Rounds 3 and 4 of the Whelen Euro NASCAR season saw the cars move on to the Autodromo di Franciacorta, south of Milan in Italy.

Friday practice went well and the car showed better pace than Valencia although the set up was still not right. However, both Ben and Lucas (Lasserre – Elite 1) drove well and this gave a lot of information to the team so that work could be done overnight before Saturday qualifying.

Qualifying for Ben would have ended better if his fastest lap was not impeded by another car which left him starting down the field in the first race.

Race 1 started brilliantly with Ben skilfully avoiding an early incident and moving up a number of places. He continued to drive well despite some brake and gearbox gremlins until he was taken out by another car and ended up in the gravel. This was incredibly frustrating because he would have finished close to the top 10, but NASCAR racing can be very challenging at times!

Race 2 did not start as well as race 1 because Ben was boxed in for the first 2 corners and ended up well down the field. He then started one of the best drives of the weekend because he passed several cars to move back up to 20th before losing places again when he had to go wide to avoid an accident. Recovering back onto the track, Ben started his move forward again putting in some superb moves in the tight hairpins at turn 8 and 12 (on the plan) and he eventually finished 17th.

This was a great drive to finish the weekend and showed just how far Ben has come in such a short time. With more improvements to the car he is now really looking forward to the next round at Brands Hatch in front of his home fans.