First Motorsport vs. GPR - a heroic battle one and half hours from the end

It's going to be tense that is pretty obvious. That a Porsche would win we practically knew beforehand, but it was terribly difficult to actually pinpoint a favourite. Each class had its own protagonists, and these have all proved themselves. For a long while the AD Sport Porsche 996 Biturbo #228 battled it out for the overall victory, but they lost contact with the two leaders. Up front it is between two Division I Porsches, namely those of First Motorsport and GPR.

Pino Sperlinga vs. Jo Jamers; a heroic battle, which will undoubtedly be entered into the annals of Circuit Zolder. The Italian charisma up against the rational Limburg way of thinking. It provided, and presently still does an interesting tactical game of chess, where GPR is check. Except for problems with the #50 of Haane, Stielstra, Verbist and Vancampenhoudt, we could even go as far as to state check mate for GPR...

"We fine tune our strategy according to that of our competitors ", Jo Jamers confided. "It is not up to us to attack; we merely watch to see what they are doing at GPR. Pino is an experienced strategist, and he doesn't just give up, you can be sure of that. But we have also done our homework. Should we be able to keep our advantage of two laps then Goose will be allowed to carry the car over the finish line. Should I need to make an emergency measure, should the eventual victory be brought into contention then I will send Stefan back out on to the track."

Pino Sperlinga looks at it in a sober manner: "At this moment in time we are in the camp of the underdog. They have a comfortable lead. Marc has just completed a fantastic stint, and then we decided to allow Guillaume to drive another twenty minutes. The last stint will be for Maxime Soulet. He is our joker, and hopefully he might be able to swing the race over to our advantage. But whatever happens we're doing a good deal in the championship, and that's something we mustn't forget. "

Marc Goossens with the GPR Porsche #56 worked off a brilliant stint. He was able to make up one la, but then had to hand over to Dumarey: "I can't fully follow what our strategy is, but we'll see what transpires."

Both cars still need to complete one pit stop each. There is presently a gap of 4 minutes, which boils down to just over two laps. Pure tension. GT3 in Zolder? Fantastic!

VZW 24u.be - Gordon McKay on Sunday 9 September 2007 at 14:30.