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Race report GP Belgium @ Kampenhout (MBV) - 2007-07-07

The Belgian GP is becoming one of the most important races in Europe, which reflects in the popularity of this event. Only four days after opening the entries, the race was fully booked. Each year, more and more of the top drivers are attending the GP and together with the fact that the level of off road races in general is quickly increasing over the last years, this assured the event to be one of the most competetive since the days that Yukka Steenari was still racing here. For the first time, even an American driver came to the Belgian GP, Paul Sinclair. Together with his dad Chazz they run the X-factory company (X-5 and X-6 race cars). Their English team was also present with their top driver Ellis Stafford.

For many this is THE race of the year, but it is often seen as a big annual reunion. Always fun to meet people like Pete Warren (referee), Glyn Ward (BRM) and many others that make this event into one of the most friendly around.

Willy Heremans again made some subtle changes to the already magnificent track. The most obvious was the new double jump in the corner before the straight. This made it a bit more difficult to get a good line before hitting the throttle going onto the straight.
In the central part of the track, the infamous big hill became even bigger and steeper. You can easily launch your car a few meters high, bit in fact to be quick you have to make sure you minimize your time flying in the air. This is a crucial part of the track to gain some precious thents of a second. The rest of the track was pretty much the same, except that all other jumps and bumps were raised a little bit. Also the former off camber turn in the chicane, making it less off camber than it used to be and more a mini jump in the corner.

As usual, saturday is 2WD with 89 drivers from 8 different countries. The race format is round by round, with four qualifying heats. 2 out of 4 best results are counted with points to make up for the overall result.

Winners of each final:
I. Poul Steen Hansen (DK)
H. Neal van den Hoeck (B)
G. Tom Raymakers (NL)
F. Barry Weldon (UK)
E. Newham Mark (UK)
D. Christer Rasmussen (DK)
C. Chris Long (UK)
B. Antoine Rosetti (F)


The A-finals were again impressive to watch. Lee Martin was able to win all three finals with his Associated B4. Behind him there was te constant treath of Jorn Neumann, also B4, and Ellis Stafford with his X-6. These two were the only ones able to follow Lee, but that is all there is to say, Lee was simply unbeatable. In the end it was Ellis that took second place before Joern in third.

behind those three there was a battle for fourth and fifth place between Grant Williams (B4) and Wouter Wynen (XXX-cr). Simon Reeves was also very quick but he only qualified 10th so had to come a long way, too much to really get to the front of the race. Matthew Collins had a brilliant second final where he finished fourth. Bruno Heremans managed to get his S2 in the A-final but couldn't really battle his way up to the front. Lars Alex Jensen who was second last year couldn't repeat that stunt and finished only eight this year. Finally Tony Truman completed the A final, and altough he was pretty quick it didn't seem to be his day and took 9th place.

Final results 2WD:

1. MARTIN, LEE UK (2 points)
2. STAFFORD, ELLIS UK (4 points)
3. NEUMANN, JOERN D (5 points)
4. WYNEN, WOUTER B (8 points)
5. WILLIAMS, GRANT UK (8 points)
6. COLLINS, MATTHEW B (12 points)
7. REEVES, SIMON UK (12 points)
8. JENSEN, LARS ALEX DK (14 points)
9. TRUMAN, TONY UK (14 points)
10. HEREMANS, BRUNO B (19 points)





On sunday the 4WD and Truck event was completed.

Truck class was won by Bjoern Billino from Germany (out of 10 contestants).

Final results truck class:

1 BILLINO, BJOERN D (2 points)
2 JESPERSEN, RENE DK (3 points)
3 GILLIG, ROBERT D (6 points)
4 RENAUX, RUDY B (7 points)
5 DEGEEST, JO B (9 points)
6 DEMARET, BENJAMIN F (10 points)
7 SEPTIER, FREDERIC F (14 points)
8 TABURIAUX, GAETAN B (14 points)
9 CAUCHOIS, PATRICK F (16 points)
10 SOEHOLT, LASSE DK (19 points)


4WD had a total of 60 drivers.

Winners of each final:

F. Romuald Latini (B)
E. Barry Weldon (UK)
D. Chris Evison (UK)
C. Thomas Mikkelsen (DK)
B. Lars Alex Jensen (DK)

In the A-final it was again Lee Martin that set the pace with his Aero A-one. He's currently also wiping out the competition in the UK nationals with this brand new prototype car. Joern Neumann is still driving the last Durango car, kept alive with spares from te A-one, which is an evolution of the Durango. Unlike in 2WD, Lee didn't manage to win all three A finals. The second leg went surprisingly to Matthew White. Matthew wasn't even sure of being in the A after 3 heats of qualifying, and now suddenly takes second place overall because of this 2nd A final win! Lee secured his overall victory by winning the last A-main with a 12 second gap over n°2! Joern managed to stay third overall, winning a tie with Ellis Stafford, who came in fourth.

Final results 4WD:

1 MARTIN, LEE UK (2 points)
2 WHITE, MATTHEW UK (5 points)
3 NEUMANN, JOERN D (5 points)
4 STAFFORD, ELLIS UK (5 points)
5 REEVES, SIMON UK (7 points)
6 WILLIAMS, GRANT UK (9 points)
7 LONG, CHRIS UK (14 points)
8 BENFIELD, MATT UK (14 points)
9 CLAES, BOB B (15 points)
10 GREENWOOD, DAN UK (15 points)

Thanks to MBV for another great event, hope to see you again for the Belgian GP in 2008!

Text: Arjan + Wouter

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