The penultimate round of the Media Group Van Dyck Belcar 2005 was a rather moving one. Three safety car periods, two within the first third of the race, made it a difficult race. Incidents involving the cars of Haane, Dumarey and Muytjens caused the interventions. But what happened during the last safety car period was even more important.

Perti Kuismanen got a stop & go of 10 seconds for leaving too much space between his car and the car in front of him and this, according to the driver, due to a clutch problem. The Fin did not stop and got a one-minute penalty after the race. This penalty most probably puts the Kuismanen squad out of competition for the Belcar title. The duo Longin / Couwberghs, uniting for this sole race GLPK and RTM, on the Porsche Biturbo also got their part of misfortune. There was a complaint from Penders / Lamot against Longin / Couwberghs for overtaking under the SC. They get a 30”-penalty but GLPK lodged an appeal against this decision, so the result remains unofficial, until the sporting committee has met.

SRT were the winner of the weekend, depending on the final result of the TT racing versus GLPK case, SRT will go to Zolder with a backlog of 7,5 or 5,5 units on Penders. The Masters of Zolder will be decisive for the outcome of the Belcar series.

Qualifying: Rain men Vosse

No 9th pole in a row for the SRT squad and Marc Goossens. Vosse was very fast in the difficult and wet conditions and let Marc by 1.5 seconds behind him. Both the PSI Porsche and the RS Biturbo completed the top-5. Fastest in Touring, and what’s more 6th overall, was the BMW M3 GTR V8 of Severich and Steinberg. Further in the top-10, we found the Porsche of Longin/ Couwberghs, Penders/Lamot (1st in GTB), Snel/Crevels and Wauters/Schreurs. 2nd and 3rd in GTB were the Vertigo of Euser / Van Vaerenbergh and the Ceusters / haane 996 GT3-R. While in TA Kenis / Smets and Beliën / Jakobs completed the top-3. The MINI S3 was fastest in TB with the BMW of Josten/Muytjens and Barrow/Cox in 2nd and 3rd.

The race

Vincent Vosse on the Kuismanen Viper eased away easily in the opening stages of the race while both PSI Porsche and the SRT Corvette followednot too far behind. But Markus Palttala very fast regained the pitlane as he started on intermediates whereas the rest of the frontrunners got underway on slicks. With two safety car periods within the first 40 minutes, the race itself knew a difficult beginning. Except for the S&P and GPR Porsches causing the SC, we also lost the Vertigo, leading in GTB for over half an hour, the GS M3 GTR and the AD Sport Porsche of Daniëls / Vanierschot.

Meanwhile the flying Fin Palttala recovered well from his early stop and took the lead right after the hour mark. Hart went in early and Marc Goossens was climbing up the ranks in a remarkable pace. In GTB, Stefan Van Campenhoudt ran 3rd right behind the TT Racing Porsche of Lamot / Penders and the Qvick / Geoffroy Ultima. The NGT driver even clocked the 3rd time in class with the Porsche Supercup.

After the compulsory stops, Goossens led comfortably with Menten, Kuismanen, Van Sande and Couwberghs behind him. Kenis / Smets raced at front in Touring followed by Beliën / Jakobs and Beckers / Van Samang. With only 25 minutes to go Olivier Muytjens went off, a crucial off as the #91 BMW was leading in TB both the championship and the race; result: safety car again. Goossens completed the 10 remaining minutes of the race and won with Menten / Bouvy and Couwberghs / Longin completing the podium. RS racing (Maes / Verbist) and AD Sport (Wauters / Schreurs) lost a place of honour in the closing stages of the race with respectively a broken turbo and an incident with the Saker.

In GTB, Lamot / Penders won with Qvick / Geoffroy in 2nd and the Markant Supercup of Van Hoepen / van Rossem in third.

In Touring both podiums were: Kenis / Smets, Beliën / Jakobs and Beckers / Van Samang (TA) and Barrow / Cox, Van der Kolk / Van Den Goorbergh and Broodcoren / De Coster (TB) all on BMW.