Dutch Supercar Challenge; Zandvoort 14.06.09

Round three of the Dutch Supercar Challenge took place around the dunes of Zandvoort in North Holland.

Martin Short, fresh from export duties in Malaysia, hotfooted it from Schiphol to the circuit in time for qualifying. His old adversary, Cor Euser, took the Marcos onto pole by a tenth of a second from Short's Mosler. Berry van Elk qualified in sixth.



Engine problems seemed to bedevil Short's season, though; his crew were hard at work on the car after qualifying in order to make the grid for race one. But whatever magic dust they sprinkle around does the trick - Short got the drop on Euser (not for the first time this season) and took the lead on lap one. The Marcos looked consistently quicker, though, and Euser sprang back into the lead on lap six.



Safety cars and pitstops then shook up the race rhythm. Berry van Elk had been running well before losing it on a hard curb and beaching his Mosler. I speak little Dutch, so I guess at the end of this clip he's saying something like 'gosh, that's unfortunate, I was driving really rather well up until I made that silly mistake".




With the safety car out and the pitstop window about to open, chaos ensued. Drivers were slowing up to enter and exit the pits at the most opportune moment as the safety car snaked the field around. Short found himself in the lead after a second safety car outing, even though he'd had 55 seconds success penalty added to his stop. The lead was short lived, though; having stopped just before the pitlane entrance when waiting for it to open, he was given a drive-through penalty. Short did his best to make up time with a clear track ahead of him before taking the drive-through and emerging in third behind Euser and the leading Porsche 997.




Short closed down Euser but couldn't pass, crossing the line behind in third as the Porsche of van de Laar and Bleekemolen took the win. Later, Euser would be stung with a thirty-second penalty for a slow getaway from the pitlane so Short was elevated into second.

Race two saw less incident but a fantastic surge from Berry van Elk. Starting at the back of the grid after his off in race one, Berry had the whole field ahead of him to carve through. Euser and Short fought all race through, the Marcos taking the win. Short suffered a fuel pump failure that led the Mosler and Marcos to bump briefly; Short kept on running but lost valuable time whilst starting the reserve pump. With sixty seconds of success penalty on his pitstop as well, the Mosler Europe car still fought on and came home in a creditable fourth place.



Star Mosler performer of the day, however, has to be Berry van Elk. From the rear of the grid, he scythed through the field and took a well-deserved podium position by finishing third.



Martin Short leads Cor Euser in the championship by 14 points as the season continues in Spa at the end of June.

Photos (c)Roel Louwers and Jacqueline Pelsmacker at www.supercarchallenge.nl

As always, highlights of the race can be seen on the Dutch Supercar Challenge website