Xero On Tour – 2004 – Belcar Spa

Belgian Excursion (1)

Xero Competition enjoyed a very successful maiden outing in the ‘Guest’ class of the Belcar Championship last weekend (September 25-26). Boosting the variety of the grid they attracted the attention and admiration of the public, teams and even rival drivers!

The typical Xero sense of humour was never far away, Peter Le Bas being told by the organisers that he’s have to pay a 500 Euro fine before the meeting began, to cover the damage he was going to cause. Le Bas was briefly speechless – until he realised that he’d been set up by Dave Beecroft.

A drying track in qualifying saw off the end of the rain for the weekend and Peter Le Bas set the team’s agenda with a 2:30:689, an impressive 15th out of 49 runners – with the bulk of the field ahead having considerably more horsepower, the pole-sitting Corvette having a whopping 150bhp more for example... “It’s fantastic, we are up in good company! The aim has to be top ten,” summed up team boss Dave Beecroft. Ricky Cole was within a second of Le Bas’ time.

The 125 minute race was considered by the Belcar series as sprint race, so it surprised a few people to find that this particular race was considered by Xero to be their endurance event!

Beating the ex-Le Mans Marcos of Cor Euser in the guest class on pace alone seemed nigh on impossible, so Ricky’s instructions for the opening stint were to set consistent, quick times, without risking the car. The strategy worked as early as lap 7, when they crept into the top ten, and were quicker than four of the cars ahead, including Euser. Ricky kept pushing and after a couple of laps dicing took the lead of the class, to the delight of the whole team.

Poor Cor Euser lost a wheel at Eau Rouge, badly damaging the Marcos in a very heavy impact with the tyre wall.

Peter Le Bas’ drive was rather fraught as the team were not sure the fuel rig had performed correctly during the handover. “Ricky is a hard act to follow! I just knew I had to not make any mistakes and bring the car back in one piece!”

Pete did better than that and made up a few places to bring the car home in a stunning sixth place, winning the class, and all that with typical Le Bas exuberance. As the clock counted down the team had tried to shout down the radio and were hanging over the pit wall to get Peter to slow and conserve fuel, but he did not appear to be listening – not unusual for Peter! “I was trying to stick my thumbs up to the guys to let them know it was ok, as the radio only seemed to be working one way - but they didn’t seem to get the message and kept hanging over the wall to try and get me to slow down! It was far better than anything we could have expected by going to Brands instead, and we’ve had a lot more fun!”

This was a massive achievement in their first Belcar outing. As Peter pulled into the pits the team stood waiting to greet him, waving a big Corvette flag. First to greet him was Aidan Cole, followed closely by Dave Beecroft and then Ricky Cole - who appeared to be smiling: this is starting to become a bit of a habit! “It’s fantastic! We couldn’t have asked for more. They both drove well and the team deserved a good result. The whole series is fantastic - everyone has been so welcoming and friendly,” Beecroft said - before disappearing to the Belcar hospitality tent to sample some of the Belgian beer (followed closely by the rest of the team.)

The next and final race of the Belcar series is at Zolder on October 17 and judging by the big grins on all the team’s faces Sunday evening, it seems the chances of a yellow Corvette being on the starting grid are extremely high…

“Yes, we’re definitely going,” says an upbeat Dave Beecroft. "And we've had an amazing amount of interest in the Corvette from Belgian teams and drivers.
Paul Slinger