Raphaël van der Straten : "Objective : both Ford Mustangs at the finish!"Regarded as some to be the pinnacle of the Belgian GT Championship, the 24 Hours of Zolder has the particularity of mixing up the various types this time around, with the usual GT3 versions in the national Grand Touring competition rubbing shoulders with the GT1s' of a previous generation, a GT2, as also a fair number of Silhouettes and Touring cars. In brief, an eclectic grid making any forecasts almost impossible..
In the VDS Racing Adventures ranks, the last few weeks were spent preparing the two Ford Mustang muscle cars entered in what is forecast to be a sun-drenched weekend at Zolder. « We can officially announce that we are present with two new cars," Raphaël van der Straten explains. The Mustang FR500C GT4 has been completely rebuilt, whereas this FR500 GT3 has not been on the track this year. We modified it with a view to an endurance race, and she weighs in at 1380 kilos on the scales. The only problem we experienced was a one week delay in the preparation work, which resulted in us not being able to carry out any tests whatsoever prior to this event, which is known to be hard on the mechanical parts ... »
The various free practice and qualifying sessions were put to good use not only by Raphaël, but also his renowned team-mates, namely Stéphane Lémeret, Maxime Martin and Eric De Doncker, to carry out the Mustang GT3's necessary set-up boasting the famous VDS livery. « We were confronted with all sorts of minor problems which prevented us from concentrating on the performances, Stéphane Lémeret summarised. The car is in fact fitted with a new braking system, and at this moment we don't know its length of resistance, especially in the heat we experienced this Thursday! But all in all, the result isn't that bad, with a 12th time overall, behind far more powerful cars, notwithstanding a major understeer problem which seems to be bugging us. It's up to us to sort that out, to find the appropriate solutions and to adopt a sensible rhythm during the race ... »
For Raphaël van der Straten, the objective is a double one: to have the satisfaction of seeing the two Ford Mustang at the finish, but also to clinch the podium in Division 1 of the Belgian GT. « There are no secrets, in order to hope reaching the finish, especially if the weather remains hot, we'll need to spare the cars", Maxime Martin and Eric De Doncker concluded. It's the distance that can make all the difference, and in that way gather up a maximum number of points in the championship ... »
There we also some worries for the Mustang GT4, driven by Christian Deridder, Jérémy Princen, Amaury Heurckmans and José Close. « We also experienced some brake problems, and the origins are to be found with the stirrups, the young promising Jérémy Princen told us. We changed a fair amount of things on the car during the night of Wednesday on Thursday, in order to improve the handling. In our case it will be a question of driving, and more driving, in order to systematically climb back up the rankings ... »
Undoubtedly the entire VDS Racing Adventures team have had the opportunity of thoroughly immersing themselves in these 24 Hours of Zolder 2009. On Saturday, the start of the race will take place at 16.00hrs precisely, with the arrival scheduled some 24 hours later ... for the more fortunate ones! « One thing is for sure: within the VDS Racing Adventures team, no one ever gives up, and the word retirement is not part of our vocabulary, Raphaël van der Straten interceded. Rendezvous on Sunday afternoon on the finishing line! »
VF/VDS  VZW 24u.be - De redactie on Thursday 20 August 2009 at 23:09. | 
