Hans Thiers, Zolder 24 Hours regular driver since 1993It was 1993 when Hans Thiers was starting his first Zolder 24 Hours. He was a rookie with few or even no experience at all. Yet he took it way up from being young and ambitious. He has been at Zolder ever since 1993 – sometimes successful, sometimes not. His best results were seen throughout the last years. Both in 2003 and 2004 he obtained a 4th overall ranking.
 Both 4th places in the overall rankings equalled class victories in GTB. Still Hans is also looking back happily to his earlier efforts. "In 1994 is was driving for the GL team on their second car. Frank, my brother, was still trying to get past in the last qualifying session when we made contact. Result: we both made it to the pits on three wheels. While our team manager was totally desperate, Stijn Oosterlinck managed to get spare parts from Germany and both cars made it to the starting grid. Even more miraculous, both cars made it to the finish as well."
"As a 'reward' for all the gravel we spilled at the 'first lefthand curve' the marshals provided us with a broom and made us clean up the mess. We were really not that happy at the time, yet now he can have a good laugh about it."
The Thiers brothers will have to do without Kurt this year, owing to an injury. Hans and Frank will be assisted by Laurent Van Moerkerke and the highly experienced Guy Van Mol – signing up for Zolder each year and casually completing stints exceeding 2 hours. The team will drive their regular Porsche 996 GT3, equipped for this occasion with a Supercup engine for additional reliability.
Photo: Russell Racing - P. Hendrickx
(DDS/JFL)  VZW 24u.be - Jan-Frans Lemmens on Monday 8 August 2005 at 11:46. | 
