Bikers’ Trophy - Belgian Championship Endurance 2nd race

April 22nd, 2009

Article By IPA Member: Guy Verstraeten
Guy594 Photography

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A traditional part of the Belgian Championship Bikers’ Trophy was the Endurance Race, which was held last April 18 and19 in Francorchamps circuit in Spa, Belgium. The Endurance Race had 64 laps and lasted for 3 hours. There were two categories: the 1000cc and 600cc classes with 21 and 9 participating teams, respectively.

Some drivers had a lot of problems during the qualifying rounds that Saturday. Due to the rain, some drivers had problems with aquaplaning which caused most of them to slip or fall off the race track. One of the participating teams in the 1000cc was the J&S-BVD Racing. This young and promising team composed of Steven Dierickx from Schilde and Tony Vansprengel form Merksplas, like the others, had encountered the same problems during the qualification rounds. Tony Vansprengel had the most difficulty in this kind of situation. In spite of these mishaps, they were able to land on a good starting position. On Sunday during the warming up sessions, Steven Dierickx proved that he could drive faster and he held on to this attitude throughout the race. This gave the team an encouraging impression. Of course, Tony Vansprengel wasn’t left behind and being inspired by his team-mate’s efforts, raced better as well. The team competed extraordinarily good that they surpassed the expectations of landing on the fifth position and instead they achieved to pick up the well-deserved third place. J&S BVD Racing team will surely be a threat for most competitive motorbike-racers.

Finally, the race was won by Sebastien Le Grelle together with his team-mate Stephane Mertens representing the Honda team in the 1000cc. They dominated the race and the fastest lap was accredited to their names. For the 600cc class, it was the Yamaha team of Grégory Fastre and Michael Weynand who had the best endurance. They also raced the fastest lap in this category.

Result: 1000cc
1. HONDA IN ACTION - LE_GRELLE Sébastien/MERTENS Stéphane HONDA CBR
2. ENDURANCE RASKIN - Alain/HANLET Jean-François KAWASAKI ZX10
3. J&S BVD RACING - DIERICKX Steven/VANSPRENGEL Tony YAMAHA R1/SUZUKI GSX

Result: 600cc
1. CAMPUS FRANCORCHAMPS - FASTRE Grégory/WEYNAND Michael YAMAHA R6
2. DESCHOUWER RACING TEAM - DESCHOUWER TOMMY/HOOGEWYS Steven YAMAHA R6
3. JULIN MOTO - JULIN Serge/TROIANO Michael YAMAHA R6