Belcar – Zolder 24 Hours – Preview
Wide Open
© Joost Custers

Notwithstanding the fewer number of entrants in the 24 Hours of Zolder – with only some thirty cars on the grid (43 last year) – we can clearly state that this year the quality of the field is exceptional. The last minute change of date for the 24 Hours might have played tricks on some, but where the quantity may be rather disappointing the quality on the other hand is definitely present. Rarely have so many great names been registered and almost all of them stand a great chance of overall victory. This edition of the 24 Hours of Zolder is definitely going to be a very open and lively endurance event - notwithstanding the fact that 21 of the 32 entries are Porsches.

The new top class of the Mediagroep Van Dijck Belcar championship, GT3, is bringing together no less than 17 cars (only seven are Porsches). All are contenders for the race win, and with no less than five different makes on the grid, and taking into consideration questions regarding the reliability of the new generation cars, any one of these can foster the ambition of finishing up front on Sunday at 16.00.

In the first instance there are some twelve real candidates to take over from the absent SRT, who won last year with Soulet / Hart / Duez / Cloet. Soulet, Hart and Duez are once again present, but this year driving for three different teams. Hart is teaming up with the fast Kurt Mollekens in the Corvette of PK Carsport. These two gentlemen will have to drive the fast American beast on their own for a while, because Anthony Kumpen and Bert Longin, leaders in the championship, are competing on Saturday in the FIA GT race at Adria. In any case, reliability might play a few more tricks on the Z06 over the 24 Hours compared to a short 125 minutes race.

We find both Marc Duez and Maxime Soulet with GPR, but in two different Porsche 997 GT3s. The former will be driving with Ruben Maes, ex-winner Tim Verbergt and Pascal Mathieu. The 2006 pole holder, Maxime Soulet will be sharing the drive with the Dumarey brothers and ex-winner Marc Goossens, who finished second last year in the Marcos.

So far so good, but there’s still more. Let us start with the Moslers of G&A and Gravity International, the numbers one and two in the national class in the 24 Hours of Spa held at the end of July. It goes without saying that Spa was the perfect dress rehearsal, even though on the technical front, Zolder remains a heavier test bed for man and machine. Guino Kenis is calling on the same trio as in Francorchamps (Michael De Keersmaeker, Patrick Smets and Chris Mattheus), whilst MI DHL, with Eric Van de Poele, the Frenchman Christophe Bouchut, not forgetting stalwarts Vincent Radermecker and Stéphane Lémeret, have entered a real dream team. Undoubtedly this will be one of the main contenders for the Corvette this weekend, but there are some other great names present from the Belgian motorsport scene.

At ProSpeed Rudi Penders, with his mate Franz Lamot, the experienced Kurt Dujardyn and Jos Van Roij are playing the regularity card and the second ProSpeed Porsche 997 will be adding a dash of speed to the event. Fred Bouvy and David Loix will be joined by BTCS driver Armand Fumal, 3rd at Zolder in 2005 and more especially François Duval, who will be out to repeat his exploits at the Rally of Germany.

Meanwhile, AD Sport has also managed to gather an excellent quartet. Rafael Vanthoor and the Wouters brothers, Koen and Kris, are seeing their dream turn to reality with none other than Jan Heylen, who clinched second place in the Champ Car at Assen last Sunday, joining them in the Dodge Viper.

We can expect to find two other Vipers up front: the Daikin Racing Team of the young ladies Stefanie Boden and Alexandra Van de Velde (joined by youngster Niels Lagrange) and GS Motorsport (Heyer Jr / Thomas / Steinberg / Muytjens).

Still want more? With a new engine supplied by Prodrive we can expect to see the Aston Martin DBRS9 of Coekelbergs / Marchal / Sterckx / Den Otter also up front.

The second Mosler of Gravity with Kelders / Lambert / Lefort and Vincent Vosse are hoping for a great performance and without a shadow of a doubt there’s a whole batch of reliable Porsches all ready to pounce should reputable drivers commit the slightest error. We already had GPR and ProSpeed, fitted with the 2007 kit, but the following teams must also be taken into account: First Motorsport with Stielstra / Verbist / Haane / Vancampenhoudt, G-Force with Hahn / Hillebrand / Palttala / Van Sande and even the 996 Supercup of Neyens / Couwberghs / Bonaerens / Colman, hyper favourites in Division 2.

Ditto for the teams in Division 3, where a pivot time of 1’39 is on the books, with the 997 of Russell Racing for the Thiers brothers and Guy Van Mol, the AD Sport 996 Biturbo of Vanierschot / Steegmans / Schreurs / Bruynooghe or the 996 RS of De Laet / Volleberg / Van Rossem / Van Hoepen.

Without exaggerating some twenty cars are in contention for the podium and roughly half of these could put victory on their wish list, as long as reliability is the order of the day. We’re definitely not going to be bored this coming weekend at Zolder.

The festivities kick off on Wednesday evening with the qualifying sessions at approximately eight thirty and are completed on Thursday. Similar to Le Mans, Friday is a rest day allowing the teams to finalise matters and prepare themselves for the race, with the lights turning to green on Saturday afternoon at 16.00. For the many fans present there is a great supporting programme with Legends Cars, Formula Renault 1.6 and the Belcar Endurance Cup.