Brits & Europeans In NASCAR?

danieljboys · 13 Jun 2003, 17:53 (Ref:630691)

I am trying to find out if there have been any British or other European racers who have excelled in NASCAR racing over the years.

Jim Clark raced at Daytona but as far as I know he never won, Vic Elford raced stocks in the 70's and he too came away winless. More recently John Mickel, the ASCAR Champ, ran some Busch series races as did Michael Vergers last year. Sportscar driver Rob Croydon is doing some NASCAR Weekly Series races this year and Max Papis is trying to get a deal done with Ray Evernham for 2004 but have there been others who have tried their luck across the pond either in the Winston Cup or one of the lower categories, and were they successful?

Rambo · 14 Jun 2003, 09:39 (Ref:631167)

Stevie Hodgson ran a couple of races in a very under-funded Busch car. He finished 16ht at Bristol IIRC.

alfasud · 14 Jun 2003, 10:50 (Ref:631187)

Not a Brit or European, but Jim Richards (a New Zealander, but resident of Australia) did o.k. in the NASCAR exibition race in Suzuka, Japan.

http://www.racelink.com/rl_news/arch...7/drn_wk4.html
http://www.stockcarracing.com/techarticles/1589/

ascarracinguk · 14 Jun 2003, 15:09 (Ref:631304)

justin bell??

danieljboys · 19 Jun 2003, 10:07 (Ref:636405)

If I remember Justin was entered in a Cup race at either Sears Point or Watkins Glen (I think it was the Glen) a year or two ago and he failed to qualify. I don't know if he has done any other races apart from that.

ensign14 · 19 Jun 2003, 19:59 (Ref:636937)

The first British driver in the Daytona 500 was Brian Naylor of JBW fame, drove in a Yunick car in 1962, quick in qualifying. He had been invited over by Bill France who was impressed by Naylor's speed on the Monza banking in the Italian GP in 1960.

Others include:
-Jackie Oliver (got a 4th at Dover in 1972, best British result)
-Claude Ballot-Lena
-Christine Beckers
-Jo Schlesser
-Lucien Bianchi
-David Hobbs, the only Brit to have driven in both the Daytona and Indy 500s
-Innes Ireland
-Rolf Stommelen

And Martin Birrane entered a few races as team owner with John Paul Jr and Bobby Hillin up.

chris24 · 20 Jun 2003, 15:01 (Ref:637703)

I guess if we are talking Europeans, then Mario Andretti being born in Italy should count.
He won the Daytona 500 in 1967 in a Holman and Moody Ford

Joe Fan · 23 Jun 2003, 07:19 (Ref:639781)

Jim Clark did not race the Daytona oval. His one and only NASCAR Winston Cup start came at Rockingham in 1967.

bcobbus · 25 Jun 2003, 07:31 (Ref:642303)

Yes it was Rockingham, in fact he had one Jochen Rindt in the pits with him that day! This year there has been that Japanese driver in a few races, I'm going to try and spell his name!

429CJ · 25 Jun 2003, 18:19 (Ref:642914)

Hideo Fukuyama.

bcobbus · 25 Jun 2003, 19:32 (Ref:642995)

Thanks for the spelling. I would have had something like Hidao ****urmama!

the_extreme · 1 Jul 2003, 03:51 (Ref:647960)

But why would they want to anyway - don't forget the Europeans have ETCC, BTCC, DTM, V8star not to mention all of the open wheel classes.

Question - has there ever been any succesful US drivers in DTM ????

Has there ever been any succesful US drivers in BTCC ???

So why would it be that important if there were any succesful European drivers in NASCAR?

Rambo · 1 Jul 2003, 09:14 (Ref:648109)

Hard enough for European drivers to get anywhere in the Bathurst...

It's not important, just interesting. Why should NASCAR be so hard to get into for outsiders? There's plenty of bad NASCAR drivers who seem to go on forever and there must be plenty of young talent from things like the ARCA, ASA and Busch series who can't get into the Winston Cup because old has beens like Terry Labonte just won't quit. If young American oval racers can't get into the series, how can European short-oval racers or road racers possibly get into it?

danieljboys · 5 Jul 2003, 12:58 (Ref:653265)

The_Extreme, the reason I posted the topic was to try and find out how much (or how little) success us Europeans have had in NASCAR.

The BTCC, DTM, and ETCC have a much more international feel to them, as does Indy Racing League and CART which I thought were supposed to be American-style racing (although CART is alot more international than it used to be).

It was also to try and find out why getting into NASCAR is so difficult for non-Americans. I guess sponsors will prefer to promote their home-grown talent than getting a foreigner in.

Roselady3 · 6 Jul 2003, 18:41 (Ref:654083)

Probabally the reason there hasn't been alot of successful europeans in NASCAR is that it takes so many years to get "there" I don't know of any European drivers who would devote several years in Busch or a lower level series in order to secure a GOOD cup ride.

rustyfan · 9 Jul 2003, 08:28 (Ref:656600)

GT racer Olivier Beretta did one race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series at the Heartland Park Topeka track in the late 90's. Can't remember how finished, but I seem to recall him getting punted into a spin during the race.

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