HIBN.tv Race Review

Media Group Van Dyck Belcar Pre-race

47 cars on the grid as the MSE Mondeo does not appear. The team already used three gearboxes and decided to retire the car. The race starts under a cloudy sky but the track is dry and even a bit cleaned up by tonight's rain.

Drivers starting the race

#3 SRT Corvette: Lamot
#1 GLPK Viper: Longin
#9 PSI Porsche: Palttala
#8 PSI Porsche: Vosse
#4 Kuismanen Viper: Kuismanen
#12 Hart Viper: Hart
#5 RTM Porsche: Couwberghs
#37 Gillet Vertigo: Kuppens
#7 AD Porsche: Menten
#17 RS Porsche: Maes

Patrick Selleslagh, the team manager of SRT explains: "Franz Lamot will take the start and run his own race. Kumpen, Palttala etc. will be quicker but Franz only has to keep the leading cars within range."

Media Group Van Dyck Belcar The Race

The start is spectacular, with 4 different leaders in 4 laps. Vosse takes a cannon ball start passing the SRT Corvette from 4th to first. After 2 laps Palttala overtakes his team mate Vosse, followed by David Hart. The latter is the new leader after 4 laps. A 16,000 crowd lives some astonishing opening laps. Are we heading for a two hours sprint race?

Some rain and a little oil only makes things better. Hart was going very strongly putting Longin and Palttala on a distance. Behind them Kuismanen, Lamot, Menten and Couwberghs had their fun too, changing places in some very close racing. After only ten laps Kenis had to stop the M3 GTR on the track with a broken gas cable.

After 15 laps rain started coming down heavily. Kuismanen was the first to come in, followed by almost everyoneS except for Longin. He managed to take a strong lead by staying out, but ultimately got stuck behind the safety car. Two or three cars were in minor trouble on the track. It was a somewhat bizarre decision, spoiling the fun especially for GLPK. Hart could sneak closer under safety car, and when the safety car was gone some more rain set in. Bert decided to come in, also refuelling and handing over to Kumpen.

Just before the 1 hour mark Franz Lamot stopped the SRT Corvette on the track with a broken transmission. It´s a sad end for the C5-R. Kuismanen spins the Viper off the track twice losing precious time. Halfway round it was the leading Viper driven by David Hart touching the AD Porsche of Wauters-Wauters, ending their race. Meanwhile the little Vertigo leading in GTB, also retires. We were losing frontrunners in a high rhythm.

We also noticed a great race from both the Ford and Jaguar Silhouette. This class seems to be on the same level as the GTB runners. Briefly the Mondeo was even third overall, before pitting. In Touring the 2003 champion Belien leads after a steady race, followed by the British BMW runners Moore-Cox in the 1st TB car.

Situation halfway:

1. #9 PSI Porsche
6. #36 Ice Pol Porsche GT3-RS 1st in GTB
2. #7 AD Porsche + 1 min 13 sec
7. #17 RS Porsche
3. #1 GLPK Viper + 1 lap
8. #52 Jaguar Silhouette
4. #8 PSI Porsche
9. #34 Speed Lover Porsche GT3-Cup (GTB) + 2 laps
5. #51 Mondeo Silhouette 10. #31 Thiers Porsche GT3-RS (GTB)

The second race half was somewhat steadier. Palttala and Van Sande lead by almost a lap over the AD Biturbo of Menten and Verbergt, followed by the GLPK Viper. The gap was again closing down as the safety car came out a second time, due to an oil spill on the track.

Gentleman driver Leo Van Sande found himself ahead of the pack, with the #7 Porsche and # 1 Viper closing in fast. Kumpen smelled a victory and passed Verbergt, taking second place. With some 20 minutes to go Kumpen was on Leo´s tail, taking over the lead quite easily. Also Verbergt was able to pass to second spot.

In the last 15 minutes some more raindrops were adding to the suspense, but for the front runners the race was decided. In TB the Moore BMW on used tires ultimately lost class victory to the G&A BMW #93, both cars finishing 18th and 19th overall. Victory in the Silhouette class was decided on the last straight. The #51 Mondeo took it after a very impressive race, finishing 8th overall and less than two seconds ahead of the Jaguar. Lefort and Lambert finished 6th overall and first in GTB after a very regular race. Beliën took honors in a disappointing TA class.

Result:

  1. #1 GLPK Viper Kumpen-Longin 68 Laps (GTA)
  2. #7 AD Porsche Biturbo Menten-Verbergt + 10s
  3. #9 PSI Porsche GT-2 Palttala-Van Sande + 45s
  4. #8 PSI Porsche GT-2 Vosse-Bouvy + 1´49s
  5. #4 Kuismanen Viper Kuismanen-Hasenbichler + 1 Lap
  6. #36 Ice Pol Porsche GT3-RS Lefort-Lambert + 2 Laps (GTB)
  7. #17 Porsche 996 Maes-Tanghe
  8. #51 Mondeo Silhouette Radermecker-Muytjens (S)
  9. #52 Jaguar Silhouette Chouvel-Horion (S)
  10. #31 Thiers Porsche GT3-RS Thiers-Thiers + 3 Laps (GTB)
    .
  11. #34 Speedlover GT3-RS Verhoeven-Döring + 3 Laps (GTB)
  12. #54 BWM E46 Silhouette Van Bellingen-Coenen + 4 Laps (S)

Touring

18. #93 G&A BMW E36 Steinberg-Cuyvers + 5 Laps (TB)
19. #82 Moore BMW E36 Moore-Cox + 5 Laps (TB)
21. #61 Beliën BMW E46 V8 Beliën-Jakobs + 6 Laps (TA)
24. #89 BRI Volvo S40 Snijers-Heyman-Voet + 7 Laps (TB)

Post-race comments

Longin:

``I took a careful start avoiding any risk. I did lose some time avoiding one of Kuismanen´s mistakes. Yet we did gain a lot of time by combining a late change for intermediates with refuelling and changing drivers.´´

Anthony Kumpen:

´´I could run a very steady race. I´m very happy with the team´s result. This is the best Viper I´ve ever driven.´´

Albert Vanierschot (AD Sport):

´´I´m very happy, but not at all surprised with this result. I think we have one of the best balanced driver duo´s. Our new car proved highly effective although we did lose precious time and victory by changing tyres before our scheduled pit stop. We aim to be among the top three championship contenders.' '

Markus Palttala:

' 'Iım happy with our result, although we lost precious time by choosing the wrong tyres. I came in for rain tyres when the rain proven to be short lives, so intermediates would have been optimal. It was a hard race with constantly changing weather conditions. We also lost about 40 seconds in the second safety car period. We might have won the race.' '

David Hart:

' 'Being a gentleman driver Iım very proud to have kept the whole field behind. A silly track incident ended our race. Still I didnıt actually know I was leading the race, as our mechanics lost the timing panel.' '

Dries Heyman (BRI):

' 'I'm very happy with finishing third in class after a rather short preparation period. The newly purchased Volvo S40 (ex-BTCC) proved to be reliable. Still we lost some time on pit stops.´´

(c) Joost Custers & dailysportscar.com