Early this year, Dutch motorsport entrepreneur, Mike Verschuur, decided to import the Chevrolet Camaro, as built by Riley Motorsport Technologies in Mooresville, NC. Soon after that, Verschuur announced his entry of two Camaros in the HTC Dutch GT4 Championship.
Images: GT4 European Cup
FIA GT4 racing in Europe has seen American cars before. A modified version of Ford's Grand Am Mustang FR500C dominated two seasons of GT4 racing previously.
That it took longer than planned for the cars to make their race debut is also the result of Verschuur’s philosophy. "There is no use racing the car when it doesn't fully suit our requirements. First, we wanted to adapt the Camaro to European standards, and only go racing when we were fully satisfied", Verschuur explained. That kind of steady approach has helped him score other victories, including the Le Mans 24 Hours and various European spec-racing series.
Both HTC Dutch GT4 and GT4 European Cup competitors converged last weekend at the Nürburgring for the fourth race weekend in the FIA series, which also marks the second half of the year's schedule. The first race of the weekend started under wet conditions, but dried quickly as the race progressed. Conditions on the following day were less complicated.
The #321 Camaro driven by Donald Molenaar and Ardi van der Hoek finished the first race in sixth place, just 32 seconds back of the leader. The second Camaro finished in 18th place. In the second race, Molenaar and van der Hoek repeated their placement, but less than 12 seconds from the front. The #319 Camaro, driven by Tim Buijs and team owner, MikeVerschuur, improved their results to 15th place.
"We are happy with this debut", said Frans Verschuur. "Many teams and drivers contacted us, showing great interest in our cars. With these two cars and driver pairings, we will definitely compete in the remaining two race meetings of the HTC Dutch GT4 Championship at Circuit Park Zandvoort. The Chevrolet Camaro has a lot of potential, that has become quite clear!"
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