Various Series

Belcar: Spa-Francorchamps preview

© Planetlemans - Jason Holt

No more room for any doubt: the 2007 Mediagroep Van Dyck Belcar championship is well and truly under way. The 2^nd round at Donington at the end of April produced a merciless battle between the two top favourites in the competition: the Corvette Z06 PK Carsport of the reigning champions Anthony Kumpen and Bert Longin, winners of the first round at Zolder, and the Mosler-Chevrolet of Vincent Radermecker and Stéphane Lémeret, who finally clinched the race in England. The various teams have taken full advantage of these last seven weeks to sharpen their weapons.

© Planetlemans - Gerlach Delissen

In the Mosler clan they even went so far as to change tuner, opting for the highly experienced Belgian Motorsport International team to look after the MT900 GT3s of Gravity International Racing as from now. The latter will be called upon to improve the organisation and solve the technical problem regarding the fitting of new clamping plates (2×40 mm). These have reduced the power of the British GTs of Radermecker-Lémeret and Kelders-Lambert by some 40 bhp., their superior level of competitiveness being still further reduced last Tuesday. Following the example of the Gillet Vertigo of Renaud Kuppens and… the young Sarah Bovy, making its maiden appearance in Belcar thanks to a national GT3 homologation equivalent to that of the FIA GT, the Moslers also underwent an equivalency test this Tuesday at the hands of Mr GT3 in person, alias Christophe Bouchut, with a view to leveling out and obtaining the best possible power balance amongst the various contenders.

The French GT world champion drove several cars: the Corvette, the various Moslers and the Vertigo, Pascal Witmeur explained.

© Planetlemans - Gerlach Delissen

And in order to balance out the cars the Gravity Moslers needed to be penalised, and this by just raising their height by one centimetre. For the rest nothing is being altered. Christophe was pleasantly surprised by the Vertigo. And as for the Mosler of Gino Kenis, which differs from the Gravity model by having only a 5 litre engine, a smaller aileron and smaller wheels, a 60 kilos weight reduction was recommended. Kurt Mollekens also had the opportunity to drive a Dodge Viper. And after only three laps he was recording some highly competitive times …

Additionally all GT3 cars have now been adapted thanks to the 2007 FIA technical configurations. The Dodges (there will in fact be an additional three in Spa, namely the Signa Motorsport of Chaillet-Nef as also the two Italian cars of Racing Box for Del Castello-Maddalena and Cioci-Perazzini), the Aston-Martin but also the Corvette Z06 have all been lightened by some 60 kilos. In order to raise the level of competitiveness of the Porsches 997 GT3 Cup, presently not fitted with the 2007 kit upgrading, SRO Belgium has granted them permission to fit the Supercup Michelin tyres. It promises to be a close fought round right through to the last lap on the new look Francorchamps circuit, which some of the Belcar drivers have already had the opportunity to try out: The new chicane is well designed. Overtaking is now possible under braking, Stéphane Lémeret commented. As for lap times I don’t believe there will be much difference. On the other hand the newly revised and impressive infrastructure built to accommodate the F1 circus is definitely different. Next weekend it will officially welcome its first guests, namely the MGVD competitors for the third round of the series over a 125’ race being held on Saturday 9^th June during the 12 Hours of Spa weekend. Definitely more than a mere appetiser with no less than 44 GTs entered, of which at least 23 GT3s.
But the other categories are also well filled, with 9 cars in Division 2 of which a majority of Porsches 996 GT3 Supercup (and the powerful NGT Racing Porsche of Marc Neyens and Bart Couwberghs) not forgetting our two faithful competitors in GT4 with the Lotus Exige 255 of Verhiest-De Cock and the BMW Z4M Coupé of Smets-Lagrange. And last but not least 10 teams in Division 3 with apart from the Porsches 997 or 996 Biturbo driven by the Thiers brothers, Steegmans-Leest or De Laet-Vollebergh, also the original Ultima. A BMW Z3 might also put in an appearance just before the start…

With such a mouth watering grid the Mediagroep Van Dyck Belcar is definitely on the right track.

credit: SRO-Press