Faster than 209 mph: Gil Linster now a Arkansas Mile Club member
Driving more than 200 miles per hour in a real NASCAR Cup car: Gil Linster accomplished that in Arkansas to get into the Club of the fastest race car drivers
Gil Linster had to drive faster than 200 miles per hours in his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Ford Fusion to become a member of the Arkansas Mile Club. The Luxembourg was faster than the speed limit and is now a member of a small group of race car drivers.
“I was in the States to set a new record,” Linster tells ‘Leadlap.net’. “I drove a NASCAR Cup car from the 2018 season. We broke the record very fast, despite waiting for the optimal weather and air conditions.”
In the first practice, Linster drove the highest pace on the one-mile long track. He burned a pace of 210.8 miles per hour in the asphalt. This was only the preparation for the official timed attempts on Friday.
Explanation: There is a standing start and then the driver has one mile ahead of him to reach the maximum pace. Every driver has got two attempts to set his record time. Every driver faster than 200 miles per hours on his vehicle will be welcomed in the club.
“Around 100 drivers made it to the club until now,” says Linster. “On the first attempt I reached around 204 miles per hour. The second run was faster with 209.43 miles per hour. I made it into the club as the most fastest Luxembourg ever.”
There is more to tell: “I’m the first European to set a record in a NASCAR Cup car,” tells the Luxembourg. “Also there has never been a faster Cup car than mine on the one mile track. The car war optimized to have 963 BHP. Nothing else was changed, except for the parachutes, that were installed to brake the car. But I never used them.”
Linster’s US adventure has not come to an end: “Next year, we plan to do more races as we had bad luck with the weather this year. Sometimes I was not able to travel to the States in time. There were also races with too many cars with way more power. We didn’t wanted to be the only ones with 450 BHP while other were driving with 650 BHP.”
There was another challenged to face: Every division of the NASCAR Whelen All American Series has got another rule book, so the team would have to rebuild the car to be allowed to race every time. Despite that, Linster is working on a surprise but he doesn’t want to reveal any details now.
