Touring Cars, GT’s, Sidecars, Superbikes, Superkarts,… All, piece by piece lusts for each motorsport-fan. The Gamma Racing Day had it all to fascinate young and old, more than 60.000 visitors were registered past weekend on the Dutch racetrack of TT Assen. Spork Racing again showed up with two Seat Leon Supercopa’s and was determined to insure fun, victory and spectacle during the Supersport-races on Saturday and Sunday! As usual the drivers on both Super’SPORK’copa’s were Jimmy Adriaenssens – David Nye on car number 323 and Jonas De Kimpe – Vincent Van Paemel on car number 325.
Jimmy Adriaenssens “During the first free practice Friday morning I felt we weren’t far away from a competitive setup for the Dutch track. The car felt pretty stable though a few changes insisted on being taken. The team got to work on both cars and during qualifying it seemed that we were almost where we wanted to. After consideration with the team, David and I, we decided that I would take the start of the first race and nevertheless under a shiny sun Saturday evening I was launched.” Jimmy was held up during the first two laps and watched a gap creating itself between him and the other Supercopa’s only a few cars in front of him. He knew which task waited for him and after a few daring but successful attacks in the platoon he started catching up on the other Supercopa’s. Eventually after his first stint, AJ delivered the car in third position to David. David, who was keen on improving this third position, got stuck himself behind another car. The situation was classic, on the straights the car in front pulled away, whilst braking and cornering David lined up again. Lap after lap David lost seconds and even though he got past, the other car out pulled him on the longer straights. Unfortunately third was the best possible – but nevertheless a very nice – result. Keeping that in mind the Belgian-English duo was determined to fight back even harder and to improve the third position in race 2.
David Nye “The weather just before race 2 was dreadful, it was raining cats and dogs and I asked myself whether the team couldn’t fit a set of propellers instead of rain tyres. The track flooded on multiple locations and the race was deferred for about an hour. After the raining had stopped, the soil still felt pretty warm and it became a gamble whether to choose between slicks or rain tyres. Some cars tried slicks, other cars tried rain tyres, eventually we decided to fit rain tyres so we could go full throttle from the beginning. I tried to keep up with the leading group untill the safety car neutralized the race. As soon as the pit window opened, I delivered the car to Jimmy. “Just before the driver change I decided to fit slicks because I saw the track was 75% dry. I joined the track – still behind safety car – and as I started counting the cars in front of me I saw I was in fifth position in general and second Supercopa! It was clear that the team had delivered a beautiful piece of craftsmanship by changing the tyres. After the light turned green it was a matter of all or nothing because I knew a podium in general was in our range of possibilities. I pushed the car to its limits and I almost equaled my proper qualifying time though there still were some humid spots on the track. My rigorous attack seemed to work because I improved another place and turned out to be fourth in general. Apparently most cars were pretty carefull on the cold and wet soil, which was exactly the opposite of my tactic. I knew what I could win or lose so I went for it, that’s just racing! I kept pushing 200% until – just a few laps from the end – a faster car appeared in my mirror… Eventually I couldn’t defend my fourth place anymore and the other competitor got past. We did finish second in Supercopa and fifth in general and we collected very important points for the championship.” Adriaenssens.
The Spork Racing Team was mad with joy because we flirted with the general podium, knowing we raced against approximately 40 other cars. Fifth of forty competitors does satisfy a racer and its team, and it motivates even harder to do better next race-event in Zolder, beginning of September. Jimmy and David are still classified second amongst the Seats and enlarged their lead on the Supercopa’s of Voet-Vandenbroeck and De Kimpe-Van Paemel.
See enclosed PDF-file for the Dutch race review.
