Belcar - Donington Park - Preview
© Joost Custers

True to tradition the Mediagroep Van Dyck Belcar, or the Belgian Championship for GT-cars, will once more be travelling across borders in search of a new circuit. Following on from visits to the Nürburgring, Dijon, Assen, Brands Hatch and the Lausitzring, Donington Park is now on the programme.

“When putting together our calendar our main motive was undoubtedly to introduce our new Belcar Championship to our British friends,” Patricia Indekeu, responsible for the Belcar events with SRO Belgium, explained. “Both competitions definitely hold their own in comparison with the FIA GT3 and we really hope to attract a few neighbours for the race at Donington and in fact instil the idea into a few Belgians also.”

The national troops, amounting to some thirty strong, three weeks after the championship’s starting shot at Zolder, only have one ambition: to beat the Corvette Z06 GT3 of PK Carsport. This will undoubtedly be a difficult assignment, especially on unknown ground, where the international experience of both the PK team and the driver pairing of Longin / Kumpen will have an undeniable advantage. here's the Corvette in testing at Donington park today (Thursday) - thanks to the camerawork of Tim Dunlop.

However nothing is impossible. This saying must be flashing through the minds of the six teams entering a Dodge Viper. In addition to the five American beasts which we encountered at Zolder, there will be one more. The additional Viper GT3 is entered by Signa Motorsport, the team which won Group 3 in the 24 Hours of Spa last year, with Patrick Chaillet and Laurent Nef as drivers. The Viper does seem to suffer from an imbalance in the GT3 field at the moment though, as was proven in Zolder, Nogaro etc.

After a difficult start for both Mosler Chevrolet MT900Rs of Gravity International Racing at Zolder, the team hope that the cooling problems will be forgotten and that the 125 minutes race will run smoothly for them. In fact Stéphane Lémeret and Vincent Radermecker – who knows the circuit like the back of his hand since his drives in British Formula Ford, F3 and the BTCC – are also playing at home in a manner of speaking, with the British built Mosler. Even more so is the 007 Aston Martin of Wim Coekelbergs / Ron Marchal, sixth in the opening race at Zolder.

In Division 2 the favourite here is once again the 996 GT3 Supercup of NGT Racing, with Marc Neyens and Bart Couwberghs at the wheel.

And finally in Division 3 Kenis / de Keersmaecker (Mosler MT900R) and Derdaele / Empsen (Ultima) are on the warpath for revenge after their difficult debut at Zolder. But this would imply that they need to get ahead of the Porsche RS of the Thiers brothers, the 996 Biturbo of Steegmans / Leest and not forgetting the RS of De Laet / Vollebergh. The reference time for the D3 is set at 1’14, or two seconds more than the pole of the 2006 British GT3. An eventual adaptation of the reference time after the qualifying sessions on Saturday could remain an option.