Martin Doubek mastered the heavy rain conditions at Brands Hatch to win the first EuroNASCAR OPEN race at the American SpeedFest.
2026 has not been kind to Martin Doubek so far. A crash in the Valencia opener injured the former two-time EuroNASCAR OPEN champion, putting the Czech star in a considerable disadvantage in the 2026 title battle.
Despite these setbacks, Doubek has not given up hope. After a successful surgery, Doubek made it to the podium in V8GP at Paul Ricard. Two weeks later, Doubek followed it up with his return to the Victory Lane in the Saturday OPEN race at Brands Hatch.
Heavy rain conditions did not deter Doubek as he had a perfect drive in the 31-lap race. Raphael Lessard’s spin midway through the race gave Doubek the chance to secure his first win of 2026, extending his total EuroNASCAR OPEN wins tally to 18.
As a double duty driver, Doubek was left tired after he battled through two grueling wet weather races at Brands Hatch.
“Finally I’m back in the Victory Lane!” said Doubek after the race. “I’m happy, it’s like last year at Brands Hatch. I won the last race in OPEN there. I’m a little bit tired because I did two races today. Now, we go to the podium and have a rest!”
Lessard noted after the race that there was a slippery surface flag that was waved at Paddock Hill the lap after he spun, but he remained happy with his second place finish.
Unfortunately, none of that would have mattered in the end. Lessard was disqualified for Alumitec Racing’s “refusal of inspections” to the engine that was used in this race.
This disqualification promoted Gil Linster and Thomas Dombrowski to the podium positions. They both took advantage of Sandro Tavartkiladze’s spotter issues in the final restart, passing the Georgian after the command to restart was given.
Tavartkiladze had no working team radio for the second half of the race, which meant that he could only rely on visual cues from his surroundings for the restart. The 27-year old rued his communication problems as it cost him the opportunity to finish in a career best second place.
However, the Team Bleekemolen driver still took the Master Trophy win, beating Valentino Gambarotto who scored his first career top-5 finish following Lessard’s disqualification.
Vladimiros Tziortzis, top Legend Trophy driver Claudio Remigio Cappelli and Jens Beeusaert followed behind in sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.
Robin Bleekemolen continued to impress on her debut EuroNASCAR OPEN weekend, finishing ninth on her very first professional car racing event to win the Lady Trophy classifications. Ossi Pohjanharju grabbed his maiden top-10 finish in tenth.
Overall Master and Lady Trophy leaders Maxim van Laere and Beitske Visser were only able to finish 12th and 13th once the penalties were applied.
Thomas Toffel’s rough Saturday continued after he crashed at Paddock Hill with two laps to go. It was the third crash of the day for the EuroNASCAR OPEN championship leader. Toffel’s crash brought out the last caution period and with no time left for an Overtime finish, race control decided to end the race under yellow.
Florian Richard and Francesco Leogrande also crashed out at Paddock Hill, triggering the other caution periods of the race.
EuroNASCAR OPEN Race 1 Results
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.