South Africa's Kessel Ferrari driver David Perel left Belgium with two trophies in hand following a successful weekend in the Blancpain Sprint Series at Zolder.

"What a racetrack," David reflected. "I was confident from the moment we arrived here that we could pick up some much needed points for the Blancpain Championship and that’s exactly what we did. "The racing was tough, with several drivers not afraid to make contact if necessary, so avoiding trouble was our primary focus and that contributed to our results.

Perel had a late call up to his weekend's duty, but he had never seen the classic former-Formula 1 Zolder circuit before, so he used alternative methods to acclimatise, including countless laps on the Playstation and watching many hours of YouTube videos. “My preparation was rushed because I found out late in the day that I’d be competing in the Sprint Series, but it paid off in the end.

"We were on the pace from the second lap and then we comfortably held our own against the more experienced pros to take pole position and two race wins in the AM class," David, who left Belgium as the overall leader of both the Blancpain AM Championship as well as the the Blancpain Sprint Cup, explained. "I must say a huge thank you to my co-driver Stephen Earle for choosing me to do this race with him - even though our Kessel Ferrari 458 GT3 is not the latest model, it still held it’s own pretty well!.

The next round is the 1000km of Paul Ricard, another former Formula 1 track Formula 1 race track on 24 June and the second round of the Blancpain Endurance Cup, where a win still eludes Capetonian Perel.