Last weekend saw the 23rd running of the annual Belgium GP, now under its new name of International Race Kampenhout. The event is very popular, with many people requesting entries, but due to the nature of the event and venue the organisers keep an entry limit of 80 in 2WD and 70 in 4WD, allowing reasonable length days and plenty of track time, with open practice in the days preceding the event. It really is a great event, very relaxed atmosphere and a showcase for RC racing with is location in a park, where many activities take place over the weekend, drawing in many spectators and drivers from some eight countries. A few people turn up Wednesday, some more appear Thursday and the majority arrive Friday for open practice. Everybody gets as much track time as they want, with the track open all day. This allows all the drivers to get to grips with the track and dial in their cars. The club had put in a great effort and the track was immaculately prepared to their usual high standards.
The drivers were greeted to a wet track Saturday morning and by the time qualifying came around Schumacher Silvers were the tyre to be on. Qualifying was a very tight affair, with the top drivers being separated by just a few tenths. At the end of the four rounds it was young Wesley van Helmond who would start on pole, ahead of the Schumacher Cougar SV2 of Tom Cockerill.
As the finals started the track was now dry and had much higher traction, making it interesting. The finals produced some great racing with many guys close on e pace. At the end of the three legs it was young Wesley Van Helmond who took the win with three superb drives winning every leg. Kevin Lee came through from fourth on the grid to take second as Tom Cockerill took third.

2WD
1 Westley Van Helmond
2 Kevin Lee
2 Tom Cockerill
4 Wouter Wynen
5 Stefan Mesker
6 John Debacquer
7 Martin Hansen
8 Nicolas Risser
9 Ben Jemison
10 Chris Evison

For the 4WD event on Sunday the track was dry from the start and the sun made an appearance in the afternoon. The high traction made 4WD very difficult, with many drivers struggling with too much grip. Qualifying was dominated by British drivers as they took the top four qualifying positions. Tom Cockerill took all four rounds of qualifying to line up on pole with his Schumacher CAT K1, followed by Kevin Lee second and Ben Jemison third.
The finals saw some very close racing again, with Tom and Kev pulling from the others and racing for the win, with the mid field very close. Clean drives from Tom in the first two legs saw him take flag to flag wins and the overall victory. Kev won the third leg giving him second overall and Ben completed the British lockout with an excellent third leg drive to secure the final spot on the podium.

4WD
1 Tom Cockerill
2 Kevin Lee
3 Ben Jemison
4 Nicolas Risser
5 Sam Martin
6 John Debacquer
7 Antoine Rossetti
8 Chris Evison
9 Brent Ausloos
10 Wesley Van Helmond

Another excellent event is in the books and in the opinion of the racers, there is very little that can be done to improve the International Race Kampenhout – it is definitely one of the races to attend and a great weekend had by all.

Source: Schumacher