One of the most popular sports in America NASCAR stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It is a very fast-growing sports dimension that reaches thousands of new fans every week. NASCAR Sprint Cup race cars are specifically designed to ground up as pure racing beasts and they do not have a passing resemblance to the strictly stock heritage.
The Nascar Whelen Euro series was first founded in 2008 and it established official European series in January 2012 with the assistance of a long-term relationship signed with NASCAR and Whelen Engineering as title sponsor of the series. With four races per two days, these monstrous cars provide pure racing joy and thrilling bumper-to-bumper experience for the action lovers. As NASCAR is gaining more and more worldwide recognition, below we introduce a brief list of the notable Scandinavian names that have marked their standing in this exciting competition.
Alexander Graff
Born on February 23, 1987, Alexander Graff proudly represents the Swedish community of NASCAR sportsmen and lovers. He has won the Swedish V8 Championship multiple times. Graff first entered the NASCAR Whelen Euro series in the year 2018. In terms of ELITE 1 Division standings, he happened to finish ninth. 2018 was an important year for him also because he earned his first NWES top-5 finish in Zolder Finals.
The Uppsala son has competed at the elite level in Sweden since 2006 with gold medals in SM, JSM and five championship titles. Graff is striving to work with motorsport as his only platform someday. In addition, Alexander has been working on developing people to become better drivers starting from companies to private individuals.
Together with Racing Rascals, Alexander has been part of ‘’My Big Race Day’’ since 2011. There severely ill children are given an opportunity to enjoy the most exclusive tram cars in Sweden and get away from their usual lifestyles. In 2013-2014, Alexander worked as an instructor for ‘’Girls on track’. An event where only girls were allowed to participate. In 2014, Alexander collaborated with Wileco Events and assisted them as a personal instructor in Spain.
Freddie Hemborg
We are continuing our list of notable Scandinavian names of the NASCAR world by the veteran pilot Freddie Hemborg. He was born on April 29, the year 1986 in Ostersund, Sweden. Belonging to the same crew as the above-mentioned Graff, Hemborg played under the provision of Richard Berggren.
As already indicated, he is a veteran of the Scandinavia V8 Thunder Series. Freddie first joined the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series in 2019 as a matter of fact. This happened through Memphis Racing. The first top-5 finish was scored by him in the season opener at Valencia. In the early stages of his career, Freddie competed on most of the courses and series in Sweden including Dalacup, Norrlands Cup, MKR series and the Swedish Cup. He won the Lapp Cupp in 1997, a race that attracted drivers from all over Sweden. He was taken to the Swedish national team in karting and his best result was third place in the Yamaha class in the Nordic Championships 2001.
Freddie remembers that the day he took his driver’s license was almost the same day for him to compete in his first race. It was raining and he was quite anxious but still, he managed to qualify well and got to the finish line second. After only two turns he was already in the lead and got to keep it that way until the checkered flag.
Henri Tuomaala
The third pilot on our list is Henri Tuomaala. Born on January 8, 1989, a 30-year-old sportsman has a rich career of impressive achievements. He was third in Legends Trophy Finland in 2018, scored first place in 2018 and 2015 at V8 Thunder NEZ and Legends Trophy Finland, respectively.
Got a second-place also twice in V8 Thundercars Finland and V8 Thunder NEZ. The Helsinki-born pilot has won Finnish Legends car champion multiple times also. He debuted in the NASCAR Whelen Euro series in the 2018 semi-finals. Tuomaala successfully managed to grab a top-10 finish. This year he is competing in the ELITE1 Division and for the Challenger Trophy.
Ian Eric Waden
We are finishing our list of the notable representatives of Scandinavian NASCAR with Ian Eric Waden. Originally from Helsinki, Waden is the winner of the 2016 Scandinavian Ferrari Challenge. He is also a veteran of the V8 Thunder Series. Aside from racing achievements, Waden does TV commentary and he is quite popular in this aspect. Waden joined NWES at the end of 2018. Currently, he is competing in the ELITE 2 Division and for the legend Trophy.
The above list showcased some of the most noteworthy pilots competing against each other in the thrilling, risky and exciting domain of NASCAR. Surely, there are many more names and honorable mentions, but still, this brief list can serve as an excellent introductory card for anyone interested in Scandinavian pilots and NASCAR in general.
