Interviews

A lap of Le Mans with the Audi drivers

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Tomorrow lights will go green for the third race in the Belcar Championship, which will be held at the circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. This afternoon, both qualifying sessions took place and it was team Daikin Racing’s "All Ladies team" with Stephanie Boden and Alexandra van de Velde setting the fastest time after both sessions, starting on pole in tomorrow’s race.

In the morning practice, it was PK Carsport being very fast with their Corvette Z06R. Though that were dry conditions! Soon after the first qualifying session went off, thunder and rain fell down from the sky. Teams had to change form sliks to wettyres, to get some grip on the track.
After a short periode of rain, the sun came as quick as the rain did and the circuit started to dry by the minute, making the times faster each lap. For the final 15 minutes of qualifying, the even numbered cars could make their appearance on the track. After the first session it was the Dodge Viper of Daikin Racing who set the fastest lap time (2:29.676), On second position, being over half a second slower, than the number two, the Dodge Viper, of team AD Sport. Third position in first qualifying was for the GPR Racing Porsche 997 GT3.

Anthony Kumpen and Bert Longin couldn’t get any further than a 12^th position with their PK Corvette. Their laptime was over 6 seconds slower than their laptime in free practise. Last race winners, Radermecker and Lemeret, did a better job. They qualified in fifth position, with their Mosler, despit of a strategic mistake. The team callled in to pits to early.

,

The first odd numbered car we find on 8^th position, the Dodge Viper of this race guestteam Racing Box, being just a little slower than the other Racing Box Viper. This makes five Dodge Vipers in the first eight positions.

In Class 3, the fastest car was team Belgium Racing’s Ultima GTR, settling into 15^th position. Just one place behind, in 16^th position, the second Class 3 car qualified, the Porsche 996 Biturbo of AD Sports. Although it was only one place in ranking, the gap between both cars was over 2.5 seconds. NGT Porsche 996GT3, first in Class 2, will start from 17^th position on the grid. Because of this short periode of rain, the qualifying order brought some real surprises.
After the first session it started to rain again, which gave a complete wet 2^nd qualifying session. Lap times didn’t even get close to the ones in the first session. So there was nothing more to win in this session and the ranking stayed as it was. For what it’s worth, PK Carsport was fastest in the 2^nd session, with a 2:42.445.

Tomorrow at 11.00 the race will start for it’s 125 minutes of spectaculair racing. Due to the qualifying results we expect a lot of exitement of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Grid:

1. Boden-Van de Velde (Dodge Viper)

2. Vanthoor-K. Wauters (Dodge Viper)

3. Dumarey-Soulet M. (Porsche 997 GT3)

4. Bouvy-Loix (Porsche 997 GT3)

5. Radermecker-Lémeret (Mosler-Chevrolet)

6. Van Moerkerke-Ceusters (Dodge Viper)

7. Del Castello-Maddalena (Ita/Dodge Viper)

8. Cioci-Perazzini (Ita/Dodge Viper)

9. Van Hover-Van Loo (Porsche 997 GT3)

10. Kenis-De Keersmaecker (Mosler-Chevrolet)

11. Chaillet-Nef (Dodge Viper)

12. Kumpen-Longin (Corvette Z06)

15. Derdaele-Verhoeven (Ultima GTR)

17. Neyens-Couwberghs (Porsche 996 Supercup)

gerlach@planetlemans.com

,