We have already provided the general audience numbers for the 2005 edition of the Zolder 24-hour race, as well as the numbers of unique visitors to the 24u.be website. Meanwhile, we also received the TV-audience results of both the live coverage and the news items. Saturday 27th of August: KanaalTwee Live: Average of 42.000 (6,5% market share); VTM 19.00 news: 400.000 spectators (28,8% market share); Eén News 19.00: 636.984; Eén News late edition (incl. loop): 490.369; Club RTL Live: 9.668. Sunday 28th of August: KanaalTwee Live: 12.00-13.00: 27.000 (6,3% market share) and 16.15-17.15: 23.000 (3,2% market share); VTM News 13.00: 255.000 (38,2% market share) and VTM News 19.00: 442.000 (27,4% market share); Eén News 13.00: 260.069; ‘Eén Sportweekend’: 327.857; Club RTL Live: 22.289.

2006 will be the tenth edition of the Belcar series, as a national endurance championship. This also means a renewal of the technical and sports rules for another period of three years. The Belcar organisation, at the Circuit of Zolder, revises the rules at the end of each three year period. The work is being carried out now, and the Belcar organisers hope to publish new rules by the end of the current season.

Another tradition is the annual Belcar Awards evening. The organizers choose a different location every year, and this time it’s the beautiful, renovated Opera House at Gent (Gand) on December the 9th.

Belcar boys and girls in other championships: Kumpen and Longin, with Hezemans, took 5th in the 8th round of the FIA-GT in Istanbul, after putting the GLPK-Corvette 6th in qualifying. “The Maseratis were untouchable in Istanbul,” explains Bert Longin. “We’ve done everything possible to get closer to the Italian GTs but it was impossible. They lapped regularly about one second faster than we did and even with the support of all the GLPK engineers and our tyre supplier Pirelli, we were not capable of getting closer to them. 5th was the best we could do so we’ve done a good job.” The BTCS series paid its annual visit to Zolder during the Q8 Truck Grand Prix, for the penultimate round of the series. Some of the Belcar drivers and teams were on the grid for this race. Fred Bouvy assured his championship leadership holds going into the last race, with a 5th and a 4th place in his PSI Porsche GT3 Supercup. Van Bellingen, Leyssens and Moonens raced both the KS-Motorsport BMW Silhouettes and finished within the top-10 in both heats, behind the other Silhouette cars. Markant also was present with two of its Porsche GT3 Supercup cars, driven on this occasion by De Laet/Vollebergh and Van Rossem/Schreurs. While Danny and Joost came home 12th and 13th, Van Rossem and Schreurs finished 13th and 8th after engine problems during the opening heat. Michaël De Keersmacker still leads the European Rallycross championship; division 2, after the Dutch and Belgian rounds, where he finished 2nd and then 1st. Michaël has now a clear lead over the Finish Renault driver Pinomaki. The last round of the rallycross championship clashes with the Belcar Racing Festival at Spa, so Michaël will be replaced within the G&A squad by team boss Gino Kenis, in the BMW M3 GTR V8. Wim Lumbeek and Philip Daelemans will share the wheel of the G&A BMW Z3 presumably also starting during the Zolder Masters three weeks later. As Michaël De Keersmaecker will make his return during the last Belcar weekend, the Belcar Masters, sharing his M3 again with Patrick Smets, Gino Kenis himself might race the brand new BMW 1 series. This car delivers about 495 bhp and might lap less than 1’40” at Zolder. Not only will this car be a certain contender for victory in TB, even overall spoils in Touring are possible.

The BMW E46 of Peter Beckers will only make its appearance next year. Beckers, actually 2nd in TA, will end the season in his good old E36. As his team mate Serge Cassiers will not race any more Peter will get a new ‘buddy’ in the BMW: Jef Van Samang. Meanwhile, SRT is doing everything necessary to rebuild the heavily damaged Corvette. “After the fire in Albi, the car was really in bad shape”, admits Patrick Selleslagh, upset by the lack of safety measures at the French track. “A marshal in shorts and T-shirt with an empty fire extinguisher; it is beyond every expectation. In order to reduce the noise of the Chevy, the exhaust of the car had to be silenced. This technical intervention probably caused the fire as it limited the cooling; some of the material used to reduce the noise overheated and started burning. It seems that the FFSA is entirely happy with our presence as to my belief; some of our competitors are much noisier. But even the little fire was no problem: with a professional intervention the damage to the car could have been very limited, but minutes passed by before any of the safety marshals started to kill the flames. Now there’s much more damage as the electronics and the dashboard are entirely gone. We now have to compete four races in five weeks, with two races in the FFSA and two in Belcar. We start this weekend at Le Mans and then, some days later the Belcar round in Spa. I hope to race trouble free, as we are playing for the championship in the Belcar series. We have to win the two remaining rounds of the Belgian endurance championship in order to ensure the 2005 title. But still much will depend on what Penders and Lamot do. If they finish twice on the overall podium, they will be champions. I hope that there will be enough strong contenders, for instance GLPK, to guarantee a strong field. More fast cars in GTA limit the chance of GTB-runners finishing well up.”

Bert Longin hopes to be at Spa anyway, as his sponsors are keen to see the GLPK driver taking the start. He’s looking for a strong entry, as the Viper will never again compete a race in Belcar. “The Corvette is impossible,” admits the Siemens driver. “With only a few days between Spa and the shipping to China, the risk to drive the Corvette C5-R is way too big. We were talking to Konrad but both Saleens were damaged at Istanbul. Peter Kutemann and JMB were another option, but he wants to drive himself the same weekend, so this won’t be possible. The remaining options are the Roos-Viper, or Belgian teams such as RTM or PSI. More news in the coming days.”