Thomas Toffel swept the 2026 NASCAR GP Spain at Circuit Ricardo Tormo after Raphaël Lessard received a ten-second penalty for speeding under Full Course Yellow.
Late drama occurred in Race 2 for the EuroNASCAR OPEN division as Thomas Toffel snatched an unlikely sweep in Circuit Ricardo Tormo following a penalty that was dished out to Raphaël Lessard.
Lessard received a ten-second penalty on the last lap after he was judged to have been speeding under Full Course Yellow conditions.
With Toffel having already won Race 1 on Saturday, the Swiss driver exited the 2026 Valencia NASCAR Fest with a perfect points tally.
Toffel admitted post-race that he preferred to finish second due to the circumstances, but the Race Art Technology driver was able to celebrate his win properly as his Saturday victory was marred by the organizers playing the wrong anthem during the podium ceremony.
The Dutch anthem Wilhelmus was mistakenly played on Saturday, rather than the Swiss anthem Schweizerpsalm.
“That’s the perfect weekend for [us in] the OPEN division,” said Toffel in Victory Lane. “I would have preferred to finish second and that Lessard should have won because he was faster.”
“His pace was better, so we have to progress forward a little bit. I lost a lot of traction towards the end, so it was difficult to stay in front of Dombrowski and Linster.”
“But in any case, the rules are the rules. That’s only Lessard’s second weekend in the NASCAR Euro Series. I had the same problem at the start of my career so I’m sure he will be there for the rest of the season.”
Lessard had the fastest car and made a comeback after he was late to the green at the FCY restart, but the Canadian graciously accepted defeat and acknowledged that it’s “part of the racing”.
Lessard’s penalty promoted Thomas Dombrowski and Gil Linster to the podium positions. Vladimiros Tziortzis also benefited from the penalty, having been classified fourth in the final results ahead of Lessard.
Claudio Remigio Cappelli also pulled a sweep after he took double wins in the Legend Trophy classification. The Italian was sixth ahead of Kenko Miura and Sandro Tavartkiladze, who brought home the Master Trophy win.
Melvin de Groot and Beitske Visser rounded out the top-10. Visser demonstrated her potential as she finished only 19 seconds behind Toffel in her first race with healthy equipment.
Visser’s fellow female competitors Vanessa “Happinessa” Neumann and Mariam Davitidze finished 17th and 18th respectively, the latter receiving her first chance after she failed to start on Saturday due to engine issues.
The race was slowed by Full Course Yellow on lap 8 after Valentino Gambarotto crashed his CAAL Racing Ford on the short chute between Turns 4 and 5.
Shortly before Gambarotto’s crash, two drivers were limping on the track due to front-left punctures. Francesco Leogrande had his tire burst on him while Andre Lortie’s tire went down after he made contact with de Groot, who was trying to lap the Hunter Aviation Racing driver.
Leogrande then suffered a second puncture with just two laps to go, prompting his retirement from the race. Henri Timonen also retired due to a technical issue in his No. 33 Infrastar / Komcan Komori Ford.
EuroNASCAR OPEN Race 2 Results
EuroNASCAR OPEN Points Standings
Two wins in two races at Valencia propelled Thomas Toffel to the top of the EuroNASCAR OPEN standings. The Swiss has an 11-point lead to both Gil Linster and Claudio Remigio Cappelli, who both have a nice total of 69 points.
Vladimiros Tziortzis was fourth on his return to the EuroNASCAR OPEN division ahead of Melvin de Groot, Raphaël Lessard and Thomas Dombrowski.
Despite only finishing 13th on Sunday, Maxim van Laere still had enough points to be the best Master Trophy driver in the standings. The Belgian was eighth ahead of Giovanni Faraonio and Michael Bleekemolen, who both completed the overall top-10.
Vanessa “Happinessa” Neumann’s eighth place from Saturday handed her the lead in the Lady Trophy. The German was eleventh overall, albeit only a single point ahead of Beitske Visser while Mariam Davitidze will have her work cut out as she trails by 27 points in 23rd position.
Davitidze was only ahead of Martin Doubek, who only has 9 points after his Saturday lap one retirement and not being able to start on Sunday due to his suspected hand injury.
Full EuroNASCAR OPEN Points Standings
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