Belcar Masters – Zolder – Saturday
Palttala’s Pole
© Joost Custers

Before going onto the track, we bring you some news from the paddock.

The Gillet Vertigo will not run at all owing to a broken engine on Thursday. Frank Hahn did his laps and as Johan Van Vaerenbergh took the wheel, the Alfa 3.2 died. With no spare engine from Elegi available, the team decided to return home.

Steve Van Bellingen on the other hand, third in the last BTCS race a week ago, ends his season with a run in the Belcar Masters. Guido Werckx partners him in the M3 Silhouette. It will be interesting to see how the silhouette behaves compared with the GTB cars: in 2006, we could see both GTB and Silhouette in one class, division 2.

Val Hillebrand is driving the Van Moerkerke Stealth: “I like the car, it has a huge potential but the it also needs some development. But I’m confident to put the B6 somewhere in the top six.”

Qualifying was a wet story. The first qualifying session would be decisive as it was still somewhat drier at noon. SRT struggled with the traction of the C5-R and set fourth best in the opening session. Fastest was the PSI pair Palttala / Van Sande, with right behind the other Biturbo of Bouvy / Menten. Kuismanen / Vosse closed out the top three. For the first time in two years, the SRT Corvette will not start from the front row.

In GTB, Lamot / Penders do what do should, by taking pole with ninth on the grid. In Touring, Severich is once again very fast and puts the M3 in sixth overall.
The McCormick Ferrari and the Xero Corvette (both running in Britcar too) are only allowed to run in one session and with the pouring rain in the second session, it was difficult for them to set a decent time.

Marc Maton (with Stefan van Campenhoudt, right), the man behind the NGT team, tells the story of one of the smaller squads in Belcar.

“We started some years ago with a Porsche 964 in the Touring Cup, a second Belgian endurance championship, and after one year with the old lady, we bought a 993 Supercup in 2000. We did some races in Belcar in both 2000 and 2001 but for professional reasons, we stopped all racing activities until this year.”

“I wanted to make a decent comeback this year. We decided to buy a brand new 996 Supercup, 2005 spec., and do it well from scratch. Even if we’re not really front-runners, I paid attention to everything: PR (www.ngt.be), communication, technical support etc.”

“Our results were not what we expected at the beginning of the season: all the races before the Zolder 24 hours were difficult, but at the end of August an 11th position overall and fifth in class were a relief.”

“Next year, we’ll do BTCS or Belcar with our car and in 2007 I hope to run a 997. My aim is to find a decent budget and to take a good driver, instead of a paying driver. Stefan Van Campenhoudt could be the one as he proved to be very fast in Spa and he has huge experience in endurance racing.”

Here's the crew attending to the 911's gearbox today.

Qualifying Times
1. PALTTALA Markus/VAN SANDE Leo – PSI Porsche 996 GT2-R - 1:43.862
2. MENTEN Jos/BOUVY Frederic – PSI Porsche 996 GT2-R - 1:44.252
3. KUISMANEN Pertti/VOSSE Vincent - Chrysler Viper GTS-R - 1:44.321
4. GOOSSENS Marc/HART David – SRT Chevrolet C5R - 1:44.873
5. MAES Ruben/TANGHE Olivier – RS Porsche 996 Biturbo - 1:47.615
6. SEVERICH Georg/STEINBERG Arvid – G&A BMW M3 GTR - 1:47.729 (Touring)
7. VAN MOERKERKE Laurent/HILLEBRAND Val - Stealth B6 - 1:47.757
8. WAUTERS Koen/WAUTERS Kris – AD Porsche 996 Biturbo - 1:49.599
9. LAMOT Franz/PENDERS Rudi – TT Porsche 996 GT3 RS - 1:49.732 (GTB)
10. CEUSTERS Patrick/HAANE Henk – S&P Porsche 996 GT3 RS - 1:50.490 (GTB)