K&N Backed Speedtec Racing Team Wins 2011 Dutch Supercar Challenge
- Nov 15, 2011
"We are very happy to win the championship after developing the Viper from a standard GT3 to a GT1 worthy car over the last few years," Speedtec Team Manager, Robert Bleijenberg told K&N News. "We are also very very satisfied to have a 100% finish rate, as that is fundamental for winning this championship." The K&N sponsored team ran two cars in the Supercar Challenge, the Dodge Viper GT3 driven by Diederik Sijthoff, and a BMW E46, driven by the team owner's sons, Nico and Peter van Vliet. For Speedtec Racing the championship battle came down to the last race weekend at TT Circuit Assen, located in Assen, Netherlands.
"We started the weekend with two free practice sessions to set-up the car and try to find a good balance for the races and for the qualifying session on Friday afternoon," explained Bleijenberg. "After a few long runs we were very satisfied with the handling of the car. It improved a lot from the last time we were at Assen circuit. Driving on a new set of soft tires Sijthoff posted a 1:37:50, nearly a second quicker than the car had ever rounded on the circuit. "We were feeling really good after qualifying," added Bleijenberg. "We got a 1:35:8 out of the car, which was a lap record for the Dutch Supercar Challenge, and 1.5 seconds in front of the second place qualifier."
In the first race on Saturday Speedtec grabbed the lead after only a few laps, holding on to the lead until the pitstop. The series awards penalty seconds in the pitstops based on results from previous races, and since Speedtec won the previous weekend at Spa they spent 15 extra second in the pits. There's a penalty of 10 seconds for second place, five for third, and so on. "Because of our penalty seconds from the Spa race we came back on the track in P2 after the pitstop, our main rivals also had some penalty seconds and were behind us," said Bleijenberg. "We were catching up with the leader again when we found out that we received a drive through penalty for too short pitstop. It wasn't a big problem, as we came back in third position just behind P2. And because our main rivals for the championship were in P5 we didn't push too hard and finished in third. For Sunday we could now finish three places behind the Corvette C5R and still be champion." "The Sunday race was in the afteroon as well and it was nice and sunny, but with a temperature of 14 degrees it was quite cold. So a very quick track," said Bleijenberg. "We started at P3 and were able to take the lead at the end of the first lap." Yet, as on Saturday, the Viper came back on the track in third after more penalty seconds during the pitstop. However with about ten minutes to go the corvette suffered a suspension failure and it all became a moot point. "We slowed down some more to not risk to breaking anything and finished P3 again," continued Bleijenberg . That made us champion with a 100% finish over the 16 races. So a brillant season. And we would like to thank K&N and all our sponsors, suppliers, mechanics, drivers and everyone else that contributed to this championship. The BMW driven by the Nico and Peter van Vliet had a good weekend as well. The brothers were driving the same borrowed car they used in Spa. "The car qualifyied well with P4 and the drivers were still getting to know the car," said Bleijenberg. "The races went very good as well, with P2 on Saturday and P3 on Sunday. A shame we had some engine issues in the middle of the year, so we had to retire in a couple of races. In the end the brothers took five podium finishes and sixth overall in the championship. So still a very satisfying season in the end." Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
