01 september 2008Triple for Porsche, Couwberghs-Maes-Sluys-«Heinz» (NGT) win Menzo 24 Hours of Zolder
Under a glorious sun and in front of packed grandstands 27 power beasts took the start yesterday at 16.00hr for the Menzo 24 Hours of Zolder. Jeffrey Van Hooydonk immediately surprised pole holder Vincent Radermecker in the first left, led the race for a short while, but unfortunately the Viper van A+ disappeared far too soon from the battle scene following an accident, and with that the first retirement of the race.
Fred Bouvy was the following leader, but he also experienced problems in the form of a threefold time penalty for having exceeded the Code 60. As such the Francorchamps Motors-Delahaye Ferrari dropped back into sixteenth place and handed over the sceptre to the Ferrari of Sport Garage. Vosse and team mates fought a hard battle for victory right up until Steve Zacchia careered off the track.
For Mosler the race was an absolute nightmare. G&A disappeared out of the race after an accident and the MI Gravity Mosler experienced technical problems more than once. Vincent Radermecker, Bert Longin and Anthony Kumpen initially struggled with the brakes, then climbed back up into fifth place, but once again fell back due to a broken drive shaft and finally had to throw in the towel following a fire as the result of a problem with the cooling system for the brakes.
In the meantime Porsche had taken the race under their wing, notwithstanding the fact that the German make also had its share of bad luck. The outgoing winner GPR needed to swap the entire transmission and here again the box door was finally shut down for Soulet-Franchi-Leinders-Kelders.
ProSpeed Competition was then able to nestle in up front and Stéphane Lémeret, David Loix, Rudy Penders and Franz Lamot led the race until the early hours of the morning. At nine o’clock in the morning the lead amounted to no less than eight laps. However a double replacement of the clutch also meant that they would not turn out to be GPR’s successors. In the first instance ProSpeed did come back up into second spot, but after the second replacement of the clutch ProSpeed could manage no better than finishing in seventh position.
In the meanwhile two Porsches had gone into a clinch for the title. The 996 RS MPM, where Jos Menten and Markus Palttala were part of the team, and the 997 Cup S NGT with Bart Couwberghs, Rubens Maes, «Heinz» and Ward Sluys. Late in the race MPM also experienced a few blows, whilst NGT took on a careful tactic, the team working relays of more than one and a half hours and hardly suffering any problems, apart from an off track excursion into the sand trap and a few headaches during refuelling. On top of that the team only spent a mere 22 minutes in the pitlane, definitely a recipe for victory in the 24Hours of Zolder.
One year after victory in Division 2, NGT claimed an excellent overall victory, the first for the team and the four drivers. In fact Ruben Maes won exactly fifteen years after his father.
At the finish the 997 was 16 laps ahead of the Porsche 997 Supercup of First Motorsport with Niels Lagrange, François Verbist, Pascal Nelissen Grade and Kevin Leest at the wheel. They also won the Division 3 tile.
Notwithstanding a quirky starter motor and a few gears that no longer functioned, it looked as though the Ferrari of Francorchamps Motors – Delahaye with Fred Bouvy, Damien Coens, Vanina Ickx and Alexandra Van de Velde would clinch the third tread of the podium. However they needed to count on the KRK Viper of the Wauters brothers, Jan Heylen and Patrick Schreurs experiencing some bad luck. The American was up front for a long while, but transmission problems saw to it that the Viper would come to a premature end of the race. Without brakes and only running on four cylinders the Ferrari couldn’t withstand the return of Markus Paltalla who snatched third place from the F430 some nine minutes from the end of the race. However Coens and Bouvy do in fact take over the lead in the championship.
The Porsche 996 Supercup of Van Rompuy-Jeuris-Van Rompuy-Belien rounded off the party mood at First Motorsport, with a victory in Division 2 for the Speedlover Porsche of Van Beurden-Van Uytsel-Van Loo-Matot. In Division 4 the three Ginettas were soon pushed to the side, all three suffering from the same problem with the cooling of the final drive.
And finally it should be mentioned that both GT4s at the start also took the chequered flag: the Aston Martin Vantage N24 finished third in Division 2 and the Ford Mustang crossed the line in 17th place.
Reactions:
Ruben Maes (winner): “We consciously opted for a reduced pace and to spare the machinery. Apart from a small excursion into the sand trap and a few headaches when refuelling the car ran like clockwork. We didn’t watch the others and near the end of the race we no longer used third and fourth gears to spare the clutch. I’m really proud to have won here 15 years after my father, I had previously tried once after ten years, but now it has finally worked.”
Niels Lagrange (2nd): “I’m extremely happy with this second place and the victory in D3. With François (Verbist) having to fly back and forth to the Nürburgring, the three of us had to drive in close succession and with this weather it wasn’t easy going. For the team this was the perfect revenge for the bad luck experienced in 2007 and I also happened to be one of the youngest drivers ever on the podium of the 24 Hours of Zolder.”
Markus Palttala (3rd): “I’m disappointed because I had hoped to have won. For me personally the only piece of good luck is the fact that I was able to clinch the third spot on the podium in the final lap.”
Result
1. Couwberghs-Maes-Sluys-« Heinz (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S), 800 laps; 2. Lagrange-Nelissen Grade-Verbist-Leest (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) – 16l (1st D3); 3. Palttala-Pulinx-Menten-Fumal (Fin-Bel-NL-Bel/Porsche 996 RS) – 20 l; 4. Bouvy-Coens-V. Ickx-Van de Velde (Ferrari F430 GT3) – 21l; 5. Van Hover-Langeberg-Tavernier-Raus (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) – 33l; 6. Lumbeek-Van de Plas-Werckx-Kuus (Bel-Bel-Bel-P-B/Dodge Viper) -33l; 7. Penders-Lamot-Loix-Lémeret (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S) – 33l; 8. Van Rompuy-Van Rompuy-Jeuris-Belien (Porsche 996 Supercup) – 36l (1st D2) ; 9. Van Beurden-Van Uytsel-Van Loo-Matot (Porsche 996 GT3 Cup) – 45l ; 10. Derdaele-Vanierschot-Dujardyn-Marchal (Bel-Bel-Bel-NL/Porsche 996 Biturbo) – 46l
