With the end of winter approaching so does the end of the Winter Endurance Kampioenschap. At the Dutch coastal town of Zandvoort the teams come together one last time this season for the final race of the championship, the Final 4.
As temperatures slowly start to rise and defrost the frozen track, qualifying gets underway. All eyes are on the Equipe Verschuur Renault RS01. It isn’t a question of if they take pole position, but by how big a margin. Just how fast the RS01 is, the team from Nijmegen demonstrates when at the end of the session the Verschuur squad is almost a second faster than the second placed Wolf GB08 of Bas Koeten Racing drivers Léon Rijnbeek and motorsport debutante Leonard Hoogenboom. As the rest of the field is far behind, it’s up to the Wolf duo to keep Equipe Verschuur from running away with the win.
That plan takes a hit at the start. Mike Verschuur is off from a perfect standing start, but Rijnbeek struggles to get going. The amateur racer has to put all of his efforts into fighting back to second place. By the time he gets there, Verschuur is far and away.
Any ideas that the Bas Koeten Racing team might have had about winning the race goes up in flames when during their first pit stop the car catches fire. Repairing the sports car takes longer than anticipated, dropping the team well down the order. The Wolf is never seen at the front of the field again, eventually finishing fifth.
Much more luck for Equipe Verschuur: after an excellent first stint by Mike Verschuur team mates Harrie van Kolen and Erik van Loon solidify the lead built up by the star driver. Nothing can stop them from winning anymore, not even a malfunctioning battery in the closing minutes of the race.
Equipe Verschuur crosses the finish line with a gap of well over eleven minutes over their closest rivals, Cor Euser and Bas Barenburg in the Cor Euser Racing Lotus Evora GT4. 54 seconds behind the in iconic Lotus colours painted Evora comes home the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup of Marcel van Berlo and Bob Herber. None of the other podium finishers are pose a threat to the Renault RS01.
Division II is won by the BMW Z4 GTR of Eric van den Munckhoff and Henry Zumbrink. The Z4 battles in the opening hour with Tischner Motorsport, who are in the hunt for the championship title. Everything seems to be going the way of Tischner when shortly before the rush for pit lane the BMW M3 comes to a final standstill. The way for the class win is now clear for the Van den Munckhoff and Zumbrink duo, who remain in the lead until the very end.
The podium in Division III is dominated by the Bleekemolen family team: Jeroen and Sebastiaan win, as father Michael and his co-driver René Steenmetz finish second. By winning Sebastiaan Bleekemolen also secures his Winter Endurance Kampioenschap title. Renault Clio trio of Mika Morien, Ronald Morien and Niels Langeveld take the chequered flag in third place, after having led the first hour but failing to hold on to that position.
Karel Neleman and Mark Verhaegh are victoious in Division IV with their BMW E30.
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