It is the 10^th season since Belcar acquired the statute of National Endurance Championship for GT and Touring cars and it will be recorded in the annals as the year of a major about-turn. Previously the promoter, in consultation with the teams, drew up a sporting and technical regulation for a period of three years. Regulations that time and again were approved by the RACB Sport without much fuss. Not only does this 10^th season herald in the fourth legislature, but the new wind which is blowing through the corridors of the RACB Sport offices – the motorsports’ authority in Belgium – confirms that in the future they want to put their seal more firmly on motorsport activities in Belgium, inclusive of the Mediagroep Van Dyck Belcar Original.

The rigorous collaboration between Circuit Zolder as the promoter and RACB Sport with Marc Martens, Promoter Mediagroep van Dyck Belcar Original, on the one hand and Kurt Van Campenhout, Technical Director RACB Sport on the other, held drawn out meetings at the end of the 2005 season prior to reaching and agreeing to a compromise that both parties were either fully or partially comfortable with. The outcome is a foundation upon which to build over the coming seasons. The present basic regulations have been drafted in such a way that these can always be fine-tuned. Due to the radical alterations as compared to the previous regulations it is obviously difficult, if not impossible to draw up a state of affairs of all the scenarios that could arise. It was also clearly stated that 2006 would be a transitional year, during which the situation would be permanently evaluated and adjusted as and where necessary. And in fact the balance of power was already clearly noticeable during the practice sessions of the season’s opening event as also the following competition at Spa-Francorchamps.

The new class-3 proved a success during the first round of the Belcar Original. Certainly the Porsche Supercup and the Ultima were very competitive, in contrary to the former TB touring cars. But several teams promised to be competitive at Zolder and among them are the ex WTCC-BMW of Joosen-Vroman. This pair did not start in Spa and could be very promising this weekend. The GS BMW 3-series of Broodcooren-De Coster failed to start in Spa, so they will be anxious to perform well at Zolder too. Last but not least, the MSE BMW of Beckers-Van Samang missed race kilometres and could also be performing better in this second race of the season. From the top-3 of the first race (Flandria Rent/ BonGou/CEO), we’ll have to miss the CEO pair Bouvy-Van Rossem as they move up to class-2.

In class-2, the two items to remember were the retirement of the reigning champions Lamot-Penders in their Prospeed Porsche and the intense battle between the GS Motorsport BMW M3 V8 of Severich-Josten, the Dodge Viper of Grouwels-Grouwels and a bunch of Porsche. Among the Porsche pairs, the strongest were without doubt: Schreurs-Daniëls, Ceusters-Jacobs, Vollebergh-De Laet, Kelders-Nelissen Grade, Jeuris-Vetters and Vancraeynest-Leest. The potential of some others remains unknown, due to early retirements; such as there were the BPO Ferrari Challenge or the G&A BMW 130i. Others knew too many problems to perform strongly, as it was the case for both BMW’s of KS Motorsport.

We’ll also see two strong newcomers in Zolder. Fred Bouvy and Bert van Rossem will join the class-2 with their PSI Experience Porsche 996 GT3-RSR, while the Thiers brothers come back with their faithful Porsche 996 GT3-RS after crashing the class-1 PSI Biturbo in Spa

We’ll still have to miss the G&A Mosler this weekend. As the chassis was not compatible with a BMW V8 engine, Guino Kenis decided to buy a 5-litre Chevrolet engine. But due to delivery terms, we’ll have to wait till the Belcar Midsummer Race on the 29^th of June to see the car appearing in Belcar. 

In class-1 the differences between the Corvette on one hand and the Marcos LM 600 and the Porsche Biturbo on the other hand were big, very big. The Marcos of Goossens-Van Dongen lost about 5" in qualifying, while the fastest Porsche of Maes-Mollekens lost about 7". During the race differences even increased up to 7" for the Marcos and even 8" for the Porsche.

The origin of this difference is double. The Marcos is still a very new car with margin for improvement, while the Porsche lost a part of its’ rear wing and got smaller restrictors too. 

After an intense analyse of all data and an evaluation, the organisers and RACB Sport decided to put extra weight into the Corvette, it now will be up to 1180 kg instead of 1100 kg, while the Porsche will get larger restrictors. The minimum weight of the Porsche will also be 1180 kg, but this will change little to the actual situation with most of the Biturbo cars already being up too almost 1180 kg. The lightweight of the bunch is the PSI Porsche with 1160 kg. Nothing will change for the Marcos LM600, the Stealth B6 or even the new Viper of AD Sport. 

Of course, it will stay a difficult task to level out differences between cars of different ages. The SRT Corvette was already outstanding last year and still is the most modern car in Belcar. If differences again should be too big, other modifications remain possible. From this race on, ballast will also be used for the top-3 of each class. 

Organisers will also not longer accept deviations of the new 2006 rules as they still did in Spa.

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