21
STANDINGS
PREVIEW
BeNeLux:
a mixture of long
and sprint races
The Volkswagen Golf Gti of Richard and van Dalen
RACB’s
young lions
Brothers Edouard and Guillaume Mondron share a SEAT León
Kronos Events was one of the first promoters to
fully commit to TCR and launched a series that will
span Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The revival of a real Touring Car championship in
countries that have a long-standing tradition in
the category prompted a huge interest. Among the
drivers are well known specialists like Pierre-Yves
Corthals, Stéphane Lémeret and the Bleekemolen
brothers, Michaël and Sebastian, while Tiago Mon-
teiro will occasionally join in a Honda Civic.
In its effort of promoting young drivers, the RACB
(Belgium’s National Sporting Authority), following
a selection process that attracted 565 applications,
entrusted a SEAT León to Sam Dejonghe and Denis
Dupont. While most TCR series are based on sprint
races, Benelux went for a different format, with
one 60-minute Qualifying Race and four Sprint
races during each weekend, with two drivers sha-
ring the cars. In a very creative system, the star-
ting grid for the Qualifying Race will be determined
by a vote on social networks.
The inaugural event will take place at Spa-Fran-
corchamps on May 21 and 22; five others will fol-
low at Zandvoort, Zolder, Colmar Berg, Assen and
Mettet.
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TCR Beneluxwebpage
http://www.tcrbenelux.eu