This year's final round of the Belcar season was held at Zolder, a circuit we all know well and where we normally do well.
Practice sessions were held on Saturday so as not to disrupt the Nascar Euro series. Our pace was good from the start, we had raced a lot at Zolder this season, so our main focus was to get the car where it belongs in practice and make sure we didn't have any problems. That was exactly what we did, without pushing the car to its limits. A P3 was the final verdict, a good result for us as we didn't push.
Later that day, we also had to qualify for Sunday's race. A 40-minute session would determine who would start in pole position. We immediately got into the groove and set a couple of fastest laps. Although these laps were quite good, they were not enough. We went out again and improved significantly. A great lap eventually proved enough for a comfortable pole position. The fourth in a row for us, a great achievement for us as a team.
Our race start was not great and we made some contact with our rivals, nothing serious but never a nice feeling. Almost no damage so luckily we were able to continue, during this fight we lost 2 positions. We quickly caught up with our rivals and got back into the lead. We didn't run into any major problems and managed to extend our lead to around 20 seconds. Although our lap times remained stable, our Lamborghini did not feel perfect. A problem on the left side of the car made it unpredictable throughout the race. At this point, we were still able to push hard enough to stay in the race. After just over an hour, I got in the car to finish the race. We held our form well throughout our stint, until a fuel problem forced us to make an early pit stop. At that point, we had lost a lot of time on our rivals because of that fuel problem. We kept pushing, but the car no longer felt great and it was getting harder to maintain our pace every lap. Nevertheless, we were on course for P2 in the race, P2 in the Belcar championship and I was on course to win the Belcar junior trophy for the second year in a row. All this until disaster struck, five minutes before the finishing flag. A heavy crash by my teammate marked the end of our promising Belcar season. Despite the disappointment, I am relieved that Cédric is fine.
It is unfortunate to end our season like this, a season where we immediately won our first race with the team and continued to perform like it should be for an ambitious team like ours. Our season was colored by amazing achievements like getting 4 poles in a row to getting the fastest lap after lap in the tricky wet conditions of the Nürburgring. Luck didn’t always go our way otherwise we would have walked away with even more then we achieved this year. Our 2 wins were amazing, but I want more and I’m certain that we can achieve this next year where I’ll come back even stronger.
But let’s first wrap up my season in the Funcup next weekend at Zolder. I hope to see you there!
