Dutch GT4

[werner]

Round 4-6 of the Dutch GT4-championship were held at Zandvoort last monday. 17.500 visitors saw the drivers finisch in the following order.

Race 1:
1. Junior Strous, Aston Martin GT4, 14 laps in 26:17,388 (137,615 km/u)
2. Tim Buijs, BMW M3, op 0,564 sec.,
3. Christiaan Frankenhout, Porsche 997, op 1,000,

Junior Strous skipped a race of the Indy Light series to race in Europe for his Sponsors.


Race 2:
1. Jeroen Bleekemolen, Corvette C6, 14 laps in 26:18,583 (137, 511km/u)
2. Phil Bastiaans, Porsche 997, op 0,740 sec.,
3. Danny van Dongen, Corvette C6, op 0,782,

Bleekemolen did not qualify due to racingduty's in the German Porschecup at the Lausitzring, so he had to start from the last place (22th). Fortunately, that gave him fresh tires, so the disadvantage was not that large.


Race 3:
1. Tim Buijs / Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, BMW M3 GT4, 26 laps in 50:37, 074 (132,738 km/u)
2. Simon Knap, BMW M3 GT4 GT4, op 5,254 sec.,
3. Phil Bastiaans / Christiaan Frankenhout, Porsche 997, op 7,156

Junior Strous was in the lead for a long time, but his mandatory pitstop was to short, so he had to do a stop-and-go-penalty throwing him out of the podiumspots.


For the next 3 races, the championship for the first time moves to Assen.

[zac510]

I'm most surprised by the amount of spectators!

[werner]

It was great wheather, that will have helped.

[rich07]

That is a great crowd, was Dutch GT4 there by itself or with other categories??

[werner]

There were also (seperate) races for other Dutch championships: Renault Clios, Formula Fords, Suzuki Swift-cup and a championship for dieselpowered touringcars. But the GT4-championship really was the main race of the event.

[Bramzel]

Originally Posted by rich07

That is a great crowd, was Dutch GT4 there by itself or with other categories??

The Dutch GT4's race in events called the 'Dutch Power Pack', which consists of:

- Dutch GT4 Championship
- Suzuki Swift Cup
- Renault Clio Cup
- Benelux Racing League (silhouette racers on Nascar tyres, low-tech but high-fun)
- Formule Ford
- Touringcar Diesel Cup (endurance races with compact diesels like the Honda Civic, BMW 1-series and Volvo C30)

[rich07]

Thanks. Sounds like a good event to go see.

[werner]

Last weekend it was time for rounds 7-9 of the Dutch GT4-championship at the TT-circuit in Assen. The results:

Race 1:
1. Jeroen Bleekemolen, Corvette C6, 14 laps in 26:09.521
2. Danny van Dongen, Corvette C6, at 0.211 sec.
3. Rory Bertram, Porsche 997 GT4, at 1.793

Corvette ruled the first race of the weekend. Bleekemolen started from 3th, was 5th after the first corner, and had the lead after 7 laps. 2 small mistakes kept Van Dongen close untill the end of the race


Race 2
1. Ricardo van der Ende, BMW M3 14 laps
2. Christiaan Frankenhout, Porsche 997 GT4 at 2.208
3. Bertus Sanders, Ginetta G50 at 2.783

Van der Ende, back from his 1-weekend penalty due to his behaviour in the first weekend scored a victory at the second race of the weekend. After taking the lead in the first corner, he was not really challenged. Second man Frankenhout was to busy defending against Sanders in the Ginetta.



Race 3
1. Duncan Huisman / Ricardo van der Ende, BMW M3 26 laps
2. Christiaan Frankenhout / Phil Bastiaans, Porsche 997 GT4 op 2.716
3. Jeroen Bleekemolen / Peter van der Kolk, Corvette C6 op 5.328

The BMW of Ekris Motorsport takes it's second win of the weekend, but not without a fight. In the first part of the race, Bleekemolen takes a comfortable lead, but later in the race the Corvette falls back, partly due to Van der Kolk being slower, partly from the Corvette suffering from an oilleak. Van der Ende takes the lead, but is closely followed by another Corvette of Zumbrink and Van Dongen. Van Dongen is behind the wheel, and in the last few laps he tries corner after corner to overtake the M3. In the last lap it goes wrong. Van Dongen has to go through a graveltrap, and only finisches 7th.



Standings:
1 Christiaan Frankenhout 68
2 Jeroen Bleekemolen 66
3 Paul van Splunteren 45
4 Phil Bastiaans 42
5 Duncan Huisman 39
6 Bas Schothorst 37
7 Ricardo van der Ende 32
8 Danny van Dongen 30
9 Tim Buijs 29
10 Menno Kuus 22

Next races are at the 25th of july, at the 24h-weekend at Spa Francorchamps.

[werner]

The Dutch GT-4 championship acted as a warm-up event for the 24h-race at Spa. Instead of the usual program (2x25 min. + 1x 50 min.), the drivers had to race 2 races of 40 minutes each at the daunting track, starting 45 seconds behind the European GT4-championship.

Race 1
1. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen , BMW M3 GT4, 15 laps in 41:07.828
2. Simon Knap, BMW M3 GT4, at 14.548
3. Danny van Dongen, Corvette C6, at 16.296

Bleekemolen took the lead from poleman Straus at the start. The first few laps he was attacked by Junior Straus (Aston Martin), Duncan Huisman (BMW) and Phil Bastiaans (Porsche), but when those 3 drivers collided and all had to retire, Bleekemolen had a comfortable lead until the finisch. The 2nd and 3th placed drivers Knap and van Dongen had to come from far (9th and 11th on the grid) but the accident and the DQ of van Splunterens Porsche (to low weight) meant they headed for the podium.


Race 2
1. Danny van Dongen, Corvette C6, 15 laps in 40:54.123
2. Christiaan Frankenhout, Porsche 997 GT4, at 1.582
3. Bas Schothorst, Porsche 997 GT4, at 5.204

Van Dongen won his first race in the championship. Schothorst, who missed the qualification due to a funeral, started from the back. The early leaders Straus and Euser/Van der Kolk finisched a lowly 6th and 9th.



Due to finisching every race on the podium, Frankenhout has a very healthy lead in the championship. Especially since Jeroen Bleekemolen will drive only at 1 event due to other races he has to drive.

Standings after 11 races
1. Christiaan Frankenhout 84
2. Jeroen Bleekemolen 66
3. Bas Schothorst 49



Christiaan Frankenhout

Next races are at the 1st and 2nd of august at Zandvoort.

[Speed-King]

Open this link in your mediaplayer of choice to watch the race of the Dutch GT4 at Zaandvoort at 14.15 Central European Time.

[Quintin03]

To all Dutch reading this: watch RTL7 at 15.15. The finale is going to be live.