Supercar Challenge

Supercar Challenge

Category	Touring cars and Sportscars
Country	Benelux
Inaugural season	2001
Drivers	~80
Drivers' champion	Oliver Campos-Hull Kosta Kanaroglou
Official website	supercarchallenge.nl
Current season

The Supercar Challenge is a motor racing series centered on the Benelux. A special feature is that touring cars, GTs and Sportscars can all participate on an equal basis within the same class, enabled by very open regulations. The championship was first held in 2001, after replacing the Supercar Cup. From 2001 to 2011 the championship was called the Dutch Supercar Challenge, but due to interest from drivers, teams and tracks outside The Netherlands the organisers decided to drop 'Dutch' from its name on 11 February 2012.^[1]

Format and regulations

A typical race weekend exists of the usual practice on Friday and Saturday, qualifying on Saturday and two races of 45 to 60 minutes with one pit stop of at least 60 seconds. One race is on Saturday and one Sunday. The four classes usually run separate races two classes at a time. The two fastest run together and the two slowest run their race separate. The exception is at Spa-Francorchamps where all four classes can and do run together in two races over the weekend. All races are started from a rolling start though in the past standing starts have been used as well. "Success time" is awarded after every race. The first-place finisher gets 15 seconds, second place gets 10, third place gets 5, fourth place loses 5 seconds, fifth place loses ten and all below fifth place lose 15 seconds. This is added to the time of the minimum pit stop duration. The reason no "success ballast" is used, is the immense variety in vehicles competing. For instance, a 50 kg weight has a much larger effect on a Lotus Elise than it has on a Dodge Viper Competition Coupe even though these can compete in the same class.

Classes

• Sport I - Vehicles over 5.2 kg/bhp. Engines maximum 3000cc and 6 cylinders.
• Supersport II - Vehicles over 4.7 kg/bhp but under 5.2 kg/bhp. Engines maximum 5000 cc and 8 cylinders.
• Supersport I - Vehicles over 3.7 kg/bhp but under 4.7 kg/bhp. Minimum mass is 1080 kg. Engines as in Supersport II
• GT - Vehicles over 2.7 kg/bhp but under 3.6 kg/bhp. Minimum mass is 1180 kg.

Single make series

During most of its lifetime the Supercar Challenge has served as a host to many single make series. In the first two years the Marcos Mantis Cup ran within the GT class. In 2003 it was fully integrated in the GT class. Starting in 2008 the Mosler Challenge has run within GT. In 2010 three series were added. Those are BRL V6 and the Saker Challenge, not to be confused with the series of the same name the DNRT hosts, both within Supersport I and BRL Light in Supersport II. The BRL series were before separate events and still have a slightly different calendar. The races at Silverstone don't pay them points while the races at the Zolder truck Grand Prix do though to all other classes they don't count.

Champions

Season	GT	Supersport 1	Supersport 2	Sport 1	Sport 2	Marcos Mantis Cup	Mosler Challenge
2001	Herman Buurman	Ruud Olij	Arjan Vels	Dirk-Jan Hofmans		Herman Buurman
2002	Cor Euser Pieter van Soelen	Rudolf van Soelen	Arjan Vels			Peter van der Kolk
2003	Rob Knook Peter van der Kolk	Hans Ambaum		Albèrt Priem
2004	Cor Euser Jos Menten	Graham Coomes		Hans Ambaum
2005	Pieter Dubois René Wijnen	Lex van der Meijden		Richard van den Berg
2006	Hans Ambaum	Pieter van Soelen		Eugène Janssen Rolf van Os
2007	Ardi van der Hoek Arjan van der Zwaan	Peter van der Kolk	Tony Brown Ian White	Kees Kreijne
2008	Martin Short	Henk Thuis	Pieter van Soelen	Luc de Cock	Rob Nieman		Martin Short
2009	Cor Euser	Henk Haane Nol Köhler	Bert van der Zweerde	Koen Bogaerts Nik de Jong			Martin Short
2010	Alex van 't Hoff	Charlie Frijns Rob Frijns	Pieter van Soelen	Richard van der Bos Bert van der Zweerde
2011	Diederik Sijthoff	Jaap van Lagen Wolf Nathan	Ferry Monster Robin Monster	Aart Bosman
Season	Super GT	GT	GTB	Supersport	Sport 1	Sport 2	-
2012	Diederik Sijthoff	Barry Maessen	Kees Kreijne	Koen Bogaerts Pieter van Soelen	Priscilla Speelman John van der Voort	Rob Nieman
2013	Glynn Geddie Jim Geddie	Steve van Bellingen Ward Sluys	Patrick Lamster Marc Neyens	Ferry Monster Robin Monster	Aart Bosman
Season	Super GT	GT	GTB	Supersport	Sport	Superlights 1	Superlights 2
2014	Robert de Graaff Roger Grouwels Arjan van der Zwaan	Patrick van Glabeke Frédérique Jonckheere	Max Koebolt	Cor Euser	Dennis de Borst Martin de Kleijn	Henk Thuis	Carlo Kuijer
2015	Roger Grouwels[2] Kelvin Snoeks[2]		Kris Cools[2] Patrick Lamster[2] Donald Molenaar[2]	Mark van der Aa[3] Koen Bogaerts[3] Pieter van Soelen[3]	Wiebe Wijtzes[4]	Luc de Cock[5] Sam Dejonghe[5]	Filip Declercq[6]
2016	Oliver Campos-Hull[7] Kosta Kanaroglou[7]		Chris Mattheus[7] Ward Sluys[7]	Dennis de Borst[8] Martin de Kleijn[8]	Bart Drost[9] Niels Kool[9]	Luc de Cock Tim Joosen	Dominik Dierkes

BRL V6 Season Champion 2010 Niels Bouwhuis

SEAT León Supercopa Season Champions 20121 Ferry Monster Robin Monster 20131 Ferry Monster Robin Monster 20142 Jonas de Kimpe Notes 1 – The SEAT León Supercopa class was a class for just SEATs within the Supersport class. 2 – The SEAT León Supercopa class was a class for just SEATs within the Sport class.

Other Champions Season CN Praga SR8 SR3 2013 David Houthoofd Jürgen van Hover Danny van Dongen Martin Short Ko Koppejan

References

External links

• Supercar Challenge website