This weekend, I enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather in Haspengouw and watched some good rally action during the first round of the Belgian Rally Championship, the Rally van Haspengouw.
I visited the following Special Stages:
- SS 6 - Neerlanden: a typical section in the Haspengouw, with wide open fields. After a long straight line, the drivers had to go full in the breaks to take a dusty left corner, followed by a long acceleration to top speed.
- SS 8 - Horpmaal: after a passage through the village of Vechmaal, the race goes uphill through a twisty hollow road. When the drivers reach the top, there is a dirty left before continuing downhill to the village again. The second picture below gives a peak at the flat tire of Vincent Verschueren, causing him a delay on this stage of 38 seconds, dropping from 2nd to 4th place overall.
- SS 9 - Gingelom: again, an open section between the local plantations. Before taking a wide right, the drivers go full in the breaks.
- SS 12 - Horpmaal: famous twisty section through the village of Vechmaal (actually the township of "Heurne"). In this spectator point, cars come at you from many directions at once: front, left and back.
Some general observations:
- The new VW Polo R5 is a really fast car, spectacular to watch! Although it's a fairly new car, the first and second place in this rally proves it's already fully competitive with the Skoda Fabia's.
- It's a pity Patrick Snijers (61) went off during SS 2. I was interested to see if he could keep up with the young squads in a modern car. Let's see what the rest of the season brings.
Final result
