Relatively calm start of the Zolder 24 Hours

The opening hours of the Zolder 24 hours were, unlike other years, relatively calm. 41 cars made it to the grid, with the #14 Porsche Biturbo starting from the pitlane. The weather was ideal, no rain and no heat, but that didn't inspire the drivers to do crazy things.

Kumpen, in the GLPK Corvette, only needed one lap to take first position from Duez in the other C5-R. Marc Goossens meanwhile promised a quick start of the LM600: "We'll attack till the bitter end", and he did so. The Belgian Nascar ace overtook the blue C5-R and he and Cor Euser managed to keep the big Marcos in this position; The Eurotech was also somewhat helped by a stop and go for Marc Duez: "Yellow, I didn't see yellow."
Meanwhile Kumpen and Longin were easing away. "Everything is perfect, except for the tyre pressure and the traffic. The traffic is a catastrophe", commented the Paul-Ricard winner after his stint.
After three hours, Hezemans still led the race, with two laps over Euser and Soulet, who had an epic battle for second. 10 minutes before the three-hour mark the young gun finally overtook the experienced Flying Dutchman.
Right after the three-hour mark, Soulet and Euser touched. The SRT Corvette suffered some damage at the front.

In class-2, two frontrunners hit trouble immediately. Jos Menten, in the #38 PSI RSR lost time after an incident on track, while a well-started Gino Kenis in the Mosler – he led class-2 for almost an hour – lost precious time. Kenis: "The throttle cable broke, but luckily I made it home. We're now more than 15 laps down, but we'll recover."
It's now the GS BMW V8 GTR, with Willie Moore, versus the Porsches of Prospeed and CEO.

The battle in class- 3 is wide open. The best starter was Dutchman Pim Van Riet in the CEO Porsche Supercup, but the opposition isn't far behind. The difference between CEO and the First Porsche of Kelly Jamers in fifth was only 15 seconds after two and a half hours. The Ultima lost a lap in the opening stages and is in seventh.

A stunning Frank Hahn leads the guest class in his Porsche and the Le Mans driver is 8th overall.

Unluckily, we also lost some of the cars. The #22 Prospeed Cup, with Kelders crashed out after only a few laps and Nico Verdonck, who started from the pitlane, lost his gearbox and retired too. The #9 AD Porsche blew its engine after 2 hours and so caused the first safety car intervention.

Exceptionally, Joost Custers (www.dailysportscar.com) authorizes the use of his article for the www.24u.be website.

VZW 24u.be - De redactie on Saturday 26 August 2006 at 20:30.