As we had several races of the Belcar Umbrella during the Euphony 24 Hours of Zolder 2006 weekend, some drivers competed more than one series. Tom van den Plas was the busiest of all, starting in three different series: Belcar Sprint Cup (MINI), the Belcar Endurance Cup (MINI) and the Euphony 24 Hours of Zolder (JMT-Porsche).

Ruben Maes raced twice in the Legend Cars and in the 24 Hours, Vandenhoutte did in the Sprint Cup and the Endurance Cup and several other drivers made it to the start in the BEC or BSC and the 24 Hours: father and son Raus, Van Hover, Tavernier, Pampel, Guido Werckx, Van den Broeck, Van Audenhove, Beckers, Van Roij en Poncelet.

The ProSpeed quartet Van Roij-Poncelet-Kelders-Nelissen Grade was the first to retire in Euphony 24 Hours of Zolder. In lap 4, another car unintentionally hit out the Supercup in the Villeneuve chicane and it was over and out. The Biturbo of Meulders-Grutman-Verdonck-Metior, the sole car that started from the pitlane, hit gearbox problems very soon and was the second car to retire. 26 out of 41 cars made it to the end.

The SRT Corvette covered 828 laps or 29 more than last year when SRT already set a new record. This brand new 2006 record is even more remarkable as one should notice that even more time was spent behind the safety car and rain made its appearance this year during the morning hours.

SRT was not only the fastest on track, but also only lost 25’12” in the pit lane. This is the best performance of this edition of the Euphony 24 Hours of Zolder. The #24 KS BMW spent 27”15’ in the pit lane, the #50 First Porsche 29’09” and the #25 KS 31’18”. The GS M3 GTR closes the top-5 with 34’04”.

‘If’ and ‘if not’ aren’t very helpful in winning a race, but we still want to analyze some facts. The Marcos LM600, second in the standings, lost 12 minutes and 34 seconds more in the pit lane than the SRT Corvette. On the finish line, the Dutch team was some 12 minutes and 39 seconds behind… Eurotech Manager Wim Noorman admitted that driving with three instead of four drivers might have cost him some time at least. Both cars also lost some time in the gravel bed after a little off from respectively Cor Euser and Tom Cloet.
GLPK lost more than 52 minutes, far more than the 13 laps they laid behind in the final result. Due to Kumpen, a technical error of the gearbox supplier caused the gearbox worries.

With points to be earned after 6, 12 and 24 hours, things could go wrong if one retired before the 6-hour mark. Teams doing so were: Vetters-Jeuris-Van Uytsel-De Vos (engine), Grouwels-Grouwels-Wijnen-Cloet (crash), Ceusters-Schrauwen-Van Moerkerke (ignition), Kelders-Nelissen Grade-Van Roij-Poncelet (crash), Meulders-Grutman-Metior-Verdonck (gearbox), Steegmans-Steegmans-Van Craeynest-Gonnissen (engine) en Wauters-Wauters-Vanierschot-Schreurs (gearbox).

The Grouwels brothers, in their Dodge Viper, were probably most unlucky, as they lost all title hopes in class-2 by dropping back from 3rd tot 5th in the rankings after the 24 hours.

In class-2, the ProSpeed ‘Pink Pig’ Porsche of Penders-Lamot-Dujardyn-Jacobs lost about 33 minutes more than the GS BMW in the pit lane, where they laid 19 minutes behind after 24 hours. Other class-2 cars losing precious time were the G&A Mosler (15 laps after throttle cable broke) and the CEO-Porsches of Maes-van Rossem-De Laet-Volleberg and Bouvy-Menten-Belloc-Verbergt.

More teams losing pit lane time were the Thiers Porsche, after an incident with the Daikin BMW, the Belgium Racing Ultima - over 5 hours were lost - and the Bongou, GS and Speedlover Porsches, all losing about 90 minutes of track. All results concerning lap times, pit lane visits etc can be found on: www.raceresults.nu.

Strategy is another important issue in the 24 hours. ProSpeed driver Carl Jacobs got cramps during his ultimate stint and came in earlier as expected. This meant that Rudi Penders left some laps earlier for his last stint, so the car would probably need another splash and dash. With the G&A Mosler of Kenis coming close very fast, Rudi tried to make it to the finish, but he had to slow down in order to save fuel. He finally lost his third spot in class to the American V8 in the penultimate lap. GS Motorsport also took profit out of this, as Penders lost precious points in the class-2 championship.

The only team that managed to get a 100% score was the #50 First Porsche Supercup of Haane-Meert-Van Delm-Werckx. They took full points in class 3 after 6, 12 and 24 hours. The bad luck of the Ultima and the full score of First changed the outlook of the class-3 championship standings dramatically. First Motorsport is now leading, even if a gearbox stuck in 4th gear, in the closing stages of the race, caused headaches to team manager Jo Jamers.

Several teams entered more than one car and most of these were able to finish the race.
GS Motorsport entered a BMW V8 and two Supercup Porsches and all three cars crossed the finish line, with a Class 2 victory for Severich-Josten-Moore-Muytjens and a second place in Class 3 for Van Loo-Thomas-De Coster-Broodcooren.

Speedlover also appeared on the scene with three cars for BonGou and Flandria Rent. The BonGou-Porsche 997 won Class 4 (guests), whilst the remaining Supercup Porsches had to be contented with a 5th and 6th place in Class 3.

KS Motorsport performed brilliantly in the race with its two BMW Silhouets. The Van Bellingen-Essers-Coens-Vandermaesen version clinched a fifth spot overall, finishing 2nd in Class 2. The second car driven by Leyssens-Lumbeek-Moonens-Redant finished in 8th place overall and 5th in Class 2. First Motorsport won Class 3 whereas its second car managed a 4th place.
JMT also entered two cars, a Porsche Biturbo and a BMW. The BMW managed a podium place in Class 4, whilst the Porsche narrowly missed a podium having experienced gearbox/driveshaft problems. CEO Racing entered no less than three cars, of which one fell in battle, whilst the remaining two finished in the middle of the pack having encountered a series of problems. S&P Racing brought two Porsches to the start, but both cars had to retire early on in the race. The same applies for the three cars entered by Ham Car, of which finally only two cars were on the start grid. ProSpeed was also present with Porsches RS models, but the Van Roij-Kelders-Poncelet-Nelissen Grade was bowled out after a mere four laps. AD Sport saw its Porsche Biturbo retire with a damaged gearbox when Schreurs found it jammed in fourth gear, whilst its second car blew its engine to eternity. Ultimately the Lémeret-Leest-Bruynoghe-Herman quartet was able to bring the sole remaining AD Sport-Porsche into 16th place.