Noon update!Rain made its appearance this morning, but that changed little to the actual situation. 27 cars are still running, with the little BMW 120d being the last retirement. Although SRT now leads the race by 5 laps over the Marcos and 23 over the GLPK Corvette, the battle isn't over yet. Certainly as 5 laps at Zolder only mean about 7 or 8 minutes; the track is much shorter than f.i. Le Mans or Spa.
Class-1 is now simply equal to the battle at front as the top-3 are the only cars left among the GT1-runners. "We loose too much time in the pitlane", explains Wim Noorman, owner of Eurotech. "The car is simply too thirsty, so our stints are about ten minutes shorter than the stints of both the Chevy's. Our pace is ok, we can't make it up with them on track only."
"And I don't believe that we can get by on race pace. We'll need some luck if we want to get back at front", admits Jorge Segers, team manager of GLPK.
So, SRT will be the logical winner? Wait and see, as 1/3 of the race still had to run.
In Class-2, BMW is creating a big surprise. The Bavarian make is now in first, third and fourth. With the G&A Mosler back in fifth, that makes only one Porsche left in the top-5. As in LMS, Le Mans and Spa, the 996 GT3 is suffering its age?
GS is leading now, after the driveshaft problems of the Prospeed Porsche, with both KS BMW Silhouettes in third and fourth. KS was third overall last year, so this is not so much of a surprise.
The CEO and PSI Porsches are both well down the order. "We were chasing all night after our problems", explains Tim Verbergt of PSI. "But the rhythm of Menten and Belloc might have been fatal. Now the clutch is causing a delay. For me, 24 hours is not about sprinting..."
Bot CEO Porsches, the Class-2 RS and the class-3 Cup also suffered clutch problems and are now 21st and 27nd.
Class 3 is an eternal battle that will last till the end. First is still leading, with NGT second, GS third, Speedlover fourth and fifth. What a race of this little Cup-cars!
Frankie Hahn still leads the guest class.
Exceptionally, Joost Custers (www.dailysportscar.com) authorizes the use of his article for the www.24u.be website.  VZW 24u.be - De redactie on Sunday 27 August 2006 at 11:00. | 
