Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Vincent Radermecker’s first victory in ten years was a last minute deal

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Vincent Radermecker took his first touring car sprint race victory in ten years at the second meeting of the TCR Benelux series at Zandvoort, depriving the Honda of Benjamin Lessennes of the win with a daring pass at the inside of Tarzan on the final lap to score Milo Racing their first victory in the series.

Radermecker finished in third in the first race, and in Race 2 was running second behind Lessennes in the Boutsen Ginion-run Honda when the leading Honda of Norbert Michelisz and the Delahaye Volkswagen of Amaury Richard collided late in the race, bringing out the safety car.

At the restart, Radermecker made his move on Lessennes into the Turn 1, Tarzan, to score his first victory in the TCR era, with his last sprint race victory having been in the German ADAC Procar Series in a Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet Lacetti S2000.

“It was the only possibility, so I tried something there,” said Radermecker to TouringCarTimes. “I followed him very closely on the last corner before the straight, and then I moved a little bit to the outside to show him that maybe I’ll try to brake around the outside. I think that’s why he braked a little bit late and went wide to try and block me, but I was already back on the inside.”

The Belgian touring car veteran was only confirmed for this weekend a few days ago, signing up to pair with Kévin Balthazar in the Volkswagen after driving with Loris Hezemans in the opening round in a SEAT León TCR.

“It’s a bit difficult for me as I’m not in the championship. I just drive when there’s a possibility,” he said. “I did the first race at Spa with the SEAT of Ferry Monster without any practice, so I just went to the meeting and drove the car, and here it was the same; they called me last week and asked if I was available, and I came here and haven’t driven the car before.

“I hope that I could stay longer with a team and work a little bit on the car, as I need some practice and some development on the car to work on consistency, as we didn’t have the same pace as the other Volkswagen of (Amaury) Richard, I just couldn’t keep with him.”