Dutch Clios?

[Carrie]

Autosport are filling up a few column inches (or should that be millimetres given the tiny length of the news snippet) with the news that Dutch Touring Car Team Verschuur Racing won't be building a Laguna for the ETCC and will instead concentrate on the Dutch Touring Car Championship where they run Clios and possibly at a few BTCC rounds. Do you think we might see a Dutch entry at any of the BTCC rounds? Also, if this happens, is there any chance that other teams from elsewhere might decide to do selected rounds.

[redshoes]

In MN Richard West is quoted as saying there were some privateers who wanted to do some races on an ad-hoc basis. Always good to see some new faces. (Makes for great future trivia questions)

The only problem might be the difference in regulations between BTC-P and DTCC. Rob Collard's Clio had to run with a different spec engine and front suspension last year because of that. The differences are fairly minor but more than just 10 mins in the back of the truck to fix.

[RickP:Clio51]

Having chatted with the Dutch guys at Assen last year, it turns out that their 2001 cars were much further from the UK rules than their 2000 car which Collard converted to UK spec for 2001.
I would have thought therefore that it is pretty unlikely we will be seeing them then...
Cheers
RickP

[Reido Rules]

Maybe they will convert their cars from 2001 to BTCC riles and run them when possible and use new 2002 cars in the DTCC.

It will be great to see them if only for one round, because they might just get hooked and do the whole of 2003.

[Speedworx]

They ran a race in the ETCC last year.

[RickP:Clio51]

Reido,
Hate to be the pessimist, but their sponsorship deals are based on high levels of sponsor attendance. On average they entertain about 250 guests per round and the Dutch races get incredible TV coverage (one hour program before the Grand Prix). I know they look at doing the odd round here and there when the cash is available but whilst I wouldn't rule out them making a assault on the ETCC they are very unlikely to be seen over here on a regular basis. As I said when I spoke to them last year, they were pretty uninterested in the UK because the cars would need new engines and gearbox and suspension to come to the UK.
RickP

[Speedworx]

Lets wait and see, shall we?

[RickP:Clio51]

Thank you for that Hakkiman,
Another informed and valuable contribution to the forum.
In case you aren't aware:
Forum= Place of informed debate.
How many of your 1465 posts have had any value whatsoever to the community beyond the expression of total pessimism or your uninformed opinion?
Yes we could wait and see, in the meantime would you mind awfully if we can have an informed debate over the likelihood?
Thank you.
RickP

[Carrie]

I'll admit to knowing zilch about the Dutch Touring Cars, however, my feeling upon reading what Autosport wrote was that it was just an article filling a little bit of the mag for them and that it wouldn't actually happen, so that was my reason for posting about it here. I was hoping that some people here would know more about the Dutch series and would be able to offer a more enlightened opinion about it than I could give. Nice to know that some people actually could give some extra information about whether it might happen or not.

[Michael H]

when I read the initial story I thought that Verscurr were going to run Super Prod Laguna's in the ETCC. I didn't realise thay were trying for Super 2000 compliance.

Anyway, good on 'em for having a go. It would be really great to see Renault in the ETCC in 2003. The old Laguna's were awesome looking touring cars. They were so fast at Bathurst in 1997. The new Laguna would look fantastic as a Super 2000 car in the 2003 ETCC.

The Dutch series is great. Very competitive. Great cars, great drivers. Anyone know its website?