The two last rounds of the Winston Nascar Model Car Trophy were res. the Brussels X-Mas Day Race (IOC rank 1) and the Brussels X-Mas Night Race (IOC rank 2). On Friday evening they were preceeded by the Brussels X-Mas Evening Race, a warm-up race of IOC rank 3. Although the race was anounced as the 2002 Club Championship of the SRC Grimbergen, there were more foreign racers at the start than local racers. Venue was qualitatively excellent with at the start Czechia's Terrible Three: Josef Korec, Frantisek Poledna and Vladimir Horky, the 1-2-3 of the 2002 world ranking of slot-racers. Also present were the n°7 on the list, England's Brian Saunders, the 1997 ISRA world champion and 2001 IMCA world champion, Italy's Salvatore Noviello, Czechia's Jan Korec (finalist at this year's IMCA Worlds) and Sweden's Janne Ekman. Only 6 club racers took the start: JPVR, Youri van Rossem, Bob Demeyer, Yannick Demeyer, Wim Eekelers and Jean-Marie Methuen. There were three French speaking racers: the European vice-champion Model Car Racing Cédric Gridelet, the BSC godfather Didier van Damme and newcomer Eric Kühn. Club champion of 2001, "Piki" van Rossem even didn't defend his title, forgetting that he could win 20 IOC-points, since the race was announced as an IOC2-event. 
Best motivated of all entrants was Cédric Gridelet having the strong ambition to win as soon as possible both the IMCA model car worlds and the Mello Yello Junior Worlds - just as did Josef Korec this year. At the qualifications, where he realised 3"823, he was surprisingly preceeded by the young Youri van Rossem who took the pole in 3"772. For this race young Youri could use his dad's tricky n°43 Dodge STP Cheerios - JPVR having accepted to race Youri's n°19 Dodge. Obviously the cars of the Czechs and of Brian Saunders were not already full competitive. Extremely stimulated that they could hold off the world's best trio, three local racers realised the best race of their life: Yannick Demeyer finishing second with 253 laps, Youri van Rossem finishing third with 250 laps and Bob Demeyer, finishing sixth with 239 laps - and this despite the fact that it was a night race with visibility difficulties. One day later none of them was able to repeat such excellent performance. 

The best motivated of all racers, however, was Cédric Gridelet (right picture). He realised 255 laps and won his first IOC-race. World champion Josef Korec finished fourth, just behind the two kids, but heading JPVR who - once more - failed to win his 200th career race. Noviello, Horky, Saunders and Poledna finished res. 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th. Bob Demeyer being outstanding among the amateurs, the quartet Wim Eekelers, Didier Van Damme, Jean-Marie Methuen (only in his 2nd race) and newcomer Eric Kuhn had a fight for the second place among the amateurs. Initially Eekelers was leading after a nearly faultless race on white and green. However, towards the end of the race he was passed by Didier Van Damme. Jean-Marie Methuen proved how fast he learns by finishing closely behing the duo Van Damme-Eekelers.

On Saturday morning no less than 34 racers showed for the two last rounds of the Winston Nascar Model Car Trophy - really the maximum capacity of the racing premises at Grimbergen. Fastest qualifier was world champion Josef Korec (n°20 Home Depot Pontiac, Tony Stewart) in a new Nascar record of 3"640, followed by Geert Mertens (n°24 Jeff Gordon Dupont Chevrolet), who, despite a handicap of 50 grams, realised 3"711. Even more surprising was the third time realised by John van Hoornaar (n°9 Bill Elliott Dodge) who performed 3"736 ... despite 110 grams of ballast. That proves once more how high is the couple of the Bison Mk3 motor. "Piki" van Rossem's car was visibly slow and he had to go to the limit of what's possible to realise 3"752 with his Jeff Burton n°22 Caterpillar Dodge. The two last places for the A final were won by Frankie Poledna (n°28 Ricky Rudd Havoline Chevy) and Salvatore Noviello (n°41 Jimmy Spencer Target Dodge), with poor Cédric Gridelet 9/1000nd of a second short to make the A-final.

The X-Mas Night race, on Saturday evening, was not only the last international model car race of 2002, it was also the most enjoyable in an atmosphere of friendship without frontiers. At the qualifications nobody could improve the 3"640 of Josef Korec at the previous race. Pole position went again to the n°20 Pontiac Home Depot of world champion Josef Korec, now in 3"661 (but under night conditions). Freed from his 110 gram ballast, John van Hoornaar realised the second time with his n°9 Dodge Dealers Dodge in 3"670. Mertens (n°24 Chevrolet DuPont), Noviello (n°41 Target Dodge), Gridelet (n°23 Hill Bros Dodge) and "Piki" van Rossem realised the other top-6 places, ensuring a start at the A-Final. Horky (n°2 Miller Lite Ford) and Frantisek Poledna (n°28 Havoline Ford) came as 7th and 8th, missing the A-final. The other B-finalists were Yannick Putzeys (fastest kid, and confirming his a fast qualifier), Desmond Dekker (faster than dad Hugo!), JPVR and Robert van Hoornaar, being the first PlaFit racer. Nobody understood how it was possible that Arthur de Kok, freed from his 110 gram ballast was now with his 3"868 (18th time!) hardly faster than his 3"906 with ballast. Remarkable also was the 23rd time realised by Maya Willockx, despite the fact that she nearly made no races after her DTM-series. The three kids having been tipped as potential winners - Yannick Demeyer, Youri van Rossem and Michael Phillipaerts - were 1/10th of a second slower than the duo Desmond Dekker and Yanick Putzeys (qualified for the B-final). With their 19th, 20th and 21st time they had all three to start at the D-final, together with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th amateur, res. Henk Visser, Maya Willockx and Anko Stok. Peter Ackermans - nowhere during the whole week-end - realised no time at all, since he preferred French frites more than a sharp time.

With only 12 racers to start we found Brian Saunders (n°5 Kellogg's Chevrolet) out at the lead, followed by at 7 laps by the leading kid Michael Phillipaerts (n°48 Lowes Chevrolet) and at 8 laps by the leading amateur Anko Stok (n°77 Jaspers Ford). That implied that the B-final was a thriller, since here we found the only remaining amateur (Robert van Hoornaar) and the two remaining kids. At mid-race Robert van Hoornaar was one lap down to Anko Stok, whilst Yannick Putzeys and Desmond Dekker had achieved one lap more than Phillipaerts. Putzeys seemed on his way to win among the kids when at once he had to come into the pits with loosing screws (Piki's mistake!) He lost 13 laps and was out for the two free trips to the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. But also Desmond Dekker failed to hold on the pace. At the end of the B-final he was 2 laps slower than Phillipaerts, the kid having been nowhere at the previous round. Last but not least Robert van Hoornaar increased his speed to beat Anko Stok among the amateurs and to win 2 free tickets to the Brickyard 400. 

After the B-final the number of laps to beat was 262, obtained by Frantisek Poledna. For Josef Korec the race started as a drama when he lost 8 laps by plugging in his controller. Geert Mertens took immediately the pole, followed by Gridelet and John van Hoornaar. Noviello and especially "Piki" had slower cars than the rest of the field: so, all what they could do was to come back on deslotting of other cars. The struggle between Mertens and Van Hoornaar was sharper than ever before. Cédric Gridelet had to let them go and at mid-race he was even passed by "Piki" for the third spot. Mertens had a slightly faster car than Van Hoornaar, but when he tried to pass him, he lost two full laps after a deslot. Indeed, in the dark, marshalling was slower than under daylight conditions. Becoming nervous, Mertens, a born winner, deslotted a second time, enough for the slow "Piki", having not deslotted once, to take the second place and to hold it until the finish. At the real last stages of the race Korec could pass Gridelet for the 4th place, but with a final jump Cédric could come back to take place 4 ahead of the world champion: a moral victory!

For a splendid picture report on the BXL X-Mas races, surf to Stéphane Martins execellent web site. Pics courtesey to him and to Bob Demeyer.

Totally unpredictable was which Nascar-team should be the winner of the twice two free tickets to the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. Immediately after the race everyone believed that "Piki" and Cédric Gridelet were the winners, since they finished 2nd and 4th overall. But Ultra/Everham Motorsports did better with 20 points for John van Hoornaar and 9 for Youri van Rossem (4th kid). Then it appeared that Penske Racing did at least so good with 20 points for Robert van Hoornaar as winner among the amateurs and 9 points for Olivier Demoen as 4th amateur. Eventually none of them was the winner. By winning among the kids Michael Phillipaerts collected 20 points. If one add to that the 12 obtained by Geert Mertens that gives 32 points to Rick Hendrick Motorsports, so that they even didn't need the point won by their team mate Brian Saunders (8th expert) to win the Super Prize. It's worthy to note that MB2/MBV was on its way to cause a stir, since Wesley Ruysen was leading until the real end kids-winner Michael Phillipaerts. A short technical problem made him loosing all: he finished as 6th kid after a splendid but unlucky race. At the prize-giving ceremonial Phillipaers didn't realise the prize he won: he seemed happier with the won Need for Speed computer game than with the won four free 6-days trips to Indianapolis! [JPVR]