GT4 Championships

Huisman and Bastiaans take Dutch GT4 poles

At 10:30 on Saturday morning the HTC Dutch GT4 Championship officially kicked of its sixth round of the 2010 season with a double qualifying session on a drying Zandvoort circuit.

Only a handful of cars went out in the first minutes of the session with Sebastiaan Bleekemolen in the BMW M3 GT4 setting the fastest time five minutes into the session. He improved his lap time on the next lap and went back in after setting a 1:54.365. At the halfway point he was still the fastest driver, Mathijas Harkema in the Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven Porsche 997 GT4 .394 seconds behind and Peter van der Kolk in the Solid State Racing Corvette C6 third at 2.122 seconds. Only eight cars had set a time though.

In the second half the times improved, Christiaan Frankenhout put his PS Autosport Porsche 997 GT4 in second place with eight minutes left on the clock, just .019 seconds slower than Bleekemolen. Simon Knap was the first to beat Sebastiaan Bleekemolen’s time, then Mathijs Harkema took it, but he was pushed down by Christiaan Frankenhout moments later. With five minutes left on the clock the gap between Frankenhout (1:53.830) and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen in sixth was just half a second.

Championship leader Duncan Huisman put in a 1:53.780 with just over four minutes left on the clock, but behind him several drivers were posting fast sector times. Donald Molenaar in the Equipe Verschuur Camaro GT4 was one of them, but after posting two fast sector times Molenaar came back in. Moments later Harmen van Putten spun his Corvette C6 into the barriers at the Arie Luyendijk-corner and brought out the red flag with 2:41 left on the clock. The session was restarted at 11:05 after the damaged Corvette was delivered back at its pit box. None of the teams improved the pole time and this meant Duncan Huisman secured pole position.

Due to the delay after Van Putten’s crash the second session started at 11:22. First out on the track was brand new daddy Jeroen Bleekemolen in the Solid State Racing Corvette C6. His team mate Danny van Dongen, right behind him, was quicker after the first flying lap though and posted a 1:56.017, .034 seconds quicker than Bleekemolen.
On the next lap though Bleekemolen restored the order and moved back into first place after setting a 1:53.246 as all cars on track improved their times.

The two Solid State Racing Corvettes improved once again in their next lap and it was Bleekemolen who posted a 1:53.072. As the yellow Corvettes were on their in-lap Phil Bastiaans in the Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven Porsche was on a flyer and his attempt resulted in provisional pole; 1:52.680. Bastiaans came in on the next lap.

Two cars in the gravel trap at different places meant the second qualifying session was also interrupted by a red flag with eight minutes left on the clock. Jan-Joris Verheul (Aston Martin Vantage) ran wide at the Tarzan corner after posting the fifth fastest time, while Mathijs Bakker spun his Cosmo Hairstyling Porsche 997 GT4 at the Masters corner. Fortunately the session was restarted just a few minutes later.

While the top three stayed in their boxes the teams that did go out improved their times. Jan-Joris Verheul moved into fifth place as he went into the final lap, setting a 1:53.341, exactly the same time as Ricardo van der Ende had done before. His final attempt was not quicker, which meant Phil Bastiaans took pole position for the second race, with Jeroen Bleekemolen and Danny van Dongen in second and third.