Speedworld Promotion: Van de Ven and Lahaye: "Together a strong team!" It took until July for a final decision regarding the Belgian GT Championship - Mediagroep van Dyck. Lengthy dragged out negotiations resulted in that for the third consecutive year the 24 Hours of Zolder will kick off with less than thirty entrants, but the future is looking bright. Promotors Hans Van de Ven (Motorsport Promotion) and Christian Lahaye (PRC Group) are taking over the SRO Belgium torch, and are looking to breathe new life into the Belgian motorsport scene. For this small kingdom three championships is too much, and as from 2010 there will be two major national championships, with well-filled grids as in years gone by. "In the short term Belgium has a potential of roughly eighty race cars. Looking to the future this could grow to one hundred. If you divide this neatly into two championships, add a touch of enjoyable atmosphere you'll find yourself back in the good old times ", is how Hans Van de Ven started off the conversation.
"There weren't many options left open for us for 2009. We have been in discussion with SRO Motorsports Group since February, but both Hans and I have a very busy schedule. On top of that Stéphane Ratel is not easily reachable. He's kept pretty busy with his GT1 world championship and is constantly travelling around the world. It only became clear in July that Speedworld Promotion would take over the promotion of the Belgian GT. One and half months later was the start of the 24 Hours of Zolder", Christian Lahaye interceded. "We're experiencing a difficult economic climate and when teams can only start working on their budgets one month prior to the event, you can't expect a full house. 2010 will be a different kettle of fish. In September we'll be drawing up our plans for both championships (GT and Touring), and making them known. You should take this to be a transition year and not as a setback. You need to break eggs to make a good omelette ", Van de Ven continued.
Specially allowing the Chrysler Viper GTS-R of Kuismanen Competition to enter has crated quite a bit of dust, but this year Speedworld Promotion wasn't in a position to refuse entrants: "We need to make do with what we have. What should we have done? Start with 15 cars? Cancelling the meeting wasn't an option. The intention is to satisfy as many people as possible, but you can't please one and all. I'm fully convinced that we have take the right course, just give us the opportunity to set everything up correctly. Motorsport must once again become one great party, and I really believe that we have all the right ingredients at hand to achieve this ", Lahaye added.
For all parties concerned 2010 must improve and both Van de Ven and Lahaye are fully aware of this. "These last few weeks we have often said this. We need to kick off with a charm offensive. Not only targeted at the competitors, but also the media, the general public, collaborators, volunteers and so forth. Everyone deserves a smile and needs to be helped. The good atmosphere needs to return and we therefore need to research what we can change ", they commented in unison. "A Fleming and a Walloon who work together; an excellent example of how it should be. Working together we can come out on top. Christian knows how to handle the French speaking market, and I the Dutch speaking one. In this way we want to bring the 24Hours of Zolder and Belgian motorsport back on to the pedestal it deserves, with once more a well-filled entry list ", Van de Ven continued.
"But it's not only up to the promoters, this goes for the circuits also. Circuit Zolder needs to pull in the same direction and the only way to tempt spectators back to the race tracks is to carry out better promotions ", Van de Ven comments."We have some great events on the Belgian calendar; the 12 Hours of Spa, the 10Hours of Zolder and the 24Hours of Zolder, but far too little attention is drawn to these. Have you seen flyers for the Belgian Race Kick Off? Apart from the limited number of motorsport fans no-one even knew that this event was taking place. A lost opportunity, andfor us also. Budgets will need to be released in order to bring motorsport back to the attention of the general public, which is why the organisers will also have to risk making the investment. It is not only up to the promoters to take on the situation single-handedly."
Photo: Marnik Mouchaers
 VZW 24u.be - Gordon McKay on Wednesday 19 August 2009 at 23:55. | 
