Belcar - Spa Racing Festival – Preview
The Joys Of Racing At Spa
© Joost Custers

We’re heading toward the decisive races in the Mediagroup Van Dyck Belcar Championship. This weekend, there is the Spa Racing Festival and at the end of October (22-23), the last race will be held at Zolder. Both races are 125-minute ones, which is not unimportant for the outcome of the championship.

Right now reliability leads pure speed, with the TT Racing Porsche of Penders / Lamot at the top of the standings.

Despite a win for the SRT-Corvette at the Zolder 24 Hours, the GTB Porsche (above) of Penders / Lamot took very good points throughout the endurance race.

Thanks to a good overall position after 6, 12 and 24 hours, and a very impressive win in GTB for the TT-Racing 996 GT3-RS, the SRT Corvette only regained 4,5 points on its adversary. The bad luck of the Viper from Finland and the remarkable performance of the Porsche caused a complete turnover in the standings. The Porsche now leads the GT-championship; the SRT-Corvette follows in second, 15,5 points behind, while the Viper dropped back to 3rd. But will the Porsche be able to keep the more powerful cars behind? Penders and Lamot need at least one more overall podium to keep the SRT Corvette at a distance. The C5-R scored two podium finishes in the FFSA GT Championship last weekend.

But there are at least five more GTA-cars likely to be in contention: the GLPK, PSI, AD and RS Porsches are all aiming for an overall podium. In finishing between the Chevy or the Viper and the TT Porsche, the faster GTA-Porsche Biturbo could prevent the GTB Porsche RS from becoming Belcar champion. Bizarre… Certainly, because, both Van Sande / Palttala and Bouvy / Menten (PSI), could still mathematically take the title.

Another Porsche Biturbo to be watched is of course the Bart Couwberghs and Bert Longin RTM/GLPK one. The pair will not be coming to Spa to fill up the grid. “I don’t know where we will end up, but the car has already proven to be very quick and the speed of Bart is well known,” comments Bert Longin. “With the consultancy of Patrick Bastiaens, the team manager of RTM, we might score well…”

Marc Goossens has another challenge, because he leads the drivers’ championship. Can he make it GT, GTA and drivers’ Challenge in one year?

In GTB the battle is over. Penders and Lamot are the first Belcar champions and well-deserved ones. But the fight for second isn’t over yet. With two times 20 points to be added, the Qvick Ultima, on the podium four times in a row before the Zolder 24 hours, will have be tough competition for several teams. An early retirement during the double header in August gave several teams the chance to close in on the Geoffroy / Qvick car.

In Touring, the battle is between the TA BMW of Beliën (below) and the TB GS Motorsport 320.

The only guest car for this race is the British Xero Corvette Competition C5 of Dave Beecroft and Aidan Cole. Ricky Cole / Peter Le Bas finished in a fine sixth overall at Spa last year, in the same car. This team loves racing at Spa!