5TH EUROPEAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR PROS (EEC) 2010: FINAL STANDING (IOC Event Level 1)

NDW/INÄBNIT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS ENDURO RACING

November 29, 2010 - Remco van Waaij, one of the EEC 2010 entrants, resumed the event as follows: "Never seen such dusty race location. Having not been cleaned the track was so full of dust that the grip was problematic. This was a meeting undignified the IMCA tradition. I saw a race direction ignoring the rule book at every moment. Much time was wasted by giving the marshals not a fixed place (as was the case at Dison). Track calls were a regular disaster, having been allowed when there was no reason for. We may be happy that the webcams were not properly working during the race day, otherwise the whole world could have seen how amateurish the organisation was without JPVR." That vision was perfectly confirmed by Fola Osu who wrote: " I can only second the comments made by Remco. Race direction had ... no direction , no authority and made many "illegal" decisions. Qualification was a mess, the race itself not well conducted. And the general cleanliness was terrible, beyond imagination."
Race direction was indeed incompetent, not familiar with governing international racing. Despite being one of the most expensive meetings in IMCA's history, despite the fact that there were 14 world champions at the start, the whole meeting was a major failure, not only as far as it concerns SRO and FIA GT1, but also in eyes of the racers.
The meeting was dominated by the #6 Ford GT, wonderfully prepared by Gabe Inäbnit on a Metris Mk4 works chassis, and superbly driven by Nick de Wachter and himself. They won four of the five rounds. NDW won enough points to be the 2010 man of the year - a title he deserves more than any other racer. Inäbnit mounts in the IOC-ranking to #21. Second place went to the #22 Nissan Z350 GT-R of the duo Desmond Dekker and Ralph Seif, driving a Niemas car on a Plafit SLP chassis. The other Nissan, the #23, mounted on a Fola chassis, was slower. Nevertheless Piki and Michael Niemas succeeded at the first race heading the #22, but lost its second place on too slow tyre changing. Everything went wrong when, after the first race, a collision at the race director's stand between Dirk Baele and Gerry de Roeck, resulted in 4 cars following hardly at the floor. Among them the NDW car, seeming unhurt. But, as could be expected, the much more fragile Fola car of Niemas suffered from a split rear axle holder, making it the less competitive as the meeting continued. At the least round, when the #23 started still from third position, the rear axle holder broke off, resulting in the one but last place. In the overall standing the car dropped from third to sixth.
Third place overall went to the #1 Vitaphone Maserati which RvC built for his son Björn van Campenhout and for Gilles Dohogne. They finished third overall and were on their way to a victory in the fifth and last race, when Raymond Kuhn lost six laps during the tyre change. Fourth place went to the #40 Ford GT of Fola Osu, Marcel Oosterling and Yannick Horn. They finished second at race #2. Yannick Horn was THE revelation of the meeting. He won enough points to become the 147th racer in history to enter the historical elite of pro drivers. Fifth place was for the #5 Ford GT of the Norwegian team of Borge Haug/Glenn Wennerberg, who realised the third place at race #3.. Wennerberg is the 148th racer in history to reach the historical elite of pro racers. He's now #119 of the IOC-list. Haug moves to rank #89.

At the British team of Brian Saunders/James Cleave, driving the #37 All.inkl.com Lambo, prepared by Niemas, Cleave seems a bit faster than Saunders. They finished on the podium at race #2. Although no model car racers - they are ISRA scale racers - they are a revelation for model car racing. They have been selected for the 2011 Model Car Sprint Worlds with the DTM cars. Chances that this meeting will be contested at the dusty Jeugdclub Merlijn are quasi nil. Probably the race will be moved to the Antwerp Ramada Hotel if the asked rent for the premises is affordable.
The other pro teams disappointed. Among them Chris Radisich/Howie Ursaner, driving the #11 Mad-Croc Corvette Z06-R, finishing still fourth at the first race, but after a bad show at the second race, being condemned for the rest of the meeting to the slowest heat, where it was raining (illegal) track calls. Same situation for the Brazilian Bad Boys "Gugu" Bernardino/Filipe Tavares, driving the #13 Phoenix/Carsport Corvette, finishing only once as sixth, and being later condemned to the track call rain of the B heats. The Slovak Bad Boys Jozef Miskolci/Ladislav Szalai, driving the #33 Maserati having won this year's Enduro Worlds, were continuously in the pits, and could only score points at the last race. Very disappointing were the Slotringer Andre Linberg/Sven Manti - having refused Yannik Horn as driver - finishing only once in the points  (broken guide holder!) . Even worse was the #9 Hexis Aston Martin DBR9 of Hugo Dekker/Remco van Waaij, having finished not once in the points, and scoring two twelfth places as best.
The Semi-Pro competition was decapitated when the Hubert Jacob Walloon gang retired collectively. Only five cars were left and here Old Gold of Peter Plug/Milko Tenthof, driving the #34 Heger Maserati MC12 were outstanding. A good result in race #3 let them start for the remaining races in the fastest heat, where they even finished as sixth overall at the last race. At the overall ranking they are eighth, letting five pro teams behind. Second and third among the semi-pros were Baele/Vanspauwen on the #2 Maserati, and Akkerman/Bous on the #38 Lambo. They can be praised for their personality, because they were the lonely two Walloons not following Führer Jacob when he withdrew his troops. I was told that especially Sascha Akkerman was a strong racer. The HRT favourites were more in the pits than on the track. Slotcraft Racing finished twice as fourteenth and will improve certainly in the future.

The team ranking was won by Matech Ford with NDW/Inäbnit and Haug/Wennerberg as drivers. They collected 196.5 points. Second was Sumo Power Nissan with Seif/Des Dekker and Piki/Niemas as drivers. They collected 162 points. Third place went to Vitaphone Maserati with Dohogne/B. van Campenhout and Baele/Vanspauwen. They won 75 points.  
What did I learn from this meeting?
(1) That Nick de Wachter deserves more than anybody else the title of Man of the Year. After having finished second in 2004, third in 2005 and four consecutive times fourth, NDW has eventually his due. Contrarily to "Piki" and Niemas he wins IOC points at all kinds of races - DTM, OEPS, SLP, IMCA, ISRA - and was this year the best all-round racer. "Piki" and Niemas eventually understood that in 2011 they have to opt for a broader competition. They'll enter the DTSW 5L race, will try to enter the SLP (perhaps as members of the Slotringer if Bernd Huvendiek accepts) and the OEPS Worlds.
(2) IMCA's week point is since 2006 the race direction. We found never a good and charismatic substitute for Bob Demeyer. This year's race direction was decapitated when the chief-race director Daniel Rasseneur - having promised to watch closely illegal track calls - didn't show any more after the technical control.
(3) IMCA absolutely needs a professional stress-free crew to cover the races on internet. At the EEC the webcams were not well placed and it was a professional mistake to require from Dirk Baele that he - also a racer - had to do it all alone. Fortunately the internet video was not working more than working, preventing that the SRO crew saw which an amateurish spectacle was going on.
(4) The Walloon gang of Hubert Jacob should never more be admitted at an IMCA meeting. Their black-mail to quit the event with all the gang's cars, if P-Y Deblanc was not allowed to race, despite not insured, proofs that they can require anything they want if one let them do. An organiser is responsible for the sportsmen at his meeting, from the moment a racer quits his home until the moment he's back at home (in a reasonable time). No black-mail could have been strong enough to accept the not reasonable requirements of Hubert Jacob. As an eternal troublemaker he - and all his followers, lacking like sheep even a grain personality - will be banned from entering IMCA racing as long as I live. They behave like pure ragtag and bobtail. 
(5) A more professional race direction could perhaps have avoided the Jacob incident. Indeed none of the race directors was aware that a woman, not on the entry list, was practicing with the team shirt of some-one else. She was member of Stanny Trebulak's team - a pure nightmare for any organiser. On subscribing Trebulak asked a t-shirt of size M for Timmers and Riga, of size L for himself. Then it appeared that Riga is an XXXL giant! When we needed a pic of his racers for the collective insurance he sent two pics, not communicating who was who. It cost us two hours of negotiations with our insurer to have that impossible Trebulak trio insured.
Ce grand colérique - who Hubert Jacob is - was persuaded that the race direction let race the non insured lady of Trebulak's team, but refused to let race the non-insured P-Y Deblanc of the MRC Dison. Nevertheless, even if someone had clearly explained to Jacob that the lady was not allowed to race, just as P-Y, there should have been little chance to convince Jacob that his requirement could never be accepted. Now Jacob has given full evidence that his Walloon racers follow him like sheep, without thinking. I don't know if he understood meanwhile that his black-mail doesn't work. All he achieved is that IMCA lost € 10,500 sponsoring money now that the 24 FIA GT1 cars were not all at scale 1/24th at the start. But I have to agree, even if they should have stayed, the sponsoring money should also have been lost. The webcam covering was so amateurish that at Interlagos they could have thought hardly something else, than that IMCA must be a bunch of bunglers. "Piki" and Niemas had plans to test in 2011 their GT car for the 2011 Worlds at the Bel-LMS series. Now that they have seen that Bel-LMS is a creation by the impossible Hubert Jacob, they'll have no problem to stay far away from him and his gang. They can test their car at the Merlijn 24 hours and hope that Jacob and his gang are will be not there for a new black-mail round. [JPVR]

Having qualified among the eight first, those were the racers starting at the first race of the 2010 EEC.
We recognise from left to right Harry van Avensaath (driving the #25 Reiter Lamborghini), Chris Radisich (driving the #11 Mad-Crock Corvette), Luis "Gugu" Bernardino (driving the #13 Phoenix Carsport Corvette), Michael Niemas (driving the #23 Sumo Power Nissan), Gilles Dohogne (driving the #1 Vitaphone Maserati), Desmond Dekker (driving the #22 Sumo Power Nissan), Glenn Wennerberg (driving the #5 Matech Ford) and Nick de Wachter (driving the #6 Matech Ford).
IMCA paid a small fortune for T-shirts with the 1/1 logos, but several T-shirts were full of errors. When it appeared that the race webcams didn't function properly - being much worse than was the case at the recent ISRA Worlds - we could have saved a lot of money by using the much cheaper purple IMCA web shirts as used at last year's and this year's  IMCA Worlds.
They have thus served for nothing, except for the fact that some racers can use them again next year at the 2011 IMCA Endurance World Championship.
After the EEC the MTT track will be professionally cleaned from the cube centimetres of dust and will return no more to Jeugdhuis Merlijn as long as we have no clear proof that the racing premises will be cleaned correctly. If no solution is found for the dust problem the MTT track will not be given to Jeugdhuis Merlijn for their traditional 24 hour race. Now the dust is really baked into the lanes and properly cleaning of the track will cost several days of work.

5TH EUROPEAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR PROS, ROUND #1 (EEC) 2010 (IOC Race Level 1)

#22 SUMO POWER NISSAN (DES DEKKER/SEIF) WINS ROUND #1

5TH EUROPEAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR PROS, ROUND #2 (EEC) 2010 (IOC Race Level 1)

#6 MATECH FORD GT (DE WACHTER/INÄBNIT) WINS ROUND #2

RESULTS EEC ROUND #2

5TH EUROPEAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR PROS, ROUND #3 (EEC) 2010 (IOC Race Level 1)

5TH EUROPEAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR PROS, ROUND #4 (EEC) 2010 (IOC Race Level 1)

5TH EUROPEAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR PROS, ROUND #5 (EEC) 2010 (IOC Race Level 1)