Dutch Championship at Eurocircuit
by Henk de Winter |
Just before the finals started ‘the deal’ was done by Belgium Patrick van Mechelen en Dutchman Jos Kuijpers. The Ford Fiesta MK 7 of Kuijpers goes, after this racing season, to Belgium. The past few months Van Mechelen, racing a Supercar Subaru Impreza, told RallycrossWorld.com several times that he was up for a new challenge. He found that in the fast Dutch Ford Fiesta. “It was now or never”, said Van Mechelen. “The Subaru is on his top and to win races we needed a faster car. The Fiesta of Jos (Kuijpers – RallycrossWorld.com) is a perfect car and it’s fast.” In the past Kuijpers sold two of his own build cars to Andy Scott (GB) and Kevin Procter (GB). Procter won, with the ex-Kuijpers Ford Focus this year the ERC round in France (Dreux). Kuijpers and Van Mechelen are both happy with the deal. Kuijpers. “I’m 100 percent sure that I will see next year this car wins some races.” Kuijpers raced his last race for the Dutch Championship on the Eurocircuit with ‘his’ Ford Fiesta MK7. The win, after putting his car two heats on pole position, brought the Dutchman racing under a Italian license his tenth Dutch National Championship title. “Time for another challenge”, he said. Kuijpers is building a brand new Ford Focus. This Supercar Focus will have the same engine and gearbox as the Fiesta has now. “That will be interesting next year on the Belgian and Dutch tracks’, says Kuijpers with a smile on his face. The Fiesta is this year running furthermore running in the ERC events of Belgium, Holland and Germany. The two Belgian championship races at the Duivelsberg and one Autocross-event in Maggiore (Italy). “Patrick (Van Mechelen – rallycrossWorld) does not have to worry about the state of the car after these events. The Fiesta will be delivered as brand new and ready to race.”
In the Super1600 Marcel Snoeijers was and is on top of the leaderboard. The Renault Clio driver had on his tail the ‘pressure’ of Davy van den Branden (Citroën C2) and Peter van de Wege (Toyota Yaris) in the run for the championship. Van de Wege struggled from beginning of the race with his gearbox and could not fix the problem. “The small chance I had is now over and out”, reported the Toyota driver before the finals. Van den Branden was chasing Snoeijers until the right front suspension broke and the C2 landed in the sandtrap near the chicane. Snoeijers the fresh 2012 Dutch rallycross Champion in the Super1600 class. “I’m going to concentrate now on the belgium Championship.”
The Touringcars was won by Koen Pauwels in the Ford Fiesta. The TouringCars was run together with the Supernationals -2000, not to everybody’s satisfaction. Kristof Bex was the fastest driver in the Supernationals +2000. Father (Luc) and son Steven Maris had to deal with second and third place.
[portfolio_slideshow]
Supercar
- Jos Kuijpers (I) Ford Fiesta MK7
- Ron Snoeck (NL) Seat Leon
- Wil Teurlings (N) Volvo S40
- Jan van Loon (NL) Ford Fiesta
- Jos Jansen (B) Ford Focus III
Not classified
– Marcel Neuy (NL) Renault Clio
TouringCar
- Koen Pauwels (B) Ford Fiesta
- Christ Moelands (NL) BMW 120
- Louis de Haas (NL) Opel Astra
- Mandy Kasse (NL) Ford Fiesta
- Willem Slob (NL) VW Golf
- Nick Snoeys (B) Ford Fiesta
- Marcel Snoeijers (N) Renault Clio RS
- Dave Van Beers (B) Renault Clio
- Willem Veltman (NL) Citroën C2
- Dennis van Rijn (NL) Skoda Fabia
- Peter van de Wege (NL) Toyota Yaris
- Gerjo de Brouwer (NL) Suzuki Swift
- Davy Van Den Branden (B) Citroën C2
Supernational -2000cc
- Tom Meeusen (B) Mitsubishi Lancer
- Cor Kroon (NL) Opel Kadett
- Marc van den Bergh (B) VW Golf
- Leo Blockx (B) Opel Corsa
Supernational + 2000cc
- Kristof Bex (B) Volvo S40
- Luc Maris (B) Volvo S40
- Steven Maris (B) Volvo 242
- Filip Baelus (B) Volvo C30
- Davy Leysen (B) BMW M3
- Ronald Myrny (B) Volvo S40
- Frans de Wit (B) BMW M3
- Steve Volders (B) Ford Escort
- Danny De Beuckelaer (B) Opel Corsa
- Johan Sleeckx (B) BMW 130i