BRC: The Belgians at Buxtehude

Category: April, Miscellaneous, News Posted 23.04.12 19:11 by Eddi Laumanns

Jos Jansen (SuperCars), Davy Van Den Branden (Super1600s) and Pedro Bonnet (TouringCars) picked up the Belgian Rallycross Championship laurels at the Estering.

The regulars of the Belgian Rallycross Championship went to Buxtehude in Germany to drive the second round of their series at the Estering near Hamburg during a weekend with mixed weather and track conditions. In the qualification runs they had to merge with the German championship contenders, but the finals were split up and done for both series each, DRX and BRC.

Only two Belgian SuperCar drivers made it to Buxtehude, Jos Jansen with his Ford Focus Mk3 and Ronny Scheveneels with his VW Scirocco Mk3. Jansen claimed all three qualifying heats from Scheveneels as well as winning the A final from the 2001 Division 2 European champion. Among the Super1600 campaigners it was a different story, Dave Van Beers (Renault Clio Mk2), Davy Van Den Branden (Citroën C2) and Dennis Remans (Ford Fiesta Mk6) each setting a fastest qualification time. In the A final it was eventually Van Den Branden who run away with victory, Van Beers finishing second and Remans sixth.

Similar situation for the TouringCar drivers, three man bagging one fastest time each in the heats. The first runs went to Pedro Bonnet, but in the second heat the Volvo campaigner retired with a broken oil pipe of his C30 while Patrick Mertens (VW Polo Mk4) set the best time here. In the third qualifying heat Koen Pauwels drove the Volvo C30 of Jos Sterkens to the fastest time as well as securing himself the pole position for the A final. However, at the end of the weekend Bonnet fought back and grabbed overall victory when the Volvo men scored a C30 one-two, Pauwels reaching chequers as runner-up.

After a gearbox change on Saturday evening Filip Baelus on Sunday afternoon won the SuperNational +2000 category with his Volvo C30 while the laurels of the SuperNational -2000 class were picked by Christoph Chalmet in the Rover MG ZR.