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Strong race weekend for Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven
The qualifying sessions at the TT Circuit in Assen did not go as planned for Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven. But strong performances by Paul van Splunteren and Bas Schothorst in their Porsche 997 GT4 in all three races more than made up for this. Unfortunately a small error during the feature race cost the team a certain victory, which meant that the final results for the weekend were two 4th places and one 6th place. Thanks to these results Paul van Splunteren maintains his third place in the drivers championship.
Paul van Splunteren arrived at the third meeting of the Dutch GT4 at the TT Circuit Assen placed third in the driver championship. In race one he finished 6th having started the race from the 7th place on the grid.
In the second race it was Bas Schothorst who had to start the race from the 15th place. “I had a lot of trouble getting my tyres up to temperature during my qualifying session, partially because most of my runs were hindered by yellow flags and slower cars.” However, in a very impressive race we saw Bas finish fourth. “It went very well and it was a great race, after this performance I’m really looking forward to the feature race”.
In the 50 minute feature race it was Bas Schothorst who started the race from place twelve on the grid. After a good start and very fast laptimes he had raced himself to the second position by the time he was due for his pitstop. During the pitstop Paul van Splunteren got into the car, looking strong for a race victory. Unfortunately the race director decided to give Paul a ‘Stop&Go penalty’. “It turned out that our pitstop was just short of the minimum time”, says Paul. “Despite that I finished in 4th position, only six seconds from the leaders. That means we could have easily won this race. It makes no difference now but it does show how competitive we and the car are. Apart from this penalty we have driven three very good races this weekend”.
The next round of the Dutch GT4 Championship will be held at the Spa-Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium on Friday the 24th and Saturday the 25th of July.
The Porsche 997 GT4 has been developed especially for the Dutch GT4 and the European GT4 Championship by GT3.NL, the motorsport department of Porsche Centrum Eindhoven. Interested drivers and teams can purchase a complete, and Porsche AG approved, conversion kit for a Porsche 997 GT3 road car. GT3.NL can also assist in the construction of a ‘ready to race’ Porsche 997 GT4 and in the search for a suitable second hand 997 GT3 for conversion.
Results race 1: 1. Jeroen Bleekemolen, Corvette C6, 14 laps in 26:09.521; 2. Danny van Dongen, Corvette C6, at 0.211 sec.; 3. Rory Bertram, Porsche 997 GT4, at 1.793; 6. Paul van Splunteren, Porsche 997 GT4, at 7.798.
Results race 2: 1. Ricardo van der Ende, BMW M3 GT4, 14 laps in 26:06.371; 2. Christiaan Frankenhout, Porsche 997 GT4, at 2.208 sec.; 3. Bertus Sanders, Ginetta G50, at 2.783; 4. Bas Schothorst, Porsche 997 GT4, at 15.274.
Results race 3: 1. Duncan Huisman en Ricardo van der Ende, BMW M3 GT4, 26 laps in 50:47.837; 2. Christiaan Frankenhout and Phil Bastiaans, Porsche 997 GT4, at 2.716 sec.; 3. Jeroen Bleekemolen and Peter van der Kolk, Corvette C6, at 5.328; 4. Paul van Splunteren en Bas Schothorst, Porsche 997 GT4, at 6.344.
Championship standing after 9 races: 1. Christiaan Frankenhout 68; 2. Jeroen Bleekemolen 66; 3. Paul van Splunteren 47; 6. Bas Schothorst 37.
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