Proud to be at home

Kuypers relishes challenge of new Eurocircuit.

His car may carry an Italian flag, but Jos Kuypers remains very much a Dutchman and no-one could be prouder to be competing in a Dutch round of the European Rallycross Championship than the Supercar racer. In the couple of years that have passed since the ERC last appeared here, the track has grown a Joker Lap and also had the kerbs in the chicane changed, the latter as great a change to the lap as former according to Kuypers.

“The Joker Lap is different on every track, here at least it does not damage the cars, so that’s already better than last week [Belgium]. The important thing is that makes a change, so we will see that when the racing starts, but the chicane is different too now,” said Kuypers, “The kerb is much flatter and it means you can go full throttle in third gear, before it was usually second, perhaps third if you were perfect. Now it means that you must brake much harder for the first corner so there could alo be some passing there now, at least there is a chance for it. The changes to the track are great, it’s like a new circuit and there are new challenges to learn and workout how to get the fastest lap. I’ve raced here since 1993 so it’s great to have something new to do.”

The evidence of the work that has gone into making this event as good as possible is visible all over the venue and Kuypers says there is a determination to succeed. “Everyone in the club [the organising NRV] has worked really hard to get everything ready here and also to try and make sure that it’s not just for one year, we want to have the race back here next year and the next…” he said.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.