Proximus 24 Hours of Spa - The Other Classes – Who’s Who
Joost Custers explains who’s who in the National and Single Make Classes, and looks at Qualifying on Thursday.

#100 Vertigo (Tony Gillet)
Belgian constructor with 3 l Alfa engine running principally in the Belcar championship. Sebastien Ugeux drove in several promotion cups and was a Peugeot and Alfa worksdriver in the Belgian Procar championship (Touring cars). He won the championship in 1999 with Alfa and ended second in the 24 hours of Spa in 1998 with a 306.
This year, he’s the first driver for Vertigo in the Belcar championship.
Renaud Kuppens is a Renault Clio specialist driving in the Belgian and European championship. When the race weekends do not clash, he is the second Vertigo driver.
Stéphane Lémeret is reigning Belgian champion in Clio Cup and competes the European championship in 2003. He is also a ‘cup’ specialist with experience in BMW Compac Cup, Clio,…

#102 AD Sport (Albert Vanierschot)
Porsche 996 Biturbo: This is the car that was driven by Van Roey and Vanierschot in the 2002 Belcar championship. The engine is a 3.6 water-cooled turbo engine.
AD is one of the well-known Belgian racing teams. AD has over 10 years of experience in national and international endurance racing. They competed in the 24 hours of Daytona and won the 24 hours of Zolder.
Jos Menten is a young driver who started in the German Formula Renault 2000 series. He made his endurance debut in 2002 with a podium finish during the 10 hours of Zolder. He is one of the AD drivers in Belcar this year.

#105 RTM (Patrick Bastiaans)
RTM was founded in the eighties and started in Touring car races. Since then, RTM became one of the leading endurance teams in Belgium. Their most famous outing was certainly Le Mans in 1999 with among the drivers the late Phillipe Verellen. RTM won the GTB title in Belcar last year with Marc Goossens and Rudy Penders.
The car is a modified Porsche 996 RS Cup. It’s owned by a Van Rooy (NL) and engineered by RTM.
de Gastines started in the Touring Cup endurance series in Belgium in 2000. Meanwhile he had some podium finishes and moved up to the Belcar with RTM. He finished 6th in GTB in the 24 hours of Zolder 2002. He’s a real ‘gentleman’ driver.
Nielsen Grade, the lawyer of Collard, Goossens, Bourdais etc. races himself also. He debuted in Touring Cup in 1997 with a Polo G40. He raced this same car together with … E. Collard in a 10 hours race at Zolder last year. Meanwhile he drives a BMW M3 in this year’s Touring Cup. The 24 hours of Spa is the first outing of Mr Nielsen Grade in a Porsche and on an international level.

#106 SRT (Patrick Selleslagh / Patrick Slaus)
SRT has always been a ‘special’ team on Belgian race scene. After racing a Corvette Callaway, they build up several Mondeos with Cosworth 500 engines. This year, they play a hard game by racing a Pratt & Milner Corvette (spare car Le Mans 2002).
Marc Vannerum is a Belcar gentleman driver who regularly drives with Patrick Selleslagh. He’s one of those endurance racers making the Belcar to what it is today. Before Marc became Touring Cup champion in 1995.
Alain Corbisier already raced when many among us even couldn’t evenread. He stopped racing in 1983 and came back in 2002. He raced for Pino in Belcar and competed the 24 hours of Spa with Haberthur.

#160 Ice Pol Racing ( Lefort – Lambert)
Ice Pol is a Belcar team running a Porsche 996 GT3-RS. The team debuted in the ASAF series (Champion in 2002 - regional endurance series in Belgium) and switched to Belcar in 2002. Both the drivers (Yves Lambert and Christian Lefort) own the car and run the team. The other drivers on the car, Premoli and de Castro are experienced endurance drivers. They both have done FIA-GT, Daytona and other long distance racing.

#171 Didier Caradec
This French team is owned by three of the drivers: Caradec, Baron and Corbel. They race together in the French FFSA series in a BMW Z3. But a few weeks before this race, they got their hands on a Porsche 996 GT3-RS raced until 2001 by Noury. The car did race at Le Mans in 2001.
They all share the same endurance experience from FFSA through BPR to FIA GT.

Single Make Cars
All cars in this series should be in conformity with the specific technical rules of one of the following series (without increasing the capacity of the fuel tank):
- Lamborghini GTR Superthropy
- Porsche Supercup
- Porsche Carrera Cup
- Ferrari 360 Challenge
- Maserati Trofeo
- BMW Z3 Challenge
- Lotus Elise Cup
- TVR Cup

#110 Alméras Frères (Porsche 996)
This French brother pairing has been racing for deacdes. They were engaged in European hill climbing, Porsche Cup, several endurance series etc. They not only raced together but also have their own team. This year, they are active in the French FFSA series.
Marc Sourd is a very experienced touring car and endurance racer. He won the famous French Supertouring championship with an Audi 80. Steve Hiesse and Pierre Martinet are both French gentleman drivers.

#111 Signa Racing School (Porsche 996)
The Renault Spyder boys are back, but this time they decided to enter a Porsche 996 Cup. The drivers are also almost the same except for Coenen replacing de Bonhomme. They all are gentleman drivers doing some national or even regional endurance series in both touring cars and GTs

#113 James Ruffier (Porsche 996)
Ruffier Racing is one very experienced endurance team. They are Porsche specialists and have several cars running in France (Cup, FFSA, Coupe de France). Last year, they finished 4th in class and they are confident of doing better.
James Ruffier is the son of the founder and drives himself in the FFSA series where he is second overall and first in N-GT. He also manages the team. Thanks to his close relationship with Eric Hélary, the latter is the 4th driver in the team.
Stephane Pereira is a real novice. He drove in Club races till 2002 and made his competition debut in the FFSA series this year. His second race ended on the podium and this weekend, he goes round with the best endurance drivers in the world and his team mate is a former Le Mans winner.
Eric Mouez did some rallying in the eighties. After a little break of 15 years, he came back but in Porsche Cup on racetracks instead of rallying. He finished 3rd in the Coupe de France and also raced in Historic series. This year, he drives together with Dominique Dupuy in the FFSA series.

#115 Spirit Racing (BMW Z3)
This French team races a Z3 in France but just before Spa, they decided to sell the car to a Belgian team. Because things complicated a bit, they decided both to do half of the work, the French prepare and the Belgians drive the car.
The drivers, Linnertz, Janssen and Naveaux all followed the same path. These old bunch of friends drove in 2CVs then moved up to the Fun Cup and also did some endurance racing in Belgium. Olivier Bouche has somewhat more experience and he also did some 24 hours.

#117 Land Motorsport (Porsche 996)
Land Motorsport is a German Porsche team with lots of experience. They race in the German Porsche Supercup with Roland Ash and the team also raced at Spa last year. After being fastest during a good part of the race, they had to retire.
Sylvie Delcour is one of the few female drivers. She races in VW Fun Cup and won the 25 hours of Spa two weeks ago. Last year, she drove with PSI in another Super Cup car. Her endurance partner Loic Deman is as many other Belgian drivers mixing cup races and national endurance such Clio, ASAF or Radical.
Peter Scharmach normally drives in the European Clio V6 trophy and had some outings in the Porsche Cup. Christian Land is the son of team manager Wolfgang Land.

#118 José Close (Lotus Elise)
José wins again the “most charming entry” award. His little Lotus finished in 2001, did not appear in 2002 but now it is here again.
This entry could probably take pride in having the highest number of participations, highest average age and closest friendship. Summing up their experience and results would end up in an encyclopaedia…

Qualifying in the National GT and Single Make Classes - Thursday

We talked before about the two ‘other’ classes in this 24 hours of Spa. To give these drivers and teams a little extra attention, we split up the reports about qualifying.

It was a promising start from the little Elise #118, José Close came onto the track on Thursday evening and sets the pole overall…because he was the first to cross the line. After 30 minutes, when the session is red flagged, the SRT Corvette has gone round in 2.21.967, 1st in National GT and 11th overall. Patrick Selleslagh states that he was only warming up the American beast and that there still is a 2-second margin. He’s followed by the SEAT and the #101 Short Mosler.

In the SMS, Land sets the pace in a strong 2.32.964. Ruffier #113 is second and the first minute hero José Close third. The #109 comes on the track, but it is not the Stealth, it’s the Porsche GT3-R of van Moerkerke running in the Belcar championship. They are allowed to run this car instead of the exotic V8. All group 2 and 3 cars are now running, as the #115 BMW leavesthe pits.

The Perrier Mosler took over 3rd place in national GT just before the end of the first session.
Result: (Nat GT)#106 PSR Corvette 2.21.967#103 Seat Toledo 2.23.253#104 Perrier Mosler 2.27.129 SMS:#117 Land Porsche 2.31.890#113 Ruffier Porsche 2.32.651#110 Alméras Porsche 2.35.138
The second session did not bring any changes, except for José Close going round in 2.48…

In group 2, the Morgan and the Gillet had afight for the 6th place and first 'artisan' make. At 22.36, the session was stopped once again. Meanwhile Michel Neugarten (Perrier Mosler) explains that they suffer some restrictor troubles. The team is solving the problem but they will not go for another fast lap anymore.

In fact, most teams just did their mandatory laps in the dark. So the result after two sessions is identical to the one mentioned above. Of course, we should consider that the #126 Zakspeed Viper did not defend its chances due to a broken engine. Maybe the team will use the last session to put the car on the grid.