Spa-Francorchamps,  24 and 25 July 2009 – For the fourth round of the GT4 European Cup, Donkervoort Racing set off to the legendary racetrack of Spa-Francorchamps. The whole event, which took place right before the start of the 24h of Spa, would be the moment of truth for Donkervoort Racing. How much had the team progressed since their last visit to Spa, exactly one year ago? At the end of the first race, Denis Donkervoort scored a very decent 5th place overall and a first place in the Supersports division. Nico Pronk saw his podium chances turn to dust due to a flat rear tire. In race 2 Denis Donkervoort repeated his result with a second victory!

Progression
The SRO, organizer of the GT4 European Cup, had announced a very interesting rendezvous for this year's event: the debuting Dutch GT4 would become the sparring partner of the European GT4. This brought a number of spectacular races into being and a pack of more than 40 (!) competitors. During the free practice sessions Donkervoort Racing surprised friend and foe by driving the second best time of the entire field in rainy conditions. In the dry conditions Donkervoort Racing accomplished an improvement of no less than 8 seconds compared to last year's best time.

Race1
The very first race of the weekend which took place on Friday ended highly successful. As mentioned before, the Supersports division starts at the end of the field with their grooved tires. Nevertheless Denis Donkervoort was able to find his way through the field and finished with an impressive 5th place overall. “Because this track contains a lot of long straights and our car doesn’t have the ideal aerodynamic package compared to our direct competitors, we didn’t expect to score such a great result! A last minute set-up change resulted in an improvement of no less than 2,5 seconds per lap. That was just what we needed!” said Denis Donkervoort after race 1.

Nico Pronk, driving with number 104 experienced a stroke of bad luck at the end of the race. “The race went very well, each time I drive the car I feel more comfortable. When I was driving in third place in the Supersports, I suddenly had to deal with a flat tire. This caused a DNF for me, unfortunately!”.

Race2
The second race of the weekend weren’t as easy as the first race. Though an overall 12th place and again a victory in the Supersports was the maximum result for Denis Donkervoort . “Yesterday’s set-up change gave us an indication of which direction to go to. Unfortunately for the second race today we went a bit to far!” For Nico Pronk it looked like a repeat of the first race. Only this time a small driving mistake made the third place in Supersports unreachable for him. “When driving on the limit a mistake is easily made, let’s hope that I am able to climb on the podium again in Zolder next race!”.

Comming FIA GT4 races:

Friday and Saturday  21 & 22 augustus 2009                        Belgium Zolder