EuroNASCAR: Incident cuts short Vallelunga weekend for Happinessa and Arianna Casoli
- LIAM REDFORD
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
It was a weekend of misfortune for Euro NASCAR drivers Happinessa and Arianna Casoli who were involved in a heavy incident at Vallelunga to no fault of their own. Both drivers were fortunately able to walk away from the crash and will be now be aiming to recover in order to return to competitive action later in the season.
It was a weekend of misfortune for Euro NASCAR drivers Happinessa and Arianna Casoli who were involved in a race one incident at Vallelunga. Both drivers were fortunately able to walk away from the crash and will be now be entering a period of recovery in order to return to competitive action later in the season.
Following a thrilling start to the season at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, both Casoli and Happinessa were targeting further progress at Vallelunga. After securing Lady Trophy honours in both races in Spain, Casoli was aiming to continue this form into her home event. Last season, the Speedhouse driver twice finished inside the top-20, while securing a best finish of 16th place on the outskirts of Rome.
For Happinessa, it was her first trip to Vallelunga and like in Valencia, she also entered the NASCAR Euro Series Rookie Challenge in order to gain additional experience of the circuit. Following an encouraging debut event, Happinessa was now looking to take the fight to Casoli and secure her first Lady Trophy victory of the season.
Both drivers participated in two free practice sessions which were held on Friday afternoon. It was a challenging day for Casoli and Happinessa, however they still banked valuable experience at Vallelunga. Casoli finished the day as the quickest female driver as she ended free practice two in 20th position overall with a fastest time of a 1:50.825. Happinessa was close behind with the Bremotion driver ending the day in 21st on a 1:52.405.
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning and it was a disrupted session for all of the NASCAR Euro Series drivers. With just fifteen-minutes to set a fast lap time, this task was made more difficult following a full course yellow period midway through the session with the car of Giovanni Faraonio stopped on the circuit.
Just six-minutes remained when the green flag was displayed and therefore generating heat in the tyres for the final flying laps was the main priority. Both Casoli and Happinessa continued to improve in the final minutes and were trading fastest lap times in the female trophy. Happinessa just came out on top as she qualified in 18th position on a time of a 1:50.085 with Casoli less than a quarter of a second behind in 19th with a fastest lap of a 1:50.286.
The first race of the weekend took place on Saturday afternoon with Happinessa lining up from 18th and Casoli from 19th on the grid. It was an extremely busy opening lap with multiple incidents throughout the field. Superb driving from Happinessa saw her climb up to 17th on lap one, while Casoli ended the first tour in 20th position.
As the drivers approached the high-speed turn one on lap two, Thomas Toffel looked to the inside of Happinessa and contact was made which resulted in the Bremotion driver impacting the barriers. The cloud of dust which resulted from their contact reduced the visibility for Casoli who was unable to avoid the stopped car of Toffel. With all three cars significantly damaged and requiring recovery, the race was subsequently red flagged.
Both Happinessa and Casoli were able to walk away from the incident with Casoli later transferred to the local hospital for further evaluation. The Italian driver injured her arm in the incident and will be working towards a recovery for a return later in the season.
As a result of the incident, both drivers were unable to compete in race two of the weekend on Sunday morning. The next round of the NASCAR Euro Series is set to take place at Brands Hatch on the weekend of 7th/8th June.
