19 april 2007Ready for the crossing to Great Britain
True to tradition the Mediagroep Van Dyck Belcar, or the Belgian Championship for GT-cars, will once more be travelling cross-border in search of a new circuit. Following on from visits to the Nürburgring, Dijon, Assen, Brands-Hatch and the Lausitzring, Donington is now on the programme, situated some 200 kilometres north of London.
Fourteen years ago the Grand Prix of Europe was contested on this same circuit, with the legendary Ayrton Senna in the rain, and today this circuit with a length of 2,5 miles (4 km) still remains part and parcel of the British motorsport tradition. The track lies in the midst of hillocks and mounds and the fans will undoubtedly appear in their masses for a weekend comprised out of two British F3 championship races, the Heritage GT Car Challenge, the British Formula Ford and of course not forgetting the British and Belgian GT-championship.
“When putting together our calendar our main motive was undoubtedly to introduce our new Belcar-championship to our British friends”, Patricia Indekeu, responsible for the Belcar events with SRO Belgium, explained. “Both competitions definitely hold their own in comparison with the FIA GT3 and we really hope to attract a few neighbours for the race at Donington and in fact instil the idea into a few Belgians also.”
The national troops, amounting to some thirty strong, three weeks after the championship’s starting shot at Zolder, only have one ambition: to beat the Corvette Z06 GT3 of PK Carsport. This will undoubtedly be a difficult assignment; especially on unknown ground where the international experience of both the PK team as also the driver duo of Longin – Kumpen will have an undeniable advantage.
However nothing is impossible. This saying must be flashing through the minds of the six teams entering a Dodge Viper. Indeed, because in addition to the five American beasts which we encountered at Zolder, there will be one more. The additional Viper GT3 is entered by Signa Motorsport, the team that won the Group 3 in the 24 Hours of Spa last year, with Patrick Chaillet and Laurent Nef as drivers.
After a difficult start for both Mosler-Chevrolet MT900s of Gravity International Racing at Zolder, the team hope that the cooling problems will be forgotten and that the 125 minutes race will run smoothly for them. In fact Stéphane Lémeret and Vincent Radermecker – who knows the circuit like the back of his hand since his drives in the British Formula Ford, F3 and the BTCC – are also playing at home in a manner of speaking with the British built Mosler.
The same can be said about the Prodrive Aston Martin DBRS9 of Wim Coekelbergs and the Dutchman Ron Marchal. The team are aiming for a definite podium place in the UK. Various Porsche teams are also after a spot on the podium. In the first instance the team of Pino; at Zolder GPR scored a second and third place with Soulet-Dumarey and Duez-Maes. Guillaume Dumarey is presently second in the rankings and this weekend he will be sharing with the jong Brit Phil Quaife. Running in the Porsche Supercup, this 21 years old jong Brit knows the track very well. Maxime Soulet, the GPR regular driver has commitments in the Renault Mégane Trophy.
At Prospeed Fred Bouvy will be replacing Didier de Radiguès with David Loix as team mate, whilst we can also expect some great racing from the home drivers Mike Donovan and Peter Richtings in the997 GT3 of In2Racing. Last but not least we have Jan Heylen, our national Champ Car-hope, who will be sharing a second Porsche 997 GT3 of AD Sport with Albert Vanierschot.
In Division 2 the favourite here is once again the 996 GT3 Supercup of NGT Racing, with Marc Neyens and Bart Couwberghs at the wheel.
And finally in Division 3 Kenis-de Keersmaecker (Mosler MT900R) and Derdaele-Empsen (Ultima) are on the warpath for revenge after their difficult debut at Zolder. But this would imply that they need to get ahead of the Porsche RS of the Thiers brothers, the 996 Biturbo of Steegmans-Leest not forgetting the RS of De Laet-Vollebergh. The reference time for the D3 is set at 1’14, or two seconds more than the pole of the 2006 British GT3. An eventual adaptation of the reference time after the qualifying sessions on Saturday could remain an option.
Just to dot the i and cross the t, we must remind you that the start of the race will be given at 10.30hrs local time – for those staying at home do not forget to add one hour for our Belgian time zone – and that the second race of the Mediagroep Van Dyck Belcar will naturally be run over 2 hours and 5 minutes. Quick mathematicians will have immediately worked out that it will finish just after midday….
