Belcar Masters – Zolder – Raceday
SRT Takes It All
© Joost Custers

Starting drivers: Van Sande – Menten – Kuismanen – Hart – Tanghe – Steinberg – Hillebrand – Koen Wauters – Lamot – Ceusters …

Lovely trophies, aren't they?

After an eventful start, Menten and Hart eased away from the rest. The number of incidents that then followed on a drying track was unbelievable. Koen Wauters was the first frontrunner to go off heavily. A few laps later, Leo Van Sande put his PSI Biturbo in the gravel bed. These retirements played a major role in the outcome of the championship, as both were top GTA runners. Lamot / Penders took advantage of the adventures of others….

On the drying track, Hart came in very early to put slicks on: was this a wise decision? After 30’ Penders / Lamot seemed to be on their way to the title as Franz was driving carefully and climbed up the ranks. He was also one of the first cars to make the mandatory pit stop.

The second part of the race had to answer all the questions: would SRT be able to recover with one extra stop? And would Penders / Lamot be able to fight back and finish within the top four?

Anyway, too much happened to report all the details. Hillebrand retired as the Stealth’s engine died on track, Bouvy led but he had to pit with a flat tyre – then Van Dongen in the Eurotech Marcos lost time with mechanical problems and many other incidents conspired to disturb the flow of the last and decisive Belcar round.

A special mention for the TT Audi V8: right after the warm-up, the car caught fire, yet it still made it onto the grid. Ellen Lohr drove a fantastic stint and climbed as high as 8th overall before retiring.

With 40 minutes to go, the situation became clearer. Hart had driven superbly on slicks, so Goossens led with three Porsche Biturbos and the GPR 997 SC between him and the TT Porsche of Penders / Lamot in sixth.

The GPR 997 in fifth position (above) was a guest car, which meant no points for the marvellous Duez / Chouvel pair. In this situation Marc Goossens would win the driver challenge and SRT the GT title. If one of the Biturbo dropped out, it’s TT Racing taking the spoils in GT….

The last part of the race was nail biting - for both TT Racing and SRT. On regular speed, nothing would change in the standings but much could still happen. Behind the Corvette, the fight for second was wide open between Vosse (below), Maes and a superb Frederic Bouvy.

Finally, SRT took the spoils - race, GT, GTA and driver challenge go to the Corvette team and Marc Goossens. Penders / Lamot win the GTB race and championship.

In touring, Mike Barrow won overall and in TB, while Beliën took victory in TA, he and his team mate Jakobs are also Touring champions, while GS driver Josten was TB champion.

The Xero Corvette finished 23rd, on 66 laps.

The Lockie / McCormick Ferrari was further down after an adventure into the gravel for the car owner.

Result
1 Marc Goossens/David Hart - Chevrolet Corvette C5R 74 laps
2 Pertti Kuismanen/Vincent Vosse - Chrysler Viper GTS-R - 1 lap
3 Jos Menten/Frederic Bouvy - Porsche 996 GT2 R
4 Ruben Maes/Olivier Tanghe- Porsche 996 Biturbo
5 Marc Duez/Martial Chouvel - Porsche 996 Supercup (Guest) - 3 laps
6 Franz Lamot/Rudi Penders - Porsche 996 GT3 RS (GTB)
7 Patric Derdaele/Johan Empsen - Ultima GTR (GTB) - 4 laps
8 Patrick Ceusters/Henk Haane - Porsche 996 GT3 RS (GTB)
9 Erik Qvick/Christophe Geoffroy - Ultima GTR (GTB) - 5 laps
10 Frank Thiers/Hans Thiers - Porsche 997 GT3 RS (GTB)

Full result at www.ris-timing.be