[joost]

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Sportscar Racing's Internet Magazine
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 _

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Belcar – 2003 Season Preview
It's the first round of the Belcar Championship this weekend, and a good time for Joost Custers to write the preview of the season to come.

Pre-season predictions are always a little tricky. Most pre-season comments on the F1 World Championship suggested more dull racing and another Schumi title, but everybody who watched the race in Brazil knows how far predictions can be from the truth. But even this experience cannot prevent me from attempting the same for the 2003 Belcar Championship. So I’ll give a brief comment on the competitors, class per class. But don’t shoot me until after the season – pleads Joost Custers.

Never change a winning team is the organisers’ slogan, and apart from a few technical changes, such as smaller restrictors and more weight for the big guns, making the championship even more competitive, Belcar remains Belcar.

But there is one big change: Belcar is now part of the Super Meetings programme. Seven weekends throughout the year will give the race fans the same close racing. Three cups (Mini Cooper S, Renault Clio and Toyota Yaris) and the Belgian Formula Renault Monza single seater championship support the national GT and touring car championship. The championship includes two 125 minutes races at Spa and three at Zolder and one evening race over four hours at Spa. But the highlight of the season will be, as usual, the (twenty-fifth) 24 hours of Zolder.

GTA

This is the list of teams, entered for the whole season. Other teams may appear throughout the season. The most likely (big) names are Belmondo and Hart.

# 1 GLPK Longin*-Bouvy Porsche 996 Biturbo
# 2 GLPK Kumpen*-Cohen-Dupont Chrysler Viper GTS-R

The team to beat with two strong cars will be GLPK. Both cars are there to win. The Viper being the 2002 champion probably still has a small advantage over the Porsche. But both teams will ‘suffer’ from the absence during the FIA-GT weekends of both spearheads, Kumpen and Longin.

# 3 AD Sport Wauters-Wauters Porsche 996 Biturbo

Team manager Albert Vanierschot moved to GTB and gave the third-placed car in the GTA championship of last year the freedom to play first fiddle within the team. Will the Wauters brothers be able to carry the responsibility of being the sole AD GTA car? If they do, their experience and consistency should give them a chance to do as well as last year.

# 4 Kuismanen Kuismanen-Hasenbichler Chrysler Viper GTS-R

Winter testing and the experience gained last year should pay off now. The team proved in the past that they were able to conquer a title, so watch out for this snake from the North.

# 5 SRT Selleslagh-Vannerum Chevrolet Corvette C5-R

This is the sole full C5-R running in the world apart from the factory team. What else do we need? But is the Belgian team able to tame this sophisticated hi-tech endurance beast? If they manage it, this must be the favourite for the Belcar honours 2003, but only if…

# 6 Sport Promo Meulders-Geboers Porsche 996 Biturbo

This is another Biturbo with a good pair of drivers. Surely men to watch if the really big guys fail.

# 7 Ham Car Vancraeynest-Janssens Porsche 996 Biturbo
# 8 Ham Car Van Dyck-Raus Porsche 993 Biturbo

This team never really managed to play a major role. This year is likely to repeat history.

# 9 TT Racing Mattheus-Redant Audi TT 4.2

A beautiful car…the rest still has to be proven.

# 10 Power Motorsport Van de Voort-Van der Meyden Marcos Mantis

These experienced Marcos drivers should at least be able to score points on reliability, but on pure speed, the opposition seems to be too fast.

# 12 Flandria Racing Vetter-Daelemans Porsche 996 Biturbo

Gentlemen drivers, but adding to the flavour of the series.

# 14 RTM Van sande-Paltalla Porsche 996 Biturbo

If one team is able to take over the role of PSI in 2003, it should be RTM. RTM proved capable of building very fast Porsches in GTB and this year they are ready to attack GTA. A serious outsider…

# 15 JMT TBA BMW Z3 GT 5.0
# 16 LVC TBA BMW Z3 GT 5.0

Looking for gentlemen drivers.

# 17 ? Vosse-Buurman Marcos LM 600

Just listen and enjoy this car. It’s good to have them back and they’ll be a serious contender.

# 18 Eurotech Van Dongen-Noorman Marcos Mantis
# 19 Eurotech Van de Haterd-De Groot Marcos Mantis

This Dutch team is looking for a new challenge after the Dutch Super Car challenge and the Euro GT championship. With a mix of young and experienced drivers, this could be a surprise.

GTB

GTB offers less variety than it did last year. 14 Porsches race against one Vertigo, even David would have said no to this challenge. The MSE Marcos does not appear on the entry list and Beliën moves to TA, racing an E46 GTR instead of the very vast and reliable BMW Z3.

The Porsche 996 GT3 RSs are certainly the best weapon in GTB and even overall; this car might have a chance in rainy conditions, certainly in Zolder. We see four of those cars on the entry-list:

#31 RTM Goossens-Penders Porsches 996 GT3 RS
#34 AD-Sport Van Hooydonck-Vanierschot Porsches 996 GT3 RS
#36 Russell Racing Thiers-Thiers Porsches 996 GT3 RS
#40 Ice Pol Lefort-Lambert Porsches 996 GT3 RS

Of course the #31, the RTM Porsche again is the car to beat. Reigning GTB champions Marc Goossens and Rudy Penders will again be fast, but is the appearance of an RTM GTA Porsche not a rival within their own team?

Three other RSs are there to attack the position of RTM. AD enters an ex-Freisinger RS, (raced in 2001 at Spa by AD during the 24 hours) - with a remarkable pair of drivers. Jeffrey Van Hooydonck, the Belgian member of the Astromega F3000 squad, joins team boss Vanierschot.

Russell and Ice Pol are less well known but dangerous if underestimated. Lefort and Lambert finished second in the national GT class during the 24 hours of Spa last year. Only a very fast Alex Caffi was able to beat them. And Thiers - Thiers were competitors until the end to take the GTB honours last year.
We also find three 996 Rs on the grid:

#32 RTM Lamot-Mollekens Porsches 996 GT3 R
#37 Markant Verrycken-Van Rossem Porsches 996 GT3 R
#43 JMT TBA Porsche 996 GT3 R

Even if the car is less developed than the RS, two of these entries are certainly outsiders. The RTM Porsche, with the arrival of Mollekens, will be even more a rival to Goossens and Penders than it already was last year. One might forget that only health problems kept Lamot from the GTB title last year. Verreycken and Van Rossem are two youngsters in GT-racing and they are already proven to be fast.

#33 GLPK Schreurs-Grootaers Porsches 996 GT3 Cup
#35 AD Geerincks-Thirion Porsches 996 GT3 Cup
#38 Markant De Laet-Vollebergh Porsches 996 GT3 Cup
#42 JMT Vanmoerkerke-TBA Porsches 996 GT3 Cup

Even if we find some experienced teams entering 996 Cup versions, such as AD and GLPK, these cars will only be outsiders. Maybe we’ll find them finishing in the top 10 or even top 5 in the longer races at Spa (4 hours) and Zolder (24 hours)

#39 Phillips Motorsport Vanmaldegem-Holvoet Porsche 993
#45 Sport Promoteam Ceusters-Metior Porsche 993
#46 Speedlover Verhoeven-TBA Porsche 993

Gentlemen drivers, but important nonetheless.

#44 Gillet Ugeux-TBA Gillet-Vertigo

This beautiful car finally should be rewarded. Hopefully, Gillet cars will be able to bring the car home in a good position. The new weight minimum in GTB does not favour the little Belgian racecar.

Touring

Here, we will only comment on the most important teams in TA (+3600 cc) and TB (-3600cc)

TA

#52 Beliën Racing Beliën-Jakobs BMW E46 GTR 5.0
#57 G&A Severich-Kenis BMW M3 GTR
#63 Verbist Verbist-Maes VW Bora TDI

If one touring car should be able to compete for overall victory, it should be the G&A BMW of Severich and Kenis. Both drivers are amongst the fastest in Belcar and the car showed its potential during the last race at Spa in 2002. This is a car to watch. Just behind G&A come Beliën and Jakobs. But both the drivers are more like true gentlemen drivers than Kenis-Severich.

TB

#71 Qvick Racing Qvick-Beernaert Mini Cooper S3
#76 Moore Motorsport Moore-Cox BMW E36

The Mini is the prettiest and Moore the British-est and both are very quick…

Silhouette

#92 Ford Belgium Radermecker-Stelandre Ford Mondeo

And last but not least, there is only one car in the new division ‘Silhouette’. But with national Procar champion Nicolas Stelandre and Vincent Radermecker, the Ford Mondeo Silhouette could be the surprise of the championship.

Back To Zolder Index

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