BELCAR SHORT NEWS 2006-06-08 – BSN15

After his victory in Oschersleben, Germany, Belcar driver Ruben Maes again leads the VW Fun Cup. Ruben Maes shares the wheel of his Fun Cup with Olivier Van Oost. Maes and Van Oost had already won the first round in Jarama, Spain. Owing to problems with the electronics of the car, they lost an almost certain victory at Spa, the second round of the year. The duo dropped back from 1st to 12th during the closing stages of the race. Oschersleben was a clear revenge for the team.
Another Belcar squad participating in Fun Cup, is CEO Racing. Bert Van Rossem and Harry Steegmans finished respectively 7th and 22nd in Oschersleben.

JDK-driver Michaël De Keersmaecker, who competes in the Belcar Original with Guino Kenis, was very unlucky during the 3rd round of the European Rallycross Championship. After winning round one and two in France and Portugal, a huge crash during the 3rd round, in the Czech Republic, eliminated the championship leader. Not only the race was lost for Michaël De Keersmaecker; he also lost his place on top of the leader board. Czech driver Kalny now leads the series. And what’s more, the RML Corsa is heavily damaged and the team has only one week to get it back in good shape, because the next round of the European Rallycross Championship takes place this weekend in Austria.

Time keeping problems caused confusion about the final results of the BTCS rounds at Zolder two weeks ago. This also meant that some of the results of Belcar competitors mentioned in the BSN of last week, were incomplete or even wrong. For sure, KS-drivers Steve Van Bellingen and Armand Fumal not only won a heat; they also are well ahead of their rivals in the championship standings. The Renault Mégane Trophy drivers Fred Bouvy and Vincent Vosse finished on the podium twice and are second in the championship. Steinberg-Muytjens (Porsche 996 Supercup) and Broodcooren-De Coster (BMW E46) represent the GS-Motorsport squad in BTCS. While the Porsche drivers finished second, twice, in the GT-class, the BMW-boys did the same in class T5. CEO Racing took its maiden victory in GT, as Van Rossem-De Laet in another Porsche Supercup won the second heat of the weekend and finished in a strong 5th spot overall. Further in GT, Kelly Jamers twice finished 7th on her debut in the BPO Ferrari 360 Challenge.
In Touring, the Werckx brothers finished 4th and 5th in their BMW M3, while Tom Vandeplas took 3rd and victory in T2. In the overall standings, we find 6 Belcar drivers in the top-8.

During the weekend of the Belcar Home Race, SRT and PSI Experience were also active in the 3rd round of the French FFSA-GT series. SRT only ran one Corvette C5-R in Dijon, as the other car, of course was in the hands of David Hart and Jeroen Bleekemolen at Zolder. It was up to Soave-Cayrolle to defend the SRT colours. The French driver pair had a good weekend and finished 5th in the first race on Saturday and 7th in the second heat on Sunday. PSI Experience did even better, with a strong 3rd and 4th spot for Kuismanen-Palttala in the Corvette C6.R. Hallyday-Alliot had a DNF on Saturday, but took second on Sunday in the C5-R.

It’s obvious that the new concept of the Belcar Umbrella will need some time to fully settle down, but one can already conclude that both the Belcar Sprint Cup and the Belcar Historic Sprint are proceeding very well. Entry figures are increasing; in Spa there were 27 historics, while Zolder had 39 of them on the starting grid. The Sprint Cup also got a boost compared to last year.
Bravo Spokesman Xavier Moerman explains: “There still is a huge potential in Belgium, Holland, France and the UK to get even more cars on track. A good collaboration between Zolder and BRAVO (organizers of the Belcar Historic Sprint) will bear fruit.”