2009 FIA GT Championship

Ten years after Helsinki ... the FIA GT goes back to the streets

May 20th will be quite a historic day for the FIA GT Championship. Not only will it mark the Championship’s first visit to Bucharest, but it will be the first city circuit on the Championship’s calendar for almost exactly ten years.
In May 1997, the FIA GT Championship raced in the Finnish capital city of Helsinki. The excitement of that weekend, when local hero JJ Lehto claimed pole position in front of thousands of fans, has remained in the memories, and the teams and drivers taking part in the 2007 season are eager to savour the delight of racing through the centre of a major city, around historic buildings and with a magnificent backdrop formed by the parliamentary buildings.
The action-packed race weekend will include the third round of the 2007 FIA GT Championship, the second event of the FIA GT3 European Championship and the third meeting of the Lloyds TSB Insurance British Formula Three International Series. These three SRO-promoted series will be joined by the Dacia Logan Cup.

The Vodaphone Bucharest Challenge 07 will follow on from the success of Silverstone, where 25,000 spectators turned up to watch Thomas Biagi and Mika Salo win the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy in their Vitaphone Racing Maserati MC 12. Dirk Müller and Toni Vilander won the GT2 category in their AF Corse Motorola Ferrari 430 GT2, making it two out of two. Tom Cloet and Pertti Kuismanen won the inaugural Citation Cup in the SRT Corvette C5R. In the FIA GT3 European Championship, Henri Moser and Gilles Vannelet won both rounds of the FIA GT3 European Championship in their Ferrari 430 Challenge GT3, giving Kessel Racing an early lead in the Teams championship.
After Silverstone, a familiar location for many of the competitors, Bucharest will be something totally new. A grand total of 116 trucks will be heading for the Romanian capital city, where they will meet just outside the centre and head in convoy to the paddock on Thursday morning.

P.S. In the Dacia Logan Cup RPM member HenY[RPM] will race, together with his team ADAC Team Hansa 1. On behalf of the whole RPM team, i wish HenY[RPM] the best of luck on the Streets of Bucharest!

streckebn3.jpg
 
Juuhuu henY :) Kick some ass in the RPM Dacia Logan!!! If you need stickers you now where to turn to :)
 
  • Henrik Stoldt

Thanks guys :). I'm going to win for the RPM team lol \:D/!

@Kodiak: #5

1156758204IMG_0325.JPG


Dacia on the left :)
 
henY does your team has a website: we can do some promotion of you here of course! would be nice to see how you survive the dacia season!

and hell yeah: make us proud!
 
  • Henrik Stoldt

Back

Guys it was AWESOME : D!
The track is very challenging and hard to master. The Qualifying had been screwed by some accident, so I couldn't set a decent lap time. Started from P9 and finished 5th after 20 minutes. I guess 10 minutes more would've been enough for P3. However I set the second best "Logan-Laptime" on Bucharest and I'm satisfied with how the race went (but hated Quali). I'm going to upload my hotlap soon and I just found some video of one the accidents on YouTube, to give you a small impression of the event already. Oh yeah, our car isn't damaged at all : D.

PS: Did I mention, that both races had been televised on some romanian TV channel?? : ) : ) : ) : )


Logan crash :(
 
  • Henrik Stoldt

Racemaus[RPM];50568 said:
Nice to hear you had a good weekend! But what happend in Race 2: you didn't finish that race, isn't it?

My teammate spun off and the engine didn't want to start anymore :S. But my part went well :).
 
  • Wido Rossen

Hezemans take`s pole for 24 hour of Spa

With only five minutes remaining in the final qualifying session for this weekend's Total 24 Hours of Spa, Mike Hezemans finally found a clear track in front of him in the nr 5 Carsport Holland Corvette C6.R. Making the most of the opportunity, he lapped the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in 2:14.554 - enough to improve his grid position by one place and snatch pole from the Nr 33 Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9.

HEZEMANS.jpg


The team were the only car in the top ten to improve their time during final qualifying, most teams using the session to make final preparations for the race. In fact, three teams in the top ten did not turn a wheel during the 45-minute session, held on a dry track under partly cloudy skies.

“I did two laps yesterday on new tyres, and then I stopped because of the traffic," explained Hezemans. "This morning, the car was quite quick, and I was sure that we had the car to set the pole position, so I ask for new tyres. That was a good lap, and in fact my only clear lap in all the qualifying sessions! Fabrizio Gollin and Marcel Fässler are really quick, Jean-Denis Deletraz is always good here, so we have a strong package to get a good result.”

The nr 23 Aston Martin Racing BMS DBR9 was out in final qualifying, after missing both night qualifying sessions after an accident. There were no changes in the top ten of GT2, where the nr 51 AF Corse Motorola Ferrari F430 remains on the class pole.


Yeah , come on Mike,
Show them how it`s done.
 
  • Wido Rossen

And YES they did it.
Hezemans and team won the 24 hour of Spa.

After 532 laps around the 7.004 km circuit of Spa Francorchamps, the nr 5 Carsport Holland Corvette C6-R of Deletraz, Hezemans, Fässler and Gollin, with technical assistance from Phoenix, took the chequered flag to win the Total 24 Hours of Spa, round 6 of the 2007 FIA GT Championship. They finished ahead of long-time leader nr 1 Vitaphone Maserati MC 12 of Bartels, Biagi, van de Poele and Lamy, which had lost a lap after going off an hour before the end. Local heros PK Carsport came home third with their Corvette C5-R, driven by Kumpen, Longin, Bouvy and Mollekens.In GT2, after a Ferrari whitewash in the five rounds to date, all honours went to Porsche with a trio of the German cars on the podium. Victory went to BMS Scuderia Italia’s Porsche 997 GT3 RSR of Collard, Malucelli and Lieb. Second was the IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche of Lietz, Long and Narac, with Tech9 Motorsport third for Edwards, Machitski and Maassen.
G3 was won by Mühlner Motorsport with their Porsche, while the nr 105 Mosler won G2. JMB Racing won the innovative Coupe du Roi with a Ferrari 430 GT3.

The results are provisional pending anti-doping tests .......lol
 
Anybody interested in joining me to go to the Spa event next season? I seriously want to be part of the FIA GT once :smokin:
 
  • Wido Rossen

FIA GT 2008

Former F1 pilot, Jos Verstappen will join van Merksteijn in 2008 for the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The popular Dutch driver contested over 100 GPs in his career and has competed for the Netherlands in the A1 GP Series.

"I am looking forward to being able to race again next season, and especially so in the Le Mans 24 hours. That is a highlight for any racing driver," said Verstappen.

Verstappen will be joined by sportscar ace Jeroen Bleekemolen who has competed for Spyker and Racing for Holland. Additionally, like Verstappen, Bleekemolen has competed for the Netherlands in the A1 GP.

The final driver in the van Merksteijn is team owner Peter van Merksteijn.

This will be a team to watch in LMP2 as the previous 'gentleman's agreement' that saw the team running one professional and one amateur driver seems to have been forgotten. As other RS Spyder teams (Essex and Horag) announced top level driver lineups, this is not a surprise - but for their sake, they better not dominate too much.

Or the ACO will step in.


(Source feedmesportscars )
 
Yeah i read it in the "Telegraaf" today. Jos has his own colums there. Not like some other countrymen of me i am still a fan of Jos. I really love his drivingstyle (yeah start the sandtrap jokes, i dont care :) ) and his arrogant behaviour sometimes.
One thing is pretty funny about this deal. Some years back Jos said the LeMans series were for old men only. Probably he has the right age now!
I hope he does well and i will be following him closely again like i used to do in his F1 carreer!

Go Jos the Boss
 

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