By Wolfgang Monsehr, Staff Writer
Under cold conditions on a Circuit Zolder track still damp after heavy rain the night before, the NASCAR Euro Series crowned its Open champion on Sunday morning. Swiss Thomas Toffel, the driver with the biggest realistic chance at the title, had done everything right in qualifying and started from the front row beside Canadian Raphael Lessard, who took the pole.
Lessard took full advantage of the first starting spot and immediately took the lead when the green flag waved. He stayed in front for the whole distance of 15 laps and 60 kilometers in his No. 11 ALUMITEC Racing Ford Mustang and won by 27 seconds, but it was far from easy for the Canadian. Claudio Cappelli, the winner of Saturday’s first Open final, tried to pressure Lessard into an error, but that was just wishful thinking. Lessard stayed cool and held the lead, while Cappelli himself came under heavy attack from Thomas Dombrowski.
Claudio Cappelli, the 51-year-old Italian veteran who won Saturday’s rain race, described the contact from Dombrowski after the race.
“I had the impression that Dombrowski was thinking that he is just by himself and alone on the track. He hit me several times, but I was able to keep my car under control,” Cappelli said.
Dombrowski was declared the bad guy of the race after the event. He was in the middle of the last-lap fight at the chicane with Cappelli, Doubek and Vladimiros Tziortzis, and he shot himself in the foot: officials deemed him responsible for the incident and a post-race penalty dropped him to eighth, while Lessard, Cappelli and Doubek scored the podium results.
Toffel finished fifth in his No. 34 Chevrolet Camaro and secured the 2026 NASCAR Euro Open title for himself and the Swiss THT by Race Art Technology team, beating Dombrowski by 32 points in the final standings.
Thomas Toffel, the new Euro Open champion, explained that his title plan worked exactly as drawn up.
“My plan was working perfectly. I could stay out of trouble, which, of course, was not easy when I saw what the guys in front of me were doing,” Toffel said.
The battle at the front was so intense that there was a full-course yellow at mid-distance, when the chicane markers, set up as a small wall of tires, were knocked away and had to be installed again by the marshals.
Like in Saturday’s race, Dutch female driver Beitske Visser secured the Lady Trophy with a fantastic sixth overall, right behind Toffel. Among the other two ladies, Mariam Davitidze from Tbilisi, Georgia and Germany’s Happinessa, there was some controversy.
Mariam Davitidze, the Georgian driver who was pushed out of a strong run, tried to settle the matter face to face after the race.
“I was running a good 11th overall, when I was pushed out then by Happinessa,” Davitidze said. “I had tried to talk to her after the race, but she refused to do so with me.”
Davitidze finished 18th, while Happinessa ended the race 15th overall, just one position behind Europe’s oldest active racing driver: Dutchman Michael Bleekemolen, 76 years of age.
Michael Bleekemolen, the 76-year-old Dutch veteran, refused to hide behind his age after a mistake-filled race.
“It should be easy to use my age as an excuse. But I will not do that. I am upset by myself. I did too many stupid mistakes during the race,” Bleekemolen said.
Georgia still had something to celebrate, when Davitidze’s countryman Sandro Tavartkiladze finished fourth for the Dutch Team Bleekemolen and took the 2026 Master Trophy title with it. And there was joy and happiness in the Finnish camp, when young Finn Ossi Pohjanharju finished 11th overall for the Scottish LUX Motorsport team.
The other Canadian pilot beside Lessard in this race, Andre Lortie, finished 21st overall in front of Italian gentleman driver Federico Monti.