Belcar Finalised
Series Promotor Marc Martens, and Kurt Van Campenhout, the technical
director of the RACB, have concluded their discussions over the
Sporting Rules of the Belcar Championship, and all the details can
be found on the new-look www.belcar.com
website. The site contains all the latest Belcar news too, plus
information relating to the Belcar Endurance Cup, the Belcar Sprint
Cup and the Belcar Historic Sprint.
Rather than a stable three year period, the current
rules are in place just for this year, but in conjunction with the
RACB Sport, drivers and teams they will be continually assessed.
The plan is that the current rules will not require any significant
changes – perhaps just a little fine-tuning.
Belcar now comprises four classes, of which one
is the guest class. The touring cars seem to be a good match for
the GTs in class 2 and 3 and so they will run in those classes.
Class 1 contains the FIA GT1 cars, modified FIA
GT3 cars of more than 5000 cc and cars that raced under the 2005
national GTA rules in Belcar the Stealth, the BMW Z3 V8, the Gumpert
Apollo and others. The only exception to this policy is the Porsche
Biturbo, which will run bigger restrictors than in the FIA GT Championship.
The aim is to make it easier for national teams
to run in the FIA GT championship and vice-versa, without heavy
expenditure.
Class
2 contains cars from FIA GT2, original FIA GT3 cars and
cars that ran under the former Belcar GTB rules. Added to these
GTs are the TA touring cars and silhouettes, with a maximum engine
capacity of 3200 cc. The minimum weight is 1000 kg.
Class
3 is for the Cup cars, with strict technical limitations.
Added to this are former TB touring cars, with a maximum engine
capacity of 3500 cc, former GTB cars with a maximum engine capacity
of 3200 cc and a minimum weight of 1100 kg. This means that a BMW
Z3, Z4 or even an Ultima could race in class 3, subject to some
extra weight.
Class
4 is restricted to guest cars.
The championship
will not just see battles for class honours, because there will
still be an overall championship. Class 2 or even class 3 cars ending
high up the ranks regularly could claim the overall championship,
as we saw last year: the GTA Corvette of Hart / Goossens and the
GTB Porsche of Penders / Lamot were rivals right to the end of the
season. A precondition for winning a championship is starting in
the last race of the season.
Besides the already existing Driver Challenge, Ladies
Challenge, Philip Verellen Junior Challenge and the Welcome Challenge,
the Gentlemen Challenge will reward the best driver born in 1951
or earlier.
If a team wants to compete in several races under
the Belcar ‘umbrella’ within the same weekend with the
same car, a written demand and a permission of the race director
are compulsory.
In order to limit the use of qualifying tyres, cars
will only get two sets of tyres for qualifying, warm-up and the
start of the race. Once the race has started, the number of tyre
changes is unlimited.
A weight penalty will penalize the top 3 in each
class for at least one race. Restrictors could be changed in class
2 and 3 if one car dominates, even with the maximum weight.
In other Belcar-related news, Koen Wauters and Michel
Van Den Broeck competed in the Paris-Dakar, and finished 37th -
first of the surviving Belgians - while Michel Van Den Broeck was
54th at the finish line. Both Belcar drivers drove Toyotas, fitted
with Lexus V8s made by AD Sport.
The Belcar Calendar is as previously announced,
except that the Lausitzring race is now two weeks later.
30/3
and 6/4: Test days (Zolder – Spa)
8/9 April: Spa
20/21 May: Zolder
29 June: Zolder (Race on a Thursday, probably at Night)
22/23 July: Lausitzring
25/26 August: Zolder 24 hours
7/8 October: Spa
21/22 October: Zolder
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