No one had the pace to match Raphael Lessard in OPEN Round 8 at Autodrom Most – The driver of the #11 Alumitec Racing Ford Mustang made his race winning overtake on the opening lap
- Raphael Lessard claimed his third win in the 2026 NASCAR Euro Series OPEN division
- The Canadian brought home two winner’s trophy from his first visit to Autodrom Most
- Thomas Toffel retained his overall lead heading to the double points Playoffs
Raphael Lessard has conquered the NASCAR GP Czech Republic on his first visit to the Autodrom Most. After winning OPEN Round 7 with a last lap overtake on his main rival Thomas Toffel, Lessard came through with a first lap pass on his Swiss rival to clinch his first sweep in European NASCAR. The Canadian was flawless behind the wheel of the #11 Alumitec Racing Ford Mustang and left no room for Toffel to repass him despite his best efforts. Toffel, however, does retain his lead in the overall championship with his runner-up finish. Martin Doubek celebrated with his dedicated fanbase as he bounced back from his retirement on Sunday to secure another home podium finish.
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“It’s the perfect weekend! My guys did an amazing job, the setup was really good. We got better even as the track changed a lot. I just felt that I could keep the same pace and he was falling off at the end. There were a couple of corners that I was better at. Yesterday I couldn’t outbraked him in certain places, but now I feel like I can do it. I think we adjusted to it pretty well with all the guys at Alumitec. Thank you everybody back home that supports us, I know a lot of you are watching. Thanks to Alumitec and my sponsors Rousseau Metal, XPN, BurnX, Permatec and Festidrag.tv for all they did to me!”
While Lessard, Toffel and Doubek streaked off into the distance, thousands of fans got to enjoy a fantastic battle for fourth position. Thomas Dombrowski, Gil Linster, Sandro Tavartkiladze and Claudio Cappelli fought each other for multiple laps, banging doors and fenders as they worked hard to grab maximum points. Dombrowski came out on top of the multi-car duel in fourth ahead of Linster and Tavartkiladze.
Sixth place was enough for Tavartkiladze to complete his own sweep in the Master Trophy, but it was not an easy win for the Georgian. Jens Beeusaert came charging in the closing stages to join the four car battle for fourth, but the Belgian ran out of time and had to settle for seventh overall and second in the Master Trophy. Robin Bleekemolen took her third Lady Trophy win of the season with another top-10 result for the third generation driver. The Dutch racer was eighth, while Dominique Schaak – who rounded the Master Trophy podium – and Vladimiros Tziortzis rounded out the top-10.
While battling with Linster, Cappelli made contact with the Luxembourger that sent him into a brief spin. Race control handed the Italian a post-race ten seconds time penalty for his transgressions, but 11th in the final results was enough for the CAAL Racing driver to score the double in the Legend Trophy. Melvin de Groot charged from last position on the grid following his early retirement on Round 7 and was rewarded with a Legend Trophy podium and four bonus points for gaining the most places.
Beitske Visser and Happinessa Racing completed the Lady Trophy podium in 15th and 18th positions respectively. Fellow Lady Trophy contender Mariam Davitidze had to miss out Sunday’s action after she broke her finger in Round 7, but the Georgian racer promises to come back strong for the Playoffs in Italy and Belgium. 19th place finisher Federico Monti took home the final piece of silverware in the Legend Trophy.
With the dropped points now in play, Toffel will enter the Playoffs as the overall leader. The leader from the season opener at Valencia has three wins and two further podiums, giving him a total of 254 points in the provisional ranking to his name. Dombrowski and Linster are Toffel’s closest overall challengers with only 16 and 19 points of deficit to the Swiss. Raphael Lessard is fourth overall thanks to his own three victories.
Tziortzis rounds the top-5 ahead of Claudio Cappelli, still the overall leader of the Legend Trophy. Maxim van Laere and Beitske Visser also hold their overall leads in the Master and Lady Trophy, with both drivers currently sitting eighth and 13th in the standings. Martin Doubek, who swept the OPEN races at Brands Hatch, is ninth overall, 73 points behind Toffel.
The OPEN championship has concluded another chapter in the twisty and technical 4.212 kilometer Autodrom Most circuit, therefore the focus now shifts to the elite drivers in the V8GP division. They still have one more chance to grab as many points as they can before the dropped score and their race is scheduled to start at 14:15 CEST. Tune in to DAZN, the official NASCAR Euro Series YouTube channel, and the local providers listed at https://www.nascar.eu/watch/ to find out how to watch all the spectacle from the NASCAR GP Czech Republic.
Featured image by NASCAR Euro Series / Nina Weinbrenner
