Merciless overall victory for the SRT Corvette of Tom Cloet

Just over one year ago Tom Cloet was still driving a Toyota Yaris in the Belgian Touring Car Series. Since then this driver's racing career, who above all is a young business professional, has taken quite a leap. Not only has Tom competed in most of the 24 Hours events (of which Le Mans and Francorchamps), but this weekend, at Zolder he took a great leap forward by integrating Patrick Selleslagh's SRT team, taming the powerful Corvette C5-R, and in fact in ... winning the race together with Duez, Soulet and Hart. In fact our young friend Cloet is starting to secure himself with quite an impressive record of achievements ...

Tom had promised the SRT team that they did not have to count on him to take any major risks or titillate any records. On the alert during the entire weekend, the driver applied himself to the full during the practice sessions so as to discover all the subtleties involved in handling the Corvette... "And here I must thank all my team-mates and especially Marc Duez", Tom commented. "Not only did he invest his time, but together we analysed the telemetric data in order to define the way in which I could improve my driving style. He took it all very seriously and I am truly grateful for his advice ..."

If Maxime Soulet took care in providing the major surprise during the qualifying sessions, by spiriting away the pole position from GLPK Corvette thanks to a very impressive effort, the SRT team decided to run this long event holding to a sustained rhythm, without really worrying about the other C5-R, nor the Marcos LM600 of Marc Goossens and Cor Euser, also a highly reliable contender ... "In our eyes the GLPK was quite simply out of reach ", Tom Cloet remarked."Patrick Selleslagh advised us not even to attempt following the pace of Kumpen, Longin, Hezemans and Mollekens, and we were right in doing so. The Zolder circuit is unforgiving. There aren't really any long straights, and the cars are put to excessive strain. Outcome: half-way through the race the Corvette GLPK broke its gearbox and we took over the lead ..."

On the relay front, Cloet carried out two double stints, meaning that he drove a total of 4h30 at the wheel of the Corvette. "I took over the car by nightfall .And as Maxime had had a slight encounter with the Marcos earlier in the race, we didn't have any lights on the left hand side. Not ideal when charging into the bends! On top of that during refuelling sessions, which takes place in an area very similar to a petrol station, the Corvette was not at ease ...as she doesn't have a tight lock. We needed to estimate the distance each time ..."

Tom took over at noon time, respecting the instructions given to him by radio, and reducing his pace. "It's really most enjoyable to be in the leading position in such a race as the 24 Hours of Zolder for a one and a half hour relay. After that it was my team-mates who brought the car to the finish and it was with great overall euphoria that we actually won the 24 Hours of Zolder. I'm still having trouble trying to realise this, and I noticed that the teams always expect more from me even though I am not a professional driver and only rarely have time to test between races ..."

With a win in the 24 Hours of Zolder now added to his record of achievements Tom Cloet has gained his promotion stripes. Because this Flemish speaking driver's serious approach is drawing a great deal of attention ... "I would love to be able to compete in a full championship next year, be it in Belgium or elsewhere. I don't know any more than that at the moment, but loads of people are coming to talk to me. I reckon that's a pretty good sign. But whatever might happen, for me this weekend will always remain one of the most important, one which resulted in a first victory in a major event ..."

VF/Cloet press

VZW 24u.be - De redactie on Sunday 27 August 2006 at 21:41.