[joost]

Belcar_News
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Belgian Awards (& 2003 Dates)
Thursday 19 December
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Yesterday evening, the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium (RACB) presented the annual RACB Awards in Brussels – explains Joost Custers. This event gathers the Belgian automobile scene together and on the same occasion, the 2003 calendars are presented.

I'll not sum up every single championship winner....

The 'Driver of the Year' award went to Didier Theys, who has raced for almost 15 years in the States, and not only won the Grand-Am title but also the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

Two lifetime achievement awards were given to Belgium's greatest sportscar drivers; six times Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx received the Zolder Legend Trophy and Paul Frère received the John Goossens Trophy. (John Goossens is the former president of the RACB who died some weeks ago, during a meeting at Spa). Paul Frère, who is now more than 80 years old, declared that he was very happy to see the GTs back at Spa, racing for 24 hours.

Other endurance drivers to get an honourable mention were Vincent Vosse (winner at Spa), Marc Duez and Anthony Kumpen for winning FIA-GT races, and Didier de Radigues, Marc Goossens and Eric van de Poele for their efforts in sportscar racing abroad.

On the same occasion, the Super Meetings were presented, a format to support more than just Belcar. The weekends contain three ‘cups’ (Mini Cooper S, Toyota Yaris and Renault Clio), a Formula Renault 1600 championship and of course the Belcar itself:

12-13 April: New Race Festival Zolder (125 minutes)
26-27 April: Telefonica World Series
10-11 May: Spa Belpro Spa (125 minutes)
7-8-9 June Spa Eurorace Spa (4 hours night race)
23-24 August: 24 hours of Zolder
20-21 September: Racing Festival Spa (125 minutes)
18-19 October: Belgian Masters Zolder

Other important dates: 26-27 July: 24 Hours of Spa, 30-31 August: 1000 Km of Spa and 13-14 September: 6 Hours at Spa for historic GT and sportscars.