Despite not winning at the 2025 NASCAR Euro Series season opener at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Gil Linster leads the OPEN standings – The Luxembourger was the most consistent driver in Valencia, Spain
- Gil Linster leads the OPEN standings after the season opener in Valencia, Spain
- Consistency put him on top of the ranking despite scoring no wins
- “The level of competition is higher,” said Linster after the race weekend
Gil Linster may not have crossed the finish line first in either of the two races in Valencia, but when the dust settled at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, the Luxembourger sat on top of the NASCAR Euro Series OPEN standings. With two rock-solid results and not a single mistake across the weekend, Linster proved once again: consistency wins championships. Linster may have not won a race but he was the best of the weekend.
“We had a good start and then we were behind Martin Doubek and Patrick Schober,” said Linster after the race on Saturday. “It was pretty good for us. The car was great, but we tried something in Qualifying that did not really work. Now we found what we needed and the car was great. Great job by the team! The level of competition is much higher than in previous years. We have some very young but strong guys. The competition is great, it makes the championship even better. We have a lot of fun with the drivers competing at such a high level.”
“Sunday’s race was the best I’ve ever had,” continued Linster. “I fell back to 19th place and stormed through the field to finish fourth. It was an amazing performance and my best race ever. I went full attack and told myself, ‘You’ve got to make this pass or you’re going to get wrecked. It always worked. It was a completely new experience for me. The race weekend went well, we scored a lot of points. The fight on Sunday and the consistency on Saturday catapulted me to the top of the standings. It wasn’t completely in my hands, but we did a good job. Now I’m looking forward to Vallelunga in Italy.”
The Rette Jones Racing driver had a strong car prepared by none other than Hendriks Motorsport, one of the most successful teams in EuroNASCAR history. The #30 Ford Mustang was fast in both the Prologue and free practice sessions. Linster, one of the series’ most experienced drivers, could not catch Thomas Krasonis in the first OPEN race on Saturday, but he kept the car clean and brought home a strong second place and 35 points. On Sunday the Luxembourger finished fourth and added 33 points to his account. That makes a total of 68 points, one more than another surprising driver in Spain: Kenko Miura.
Just like Linster, Miura did not win a race, but the Japanese driver stayed out of trouble, took advantage of his rivals’ mistakes and scored solid results. The EuroNASCAR veteran didn’t win – but he passed more cars than anyone else on Sunday. That earned him four bonus points, a total of 67 on the weekend, and his first podium in six years. Miura is now Linster’s closest rival, with RDV Competition’s Patrick Schober, Marko Stipp Motorsport’s Sandro Tavartkiladze and Team Bleekemolen’s Melvin de Groot rounding out the top-5. All of them stayed winless, but scored solid points in the two races thanks to their cleverness and race intelligence.
Where are the race winners? Krasonis celebrated the first race win of his career on Saturday, but made contact with his PK Carsport teammate Thomas Dombrowski at the start of Round 2 on Sunday. He and other big names spun and fell back in the order. Later he made contact with Florian Richard, for which the stewards penalized the Greek for dangerous driving. After gaining 40 points on Saturday, he scored only 18 on Sunday and is now ninth overall behind Bruno Mulders, Dombrowski and Martin Doubek.
Doubek, the reigning OPEN champion, had technical problems on Saturday and only scored 19 points. He bounced back with a win on Sunday, but that means he’s only eighth overall, nine points behind Linster and one point ahead of Krasonis. The two showed great pace but lacked consistent solid results. But like Linster, there were other drivers who surprised with their steadiness in Valencia: Mulders and Tavartkiladze were the strongest rookies on the grid, while de Groot and Dombrowski showed promising speed.
The next stop on the 2025 NASCAR Euro Series schedule is the beautiful Autodromo di Vallelunga in Rome, Italy. The second event of the season will feature four EuroNASCAR sprint races – two in each division. Buckle up for some great touring car action at one of the fastest and most technical tracks on the calendar. The fight for the title is on, and the season opener promises to be an epic battle for glory.
Featured image by NASCAR Euro Series / Bart Dehaese
