Par ANDRÉ WIEGOLD / GIAN LUCA GUIGLIA WWW.EURONASCAR.COM 

After a dominant practice session, Jacques Villeneuve and Go Fas Racing took the pole position for ELITE 1 Round 9 of the 2019 NWES season at Raceway Venray. In what was his very last attempt with less than two minutes to go in Qualifying, the Canadian posted a 19.369 seconds around the half-mile banked short track of the Netherlands to beat Loris Hezemans’ time by just 0.044 seconds.

It was the first pole position in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series and the first on oval for the former Indy 500 winner and the second of his NASCAR career after the road course one he grabbed at Montreal in 2011 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

“It’s fun and exciting, I was really waiting to race on this oval,” said Villeneuve. “It’s a proper oval track with high banked corners and a length of half a mile. It was fun, the car was actually meant to be better in race trim. It was a little bit loose in qualifying trim, but it was enough for one very good lap. The tires seemed not to heat up too much, so I’m really looking forward to this race.”