Qualifying: Kumpen And Tineo Arroyo On Top

Anthony Kumpen (#24 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) and Salvador Tineo Arroyo (#54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) came out on top from two tight qualifying sessions to earn their second pole of the season for the Brands Hatch American SpeedFest.

At the end of a tight 5-minute Superpole session in which the top ten drivers were separated by less than 7 tenths of a second, the 2014 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Champion took his second career pole position lapping the 1.929-km Indy Circuit in 48.425 seconds and edging Frederic Gabillon (#3 Tepac RDV Compétition Ford Mustang) by a mere .032 seconds.

With a last lap just .079 seconds slower than the pole Bert Longin (#11 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) came in third and bested Alon Day (#54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS), who led the Junior “Jerome Sarran" Trophy classification. 2015 pole-sitter Nicolò Rocca (#56 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) rounded out the top-5.

Gianmarco Ercoli (#9 Double-T by Nocentini Ford Mustang) posted the sixth fastest time ahead of Freddy Nordstrom (#44 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) and Borja Garcia (#1 SPV Racing Ford Mustang). Marc Goossens (#90 Brass Racing Ford Mustang) scored his best qualifying results since he joined the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series at the beginning of the season with the 9th place on the grid, while Thomas Ferrando (#37 Knauf Racing Team Ford Mustang), Florian Renauer (#5 Dexwet Renauer Team Ford Mustang) and Eric De Doncker (#98 Motorsport 98 Ford Mustang) rounded out the top-12. The Belgian also led the Challenger Trophy classification.

The ELITE 2 pole position went to Salvador Tineo Arroyo (#54 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) thanks to a 48.882 seconds, just 74 thousandths of a second faster than points leader Stienes Longin (#11 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS), who managed to grab a first row starting position in his last Superpole lap.

The top-12 driver were encompassed in less than one second and it was Thomas Ferrando (#37 Knauf Racing Team Ford Mustang) to take third place, edging Gabriele Gardel (#24 PK Carsport Chevrolet SS) and Eric De Doncker (#98 Motorsport 98 Ford Mustang), who led the Legend Trophy classification. Guillaume Deflandre (#56 CAAL Racing Chevrolet SS) ended up sixth, ahead of Hugo Bec (#3 Tepac RDV Compétition Ford Mustang), while Roman Mavlanov (#88 DF1 Racing Team Chevrolet SS) led the Rookie Cup classification in 8th place.

Martin Doubek (#5 Dexwet Renauer Team Ford Mustang), Freddie Hunt (#66 DF1 Racing Team Chevrolet SS), Riccardo Geltrude (#7 Double-T by Nocentini Ford Mustang) and Christian Malcharek (#69 SPV Racing Ford Mustang) rounded out the top-12.

The first ELITE 1 race of the American SpeedFest weekend will start at 1:25 pm GMT and it will be streamed live on Fanschoice.tv (http://bit.ly/nweslive). Live text updates will be available on the NASCAR Home Tracks Race Central Live Page (http://bit.ly/nwes16x03rcl).