Gil Linster admits that he had no chance of keeping up with Martin Doubek, who conquers the 2024 American Festival of Rome with a sweep in EuroNASCAR 2.
Martin Doubek showed the world why he’s a former champion in the EuroNASCAR 2 division as he used both speed and careful thinking to conquer and sweep the 2024 edition of American Festival of Rome.
Some misfortunes did befall Gil Linster, the pre-race favorite after his dominant performance in Practice and Qualifying, but the Luxembourg driver had no answer to Doubek’s race pace and conceded defeat to his Hendriks Motorsport teammate at Vallelunga.
Race 1 Recap
Gil Linster leads the field of 24 cars to the green flag for the first EuroNASCAR 2 race on Saturday evening. The Luxembourger and fellow front row starter Claudio Remigio Cappelli kept side-by-side for the opening few corners when disaster struck at the exit of turn 5.
Eager to steal the lead away from Linster, Cappelli did not leave enough room from the Hendriks Motorsport driver and the two made contact.
This unsettled Cappelli’s No. 5 Cremona Gronde Ford Mustang and despite his best efforts, the Italian lost control of his machine in front of the pack. Patrick Schober was unlucky to be collected, but everyone else managed to get out of the incident site with relatively little harm.
With Cappelli and Schober’s wrecked cars lying on the track, a Full Course Yellow was called to neutralize the field. The Safety Car was then called on lap 3, giving EuroNASCAR the chance to use their new regulations for the first time.
The race got underway again on lap 5 and with two laps ran behind the Safety Car, the stewards added those two laps into the race distance – turning the event into a 17-lap race.
The Safety Car restart proved to be the key for Martin Doubek as he made a great launch to take over the lead. Linster tried hard to regain it, but the opening lap contact caused a handling issue that prevented him from keeping up with the Czech driver.
Therefore, Linster conceded defeat from Doubek as the driver of the No. 7 Orion Ford Mustang took the checkered flag with a winning margin of 6.057 seconds.
“I have no words,” said Doubek in Victory Lane. “We found a really good setup, but we made some mistakes in Qualifying. In EuroNASCAR PRO I started from ninth and we ended up third, so we know we’re quick.”
“I was a bit disappointed with my start because I didn’t see the green light, but my spotter told me that it was all good so everything’s fine and I’m really happy about that!”
“Today I really had no chance to catch him,” admits Linster in his post-race interview. “After this little contact in turn 5, I struggled with the left front tire. But anyways, it’s a great move by Martin. It’s a great restart and I was unable to catch him.”
Behind the Hendriks duo, there was a fantastic podium battle that was full of controversy due to penalties for track limits or Full Course Yellow violations. Fortunately for the fans, the one that got third was someone who was penalty free.
Thomas Toffel climbed his way up to the top-5 after the opening lap incident, but he had to work hard to fend off both Simone Giussani – penalized for diving out of the start formation too early – and Vladimiros Tziortzis – penalized for track limits.
Things got more complicated when Giussani got by on lap 11 and Thomas Krasonis joined the battle, but Toffel kept his head cool and managed to make an audacious pass on the outside in the final lap to seal his first podium of the season.
Krasonis himself had an incredible story to tell. A poor Qualifying session forced him to start from 22nd on the grid, but the Greek masterfully cleaved his way through the field and gained 18 positions on his way to secure his career-best finish in the division.
Tziortzis completed the top-5, a decent showing for the Cypriot given that he had only declared his participation in Qualifying. Julien Rehberg traded body panels with Florian Richard and managed to cling on for the Rookie Trophy victory, sixth overall in the final results.
Richard had to settle for seventh ahead of Roberto Benedetti, the winner of Legend Trophy. With Cappelli eliminated early and Melvin de Groot once again having an early race problem, the path of victory was clear for the Italian.
Thomas Dombrowski finished with just enough of a gap to steal ninth from Giussani, but the latter will be proud of what he had achieved on the track.
Jack Davidson was fifth on the line, completing a recovery drive of his own after he was forced to take avoiding action through the grass during Cappelli-Schober’s crash.
Unfortunately, he overtook another driver during Full Course Yellow and the penalty that the Scotsman received from this relegated him to eleventh.
The same Full Course Yellow penalties were also dished out to Michael Bleekemolen, Dominique Schaak and Reza Sardeha. Bleekemolen still salvaged a top-3 result in Legend Trophy, a remarkable achievement for the driver that’s still competing in a high level at the age of 74.
Race 2 Recap
The drivers meet together again on the grid for the second race of NASCAR GP Italy on Sunday morning. Only 23 of them would take the start because Cappelli’s crash on Saturday had demolished his machine and Academy was unable to repair the car.
Schober was initially at risk of not competing as well, but RDV Competition mechanics were able to get the No. 3 Keyman/Cartolux Ford Mustang fixed in time.
Leading the field were the Hendriks duo of Doubek and Linster, their third front row lockout of the season. Unlike Valencia where things got dramatic quickly, this time both drivers managed to keep their cars clean on the opening lap.
The same can’t be said for drivers such as Davidson, Giussani, Dombrowski and Veeti Rajala, who tangled at the Campagnano corner in an incident caused by a snapped throttle spring in Davidson’s No. 21 GT Omega Camaro.
Both drivers were forced to visit the pits at the end of lap. Dombrowski’s damage was terminal, but Lux Motorsport only needed to replace the broken part in the No. 21 car and sent Davidson back out on track after two laps of repairs.
Back at the front, Doubek had managed to keep Linster at bay. There were hairy moments when the Full Course Yellow were called on laps 6 and 12, but the 2021 champion kept his composure and stayed in front to secure his third win of the year – the tenth in his career.
“It’s a nice feeling to be on the podium again!” said Doubek after sweeping the weekend in Vallelunga. “I won again, so I’m really happy. I really liked this track, the fans are also amazing and it’s really nice to have them here!”
Linster finished second with a gap of 1.770 seconds behind his teammate, but more importantly it does seem like the Luxembourger had buried his hatchet with Doubek because he visibly embraced the Czech driver during the podium celebrations.
While Doubek and Linster disappeared into the sea of butterflies at the front, there was a scrap for third position that went undecided even after the checkered flag was waved.
De Groot managed to set the fifth best lap time in Race 1, putting him in prime position for a podium finish. The Dutchman lost out to Krasonis and Toffel at the start, but he dispatched both of them and cruised to what seems to be an easy third place.
However, he was then given a 10-second penalty for speeding under FCY. It looked like de Groot’s bad luck had struck again, but then word came out that Toffel was also penalized for overtaking under FCY conditions.
Because Toffel was the only driver within 10 seconds of de Groot, the Dutchman let out a sigh of relief because his podium was officially safe. To make things sweeter, he also secured the victory in Legend Trophy with this result.
With Toffel penalized, fourth went to Krasonis who tied the career-best finish that he achieved just a day before. Tziortzis was fifth, unable to find the pace to answer de Groot, Toffel or Krasonis’ relentless speed.
Toffel eventually dropped to sixth, but it was still an excellent result for the Swiss driver given his improvements in the year so far. Behind him, two drivers managed to make the tifosi proud with their achievements: Valerio Marzi and Mario Ercoli.
The Vict Motorsport duo of Marzi and Ercoli was the class of the field in Rookie Trophy, clinching a 1-2 finish in the special classification with a seventh and eighth place overall finish.
They both edge out Richard, who again got the short end of the stick in the battle of the debutants. Behind him is old man Bleekemolen, who went one step better and finished tenth to show that age is not a problem for the Dutchman.
As mentioned before, there were two FCY periods that happened in this race. The first one was triggered by two separate incidents, coincidentally involving the drivers that won the Trophies on Saturday.
Rehberg was running comfortably in the lead of the Rookie Trophy when he had a sudden mechanical failure in the last corner on lap 5. Just half a minute later, Benedetti had the same issue and was forced to stop his car at the exit of Cimini.
These necessitated marshall intervention to tow their stricken machines away from the track. Their help was needed again when Rajala’s front-right suspension broke on lap 11. Just like Rehberg and Benedetti, the Finn’s race was over on the spot.
The lap where Rajala retired could’ve gone more disastrously had it not been for the situational awareness of Davidson. The Scotsman was approaching Turn 7 when he noticed that Nick Strickler was unable to stop his car for the double apex corner.
Davidson wisely backed out and gave enough room for the American to whiz by safely. Thankfully, Strickler had enough brakes to avoid a high speed collision with the wall. He eventually rejoined the race in fifteenth place and stayed there until the checkered flag.
Championship Standings
Doubek’s sweep meant that the red Whelen banner awarded for the championship leader will once again go to him and the No. 7 Hendriks team. With 155 points, the Czech is inching closer to the possibility of becoming EuroNASCAR 2’s first double champion.
Toffel and Linster continued to trail him, albeit with a 24 and 29 point deficit respectively. Krasonis’ career-best weekend was enough to propel the Greek driver to fourth in the standings, 36 points behind Doubek in the overall standings.
Rehberg and Richard followed Krasonis and are now tied for points in Rookie Trophy, mirroring the Junior Trophy situation in EuroNASCAR PRO.
To make things more spicy, Ercoli was only four points behind in seventh overall. Schober, Dombrowski and Legend Trophy leader Benedetti completed the top-10 positions.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.