More than 30 GT cars will be on the grid for two races of the Euro GT Series during the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 at Circuit Park Zandvoort on August 7 and 8. The GT Class includes a works entry from BMW Motorsport with Duncan Huisman behind the wheel of a BMW M3 GTR. He will be challenged by no less than three Marcos LM600 cars, two Chrysler Vipers, a Stealth, and four Porsches. The N-GT Class will see a grid of more than 20 cars with Porsche, Marcos Mantis, Ferrari, Corvette, BMW, and Panoz. Special guest is the MIS Team from Germany with their V8 Star cars.
Big power in the GT Class
The Euro GT Series has two Classes, the GT Class and the N-GT Class. The technical regulations of the GT Class allow a relatively liberal amount of tuning of the engines which leads to engines with more than 700 BHP. This makes the Euro GT Series the fastest GT competition in Europe.
The works BMW M3 GTR with Duncan Huisman at the wheel will be the combination of man and machine to beat in the GT Class. Duncan was very successful with the same car in the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring on June 12 and 13 June, coming home second behind an identical sister car from the same team.
Also Cor Euser on Marcos LM600 has his aim at the top podium place but he will have to fight hard. Two other LM600s will be on the grid, with Cors team mate Jos Menten and old fox Herman Buurman, both Dutch, behind the wheel. A big fight may be expected from the Schrey family from Germany with Porsche, and flying Fin Pertti Kuismanen and David Hart both with Chrysler Viper.
Although Rob Knooks Stealth B6 (Netherlands) may have less power on board, his car has a very good weight distribution due to its mid-engine lay-out and the low centre of gravity which are premium points at Zandvoort. The performance of Libanese Chaouki Chikhani is totally unpredictable. He is very fast but tends to disobey the limits of adhesion of his Porsche with the track surface. Chaouki made a big summersault during the previous Euro GT race at Zandvoort during the DTM event in 2002.
Big fleet in the N-GT Class
At least 20 cars will participate in de N-GT Class and there are several podium candidates. German Peter Brecht of LC Racing will bring his home-tuned Ferrari 360 Modena and Peter wants to show the capabilities of himself and of his company.
A podium candidate certainly is Dutchman Peter van der Kolk who totally rebuilt and improved his Marcos Mantis. Peter won the N-GT Class Title in 2003. But he will have to battle heavily with some fast Porsches GT3 RS cars such as those of Zandvoort-aces Charles Brugman, Luca Moro, and René Snel.
The N-GT Class will also include some cars which deviate from the norm, such as the Chevrolet Corvette C4-R of Nico Unteregger and the Panoz Esperante from Mirco Schultis, both from Germany. As special guests some cars of the previous V8 Star series are present. The German MIS Team will enter the ‘Audi A6’ with V8 engine, tube frame, and composite bodywork driven by Thomas Mutch. Thomas is a candidate for a podium place.
The first race of 40 minutes with a compulsory pit stop will start on Saturday August 7 at 17.00 hours. The second race with the same format will start on Sunday August 8 at 15.10 hrs.
Official partners of the Euro GT Series are Braincard, LC Racing with ROH wheels, and RaceWorld TV.
