Fast Freddy tops heat two

Bossard and Enerberg have poles locked up.

Things just got really interesting. Frode “Freddy” Holte has topped the time sheets after winning the last race of the second heat, seeing off a trio of Citroëns and taking his Volvo to fastest time. And it’s a good job that the Supercar battle is good enough to warm the fans on what has turned into a chilly weekend, because things in Super1600 and TouringCar are less exciting; Steven Bossard and Lars Øivind Enerberg already assured on their respective pole positions and now able to take things easy until three o’clock.

Holte was not just fastest, but a mighty 1.7s ahead of previous race winner Tanner Foust while Philippe Tollemer, having an outstanding run here, won an early race and held on to third place in front of Marc Laboulle, winner of the first race in a magnificent and clever drive. At the other end of the order, Morten Bermingrud, Alex Theuil and Mickaël Poirier non-started and René Münnich retired in the penultimate lap of his heat while Michaël De Keersmaecker lost a golden opportunity to be up with the leaders, spinning away the lead of a late race when the gearbox of his Focus broke.

Behind Bossard, Laurent Chartrain again produced a great drive to place second, albeit nearly three seconds slower than Bossard. Andreas Bakkerud is so far the only non-Frenchman in the top five, Eric Guillemette making up for yesterday’s jump start with a race win and third place while David Olivier is proving his Twingo to be rather better than Ildar Rakhmatullin’s similar car which lingers in 17th place.

Clemens Meyer’s miserable event continued with further driveshaft problems on his Škoda, while Jérôme Coeuret returned to the paddock after being pushed into a spin by Ulrik Linnemann – this act earning the Dane his second black flag of the weekend and an early bath. Ondřej Smetana was victim of a first corner pushing match and Anders B. Hansen non-started his VW Polo.

Lars Øivind Enerberg again topped the TouringCar field, Derek Tohill best of the rest and closer on pace today, 1.5s behind his rival. Patrick Mertens took  a notable race win over compatriot Koen Pauwels while Jos Sterkens’ misery at retiring with further engine problems in his new Volvo were compounded by the addition of a three-second jump start penalty. Ivo Van den Brandt retired when a rear wheel fell off his Mitsubishi Colt and Jean-Michel “Jim” Laurant stopped wihen his Škoda lost drive.

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