By Wolfgang Monsehr, Staff Writer
ZOLDER, Belgium – The NASCAR Euro Series rolled into its traditional season finale at the former Formula One circuit in Zolder, Belgium, and Saturday’s first Finals races delivered a little of everything: a Turn 1 pass for the V8GP win, a first-lap crash, a rainstorm that flipped the Open race upside down and two championships still up for grabs heading into Sunday’s deciders.
The entry list had changed before the weekend even started. Israeli driver Ofek Etiyahu had to step aside when his budget ran dry, a familiar story in the motorsport world. Former Formula One driver Alex Caffi also vacated his seat, ending the comeback that brought big media attention in his native Italy earlier this year.
“The cars are great to drive. Much very old-school without these electronical toys and devices, which are totally overload nowadays race-and roadcars,” Caffi said. “Racing a NASCAR-Eurocar was an interesting experience for me, but I decided to leave it now to the young guys, who are still hungry. When I had given my comeback earlier this year, I think I still have the ability to score some good results, but fighting for the championship is a different thing.”
The series runs two divisions, renamed V8GP and Open after years as Elite 1 and Elite 2. In V8GP qualifying, Garrett Lowe of North Carolina, the top sim racer turned championship contender, scored the pole ahead of fellow American Vinnie Meskelis of Texas and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, son of Dutch racing legend Michael Bleekemolen. Paul Jouffreau lined up fourth ahead of Gianmarco Ercoli and Belgian local hero Marc Goossens.
Qualifying also produced the weekend’s first controversy. Jordan O’Brien collided with Meskelis, and race control ordered O’Brien to stop his session on the spot.
“Well, my opinion is totally different to the steward’s decision, but what can you do? You have to accept it …. It is like it is ….” O’Brien said.
Despite the order, O’Brien still landed the ninth starting spot. Logan Bearden lined up 16th.
Jouffreau Strikes on the Restart
Lowe jumped into the lead at the start of the 75-kilometer V8GP race, but the full-course yellow flew after one lap when Giovanni Cartechini crashed with Scottish driver Jack Davidson in the first corner.
“I had the impression that Giovanni had not seen me or did not pay too much attention. He drove into my car, and I was forced into a spin and touched the barriers, which put some expensive damage to my car,” Davidson said.
Race control found Cartechini at fault and handed him a one-minute time penalty, an academic punishment with both cars out of the race. Jouffreau struck on the restart, diving past Lowe into Turn 1, and the Frenchman stayed in front for the rest of the race to win in his No. 3 RDV Competition Ford Mustang. It was his third victory of the season.
Lowe finished second, and Bleekemolen held on to third, his first V8GP podium in three years, despite steering trouble and heavy pressure from Ercoli.
“I had some technical issues with my steering. Ercoli was coming closer and closer, and I have to use every legal trick to stay in 3rd,” Bleekemolen said.
Ercoli was fourth and Goossens fifth, the Belgian’s first top five of 2026. Behind them, former Formula One driver Nelson Piquet Jr. finished sixth in his first Euro Series season with the French Alumitec team, and he was in no mood to celebrate it.
“Ok, I am doing here my first season in the NASCAR-Euroseries, but I am not happy with 6th. I am here to win, not just to fill the grid,” Piquet said.
Reigning champion Vittorio Ghirelli charged from 15th to seventh and leads Piquet by 29 points heading into Sunday’s finale, where a seventh-place finish would lock up his third straight championship no matter what Piquet does. Vinnie Meskelis finished eighth and Vladimiros Tziortzis ninth, and O’Brien recovered to 10th despite a time penalty for a false restart. Bearden finished 13th and took the Challenger Trophy on his V8GP return, but he wanted far more.
“Something is totally wrong with my car,” Bearden said, and the frustrated Texan left the track immediately after the race.
Mike Wise of Texas finished 18th, and Canadians Andre Lortie and Brad Ranson finished 20th and 21st.
Cappelli Comes Through the Rain
Thomas Toffel of Switzerland took the Open pole ahead of Raphael Lessard and Jens Beeusaert, and Toffel led Beeusaert and Luxembourg’s Gil Linster after the start. Then the sky opened. A heavy rain shower washed over the circuit. Race control threw the red flag and the field came in for rain tires, and even on wet-weather tires a lap at speed was a gamble.
“The conditions were horrible,” Toffel said. “It was driving like on eggs.”
The lead changed hands nearly every lap among Toffel, Czech driver Thomas Dombrowski and Beeusaert, until Claudio Cappelli, who had started 10th, stormed to the front and ran off with the race. The 51-year-old Italian won by eight seconds in his No. 54 CAAL Racing Ford Mustang, his first Euro Series victory since 2024, and the win also clinched the Legend Trophy crown with a day to spare.
Toffel finished second and extended his points lead, helped when Lessard hit technical trouble. Linster was third, his first podium since Brands Hatch. Dombrowski was fourth and Tziortzis fifth. Beeusaert finished seventh and won the Master Trophy. Beitske Visser came from 16th to eighth and won the Lady Trophy, ahead of Mariam Davitidze in 14th and Happinessa in 17th. Lortie brought his Chevrolet Camaro home 20th.
Toffel leads Dombrowski by 26 points heading into Sunday’s double-points decider and needs a top-six finish to clinch the Open championship, with Linster, Cappelli, Tziortzis and Lessard all still mathematically alive.
Paddock Rumor: No Oschersleben Return
One more story made the rounds in the Zolder paddock. When the Euro Series left Oschersleben after last season and did not return this year, most expected the German weekend to be back on the 2027 calendar. Local driver Dominik Schaak poured cold water on that in Zolder.
“Unfortunately it currently looks like that for the next couple of years, the NASCAR-Euroseries will not return to Oschersleben,” Schaak said.
The Oschersleben weekends drew big crowds and even visits from representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin and the U.S. Consulate in Leipzig. Paddock speculation holds that the ADAC, the powerful German auto club that organizes the DTM championship, pressured the Oschersleben management out of concern that the NASCAR weekend could outdraw its own event. None of that is confirmed, but it was the talk of the paddock on Saturday.
Sunday closes the 2026 season at Zolder. The Open decider runs at 10:30 a.m. CEST and the V8GP finale at 1:30 p.m. CEST, both with double points on the line.
Wolfgang Monsehr is Kickin’ the Tires’ NASCAR Euro Series correspondent, reporting from Zolder.