Gil Linster recalls his incident with Martin Doubek from the 2024 Valencia NASCAR Fest on his new podcast Throttle Alley.
The 2024 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series proved to be a rollercoaster season for Hendriks Motorsport driver Gil Linster. The Luxembourg racer suffered from numerous unfortunate situations that cost him the chance to compete for the EuroNASCAR 2 title.
One such moment came during the opening round at Valencia. In Race 1 on Saturday, Linster made contact with teammate Martin Doubek that caused a puncture on Linster’s No. 50 Toyota.
The inter-team controversy was many people’s talking point after the Valencia event was over and recently, Linster had the opportunity to recall that moment on his newly established podcast series Throttle Alley.
“I think for this year the most asked question is what went wrong in the first race in Valencia,” said Linster. “I mentioned it already several times, it was just stupid contact.”
“I’m still on my point that I did nothing wrong. I just got kicked out of the race, had a puncture and lost all the points. I knew I could easily win that race because the speed was there. It is what it is, so you look forward for the next race.”
Linster and fellow podcast host Julien Ramos also discussed what happened in Race 2. Linster and Doubek again started on the front row in that race, but Linster managed to keep his position at the start and ultimately won the race.
“At the end it turned out very good actually,” said Linster. “I had the fastest lap in the first race so that gave me pole position for the second race.”
“It’s always a little strange when you know there could be exactly the same situation, but I had a phenomenal start. I went in a little in front of Martin, so I tried to have a safe spot to not have another puncture.
“After turn 2, when I had my little gap, I just tried to save the tires and still have the speed so that no one could attack me.”
“In the last five or six laps, I was pushing a little bit more. I knew I could destroy the tire now and still have my safe gap if there would be something on the track to just win the race. I won the race and there was nothing more to do.”
Ramos also questioned Linster on whether the Valencia drama changed Linster’s approach to the races. The 31-year old driver responded by saying that what happened “didn’t actually change anything” to his preparation.
“All of these contacts and having a puncture, you can never really plan it,” acknowledged Linster. “You can never really say ‘Okay, that changed me as a person, that changed my driving style’ or whatever.”
“It didn’t actually change anything, I’m still kind of hard on myself for the preparation for the races. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it’s not.”
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.