July 26, 2008 - The 20th IMCA Worlds at Herentals missed the grandeur of the precedent edition in Mechelen, but were qualitatively the best ever. The entry field was indeed the strongest in IMCA's history. Major handicap was that race director Jean-Marie Tillén didn't show. He was on holidays and confirmed by phone a meeting the day before the race. We don't know what happened but that evening he didn't show and he couldn't be reached since: not home, not by telephone, not by mail. Something must have happened, but up to now we don't know what.
The only solution was to give the race direction in hands of Raymond van Campenhout. It was a emergency solution placing Raymond in a delicate position since his son Björn was one of the competitors.
Even more than at the previous IMCA Nats in Mechelen, Germany dominated the event winning all but two important races. Holland and Belgium could limit their losses as Nick de Wachter won the Benelux Cup and the Gianotti Trophy, and as "Piki" won the tumultuous 132 Worlds. We note a serious progress by New Zealand and Australia. Once more Chris Radisich reached the main at the 124 Worlds. Normally Tim Tyler should have done the same if Niemas & Co had not insisted that he had to change his rear tyres for the Semis. We don't know what happened but Tim drew a pair of impossible tyres from the tyres bag in the IMCA office. There can be no doubt that someone put those junk tyres in the bag. Here we made a serious error: we had to stop the race and let it be done over with correct tyres. So we apologise having omitting to do so.
A serious deception came from South-Africa being nowhere (except at Concourse where they took third and sixth place). Why the South-Africans don't show with their top-driver Gustav Heymann. Already in 2001 he gave full evidence that he's the racer South-Africa needs: at the 2001 Worlds he finished as third overall in the 124 Worlds.
Among the Germans the Bad Boys collected more points than the troops of Ralph Seif, but at the Endurance Worlds the trio Seif/Ortmann/Schnitzler let the Bad Boys not the smallest chance. The highest trophy - victory at the 124 Model Car Worlds went to one of the Seif boys: indeed Christian Schnitzler won the title, 3 laps ahead over Philipp Kremer. Top-3 at the 124 Worlds was restricted exclusively to kids: Christian Schnitzler, Philipp Kremer and Alexander Ortmann. They were followed by the trio experts formed by Nick de Wachter, Michael Niemas and "Piki" van Rossem. Ralph Seif himself missed the main final, but three of his cars were in the main, finishing as first, third and sixth.
In the top 29 we found only two non-Plafit cars. It was obvious that the MoMo X-SR07 GT (as driven by Kai Kivekäs) is not well adapted to the MTT track, where it finished only tenth at the 124 Worlds and only fourth at the Endurance Worlds. Biggest surprise came from the Metris Mk3 chassis as used by Gabriel Inäbnit. The car finished second at the Toblerone and at the Endurance Worlds and reached the Semis at the 124 Worlds.
Spain caused a stir by the Checa Bros, being excellent racers, however still not adapted at the international conduct rules. Their insults at the marshals ("Gognio!) were one bridge to far.

TOBLERONE ENDURANCE RACE
The meeting started with the Toblerone Endurance Race as curtain raiser. Here 15 duos took the start. Michael Niemas/Philipp Kremer were dominating the race but ran in trouble during the last segment, when they had to replace the motor pinion. They were 15 laps in the pits, so that Nick de Wachter/Gabriel Inäbnit could take the lead with less than 15 minutes to go. Once back on the track Niemas/Kremer had no problems to undo their arrears on the Dutch/Swiss team. Eventually they won the race, 12 laps ahead over De Wachter/Inäbnit. Third place went to Børge Haug/Glenn Wennerberg letting Fola Osu/Tim Tyler two laps behind.

CONCOURSE WORLDS - Of the 53 Ferrari F430 Challenge cars having been entered, only nine deserved the label of "concourse" car. Among them four were above the rest of the field. It concerned the cars entered by Fola Osu, Gabriel Inäbnit, Al Paterson and Louise Valkenborgh. Each of them could be the winner. As Louise Valkenburg presented a car with hand painted mirrors (one in the colours of the British flag, another in the colours of the Irish flag) that little extra was enough to declare Louise Valkenborgh as winner, ahead over Gabriel Inäbnit (last year's winner), Al Paterson (the 2006 winner) and Fola Osu (the future winner).

THE 4 FIRST WARM-UP RACES
After 14 hours of practice - an absolute maximum in IMCA's history - it was time for the warm-up races. Of them the 4 first were contested as separate races for experts (Trofeo Pirelli), amateurs (Coppa Shell) and kids (Motorola Trophy). The two remaining warm-up races (the traditional Benelux Cup and European Championship) went scratch (all groups of racers together). Among the experts Chris Radisich won the first round, Nick de Wachter the three following. Among the amateurs Børge Haug won the four rounds ahead over Javier Checa. Among the kids Philipp Kremer won the four warm-up races ahead over the Checa Bros.

BENELUX CUP AND EURONATS
The two last warm-up races went with the three groups of cars all together. Nick de Wachter won the 20th Benelux Cup ahead over Philipp Kremer, Michael Niemas and Ralph Seif. The EuroNats were won by Michael Niemas ahead over Nick de Wachter, Kai Kivekäs and "Piki". As the six warm-up races formed the Franco Gianotti Trophy, victory went to Nick de Wachter, followed by Philipp Kremer, Michael Niemas and Kai Kivekas.

MELLO YELLO WORLDS
The Mello Yello Worlds for Kids and Amateurs was fully dominated by the kids, taking the five first places with Philipp Kremer as winner. Alexander Ortmann had back luck, loosing seven laps early in the race. First amateur, finishing as sixth overall, was Norway's Børge Haug. [JPVR]

20TH IMCA MODEL CAR 124 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - JULY 22 HERENTALS [IOC EVENT LEVEL 1]

CHRISTIAN SCHNITZLER IS THE 2008 WORLD CHAMP

Germany makes it 1-2-3-5 - Piki lonely non-German in top-5 NDW disqualified

4TH IMCA MODEL CAR 132 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - JULY 23 HERENTALS [IOC EVENT LEVEL 1]

NIEMAS & "PIKI" VAN ROSSEM FINISH EX-AEQUO

Race was done over after disastrous first trial

11TH MELLO YELLO WORLDS FOR KIDS & AMATEURS - JULY 23 HERENTALS [IOC EVENT LEVEL 2]

PHILIPP KREMER WINS MELLO YELLO WORLDS

Mello Yello Worlds for Amateurs won by Børge Haug

2008 FRANCO GIANOTTI TROPHY - JULY 20-22 HERENTALS [IOC EVENT LEVEL 2]

PHILIPP KREMER WINS BENELUX CUP & THE TROPHY

Michael Niemas European Champion  - De Wachter disqualified

2ND WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ENDURANCE RACING, JULY 23-24 HERENTALS [IOC-EVENT LEVEL 1]

SEIF/ORTMANN/CHR. SCHNITZLER WORLD CHAMPS

KRISTOF HUYS/BJÖRN VAN CAMPENHOUT/JPVR WIN IN GT2 CLASS

ORIGINS OF THE CHECA CONFLICT
Before the start of the Endurance Race I told father Checa that it was not necessary to put wheel inserts since we were short in time. I was sleeping on the divan when race director Raymond van Campenhout decided that Carlos Checa had to come in to put the inserts. I was unaware of this decision, until Francesc Reyes explained it to me. Father Checa interpreted the decision as bad feelings from the race direction against the Checa's. That, however, was absolutely NOT the case.
I don't believe that the team of Carlos Checa should have won the race without the decision of the wheel inserts. Our car was much faster than his, and our decision was to let them come back at one lap, just to keep the thrill high enough. Imagine that without the wheel inserts incident they should have been ten laps ahead over our car, then we should have asked our fastest racer Kristof Huys to undo the arrears on Checa's car. Huys was turning laps of 7"3 against 7"6 for the car of Carlos Checa and the two Ortegas.
Father Checa interpreted the incident as a clear proof that the race direction was not impartial. All who know Raymond van Campenhout will be the very last to think such a thing.
Concerning the 132 race father Checa should understand that it should have been highly unfair if we should have considered that it was a correct race. We were all very tired and we made three mistakes. (1) The first was that we omitted to warm up the 132 cars: they had absolutely no grip during the first 30 minutes they were on the track. (2) The second mistake was that we let start the fastest racers as first, whilst the rules say clearly that the 8 slowest racers has to start in the first heat, the 8 fastest in the last heat. (3) The 132 race went with handout cars, suspected too be all equal. If at a given moment one of the cars is no longer working properly the race direction should have interrupted the race to give the man in problems another car. The fact that the man in problems was my proper son "Piki" played certainly a role in not taking the correct decision (once more Jean-Mariie Tillen was cruelly missed!) Just before his car broke "Piki" had an advance of 7 laps over Michael Niemas and went at an average of 225 laps. During the two last heats his car turned at 12 seconds per lap and deslotted at any curb. It should have been highly incorrect to consider such perturbed race as a world championship. I think that every neutral person could agree that such a race was to do over. At any rate next year we'll change the formula of the 132 race. We'll do it with 8 cars on the track being never changed of lane, so that all entrants have to race the 8 same cars. There will be a warm-up period of 30 minutes and it will be allowed to change a car if it is obviously deficient. Let's hope that father Checa understands things better, now he is well-informed.

THE CHECA AFFAIR (PROVISIONAL TEXT)
Since the son Björn of race director Raymond van Campenhout was among the entrants, that resulted in a highly painful situation during the final of the GT2 Endurance World Championship. Here the Checa clan should have been definitively disqualified for insult at the marshals and for never seen unsportmanslike behaviour. During the real last segment Carlos Checa was only one lap down to the team of Kristof Huys/Björn van Campenhout/JPVR. Trying to undo his arrears Carlos Checa deslotted a couple of times and insulted each time the marshals by the word "Coño!" (son-of-a-bitch). [Franscesc Reyes sent us a text out of a Spanish explicative dictionary to prove that "Coño!" is not such a thing as son of a bitch, but it was percepted by all entrants as if it was.] Should Jean-Marie Tillén having been there, there should be not the smallest doubt that he should have disqualified Carlos Checa for yelling at the marshals. The situation was even worse with Jose Javier Checa and Javier Checa racing on lane red, and deslotting deliberately a dozen of times in front of the leading car, with no other intention than to touch it and putting it out of the race.
Persons as the Checas deserve no entry in international racing if they don't change their behaviour. Under the pretext that they don't understand English very well, they tried at several occasions to cheat their competitors. At the start of the Mello Yello final for Amateurs Javier Checa - the leader of the clan - showed with a car smelling to tyre dressing products. His explanation, that it was just an accident, that he had not the smallest intention to cheat everybody, was just ridiculous. Of course he was disqualified, loosing his second place.
At prize giving the same Javier Checa found it opportune to insult IMCA's race direction. Now he pretended that his son Jose Javier Checa merited the trophy for the second place at the 1/32nd Worlds. That race was a completely disaster since the first 8 racers had no grip at all with the little cars. Moreover those 8 first should not have been the 8 best qualified racers but the 8 last qualified racers. One of the racers received a car which, at once, was beyond control. Instead of stopping the race to give him a new handout car, things continued, ending in a pure joke. So 7 of the 8 slowest racers at the 1/24 Worlds - having much better grip - were found among the best ranked ones at the end of their run. So it was obvious that the race should be done over in normal conditions. Of all entrants Javier Checa was the lonely one to contest that decision openly. The argument that his son Jose Javier Checa finished second at the first edition was untrue since at that race he finished only fourth.
The Checa Bros are excellent racers. It should be a pity to see them no more in international competition after the Herentals incidents. Perhaps Francesc Reyes can  be the moderator and to let forget what happened because tomorrow is another day, especially since tomorrow means also a new IMCA president: Mark Campbell!

It was no easy task to select the most beautiful car at the 20th IMCA Nats. Disappointing was the fact that the Bad Boys - normally always showing with perfect cars - came this time with cars being a clear insult for any modeller. Only nine cars were good for 20 concourse points. Especially the cars of Louise Valkenborgh (B), Gabriel Inäbnit, Fola Osu and Al Paterson were so close to each other that it was a shame to split them up over the four first places: all four merited the trophy. Eventually the GB Dealer Ferrari F430 as made by Louise Valkenborgh was selected as winner, especially due to the perfect hand painted mirrors. For the three following places we found no other system than a lottery draw. So the car of Gabriel Inäbnit  - last year's Concourse winner - came as second, the one entered by Al Paterson (RSA) - the 2006 Concourse winner - as third, and the one entered by Afolabi Osu (NIG) as fourth. It's a pity that the last named car is not on the right picture.
Surprisingly the cars of Craig Strydom (RSA) - finishing as sixth - and Arthur de Kok (NL), finishing as eighth were among the top-8. Nick de Wachter (NL) enters always splendid cars at the Concourse Worlds, but this year his car has nothing flashing as at earlier years. So the car was ranked as ninth.
After Concourse Fola quit the meeting without any explanation. Wasd he disappointed that he didn't win? Or was he upset that I told on the mike that the cars he prepaired for Piki and myself were not working at all? The last cannot be denied. During the four first warm-up races Piki could not defend his chances with the Fola car. Only at the two last rounds he was competitive, but then with a car assembled by Ralph Seif. No hard feelings, Fola!