Giallo Corse' Alfa 156 showed a lot of promise during the recent Zolder 500 kms satisfying the Belgian team that it can enjoy a good 2008 season with the 2.5-litre V6 powered racer and that the venerable racer is still a competitive proposition. Photos: Manu & Kristal Vermeiren-Marien.

Giallo Corse' Alfa 156 showed a lot of promise during last weekend's Zolder 500 kms satisfying the Belgian team that it can enjoy a good 2008 season with the 2.5-litre V6 powered racer and that the venerable racer is still a competitive proposition. The team suffered a very difficult 2007 and start to 2008 with the 10-year-old car, which is in fact lays claim to being the first Alfa 156 to have been race prepared.

The team kicked off its participation in the Dunlop Sportmaxx Endurance Cup this year with the important Dunlop First Race 3 hour long opening round at Spa (29 March), where, with a very down-on-power engine in the #456 car, caution was the byword for drivers Jef Verhulst, Jan Wouters and Sam Gijsbrechts. Satisfied to reach the finish line in 10th place out of 15 cars in Class 4 to take the chequered flag, Giallo Corse very swiftly moved onto the Belgian Race Kick-Off 2 hour duraction event at Zolder (11-12 April). With the engine repaired just in time, and Belgian Rally Champion Franky Boulat joining Wouters and Gijsbrechts in the cockpit of the red, white and green liveried racer, 14th position amongst 20 finishers in class was a very decent result to be built upon.

Both opening races saw the team, made up of a backbone of Alfa Romeo enthusiasts', having to cope with new Dunlop tyres which simply didn't suit the car at all. However the Dunlop Sportmaxx Endurance Cup only permits Dunlop control tyres so the team has had to abandon the Pirelli tires which have always worked faultlessly.

The third race on the calendar this year was the prestigious Zolder 500kms (8 June), and team regular Peter Bens, who missed the first two races due to pprofessional commitments, made his first appearance of the year in the driver squad, alongside Boulat and Verhulst. 

Qualifying was taken very carefully as the team took part in the session with a full 100 litre tank in search of an adequate race set-up, as the decision had been taken ahead of qualifying to start from the pitlane in order to conserve a maximum fuel load as the Alfa 156 2.5 V6 was expected to be able to complete for the 4 hours without refuelling at the slow obligatory refuelling areas; it meant that every litre could make the difference. Nevertheless Jef posted a 2.00 fastest lap time, Franky did 1.59 lap, and Peter turned in a 1.58 lap, but another Dunlop control tyre had started to degrade by then.

Following the team's planned strategy Jef started from the pitlane and worked his way up from 23rd to 14th spot after just 1 hour although his efforts were twice interrupted by a code 60 (a max. speed 60 km/h on track, used by the series instead of a safety car), and, due to these slower periods Jef was only called in after 1 hour and 30 minutes of the race, when his race was interrupted by a 'Stop & Go' penalty for speeding during the code 60. He had been lapping very consistently between 2.00 and 2.04 for the 38 laps, and he handed the car over to Peter in 12th position as the other cars started to refuel.

Peter continued the strong drive but was informed by Jef that the temperature gauge was indicating up to 120° Celsius in very hot conditions (up to 30° Celsius ambient). Peter decided to rev it no further than 5500 rpm, instead of the usual 6000 rpm, in order to bring the gauge indication range down to around 105°-110°. However he was comfortably able to post lap times in the region of 2.01 up to 2.03 which was excellent under the circumstances while the lower revs helped save fuel.

But then, only 22 laps into his stint, the #456 car suffered another blown tyre just as Peter was turning in to the Jacky Ickx chicane, and using all his skills, he avoided the pitwall and the gravel trap and smartly parked the car next to a pitwall gap. After a few minutes the marshals allowed him to go in reverse through the gap so he could return to the pit box. The whole affair cost the team about 17 minutes and approximately 8 laps, with the car falling back on the leaderboard from 9th (where Peter had climbed to) down to 11th.

Former rally star Franky was now behind the wheel and for safety reasons the car was refuelled with 35 litres to reduce fuel temperature and car temperature. However during the pit stop the tyre temperature meter was hastily used to test the cooling liquid temperature, which proved only to be 95° although the gauge was indicating 110°, so Peter had held back the revs for no reason. It meant Franky was given the 'GO' to start pushing and so he did with style, posting a best time of 2.00.193, as, helped by the other teams pitting to refuel, he regained position 9 in Class 4 by the end of his hard fought 45 lap stint. If the 8 laps lost with the tyre failure hadn't been factored into the equation, 5th place would have been quite possible for the team to have achieved, with 4th or even 3rd place being well within reach.

Giallo Corse now has a break now until the end of August when it will resume on track action with the 2 hour race during the 24 Hours of Zolder weekend (27-30 Aug). Hopes are also very high for the 2 hour 30 minute TruckPrix race in September and the following 3 hour race at Oschersleben in October; while everyone is very ambitious for the season closing 10 hours of Zolder (8 November) where the Alfa 156's low fuel consumption and consistent lap speed should make it a real dark horse. Dunlop has also promised to make a big effort to supply tyres which won't fail to support the team's quest for success.