The Final Showdown of 2010

Zolder is the host venue for the final two races of the 2010 FIA GT3 European Championship, which has proven to be one of the most exciting seasons since the championship began in 2006.  In Portugal three weeks ago Christian Hohenadel and Daniel Keilwitz, in the Callaway Competition Corvette, clinched the 2010 Driver’s Championship with a win in the last race of the weekend, their fourth victory of the year.  While the driver’s championship has been decided, there is still plenty to play for at Zolder with three teams – Callaway Competition, Prospeed Competition and Need for Speed by Schubert Motorsport - still in contention to become 2010 FIA GT3 European Team Champions.

Daniel Keilwitz and Christian Hohenadel have had an impressive season, scoring four wins, three seconds, one third and one fourth place finishes in the first ten races of 2010.  In the first four races of the season Corvette was the dominant force winning three of the four encounters and filling five of the six podium places in Rounds 3 and 4 at Brno, with a double win for reigning French GT3 Champion Mike Parisy and his co driver Joakim Lambotte in the Graff Racing Corvette.  Parisy and Lambotte were the closest rivals for championship honours but technical problems hampered their title challenge.  The nr100 Callaway Competition Corvette will be driven by Bernhard van Oranje and Marius Ritskes and will be looking to score as many points as possible to help secure the team crown for Callaway.

At Jarama in Spain the Saintloc-Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS of Belgian drivers Greg Franchi and Stephane Lemeret took the top honours in Round 5 and the BMW Z4 run by Need for Speed by Schubert Motorsport, driven by Claudia Hürtgen and Csaba Walter, took a debut victory in European competition for after a race long battle with the Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT3R of Marco Holzer and Paul van Splunteren.  The win for the BMW also marked the first for Dunlop and the two drivers became the first female and Hungarian drivers respectively to stand on the top step of the GT3 podium in five years of competition.  The second BMW of Patrick Söderlund and Edward Sandström has suffered from bad luck this year but has also proven to be very quick, with Söderlund setting the fastest race laps in Paul Ricard and the Algarve.

Marco Holzer and Paul van Splunteren added another podium finish to their tally in Paul Ricard and then stood on the top step of the podium in Portugal to record the first FIA GT3 win for themselves and Prospeed Competition. The nr60 Prospeed Porsche is driven by Finnish duo Markus Palttala and Petri Lappalainen and will be looking to improve on their best placed finish of 5th this weekend to help the team close the points gap to Callaway Competition.

Paul Ricard also proved to be a good weekend for the Porsche teams as former GT3 Champion Gilles Vannelet returned to the podium with Antoine Leclerc in the Mühlner Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R.

The brand new for 2010 United Autosports team celebrated its first FIA GT3 podium finish in Portugal with Zak Brown and Matt Bell taking third place in the last race of the weekend.  Expect more of the same from the Anglo-American team this weekend.

Albert von Thurn und Taxis and Philip Geipel will be racing for Belgian team Argo Racing in the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 and will be hoping for a repeat of the podium finish at Brno on the team’s home circuit.

Who will be victorious in the final two races of 2010 in Belgium? Can Daniel Keilwitz and Christian Hohenadel finish the year on a high note and help secure the team’s championship for Callaway or will Prospeed Competition or Schubert Motorsport be able to score enough points to snatch victory? The podium finishing cars in Portugal have to carry success ballast in the next two races.  The nr101 Corvette and the nr61 Porsche will both carry 35kg, while the nr16 Corvette and the nr23 Audi will both carry 10kg thanks thanks to their third place finishes.

The 2010 Michelin Award will also be decided this weekend and is presented to the fastest of the two FIA GT3 European Champions.  The decision is taken on which of the drivers has set the fastest lap in qualifying and during the race, with extra points being awarded for setting pole position and the overall fastest race lap.  At present Christian Hohenadel has a slight edge over his team mate but the decision who will win the €150,000 prize fund to move up into the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship wont be know until after the final race of 2010.

CLICK HERE for the provisional entry list for Rounds 11 & 12

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