Bouvy on course to keep title
Only a disaster can stop Frédéric Bouvy from taking the Belgian Touring Car title next time out at Zolder, after scoring two podium finishes at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend.
At the weekend at the Francorchampagne event at Spa, Koen Wauters claimed a record pole position for race one in the Kia Pro_Cee’d – but blew the start and allowed Philippe Steveny through in the fellow Kia as well as van de Poele’s Volvo and Bouvy in the Mégane. Trying to make up for the start, Wauters made a mistake braking into Les Combes and tumbled down the order.
Philippe Steveny therefore led in the No.27 Kia Pro_Cee’d, still running with 3.2 litre Mountune engines as was Wauters, whilst the No.7 car of Iain Dockerill and former BTCC driver Tom Ferrier experimented with a new 3.4 litre AER power unit.
The Steveny/Moonens car would later suffer a tyre problem, handing the lead to the Volvo pairing of Eric van de Poele and Vincent Radermecker who went on to take the win, whilst arch rivals Frédéric Bouvy & Christian Kelders finished second in the Delahaye Racing Renault Mégane.
In race two, the pole sitters curse would strike again however. The engine oil pressure in the Volvo S60 dropped between races, and so the team had to change the engine, losing them their pole spot on the grid. The team were allowed to start eighth at the back of the Silhouette class as opposed to 40th, whilst the Kia of Koen Wauters started from the pitlane.
At the start, Dockerill flew into the lead from what now was second place, but on the preferred line. Things were to get worse for Volvo however, as Radermecker retired having completed less than three laps with an alternator problem. Misfortune then struck Dockerill, as he later picked up a puncture handing the lead to Kelders in the Renault.
Koen Wauters was on a mission from the back however, with brother Kris unwell, Koen drove the Pro_Cee’d for the whole 1hr30 minutes, and was battling hard with the Renault in the later stages of the race. The two made contact on the penultimate lap as Koen went wide through Rivage but managed to keep going whilst Bouvy ended up in the tyre wall. Bouvy managed to drag the Renault back on track and finished third behind an all Kia top two of Wauters and Steveny/Moonens.
After a double podium finish at Spa, Bouvy now leads the championship with 169.5 points from Kelders with 138.5, who cannot win the championship unless he drives for another team at Zolder.
The Volvo S60 Racing duo of Eric van de Poele and Vincent Radermecker are in thord on 134.5 points, with 40 available at Zolder. With the teams having to drop their worst scores in the final reckoning, this means the Delahaye Racing Renault team just needs to finish in the top ten in either race at Zolder for reigning champion Frédéric Bouvy to claim the 2010 title in the Belgian Touring Car Series.
