Fifth place in EuroNASCAR OPEN’s finale at Zolder was more than enough for Thomas Toffel and Race Art Technology to secure their first championship titles.
A new NASCAR Euro Series OPEN champion has been crowned in the 2026 Finals. Thomas Toffel and Race Art Technology joined the elites of EuroNASCAR after they lifted the championship trophy in the OPEN season finale at Circuit Zolder.
Toffel finished fifth to clinch his maiden title in a race that was dominated by Raphaël Lessard, who cruised into a 26-second victory in his No. 11 Alumitec Ford.
The Canadian, who was practically eliminated from the championship battle after his visibility issues in the wet Saturday race, scored the largest winning margin in any race since Tobias Dauenhauer’s 47-second win in the 2023 PRO Finals Race 2.
While Lessard took off on his own at the front, Toffel took things easy and dropped down into the pack. He kept his No. 34 ERGON Project Camaro out of trouble and capitalized when his rivals collided on the last lap to secure his tenth top-5 finish of the season.
The top-5 finish wasn’t with its troubles, however. Toffel stated after the race that he found it more difficult to try to slow down his pace, admitting that it made him more worried than being at ease.
“I feel really good, but for sure I need an hour now to let the pressure down, because it was not the battle of my life, for sure,” said Toffel during his championship celebrations.
“Sometimes it’s more difficult to stay out of trouble than to be at the front and just focus on what’s ahead. I just didn’t want to get caught up in the battles, and it was a false rhythm, so it was really difficult to manage.”
“During the whole race, you’re constantly thinking: ‘I hope my gearbox holds up and my engine runs smooth.’ It was really difficult, but I’m really happy.”
Although he lost the title race, Lessard graciously accepted defeat, acknowledging that Toffel maximized the results better than he did over the course of the season.
“What a year! Fifty percent of the races we won, it’s amazing,” said Lessard in Victory Lane. “We wanted the championship and we proved today that we’re in the position to be able to win it.”
“Congratulations to Toffel and his team, they executed it perfectly this year. They finished all the races and we didn’t finish well yesterday. It cost us, but I wanted to show my skills and I think I did just that.”
The aforementioned last-lap collision was the final flash point for a race-long duel that involved Claudio Remigio Cappelli, Thomas Dombrowski, Vladimiros Tziortzis and Martin Doubek.
Cappelli was hit from behind by Dombrowski at the Villeneuve chicane, creating a chain reaction that also collected Tziortzis and Doubek.
Cappelli and Doubek got away with only minor damage and took podium finishes as a result. On the other hand, Dombrowski and Tziortzis were slowed down enough to end up dropping down the finishing order.
Dombrowski was deemed to be at fault for this incident and dropped to eighth, having also collected a 5-second time penalty for ignoring FCY procedures. Tziortzis dropped to tenth, having spun his No. 6 Capital.com Ford when going through the grass.
Team Bleekemolen teammates Sandro Tavartkiladze and Beitske Visser grabbed their respective Trophy titles – Master and Lady – with fourth and sixth place finishes in the finale.
Florian Richard and Jens Beeusaert rounded out the list of top-10 finishers in seventh and ninth.
Maximilian Seth did not take the start for Race 2, but all 22 starters finished the race despite problems for Gil Linster (carrying damage from contact with Maxim van Laere), Valentino Gambarotto (puncture) and Federico Monti (right-front suspension).
OPEN Race 2 Results
EuroNASCAR OPEN Final Championship Standings
Despite Raphael Lessard putting all the pressure in the second half of the season, Thomas Toffel ultimately won the OPEN crown by virtue of his consistency in the Race Art Technology machine.
Three wins and top-10 finishes catapulted the Swiss on top with 528 total points. The win rate pales to Raphaël Lessard’s tally of six wins, but the difference maker for Toffel is his ability to maximize his results.
He only had one bad result during 2026 – a 17th place DNF from a crash in Brands Hatch Race 1, which he was able to list as his dropped result.
Lessard, on the other hand, had three problematic races: Valencia 1 where his engine briefly died in the latter stages, his disqualification in Brands Hatch 1 as a result of Alumitec’s refusal to have their engines to be inspected, and fan problems creating visibility issues in Zolder 1.
Ultimately, these problems cost Lessard not only the title, but also an overall runner-up spot. Despite being winless, a run of nine top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes allowed Thomas Dombrowski to leap up to second with 496 points. Lessard was only two points behind Dombrowski in third.
Claudio Remigio Cappelli’s Finals run brought the Italian up to fourth overall, his best championship finish in the series.
Vladimiros Tziortzis completed the top-5 ahead of Gil Linster, Brands Hatch sweeper Martin Doubek, Sandro Tavartkiladze, Florian Richard and Beitske Visser.
Visser’s tenth place finish in her rookie year was the best championship result for any female driver in EuroNASCAR since Julia Landauer’s fifth in the 2020 EN2 season.
EuroNASCAR OPEN Final Championship Standings
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.