Preview: Belgian Touring Car Series 2011

The 2011 Belgian Touring Car Series starts this weekend at the circuit of Zolder, supporting the FIA GT1 World Championship, with an eclectic grid of 32 cars for a brand new season.

The opening round will see drivers from eight different nationalities and cars from 11 different marques compete throughout the series’ six different car classes.

The fastest Silhouette 1 (S1) class features a slightly reduced six car grid, with the three-times championship winning team Delahaye Racing expanding from one to three cars, and are set to dominate the class. Frédéric Bouvy and Christian Kelders return in the No.1 Renault Megane Trophy, and are joined by S2 graduates Stéphane Lémeret, Edouard Mondron, Alexandre Viron & Laurent Richard in the team’s two other Meganes.

Volvo S60 Racing are also back with (quite obviously) their Volvo S60. The team were runners-up in the championship last year, and both of last year’s drivers Vincent Radermecker and Eric van de Poele return to share the car.

Jérôme Thiry will be back after jumping ship from Kia to Jaguar mid-season in 2010. Werner Moonens makes a similar off season move to join Thiry in the Jaguar XF silhouette of Motorsport International.

Kia Belgium, run by British squad Chad Racing, will slim down to a one car operation from this weekend, with Philippe Steveny racing with a new team-mate in Didier De Radigues, the former Belgian ProCar champion.

The Silhouette 2 (S2) class will feature three entries for MTE fielding the Solution F car, with Gomez Competition entering two of their ‘Scirocco-shaped’ GC10s. One of the drivers for the team is called Yvan Muller, but this isn’t the French two-time WTCC champion, but an entirely different driver from Belgium.

The BTCS’s touring classes are split into four categories, with the GT style T4 category featuring two BMW M3s for Euroracing and German team Packeisen Motorsport.

The more standard touring cars are in the series’ T3 class, and have seen a number of ‘defections’ over the winter. Steve Vanbellingen closed down his race winning team KS Motorsport, and will switch from the S1 class to T3 to join Eric Qvick in his team, racing an ex-WTCC specification BMW 320si fitted with an M3 engine.

SEAT specialists Astur Car will also run an ex-WTCC chassis, using the former SEAT Sport Italia Leon raced by Roberto Colciago in 2007, fitted with a 400bhp engine developed by renowned engine tuners Lehmann.

WRT will again run their pair of Volkswagen Sciroccos, with Koen Wauters making a surprise move to the team from Kia Belgium to race with Ronnie Latinne.

There are two unique entries filling out the T3 class, with Werner Van Herck’s Mazda3, and PB2828 Racing running a BMW 1M series for Philippe Bonneel.

The T3S class is for cars built for the various international SEAT Supercopa series, and features nine Leons, with Astur Car and Delahaye Racing also fielding additional cars in this category.

The T2 near-production class features four cars, with Allure Team running a Renault Clio, DBJ Racing competing with a SEAT Toledo and Surinx Racing running with two imported right-hand drive Honda Civics from the UK.

The BTCS will visit Zolder three times in 2011, though the second visit is a non-championship event at the 24 Hours of Zolder. The series will also go to the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit three times, as well as a short trip to Dijon-Prenois in May.

Delahaye Racing have a strong presence in the S1 class this year after seeming to lose ground to the Volvo S60 on pace in the later stages of the 2010 season. Will putting up a protective screen of fast Meganes prevent Radermecker and van de Poele from taking their first title for Volvo?

2011 BTCS Entry List (for Zolder April 9th-10th)

No – Drivers – Team – Car – Class
1 – Fréderic Bouvy/Christian Kelders – Delahaye Racing – Renault Mégane – S1
2 – Stéphane Lémeret/Edouard Mondron – Delahaye Racing – Renault Mégane – S1
5 – Laurent Richard/Alexandre Viron – Delahaye Racing – Renault Mégane – S1
6 – Vincent Radermecker/Eric van de Poele – Volvo S60 Racing Team – Volvo S60 – S1
3 – Jérôme Thiry/Werner Moonens – Motorsport International – Jaguar XF – S1
7 – Philippe Steveny/Didier De Radigues – Kia Belgium / Chad Racing – Kia Pro_Cee’d – S1
10 – Yvan Muller/Christophe Burrick – Gomez Competition – Gomez GC10-1 – S2
14 – Eric Poitevineau/Jérémy Reymond – Gomez Competition – Gomez GC10-2 – S2
23 – Francois Melotte/Michel Plennevaux – MTE – Solution F – S2
24 – Jean-Pierre Lequeux/Jean-Marc Ueberecken – MTE – Prime Racing – Solution F – S2
25 – Alexis van de Poele/Vincent Vandenaeele – MTE – Solution F – S2
12 – Christophe Pampel/Tom Van Rompuy – Euroracing – BMW M3 – T4
22 – Ulli Packeisen/Tom Von Schijdel – Packeisen Motorsport – BMW M3 – T4
21 – Steve Vanbellingen/Eric Qvick – Qvick Motors Racing – BMW 320si / M3 engine – T3
31 – Werner Van Herck/ – Van Herck Racing – Mazda3 – T3
52 – Ronnie Latinne/Koen Wauters – W Racing Team – Volkswagen Scirocco – T3
53 – Claude-Yves Gosselin/Jean-Jacques Smits – W Racing Team – Volkswagen Scirocco – T3
55 – Pierre Piron/Pierre-Yves Rosoux – Astur Car – SEAT León – T3
60 – Philippe Bonneel/TBA – PB2828 Racing – BMW 1 M – T3
33 – Nicolas Lamy/Nicolas Leonard – Allure Team – SEAT León Supercopa – T3S
38 – Pascal Courrier/Vincent Hebert – Astur Car – SEAT León Supercopa – T3S
39 – Eric Barbary/Dimitri Cambier – CB Racing – SEAT León Supercopa – T3S
45 – Jimmy Adriaenssens/David Williams Nye – Spork Racing Team – SEAT León Supercopa – T3S
46 – Michaël Albert/Roberto Nalle – Astur Car – SEAT León Supercopa – T3S
48 – Christian Franck/ – GDMH – SEAT León Supercopa – T3S
50 – Christiaan Voet/Bart van den Broeck – Traxx Racing Team – SEAT León Supercopa – T3S
51 – Wim De Graef/Gunther Demaeijer/Kris Van Kelst – Spork Racing Team – SEAT León Supercopa – T3S
57 – Benjamin Mardeen/Damien Dupont – Delahaye Racing – SEAT León Supercopa – T3S
32 – Denys Buffet/Emilien Buffet – DBJ Racing – SEAT Toledo – T2
71 – Christophe Daerden/Guy Katsers – Surinx Racing – Honda Civic – T2
77 – Jos Jardens/ – Surinx Racing – Honda Civic – T2
99 – Jérémy Arnhem/Jordan Beuler – Allure Team – Renault Clio – T2