24 februari 2009Belgian GT: at least eight makes in GT3
The Belgian GT Championship Mediagroep Van Dyck technical and sporting regulations are now on line, to be found on the RACB website as also that of the championship (www.racb.com and www.belgiangt.com) and as such it is high time for a preview. Most teams did not wait for the new regulations, which includes the subdivision of the drivers in the various categories of Platinum, Gold or Silver (see our website), to make their drivers and cars known for the 2009 season.
The champions Frédéric Bouvy and Damien Coens have honoured the saying never change a winning team and will be competing in the BGT with their Ferrari 430 GT3 and Delahaye Racing Team in order to defend their title. A second Maranello model will be in the hands of the Thiers brothers and their Scuderia Monza.
However the sole team that actually clinched a victory with the Italian GT, namely Vincent Vosse and Eddy Renard, are changing camps. They are becoming very British in the Belgian GT by competing with a Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9 in order to do even better. Ron Marchal also has a similar model, namely the car he competed with in 2007 together with Wim Coekelbergs, and similarly Philippe Cracco (Accent Racing) might also be looking to go that one step higher with the British make, from GT4 up to GT3. However we need to await official confirmation.
Lamborghini will undoubtedly also be present and both JD Competition Gallardo (for Danny De Laet and Joost Vollebergh) will be run by KS Motorsport this season.
Things are afoot in the Dodge camp. During the winter A+ Racing disappeared from the scene, however Wim Lumbeeck is doing everything in his power to enter at least one Viper and is still on the look-out for a team mate. We will definitely see KRK Racing back with both Vipers, manned on the one hand by Raf Vanthoor and Kris Wauters and most probably Koen Wauters and Jeffrey Van Hooydonk on the other.
In the Porsche camp NGT and GPR are still waiting, whilst First Motorsport now have acquired a new Porsche 997 GT3 for amongst others François Verbist.
Further good news for the newcomer Ford. VDS is entering an ex-Matech Racing Mustang GT3 for Raphaël Van der Straeten and Stéphane Lémeret, whilst a second car is also available. The former Belcar-legend Pertti Kuismanen will be back in Belgium with a Ford GT. Rumours in the corridors mention the possibility of a young Belgian driver to join him.
And then there is the Audi story. It will be a question of waiting to see whether the brand-new Audi R8 will appear in the BGT for the Jean-François Hemroulle-Tim Verbergt duo, and it remains uncertain as to the number of races. In the meantime former champion Bert Longin is still looking to find a solution, and who knows this could be a Porsche, a Mosler (one model for the Brit David Shelton is definite), a Corvette, a Ginetta G50 GT3 or even an Alpina B6 GT3... In any case Sport Garage has two models of the German power beast ready and waiting to compete in Belgium. All in all we have some 8 or 9 different makes on hand, a pretty impressive number in this present economic climate and when one compares to other nearby countries.
Taking on the example of what the Dutch are doing with their Dutch GT4 (they will be joining us during the LMS 1000 Km of Spa meeting), we are also working hard on our Division 2, the class strictly reserved for GT4 and GT4 Supersport. In this light we are talking about amongst others the Porsche 997 (with a model for the youngest BGT-champion Niels Lagrange), BMW Z4, Ford Mustang (VDS and Christian Deridder are already on board), Aston Martin and Lotus.
Our Finnish friends from Westend Racing will definitely be back at the start in Division 3.
This should give us an interesting field and during the 24 Hours of Zolder competitors from the Dunlop Endurance Cup and the Belgian Touring Car Series (with the Silhouettes) will also be joining us. Let us hope that this turns out to be a real feast for the Belgian motorsport.
Prior to kicking off the 2009 season one further note: all aficionados of the better GT racing scene can via the championship website www.belgiangt.com, order a copy of the 2008 Belgian GT Championship book. The book costs €20 (+postage costs - €5 for Belgium/ €6 for the rest of Europe). Don’t forger to mention your details and the number of copies required.
