks off at 10:10am CET. The first ELITE 1 race is scheduled for 2:40pm CET. The first ELITE 2 round 5 will start at 6:05pm. All the sessions will be streamed live on Fanschoice.tv, the NWES Facebook page, the NWES YouTube channel, motorsport.tv and different websites and Facebooks pages from around the world
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard