Club Challenge 2022 Round 1 Summary

Looking back at the opening round of the 2022 season.

Back in May, the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series started the 2022 season at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, in Spain. The series decamped under the Spanish sun for four days at the track starting with a private practice session on Thursday and ending with the races on Saturday and Sunday.  I arrived there Thursday afternoon with my friend Paul, who would be on spotter duty this weekend. Although the series was there from Thursday to Sunday, I was only present until Friday evening. My track duties would just take place on Friday.

This was my first time back in a race car in six months; the last time was at the end of October in 2021 when I won the Club Challenge. I hadn't done any testing over the winter with my only racing consisting of the NASCAR International eSports events. Those weren't my best outings and I'll talk about those at another time.

New Rules for 2022

When the event briefing came through, we could see there was a change to the rules this year. Previously, the drivers were able to pick their target time but for this season, the drivers would be given a choice of two times with a bonus for the quicker target. Unsure as to how this would play out over the event, we took to the track for our single practice session. I took the same approach as last year and aimed to find a comfortable, repeatable pace.

Combating the heat

After the times were posted, we could see the target times were harder than they had been in previous years and we'd misjudged our pace. With the temperature rising, I took the option of playing it safe and taking the time I knew I could repeatable achieve. This proved to be a good decision as I topped the table after the first session. The second session was solid but not as strong as the first. By now, the temperature had climbed and we had only a short, 10-minute, gap between sessions. I drank as much water as I could in order to stay hydrated but I could feel my concentration slipping towards the end of the day. It is essential to watch your fluid levels, especially when running in a closed saloon without air conditioning on a hot day.

Final Results from Valencia

The outcome of the event hung in the balance. it would all depend on the results of the final session. When the final standings came out, we had been beaten and finished the day in second place due to tiebreakers. Two of us had taken a first and a second in the two sessions and ended up on equal points at the end. The way the tiebreaker works, the driver with the better result in the final session gets the position. With our best result in the first session, we had the weaker tiebreaker.

All was not in vain as we still left Spain with equal points. That was a good start to the season and a strong foundation to build on for the rest of the year.

Images from Sofric Studio