13 April 2008Jos Menten and Patric Derdaele twice in top-10
On the eve of the first meeting of the Belgian GT Championship MVD 2008 Jos Menten and Belgium Racing came to an agreement. The Limburg based team had entered a Dodge Viper Competition Coupé for Patric Derdaele and Laurent van Moerkerke, but due to family commitments the latter had to cry off. In the first race Menten and Derdaele came away with a tenth place. The second race saw the duo clinch a ninth spot.
These are the season’s first races for Jos Menten: "It is important that I clock up lots of kilometres. I would really love to be back on the start grid of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There are also a few other endurance events I would like to compete in. I can’t say any more about future plans, but we’re working hard at finding a well balanced programme, allowing me to remain fully active in my professional career. I’m pleased to be a the start of the first of the Belgian GT-races. The Belgian GT Championship has an attractive platform, with a great selection of cars. Just compare it to other national championships and you’ll then appreciate that Belgium offers a great grid. I’m looking forward to the Sunday races. If it remains dry I can’t see a podium place for us, but who knows we might create a surprise should it start to rain..."
Free practice was held on Friday on a dry track. At the end of the session Menten was not particularly pleased with the American car’s handling: “The car doesn’t handle well on the track. The set-up is entirely upside down. In fact the team didn’t receive the car until three weeks ago and there’s still a fair amount of work to complete”, the driver from Haelen commented. Derdaele and Menten finally completed the practice session in eleventh place.
The first qualifying session looks promising with Jos Menten slotting the Dodge Viper Competition Coupé into the top-10: “I had the ideal rhythm. My lap time was good for an eighth best time. But I had a feeling I could do better. The team therefore decided to leave me on the track. But having been somewhat hindered I realised I couldn’t improve on my best lap time. I therefore slowed down and headed towards Sacramentsheuvel, when I suddenly had the steering wheel in my hands. For some unknown reason the wheel had detached itself and I went straight into the tyre wall”, Menten told us.
The front of the Viper was damaged and it wasn’t possible to repair the power beast before the second qualifying session. The Belgium Racing troops worked really hard to get the car into shape for the first race on Sunday morning. The start took place on a wet track and that made the challenge even greater: “I was driving to the starting grid but I had a feeling something was wrong. One of the rear wheels wasn’t fastened properly. I therefore returned to the pits and at that moment the lights at the end of the pitlane turned red. As a result we had to start the race from the pits. Ahead of me I had a slower BMW, and we lost quite some time on the front runners. After an action packed race Patric and I finally still managed a tenth place. If we hadn’t had that start from the pitlane we would undoubtedly come up with a better result”, Jos Menten remarked.
Just before the start of the second race the heaven’s opened: “Patric was heading for the start grid, but was held back by the track officials. Afterwards this appeared to be a wrong decision, and cost us lots of places. When Patric finally joined the pack after the start, he was 17 seconds down. After our incredible catch up race where I had some great battles with the Scuderia Monza Ferrari and the Sport Garage Ferrari, we finished 17 seconds down in fourth place overall – third place in our class. Fourth or ninth … a world of difference. For Patric’s team this is obviously difficult to accept … especially after all the hard work put in by the mechanics, who had slaved away to get the car ready”, Menten concluded.
