26 juni 2007Belcar Midsummer Race : a Thursday school outing to Zolder
The grottos of Han, Walibi, Plopsaland, the Coo waterfalls, Paradisio and the Belgian coast are all well known attractions for the school outings at the end of June,.... but the Circuit of Zolder? Last year the dynamism of the Circuit van Zolder had resulted in a unique one day meeting on a Thursday, namely the Belcar Midsummer Race. Thousands of students travelling by bus arrived early in the morning at the Circuit of Zolder parking and experienced an incredible day out to end the school year and create the bridge to a well earned summer break.
“The weather could play tricks on us, but we are counting on some 5 to 7,000 students”, Walter Goossens, Marketing Manager of the Circuit Zolder comments. “Dozens, from home and abroad, from above and below the linguistic frontier, have already confirmed their presence.”
To create the right atmosphere the paddock is being converted into a real amusement park: Nintendo, pitstop competitions, benji-jumping, radio-controlled cars, circus initiations, bouncy castles and acrobats on bicycles....
As from 11:00hrs there is also a major competition resulting in the election of the “Mechanic of the year”. More than 100 students from various points of the compass have registered for this competition. Following on from a theoretical test the 50 finalists will battle it out amongst themselves to prove who is the best. To this end they will as a fully-fledged crew change the wheels of a single seater car. This competition is being organised by www.toekomstopwielen.be and the winner’s prize is not to be sneezed at. The winner will in fact be allowed to make his debut as a mechanic during the 24 Hours of Zolder with PK Carsport, the present leaders of the Mediagroep Van Dyck Belcar. PK Carsport with their Corvette Z06 is naturally a dream come true in taking the first steps into the world of motor sport.
Apart from the growl of 35 GTs on the circuit during the fourth round of the Belcar competition of the season there is also music to be enjoyed next to the track with a great concert from TMF Stressfactor, with as from 13:00hrs performances by the Donuts, Triple G and Nailpin.
This packed meeting has but one aim: to rouse the interest of the youth of today for the motorsport of tomorrow, with as slogan Racing is cool.
The general public might have professional commitments on a normal weekday, but the real racing aficionados will definitely sacrifice a half day’s holiday for this fourth race of the year between the best GT3s of the Belgian endurance championship.
The competition will be extremely exciting. The first three races, the Belcar First Races, Donington and the 12 Hours of Spa brought about just as many different winners, with in order of appearance the reigning champions Kumpen-Longin in their Corvette Z06, followed by the Mosler of Radermecker-Lémeret and quite surprisingly the Mosler of Kenis-De Keersmaeker. And who will it be this coming Thursday?
The battle for the title is just as tight. PK Carsport (Kumpen-Longin with 47 points) is leading with a 3 point lead. Second is the extremely regular Porsche 997 GPR of Guillaume Dumarey (once again with Maxime Soulet). On 8 points we find the other GPR Porsche of Duez-Maes and the first Mosler, of Gravity International. MI DHL is fourth on 12 points, five points less than the Racing For Belgium Aston Martin of Coekelbergs-Marchal. Last but not least and in joint sixth place we come across the two Porsches of Prospeed with Penders-Lamot and Loix-Bouvy.
We also need to add the G&A Mosler of Kenis and the best Dodges Viper of Wauters-Vanthoor, Severich-Thomas and the girls Stéphanie Boden and Alexandra Van de Velde, who took pole at Spa, and we have summed up all the candidates for victory.
In Division 2 there is undeniably the Porsche 996 GT3 Cup NGT Racing of Marc Neyens and Bart Couwberghs, who this season have not as yet come across their superior and as such will be out to clinch a four out four result. And finally in Division 3 the battle is more open with the Porsche 997 of the Thiers brothers, Frank en Hans, the CEO 996 RS of De Laet-Vollebergh, the AD Sport 996 Biturbo of Harry Steegmans and the novel Ultima GTR of Derdaele-Empsen.
Prior to taking a summer holiday and perhaps also to prepare for the coming 24 Hours of Zolder all the Mediagroep Van Dyck Belcar competitors are going to put their best foot forward during this special race day for all the young people in attendance.
The Midsummer is naturally entirely free as long as you download the invitation on www.circuit-zolder.be)...
