Night Report – Oh What A Night
© Joost Custers (all of two hours sleep...)

After a collision between the #7 SRT Corvette and the #62 KS Motorsport BMW in the seventh hour, the game seemed over for the Chevy. But an incredible chase through the night, by Goossens, Hart and Heylen, brought the SRT C5-R back into the lead with 8 hours to go.

“We lost 20 laps due to the incident and the race was lost, but what a night by my guys. I cannot believe what they did,” explains Patrick Selleslagh. Meanwhile we had several leaders throughout the night. The strongest of the class was without doubt the #5 PSI Biturbo. But fitting a new gearbox around at 8 o’clock this morning dropped the Porsche out of the top 15, and over 50 laps down.

Both the #4 PSI RSR and the #31 Penders RS also led the race. But vibrations on the blue PSI car and a broken belt on the Penders Porsche brought an end at their lead. But they are not out of competition for victory. “This is an incredible race”, says Jos Menten. “All top 5 runners can still win.”

Surprises are without doubt the 4th place overall of Van Bellingen in the #61 BMW silhouette and the come back of the Kuismanen Viper, back into the top 5 at approaching 2/3 of the race distance.

Other strong contenders are the #34 Ultima, the #30 Pino Porsche, third in National Class at Spa, the #42 and #29 AD Sport Porsches and the #22 Porsche Supercup.

Positions after 12 hours:
http://timing.24u.be/2005/t12.htm

And those less lucky? Well, the #3 RS Bitrubo with a broken engine, as did the #33 Ultima, the #95 Moore BMW, the #32 Porsche, the #24 and the #46. The gearbox brought an end to the race of the #23 Supercup.

Cars dropping down the order were the #15 Marcos with a broken starter motor, the #59 Porsche with an engine problem (correction - throttle cable) and the #6 AD Biturbo - with all sorts of trouble.

In Touring, the GS #92 BMW E46 M3 leads the bunch. The #71 Beliën M3 struggles in the TA lead and the #97 MINI is still in competition for a Touring podium.

All together, this race is so far one of the best editions of the Zolder Classic. More to come around noon.

At 17 Hours:
1 #7 Goossens / Hart / Verheyen / Heylen Corvette 559 laps FL 1:31.985 on lap 435
2 #4 Menten / Bouvy / Loix Porsche 558 laps
3 #31 Lamot / Penders / Couwberghs / Dujardyn Porsche 556 laps
4 #61 van Bellingen / Leyssens / Vandermaesen / Fuma BMW 549 laps
5 #30 de Gastines / Turco / Tonet / Gonnissen Porsche 546 laps
6 #2 Kuismanen / Vosse / Huisman / Alamaki Viper 536 laps
7 #34 Derdaele / Empsen / Verhoeven / de Wit Ultima 535 laps
8 #22 Verhoeven / Boden / Baguette Porsche 524 laps
9 #42 van den Broeck / Lèmeret / Herman / Cloet Porsche 523 laps
10 #17 Dunarey / Dumarey / Dumarey Porsche 522 laps

17 #5 Palttala / van Sande / Mollekens / Radermecker Porsche 510 laps

Full rundown at 17 hours:
http://timing.24u.be/2005/t17.htm