TotalMotorSport All the latest Motorsport news, race reports and photographs from around the world. Alms, Touring Cars, Formula One & Le Mans 24 Hours

Zandvoort

Vodafone Dutch Touring Cars

20/05/2002

19/05/2002

Qualifying Report

By Nelson Valkenurg

Qualifying 1

Saturday morning, after a week of sunshine and high temperatures the DTCC teams woke up to a typical Dutch sight, rain, and a lot of it! The place is Zandvoort which played host to a Dutch PowerPack meeting this weekend and the DTCC teams are going to be the first on the track this morning.

Although BMW is leading the championship in a governing fashion it was Bleekemolen who dominated qualifying for both races in his factory entered Renault Clio RS. His best time in the first qualifying, a 2:06.357, was set early during the session and ultimately was unbeatable when the flag dropped. It wasn’t as if others didn’t try but the time was too good while the conditions favoured the young ex-FIA GT frontrunner.

Factory BMW Duncan Huisman, the series leader, for instance, had to overcome both the conditions and 90 kilos of success ballast, as opposed to Bleekemolens 60 kilos in order to come even close to Bleekemolens time. His best time, 2:07.141, showed that he hasn’t lost any of his tenacity since stepping down from the European scene.

Third was the second of the Renault Clio’s, Tim Coronel, who was 1.6 seconds down on Huisman as he was struggling for traction during the session.
Fourth was the second of the BMW Dealerteam BMW 320i E46’s, driven by Renault refugee Donald Molenaar. Although he is still coming to terms with his new machinery he was still snapping at the heels of Tim Coronel.

Fifth overall and first of the privateers was Ben Janbroers who manhandled his Honda Integra-R in front of the factory Lexus IS200 of Paul van Splunteren who was a close sixth.

In the privateer class both series returnee Coen Vink and class leader Joost Koenders were unable to catch Janbroers in their Renault Meganes.

Qualifying 2

Qualifying for the second race was almost déjà vu, minus a couple of gallons of water on the circuit. Again it was Bleekemolen who set the benchmark time and again it was Huisman who was left trailing in second. Even the gap was the same albeit the times were different. Bleekemolen did a 1:53.948 while Huisman could only manage a 1:54.814.

Tim Coronel, in the mean time had found a way to deal with his 55 kilos of success ballast and nearly gave Renault a front row lockout. He followed Huisman with a 1:54.877 while Donald Molenaar repeated his qualifying performance with a fourth place.

Fifth and sixth were Gaby Uljee in the third factory Renault Clio RS and Paul van Splunteren in the Lexus. Gaby Uljee, who had traction problems during the first qualifying session, was happy with her performance while the Lexus finally is showing some consistency.

In the privateers class it were the same trio in the same situation as both Coen Vink and Joost Koenders couldn’t keep pace with Ben Janbroers.

The second Lexus of Jan Joris Verheul missed both qualifying sessions with numerous problems while Ron Braspenning joined the field in the second session.