Hoogwerf/Teirlinck and Maris share the spoils in Mettet

Last Saturday Mettet was the battleground for the opening round of the third Belcar Skylimit Sprint Cup season. As was expected two sprints brought about half an hour of riveting action. Not only did we see two different winners, but the battle within classes themselves was equally spiced with loads of tension!

"There was a very nice and extremely fair battle on the track, with action in all the classes ", Andy Jaenen, a satisfied organiser, commented afterwards.

"With the BMW M3 of Steven Maris and the Cupra TCR of Yardy Hoogwerf and Steven Teirlinck we saw two different winners, but it is Davy Cooreman who leads the provisional rankings with his Honda CRX, given the fact that he twice won his class following a fierce fight. 

"The new division of classes clearly paid off, because a dual on the track was usually also a dual for a place within a class. As such we saw intrinsically equally fast cars going head-to-head for a place.”

“What was also great was that each class had its own story to tell. For example, Lorenzo Segers and Davy Van Goethem made their debut in the Belcar Skylimit Sprint Cup and each also won a race in BSSC1. This resulted in them both claiming a place in the overall top 10 of the provisional rankings. With respectively Stella Keutmann and Nele Von der Ruhren after each sprint there was a female driver on the podium of the smallest class.”

“BSSC2 was twice right up Laurens Cloots’ alley, but his two victories were definitely not as dominant as the result suggests. For instance, in the second race, following a thrilling battle with Ian Delhoux, he was only half a second ahead at the chequered flag. In that race Reinhard Poetsch clinched third place, following his second place in the first sprint. In that first race Steven Guillemijn walked off with the third place in the BSSC2 class.”

“The toughest battle was perhaps in BSSC3. For lap after lap Dirk De Bock and Daniel Donkels played a game of leapfrogging with their positions continuously alternating. In the end De Bock claimed victory twice, placing him in fourth spot in the overall intermediate ranking for the championship. Bram Hendrix also appeared twice on the podium, with his third place in Race 1 and a second place in Race 2.”

“We saw a similar scenario in BSSC4, where Davy Cooreman and Kevin De Regt fought a cutting-edge duel. Cooreman triumphed twice and, as mentioned, grabbed the lead in the overall provisional rankings. Tom Van Eenaeme twice claimed a deserved third place.”

“That the winner would come from BSSC5 was near on a certainty.  Steven Maris and Yardy Hoogwerf each found themselves once on the top tread of the podium, with the BMW of Patrick and Raf Beliën in third place on each occasion.”

The next Belcar Skylimit Sprint Cup 2023 meeting will be held during the New Race Festival at Circuit Zolder, on 13^th and 14^th May.