MOORESVILLE, N.C. – A lot has been said and written about Alon Day’s rising career in the three years it took to the Israeli to go from his first NASCAR test to his debut in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and then the European NASCAR title.
How it began on March 19, 2015 is a lesser known story and that test marked a significant turnaround in the Champion’s life that clearly reverberates in his current approach to racing.
“So many things happened in the last 3 years. I went from a small test in Magione to the Cup Series, I went through so many things sometimes I think it’s unreal, some kind of miracle,” says Day when reflecting on the roller coaster he went through during that winter.
Back to 2015 then. It is a Thursday morning when a driver from Israel who just lost his GT seat due to budget reasons arrives in Magione, Italy, the track hosting the semi-finals of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series at the time and CAAL Racing’s favorite playground.
The team already has Eddie Cheever III and Nicolò Rocca under contract for the ELITE 1 Division and both have title ambitions, but the opportunity to add an international talent to the lineup is definitely tempting for team owner Luca Canneori.
“It wasn’t the first time I worked with an Italian team, so I kind of knew what to expect. They have the same temper as us Israeli, we are both hot tempers. But with CAAL Racing everything was fine. Luca Canneori and his guys were very welcoming and all went great,” recalls Day.
The NWES car, on the other hand, is more challenging and intriguing than expected for the Ashdod native.
“I came from a high-profile GT program and I thought it was going to be sort of a piece of cake with a heavier car with less grip. It was supposed to be easier but it was the opposite,” says Day. “It took me half a day to realize that it’s not like that, that it is challenging to drive and a whole different story. With zero electronics it is a totally different driving style from single-seaters and GTs. Different driving, braking and accelerating, everything.”
Nevertheless, Day being Day he asks what is the track record and at the prompt answer of Canneori, he promises not to leave the track until the record falls. The Italians immediately take the challenge personally.
“We expected a very fast and professional driver for sure, but we didn’t expect him to adapt so quickly to a car without any electronic aid and so different from what he drove before, so we were absolutely surprised,” recalls Canneori. “I thought it made sense for him to ask about the track record to get a measure of his performance on a track that we know extremely well and at the time hosted the semi-finals, so we kept working with him on his pace. We didn’t expect what happened next.”
Lap after lap, Day gets closer and closer to the record, the team starts taking sides, rooting for him as he storms past the start-finish line, nobody else o the track, until a smile appears on the faces of Luca and Corrado Canneori, racing for a living since 39 years at the time.
Mechanics cheering, pit board signaling ‘Pole Position’ out and the Chevy SS return to pit road. The record is broken.
Day climbs out of the car, smiling. The rest is well-documented history. Fifteen days to find an agreement with Alon’s father and partner in racing Avi, tickets for the NWES opening round in Valencia booked and the story begins.
Fast forward to 2017, again in Valencia and you find a different Alon Day on the grid, a driver completely focused on the final goal, the European NASCAR crown. In the short span of two seasons he has already won six NWES rounds, the Junior Trophy classification two times, raced in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR XFINITY Series and took part in the NASCAR Next as the first driver coming from outside North America to be selected for the program. But there is much more for him to come.
A contact in the first round in Valencia sets Day up for a considerable comeback in the regular season and the Ashdod native never finishes outside the top-five in the next seven regular season races, scoring in England a win that crowns him King Of Brands Hatch and climbing back up to third in the points standings before the summer break, behind Borja Garcia and two-time champion Anthony Kumpen.
Source :speedsport.com
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