By Wolfgang Monsehr, Staff Writer
ZOLDER, Belgium – The 2026 NASCAR Euro Series season is over and Italian Vittorio Ghirelli has done it again. Like last year, he scored championship points at nearly every race and in the final race at Zolder a 10th-place finish was enough to secure his third consecutive Euro Series championship title, the first three-peat in series history. But as on Saturday, the Sunday race day at Zolder belonged to Frenchman Paul Jouffreau, who dominated the race and was crowned vice-champion behind Ghirelli with his two wins on the weekend.
Nevertheless, from the U.S. point of view the Belgian NASCAR Euro Series final weekend at Zolder was quite a success.
Sim racer Garrett Lowe put his Chevrolet Camaro of the German Bremotion team on the pole and took the lead when the green flag waved. But on the opening lap, Jouffreau had already found a way around Lowe’s Camaro and Lowe came under pressure from Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Vinnie Meskelis, Gianmarco Ercoli, Vittorio Ghirelli and Nelson Piquet Jr. Lap after lap, Bleekemolen tried unsuccessfully to outbrake Lowe, but the problem for the Dutchman was over when Lowe had to retire with a broken throttle cable.
Then a new problem came up, as Bleekemolen came under heavy attack from his own teammate Vinnie Meskelis. Finally the man from Texas succeeded with his outbraking maneuver and took second overall behind Jouffreau. The win also gave Jouffreau his third consecutive Junior Trophy crown.
Bleekemolen’s hope of taking the last podium position with third overall went unfulfilled when Nelson Piquet Jr. attacked the Dutchman. On the very last lap, the former Brazilian Formula 1 driver outbraked Bleekemolen and scored third overall behind Jouffreau and Meskelis. At least Bleekemolen had some luck on his side, successfully defending fourth overall against Greek Thomas Krasonis.
Behind local hero Marc Goossens in sixth overall, Jordan O’Brien crossed the start-finish line seventh in front of his U.S. countryman Logan Bearden. While O’Brien was far from happy with his race in particular and the Zolder weekend in general, Bearden at least saw a significant improvement in his car compared to Saturday’s race.
Texas native Mike Wise, who now lives in Krakow, Poland, finished 18th, one position ahead of Swiss Thomas Toffel, who received a time penalty from race control for an avoidable incident with Cyprus driver Vladimiro Tzortzis. The Canadian duo in this race, Brad Ranson and Andre Lortie, finished 16th and 21st respectively and are planning another full season in the NASCAR Euro Series in 2027.
For NASCAR insiders and historians it might be interesting to know that the appearance of Brad Ranson is amazingly similar to legendary NASCAR driver Tim Richmond. In other words, Ranson could be the twin brother of Tim Richmond.
The reigning and new NASCAR Euro Series champion Ghirelli had an unspectacular race and finished 10th, which was enough to win the championship with 495 points, 15 ahead of Jouffreau and Piquet Jr., who finished tied in the standings with the tiebreaker going to Jouffreau. Gianmarco Ercoli, who had pressured Ghirelli during the race, received a post-race penalty of 30 seconds from race control for intentionally bunching up the field and dropped to 14th.
In an interview after the race, Ghirelli, the PK Carsport driver, used nearly the same words as Swiss Thomas Toffel earlier in the day, when Toffel won the NASCAR Euro Series Open title.
“Before the race my team and I had planned to stay out of trouble and not taking unnecessary risks,” Ghirelli said.
Wolfgang Monsehr is Kickin’ the Tires’ NASCAR Euro Series correspondent, reporting from Zolder.