SRT announces line-up for 24 Hours of Zolder

Barely one week after the 24 Hours of Spa and SRT has prepared its homework for the following appointment: the 24 Hours of Zolder. David Hart, Marc Duez, Maxime Soulet and newcomer Tom Cloet will be defending the colours of the Williams sponsored team of Patrick Selleslagh that clinched the race at Zolder last year. After an excellent first half of the season, with numerous podiums in both the French as also the Belgian GT championships, the classic Zolder race, with its double points is a major event in the battle for the Belcar championship. Even though the distance, the traffic and GLPK will all be opponents to be feared.

"The 24 Hours of Zolder is an exceptionally demanding and difficult race. Even with a perfect preparation, good drivers and an excellent car anything can happen during the 24 Hours of Zolder. The track is demanding for both the people and the technical aspects, and in fact over a very short and windy track there is an incredible amount of gear changes involved and the drivers barely have time to recuperate.", Patrick Selleslagh explains. "This is why I opted for a balanced and experienced team .Not only Marc Duez and David Hart but also the newcomer to the team, Tom Cloet, already has a considerable amount of 24 Hours experience and this is not an insignificant asset. All three have in fact previously competed in the 24 Hours of Spa, Le Mans and Zolder, which is not to be taken as an underestimated reference. We are linking this experience to the young talent of Maxime Soulet, who after a first experience in Spa recently and who was fully convinced about the car's potential is determined to perform strongly in Zolder. We still have an outstanding debt to settle after Spa and we intend settling this within tree weeks time, you can be sure about that."

Tom Cloet is in fact the newcomer at SRT "But in fact the contacts with Patrick go back at least 10 years. In those days I even competed against him in the Carglass-Cup and always had a positive experience with him", Tom declared. "I really enjoy 24 Hour-races and now I have the opportunity to compete in Zolder at the wheel of a GT1-car – and what a car at that. The SRT-Corvette C5-R appeals to one's imagination and is an absolute candidate for taking the chequered flag at Zolder. On top of that I'm joining a highly experienced team and my team-mates are definitely not unknown entities. I'm really looking forward to this."

On Thursday 17th August SRT will be testing the car at the Zolder circuit and on Wednesday and Thursday 23rd and 24th August the timed qualifying sessions will take place. The 24 Hour race will start on Saturday 26t August at 17:00hrs.

JC/SRT press

VZW 24u.be - De redactie on Tuesday 8 August 2006 at 11:43.