Heylen makes his mark
It was at the end of a short but action-packed sprint of a race that Jan Heylen (Racing for Belgium) took the first true race counting towards the Eurocup Mégane Trophy. The Belgian finished ahead of the pole position man Renaud Derlot (TP Competition) and Ludovic Badey (Pouchelon Racing).
The race however did have to be stopped at the end of lap one when the Race Director decided that the rolling start procedure had not be followed correctly. Everything went fine on the second attempt and Renaud Derlot was first into the opening bend.
At the end of lap one, the TP Competition driver was still in front ahead of the two leading Racing for Belgium cars, Cesar Campaniço and Jan Heylen respectively. At this point, Ludovic Badey was in fourth behind this pair. Then, on lap two, Campaniço, under pressure from Heylen, span his car.
Now in third, Badey was having to withstand considerable pressure from Angel Burgueño (Team Elias) and Jeffrey Van Hooydonk (Thierry Boutsen Racing). The Pouchelon Racing driver managed to get away from his rivals and pull back up to Heylen. Alone at the front of the field, Derlot was increasing his lead with every lap.
Wim Coekelbergs, driver/manager of the Racing for Belgium team, span on lap three but was able to rejoin the race.
In fifth, Simon Abadie (Tech 1 Racing) was putting up a good fight to hold off Santiago Porteiro (Porfesa Competicion) and his teammate Mathieu Lahaye. But Porteiro finally found a way past Abadie on lap 4.
Meanwhile, Frédéric Gabillon (Team Lompech Sport) was impressively making his way up though the field. Mike Parisy was just one of the drivers to fall victim to Gabillon, who must have been drawing on his past experience of some of the finest moments in the Clio V6 Trophy!
Jan Heylen caught and passed Derlot with a confident overtaking manoeuvre on lap 5. The Belgian was then well on his way to a first victory in the Eurocup Mégane Trophy. Luis Miguel Reyes, who was holding onto a place in the top 10, then made an error which let through Kuppens, Gabillon, Parisy, Dhouailly and several others.
The victory in the Junior category went to Mathieu Lahaye who came home ahead of Mike Parisy (Gemo Sport) and Sébastien Dhouailly (Team Lompech Sport).
Jan Heylen: "It was a strange race. I'm sorry about what happened to Cesar, but he made a mistake and tried to close the door while I was already going past. In any case, its nice to get started in the Eurocup with a victory."
Renaud Derlot: "My objective in the Eurocup Mégane Trophy is to get onto the podium as many times as possible. So this is a good result for me."
Ludovic Badey: "Third is not a bad result for me. Far from it! Every point is important and I'm happy to have bagged some points in the very first race."
Race 1
POS - DRIVER - NAT - TEAM - LAPS - TIME - GAP
1 J.HEYLEN BEL Racing for Belgium 6 10'06.868 2 R.DERLOT FRA TP Competition 6 10'07.716 0,848 3 L.BADEY FRA Pouchelon Racing 6 10'09.451 2,583 4 A.BURGUEÑO ESP Team Elias 6 10'12.470 5,602 5 J.V.HOOYDONK BEL Thierry Boutsen Racing 6 10'12.621 5,753 6 S.PORTEIRO ESP Porfesa Competición 6 10'15.878 9,01 7 S.ABADIE FRA Tech 1 Racing 6 10'16.085 9,217 8 M.LAHAYE FRA Tech 1 Racing 6 10'17.144 10,276 9 R.KUPPENS BEL Thierry Boutsen Racing 6 10'17.844 10,976 10 F.GABILLON FRA Team Lompech Sport 6 10'18.177 11,309 11 M.PARISY FRA Gemo Sport 6 10'19.500 12,632 12 S.DHOUAILLY FRA Team Lompech Sport 6 10'19.898 13,03 13 P.PETIZ POR Oregon Team 6 10'23.143 16,275 14 A.ARISTI ESP Epsilon Euskadi 6 10'24.386 17,518 15 M.BENZ SUI Iris Racing 6 10'25.564 18,696 16 L.REYES ESP Team Elias 6 10'25.936 19,068 17 F.VERSCHUUR NED Equipe Verschuur 6 10'28.372 21,504 18 B.TEN BRINKE NED Equipe Verschuur 6 10'33.204 26,336 19 J.MALLAT LBN TP Competition 6 10'33.689 26,821 20 P.MACE FRA TP Competition 6 10'34.248 27,38 21 A.MAYERL AUT Senn Motorsport 6 10'36.258 29,39 22 J.COPPENS FRA TP Competition 6 10'39.516 32,648 23 L.LLOBET ESP Saturn Motorsport 6 10'44.729 37,861 24 N.GIANNIBERTI ITA Oregon Team 6 10'52.478 45,61 25 W.COEKELBERGS BEL Racing for Belgium 6 10'56.568 49,7 26 V.FERNANDEZ ESP Saturn Motorsport 6 11'04.380 57,512 27 P.BALLAY FRA Energy Racing 5 9'00.976 1 lap NC J.RAVIER FRA Epsilon Euskadi 4 7'24.731 2 laps NC C.CAMPANIÇO POR Racing for Belgium 1 1'44.172 5 laps
