Happinessa completed her rookie campaign in the NASCAR Euro Series by sealing the Lady Trophy title in the season finale at Zolder. The Bremotion driver made fantastic progress in her debut season and regularly battled with more experienced drivers in the Open division.
Photo credits: NASCAR Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
Happinessa completed her rookie campaign in the NASCAR Euro Series by sealing the Lady Trophy title in the season finale at Zolder. The Bremotion driver finished race one of the weekend in 18th position overall, before she contended for a season’s best result in race two.
After running as high as 15th in the early stages, a mid-race incident led to an unfortunate retirement for the German racer. Nonetheless, Happinessa made fantastic progress in her debut season and regularly battled with more experienced drivers in the Open division.
Happinessa arrived at Zolder looking to end her rookie campaign in the NASCAR Euro Series on a high. Coming into the year with extremely limited motorsport experience, the German racer has taken significant strides forward as she learnt a challenging car, in addition to new circuits. Technical issues have limited her running over the second half of the season, however Happinessa has continued to impress in the Open division where she sat 17th in the overall championship standings prior to the season finale.
In order to gain additional mileage ahead of the last two races of the season, Happinessa participated in the NASCAR Euro Series Rookie Challenge sessions which were held on Thursday. Across the day, the Bremotion driver completed a total of 22 laps with her fastest time of a 1:43.699 coming in the third and final afternoon session.
Happinessa returned to the circuit on Friday for the two official free practice sessions for the NASCAR Euro Series Open class drivers. It was a more challenging day for the German racer who battled technical issues as she completed 15 further laps across the course of the day. Her fastest time in free practice was set during the first session with her quickest lap of a 1:44.583 placing her in 20th position overall.
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning and with the drivers split into two groups, it was a short ten-minute session in order to set a fast time. The session ran uninterrupted and Happinessa was able to bank further experience at the technical Zolder circuit. Happinessa’s quickest lap of a 1:42.963 came on her fifth and final lap and placed her in ninth position within the first group. After the conclusion of group two, the qualifying times were combined and this resulted in Happinessa setting the 20th fastest time overall.
Photo credits: NASCAR Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
After a positive qualifying session to start the day, Happinessa was looking for a strong opening race at Zolder. As the lights went out, an incident involving Thomas Toffel reduced the visibility into turn one as gravel was kicked up, however Happinessa moved forward. At the end of the first lap, the Bremotion driver was up to 17th position and showing excellent speed in the early stages of the contest as she challenged her more experienced rivals.
On lap two, Toffel moved ahead as he looked to execute a recovery drive with Happinessa settling into 18th spot. Reza Sardeha then began closing in and on lap four, Happinessa was spun when battling for position with both Sardeha and debutant Francesco Leogrande. This dropped the German racer to 21st position and she was now looking for a safety car in order to catch the train of cars ahead.
On lap six, Happinessa was back inside the top-20 after Andres Beers stopped out on circuit in his Ford Mustang. Happinessa’s speed was strong as she was now catching Valerio Marzi in his Club Competition machine. Her progress was then halted as the race entered a full course yellow period after Thomas Toffel hit the tyre barrier at the chicane. Toffel was forced to retire following this incident and after Marzi pitted, Happinessa was into 18th position.
Following good work from the marshals, the tyre stack was replaced without the need for a safety car and the race then returned to green flag conditions. After the tyre temperatures dropped, Happinessa had a small moment when getting back up to speed before she settled into a good rhythm for the second half of the race.
After returning to a pace of 1:43, Happinessa set a new personal best lap time for the entire event on lap 13 with a 1:42.480. This was an excellent improvement from her qualifying pace and following a strong end to the contest, Happinessa took the chequered flag in 18th position overall while securing another Lady Trophy award.
Photo credits: NASCAR Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
The season finale at Zolder took place on Sunday morning with Happinessa lining up from 20th on the grid courtesy of her fastest lap from the first race of the weekend. As the lights out went out, the positions in the top-10 were closely contested and as a result, Thomas Dombrowski spun through the gravel. With a number of other drivers delayed, Happinessa was able to move forward and complete lap one in 15th position, however she had picked up some damage to the car.
Happinessa did a nice job to negotiate the slow cars of Gil Linster and Nick Strickler, with the latter struggling for visibility after his bonnet came unhinged. Despite pressure from more experienced drivers behind, Happinessa initially held 15th position as she continued to get her tyres up to temperature. As the drivers turned through the final sector on lap two, Happinessa spun and she therefore fell to 17th position.
The gap to the next car ahead was 15 seconds and therefore the Bremotion driver was now focussed on setting fast times in order to bridge the deficit. Through the final sector, Happiness was doing a nice job in matching both Francesco Leogrande and Sven Van Laere who were beginning to battle for position ahead. On lap five, Happinessa set a new personal best time of a 1:43.705 as she closed in on her pace from the previous day.
Misfortune then struck on lap six as an issue under braking as a result of the earlier damage saw Happinessa leave the circuit and make contact with the tyre stack. This caused damage to the left-rear of the Bremotion machine and therefore Happinessa was forced to retire from the race.
Although it was a difficult end to the season for Happinessa, she showed good pace at Zolder and she was unfortunate not to return to the top-15. The German racer completed her debut NASCAR Euro Series season as the Lady Trophy champion and continued to improve her racecraft despite overcoming a range of challenges throughout the campaign. With a taste of NASCAR now under her belt, Happinessa will be eager to return to action in 2026 after a promising rookie season.
Photo credits: NASCAR Euro Series / Bart Dehaese