Daikin Racing to be testing maidenly white BMW The Daikin Racing Team had started the season with plenty of ambitions. The first race we saw no less than a Ferrari 360 Modena in the livery of the airco constructor, prepared by BPO Racing. Yet the Ferrari project didn’t last for long. The italian make did actually only make it to the qualifications of the Belcar First Race. That’s all we saw from it in the Mediagroep Van Dyck Belcar Original championship. For the Belcar Home Race the Daikin Racing Team decided to get back into the old Mini Cooper S3… yet it was already clear in May the team of Wetteren, Belgium based Alexandra Van de Velde had other plans.
 "We chose to run the Euphony 24 Hours of Zolder on a diesel BMW 120. The car will be slightly modified for this 24 hours race. The sequential gearbox will be changed for a regular one, as the sequential one is somewhat more fragile”, Alexandra Van de Velde tells us upon unloading a maidenly white BMW. “Otherwise the car is perfectly suited for endurance racing. The car is diesel powered, which is an all-time first in Belcar history. Next to it’s solid reliability, the lower fuel consumption will be our major asset.”
“Our strategy is to cut back the refuelling to an absolute minimum. The car should easily be able to last for over 3 hours without refuelling”, Van de Velde explains. “We’ll adapt our driver stints to the wearing of the tires. Moreover we’ll be looking for a good pace without ever overdoing the car.This is something we’ll be testing extensively during the thursday afternoon trainings. I’ll be sharing the car with Caroline Grifnée. We’re still negociating the third and fourth drivers. Yet according to our team’s tradition these will certainly be lady drivers.”
 For Alexandra Van de Velde this will be her 7th participation in the Euphony 24 Hours of Zolder: “My most beautiful memory was my first one”, she says. “I was sharing the car with Vanina Ickx and Andy Jaenen. We had the slowest car of all, yet we managed to take a Class podium (T2) and 16th overall. This race was a thrilling first 24 hours experience. Not only because I was driving along close friends like Vanina and Andy, yet also because of the result we could never have hoped for!"
Foto's: Marnik Mouchaers
 VZW 24u.be - Jan-Frans Lemmens on Thursday 10 August 2006 at 14:03. | 
