Belcar - Euphony 24 Hours of Zolder - Preview
Kumpen Goes For Five
© Joost Custers

For the overall victory, the GLPK Corvette towers above all the others. The team of Longin / Kumpen has scored four wins in four races this season and the line-up for this race – Kumpen / Longin / Hezemans / Mollekens – will be the same as for the Spa 24 hours, where the team finished on the third podium spot. GLPK has huge endurance experience, winning the Zolder 24 hours from 2002 until 2004. It was a very strong SRT squad that brought an end to the GLPK domination last year, after Bert Longin was involved in a race incident, resulting in a premature retirement for the GLPK team.

So SRT won the race last year after a good fight with the PSI Porsches, the Kuismanen Viper, the AD Sport, Penders and RS Racing Porsches and the Eurotech Marcos. This year, SRT again will be the main opponent of GLPK. David Hart might take the C5-R to a second consecutive victory, partnered this time by Marc Duez, Maxime Soulet and Tom Cloet.

Anthony Kumpen: “Of course, I want to become the sole record holder in Zolder. I’m still co-record holder with four victories, sharing the record with Vincent Dupont. But I’m a team player and another victory for the team is what counts the most. Qualifying and pole position are of course relevant, but we will not take risks. Pushing the engine to the limit during qualifying almost resulted in a retirement in Spa and we do not want to experience that again.

“We want to have a margin for the race, because our race strategy might vary and incidents could require a faster pace: the weather predictions are currently suggesting rain. Winning the race is important to us, and we might even sacrifice the result and some points after 6 or 12 hours if necessary. Our main concern is the refuelling in Zolder. We have 20 litres less tank capacity than last season and with the manual pumps at the entry of the pitlane, this means a considerable loss of time, about four minutes for every quarter of the race.

Even though we have won all the races this year, the Euphony 24 Hours of Zolder is still very important to us and we want to win, that’s for sure.”

The Euphony 24 Hours might see a turnaround in the championship by Sunday afternoon. The difference between SRT and GLPK is actually 24 points, but with 80 to earn for this race only, everything is still possible. As at Spa last month, in the FIA GT Championship, half of the points can be won after six and 12 hours.

And what about the competition for GLPK? Except for SRT, the main opposition should come from Eurotech. Even though a bigger rear wing has been refused, Marc Goossens, Danny Van Dongen and Mr. Marcos, Cor Euser, will still be strong contenders in their Marcos LM600.

Two other regular competitors, the Stealth and the AD Viper, will not be present. The good old AD Sport Porsche Biturbo will replace the latter.

Albert Vanierschot (AD Sport boss): “I feel sorry for the Viper fans, but we know the Porsche very well and we still lack experience with the Viper, so that’s why we opted for the German Biturbo. Koen, Kris, Patrick Schreurs and myself will race the car.”

AD Sport will run two other Porsches, for Steegmans / Steegmans / Goninssen and Lémeret / Leest / Bruynoghe / Vic Herman.

The Porsches Biturbos of JMT (Coekelbergs / Rob van Roey / Marshall), S&P Racing (Meulder / Grutman / Metior / Verdonck), Ham Car (Stielstra / Bertram / Backelandt / De Vries) & McDonald’s Racing Team (Bouilon / Kuus / Robinson / Van der Silk) are the remaining cars in class 1. Mark Cole (JMT) and Ben Robinson’s McDonalds Racing Team defend the British honours.

Class 2 will see an open battle. Both championship leaders, ProSpeed Competition and GS Motorsport, have won two races and are of course the main contenders, but the opposition is gathering its forces.

Penders / Lamot, joined by Kurt Dujardyn and Karl Jacobs, will certainly try to do as well as last year when they finished second overall and first in class. Getting a good result is important for their championship aspirations as GS still leads Class 2 with eight points over ProSpeed. Another aim for ProSpeed is the podium in the overall championship standings. Penders and Lamot are now 4th, with GS seven points ahead and Eurotech six points behind. ProSpeed has a surprise in store for the livery of one of its cars.

Rudi Penders: “As we did last year, we’ll fit in a Cup-engine and a normal gearbox. This means that we’ll be slower than the frontrunners, even in our class, but with a better fuel consumption and a more reliable car, we should be high in the rankings by the end of the race. It will be a difficult task, but we’re confident. And except for GS, there are many other competitors in our class that could do very well, such as PSI, CEO and the very impressive G&A Mosler.”

GS Motorsport enters the BMW M3 V8 GTR for Georg Severich (back after health problems), Mario Josten, Olivier Muytjens and British ace Willie Moore. The German V8 has proved far more reliable than last year and could be a real surprise this year.

G&A is indeed confident of setting a good performance at Zolder. The team is working on the set-up and will lead the opposition in class 2.

Another strong line / up is the one PSI Experience enters: Bouvy / Menten / Belloc / Verbergt will drive the team’s 996 GT3 - RSR. Other Porsches to be watched are CEO Racing with Van Rossem / Maes / De Laet / Vollebergh and the Porsche RS of the Thiers brothers, with Guy van Mol.

Last but not least, the Dodge Viper Competition of Rudolph Racing and both BMW Silhouttes of KS Motorsport, third in last year’s edition, should be very competitive.

Class 3 is by the far the most unpredictable. The championship leading Belgium Racing Ultima, fourth in 2005 and winner of two out four races in class 3 this year, faces huge opposition from a bunch of Porsches. Derdaele / Empsen / Verhoeven / De Wit will have a significant, but not impossible task, as they proved with their result last year. First Motorsport, Speedlover, NGT, GS Motorsport, CEO and Accent Racing team all enter at least one 996 GT3 Supercup with drivers of all levels.

Jo Jamers: “The championship could well be decided here.”

Last but not least we find some touring cars as well in Class 3. Of course, there are two classic BMW 3 series for MSE and Euroracing, but most attention goes to the BMW 120d for the Daikin ladies.

The number of guest cars is limited with five cars listed at the moment. GPR, AD and Speedlover enter Porsches, while S-Racing and JMT do it with a Seat and a BMW.

As at Spa, all ballast disappears, but the winners at Zolder will of course carry some extra weight for the next races.