Indian racer Advait Deodhar leads 2018 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series championship

Advait at the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series

Indian Racer Advait Deodhar is making rapid progress in the Euro NASCAR Elite Club racing series, with a win and a podium in two rounds. In the second round of the racing series, a gap of just 0.010s separated Advait, at the wheel of a Belgium Driver Academy Ford Mustang and the winner, Marcelo Silva who was driving a Chevrolet Camaro.

Since Advait was driving the Chevrolet Camaro for round 1, he needed to adjust his driving style for the Ford Mustang in the second round after a few practice sessions. A gap of more than half a second separated him and Marcelo Silva. Changinghis tactics with his spotter Lucas Lassere,Advait bounced back strongly to beat Clemens Sparowitz (#91 Chevrolet Camaro) to take the second position in the final session, closing in the gap between him and Marcelo Silva to just 0.010s. Even though Advait finished on the podium, he still leads the championship with 83 points overall, with the Brazilian driver Marcelo Silva trailing close behind at 79 points.

Advait Deodhar on his podium finish

After securing a podium finish, an elated Advait said, “We’ve done it again!My NASCAR dream run continues! I finished second by the closest of margins. I knew it was going to be a tough weekend in the new car against some experienced competitors.After practice, I got off to a rough start in the first session as my spotter and I didn’t manage to get our strategy completely right. We ended up in third with a 1.237s penalty and I was 0.567s behind the leader, Marcelo.I think we were losing out in Sector 3. After going over the data, we reset for the next day and I have to thank my spotter Lucas Lassere as we absolutely nailed it. We managed to close the big 0.567s gap and at the line the overall time penalty was just 0.010s.That’s the closest gap they’ve ever had in Euro NASCAR history, I was told. I’m gutted we didn’t get the win, but more than happy with our comeback on Day 2. It’s going to be a close and tough championship ahead, but I am very much looking forward to it.”

Advait Deodhar’s racing bio

Advait was just 22-year old when he entered the field of competitive racing and his first outing was Indian National Championship’s LGB cars. He then moved on to the MRF F1600 series in 2013to 2015 season. He also grabbed his debut win on the Toyota Etios one-make racing series, after which he moved on to the sportscar/touring car championships at the international level. Within a span of 6 years of entering competitive racing, he has raced in different formats and is leading in a Euro NASCAR racing series as well, making his achievements nothing short of phenomenal.

Advait will take part in Round 3 of the Elite Club Division which is set to take place during September 15-16 at Hockenheim,Germany.

Here’s a look at his career timeline

2012 – Formula LGB

2013 – Formula LGB

2013 – MRF F1600

2014 – MRF F1600

2014 – Toyota Etios (One Round)

2015 – MRF F1600 (One Round)

2014/15 – MRF Challenge (One Round)

2018 – Euro NASCAR

About NASCAR Whelen Euro Series

NASCAR stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series was earlier known as Euro-Racecar NASCAR Touring Series and it’s the European counterpart of the famous NASCAR racing series in USA. Before it was sanctioned by NASCAR officially, it was known as Racecar Euro Series. Racecar Euro-Series was created in 2008 by a French team and the FIA approved it in 2010, after two seasons in 2009 and 2010. The biggest difference between the USA NASCAR and the European NASCAR series is that the latter is conducted on European circuit rather than ovals. The cars too are built to suit the European race tracks. When the European NASCAR series partnered with Whelen Engineering, the series was named as NASCAR Whelen Euro Series in 2013.