17 september 2008The last two hour sprint during the Francorchampagne meeting
Do not be misled by the title, the Belgian GT Championship Mediagroep Van Dyck 2008 has not as yet reached its epilogue. The final round of the championship, with two races of one hour each will in fact be held on 18th and 19th October during the Belgian Last Race, which will also include the penultimate round of the FIA GT at Circuit Zolder. But this coming weekend the last 120 minutes race will take place at Francorchamps, starting at 13.30hrs. All in all it will be an excellent meeting, with a well packed programme which includes not only the 6 Hours VW Fun Cup on Saturday afternoon, but also the Sunday races comprised out of the Dutch Super Car Challenge (Belcar with a Dutch flavour), two EuroBOSS Challenge races, with F1-cars from the ‘80s and’90s and quite obviously two BTCS races. And on top of that everything is entirely free, seeing tickets can be acquired via the Belgian GT Championship Mediagroep Van Dyck 2008 site: www.belgiangt.com.
Yesterday’s losers could be tomorrow’s winners, so all eyes will be on the Mosler and the Dodge, both having experienced bad luck during the Menzo 24 Hours of Zolder. The power beasts will surely come into their own on the fast track in the Belgian Ardennes. Some two months after the races held during the 25 Hours VW Fun Cup we could well enjoy repeat performances from the Moslers. At that meeting the MT900 won with G&A / Kenis-De Keersmaeker on the Friday and Gravity International / Marchal-Radermecker the following day. Gravity International with Kumpen-Longin still has an iron in the fire and having lost the title they will definitely try to obtain a maximum amount of success.
But also A+, with namely Jeffrey Van Hooydonk, is a serious contender, and not only in the battle for the pole-position.
But there is more than purely the speed aspect. Whoever wants to win will need to hold out for two hours and therefore strategy, endurance, a homogenous team and a bit of luck also come into the equation. Hence the outsiders could also play a part up front. In addition certain teams will need to take their ranking in the championship into account.
Following on from their retirement during the 24 Hours Soulet and Franchi (92 points) cannot afford to make any further mistakes, even with three victories to their names. In their battle for the Belgian GT Driver Champion-title they have the Ferrari-duo Bouvy-Coens (97) leading them and close behind we have the Zolder winners, Couwbergs-Maes (82).
In the team rankings the Porsche GPR N°1 just retains its leader’s position, with a one and a half points ahead of the NGT Porsche and with two on the Ferrari of Francorchamps Motors – Delahaye. Then there is the battle in Division 1, reserved for the GT3-cars, with Francorchamps Motors – Delahaye (45) ahead of GPR (44) and NGT (41,5).
The fight between these three tenors promises to be highly exciting, with a slight advantage for the Porsche at Spa, even after the recent amendment made by the FIA, whereby the Ferrari 430 becomes twenty kilos lighter and the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S only losing ten.
We also welcome back Rafael Vanthoor, following his crash during the 25Hours VW Fun Cup. The KRK Racing-driver will be back with his team mate Kris Wauters, whilst Koen Wauters and Patrick Schreurs hope to build on the success they have gained so far this season.
JD by Astromega will be entering two Lamborghini Gallardos this weekend, and Kurt Thiers will replace the injured Tim Verbergt.
In Division 2 Olivier Van Oost and the Porsche 996 Supercup of Powercars have the 2008 title in their sights. Pascal Nelissen Grade and his young team mate Niels Lagrange might well be the leaders in Division 3, with the First Motorsport Porsche 997 Supercup, but they will probably need to wait before partying. With only 15 points ahead of the Speedlover Porsche anything is still possible. We should also note that the Porsche 997 of Westend Racing with the Finnish duo of Vanhanen and Numinen will be rounding off the season with us.
So there is no reason whatsoever for not attending the meeting this coming Sunday...
