Martin Doubek backs up his pre-race victory prediction by dominating and winning EuroNASCAR OPEN Race 2 ahead of Bruno Mulders and Kenko Miura.
Martin Doubek had a standout performance in Sunday’s race at Circuit Ricardo Tormo. Not just from an on-track perspective after he led all 15 laps, but also from an off-track perspective after he lived up to his pre-race victory declaration.
During the pre-race build-up, Andre Wiegold was doing his usual interviews when he reached out to Doubek. Wiegold questioned whether he would win the race or not. The defending champion responded with three simple words: “Yes, I will”.
Boastful declarations like that have a tendency to fall flat in your face. However, if you read this report, you know that he managed to live up to the hype, Babe Ruth style.
Starting from second, Doubek had a perfect launch and took the lead from Thomas Krasonis in the first corner. Chaos unfolds behind him, but the Czech driver was unfazed and ticked off the laps one by one.
Doubek ultimately cruised to an easy win in Spain. After Doubek’s late retirement in Race 1, the Sunday victory served as a good bounce back for his title defense in 2025.
“Yes, I won!” said Doubek in Victory Lane. “We started from second and I had a good start. I don’t know what happened to Thomas (Krasonis), so I have to check it.”
“However, it was a good race and we clocked the fastest lap. I’m happy to be back in the Victory Lane again and now we celebrate!”
The chaos in turn 1 started when Krasonis braked earlier than expected. The Greek was caught out by Bruno Mulders’ good launch from third place on the grid.
According to Krasonis, he slowed down early to give Mulders the space to overtake him on the inside. Krasonis said that he did so under the belief that he had the speed to eventually repass the Dutchman. Unfortunately, this development wasn’t something that his nearest rivals had expected.
Thomas Dombrowski checked up with Krasonis and spun his PK Carsport teammate around. Krasonis’ spinning car then hit Patrick Schober’s RDV Ford, sending Schober into a spin as well.
Further back, Gil Linster had to take avoiding action into the gravel. Claudio Remigio Cappelli had to spin his car out to not hit the side of Linster’s Rette Jones machine.
All of this resulted in Dombrowski, Krasonis, Schober and Linster having to fight their way up the grid for the remainder of the race. For Cappelli, it’s pretty much game over because his car was beached in the gravel.
With his rivals behind, nobody was able to challenge Doubek for the lead. However, one driver kept him honest in front. That driver is Mulders, who claimed a sensational debut podium.
Mulders narrowly avoided the mess in Turn 1 and stayed within 1.5 seconds of the reigning champion throughout the race. Mulders’ speed vindicates Team Bleekemolen’s decision to put him in the No. 72 Race Planet Toyota for the full season in 2025.
Another driver with a sensational performance at Valencia is Japanese driver Kenko Miura. Miura took advantage of the first corner incident to move up into the top-5 positions.
He stayed in fifth until lap 11, where he moved up to fourth after Thomas Toffel suffered a puncture. Shortly after, Melvin de Groot’s tires started to give in from excessive tire wear.
This gave the opportunity for Miura to catch up to his Legend Trophy rival. With two laps to go, Miura sent it on the inside at Turn 11 to claim the final podium spot.
Not only is this Miura’s first podium for his self-owned team Team Japan Needs24, Miura also now holds the record for the longest gap between two podium finishes.
The Valencia podium took place 6 years and 175 days after Miura’s previous top-3 finish at Zolder in 2018.
Fourth went to Gil Linster, who ran out of time to Miura in the closing stages of the race. De Groot held on to a fifth place finish, conceding that his tires weren’t able to keep Miura at bay for either the podium or the Legend Trophy win.
Sandro Tavartkiladze initially crossed the line in fifth. However, repeated track limit excursions resulted in a penalty that dropped the Georgian down to sixth.
Despite this, the result is still highly impressive for Tavartkiladze. The driver from Tbilisi made Georgia proud with a performance that went beyond the expectations.
Andres Beers, Schober, Valentino Gambarotto and Dombrowski completed the top-10 positions. Lady Trophy resulted in an easy victory for Arianna Casoli after Vanessa Neumann had a spin on lap 3.
You might be wondering where did Krasonis finish in all of this. Unfortunately for him, Krasonis was penalized to 19th – and last of the finishers – after he spun Florian Richard out during his recovery drive.
EURONASCAR OPEN RACE 2 RESULTS
EuroNASCAR OPEN Championship Standings
The championship standings sees a jumbled order given the shenanigans that happened in the past two days. Gil Linster came out on top thanks to his consistency and strong recovery drive on Sunday.
The Luxembourger leads the standings by 68 points, just one ahead of Legend Trophy overall leader Kenko Miura. Miura took advantage of the bonus points he got in Race 2 to propel himself up to a career-high second place.
Patrick Schober scored enough points to sit in third with 63 points, one ahead of both Melvin de Groot and Master Trophy leader Sandro Tavartkiladze.
Bruno Mulders, Martin Doubek, Thomas Dombrowski, Thomas Krasonis and Roberto Benedetti round out the top-10 positions. Arianna Casoli leads the Lady Trophy in 16th place, four points ahead of Vanessa “Happinessa” Neumann.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.