{"id":59410,"date":"2026-11-12T15:21:39","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/?p=59410"},"modified":"2026-11-12T15:27:54","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:27:54","slug":"59410","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/59410\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The Belgian Rallycross & Cross Car Championship came to a close this weekend at the Circuit Jules Tacheny in Mettet. In three categories, the title fight went down to the very last final of the season. Yves Teelen, Jo\u00ebl Strackx and Rigo Verstreepen were all able to celebrate their Belgian Championship titles.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yves Teelen dominates in RX3<\/strong><\/p>\n

In RX3, the situation was crystal clear for Nick Vanalken and Yves Teelen: whoever won the final would take the title. For Yves Teelen, however, there was no safety net. With two non-scores on his record, the Peugeot driver had no choice but to take maximum points.<\/p>\n

After two convincing wins in Saturday\u2019s qualifying heats, he had to give way to VW driver Nick Vanalken in the third heat, after Vanalken shut the door on him at the exit of the hairpin. \u201cWe were called before Race Direction, because they felt I had pushed Yves onto the grass. I was simply defending my lead,\u201d explained Nick Vanalken.<\/p>\n

A fiercely contested final seemed to be on the cards, but the expected duel never materialised. Yves Teelen made the best start and quickly opened up a small gap to Nick Vanalken. \u201cMettet is a circuit that suits me every year. It\u2019s a track where you need a bit more boldness, and that suits me perfectly. The third heat was still sticking in my throat, because I had placed myself very cleanly alongside Nick after the hairpin. I was simply quicker, but he forced me onto the grass. In the final, I didn\u2019t give him that chance. He was never in a position to attack me,\u201d said Yves Teelen, the new Belgian Champion.<\/p>\n

Wouter Desender finished third ahead of Davy Van Den Branden, who had suffered engine problems on his Citro\u00ebn DS3.<\/p>\n

Jo\u00ebl Strackx finally crowned<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Supernationals -2000cc too, the tension was at its peak ahead of the final. Jo\u00ebl Strackx had struggled enormously just to qualify. \u201cIn the third heat a driveshaft broke, and in the semi-final the engine wasn\u2019t delivering its full power. As Wouter Nijssen was also having problems, I still managed to make it into the final. I was due to start fifth, but I chose sixth on the outside instead. At the start I went round the outside and, halfway through the first lap, I was already third. Because the engine was misfiring, I was changing gear at 8,500 rpm, below the usual rev range of the Honda engine. But it worked. With a good strategy and by taking every risk, I even managed to narrowly beat my rival Ben Desender and win the final,\u201d said a delighted Jo\u00ebl Strackx, who had lost the title at the very last moment to Mandy Kasse in last year\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

Runner-up Ben Desender claimed the vice-champion\u2019s title, while Kimi Vermeulen, after a solid performance, took third place in the championship ahead of Wouter Nijssen.<\/p>\n

Rigo Verstreepen takes the title thanks to his son Yorben<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Rigo Verstreepen, it all nearly went wrong at the very first corner of the BMW RX Cup final. Verstreepen turned in too early, ended up on two wheels and made contact with Rume Anthonissen, who spun, before going off the track himself. All he could do was watch the rest of the race as a spectator.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for him, his son Yorben took his very first win, ahead of Sjouke Nobels, the quick young driver from Rijkevorsel, aged just 18, who rounded off her first season with a superb second place. Rume Anthonissen produced a fine recovery drive but could do no better than third. That result allowed Rigo Verstreepen to celebrate his title with immense relief. \u201cHaving to watch the race from the side of the track is terrible, because you feel completely powerless. But I knew Rume absolutely had to win, as I had already scored good points in the qualifying heats. Yorben did exactly what was needed to give me the title,\u201d smiled proud father Rigo Verstreepen.<\/p>\n

A change of machinery<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Supernational +2000cc, Kobe Pauwels made his debut at the wheel of the BMW driven last year by Daan Bex. Pauwels once again showed the full extent of his talent, dominating the qualifying heats, his semi-final and the final. It was an impressive performance, proving once again that Cross Car is an excellent school for learning to master a car and find traction. \u201cI had an enormous amount of fun with the BMW. The result was secondary today, but nobody says no to a win,\u201d smiled Kobe.<\/p>\n

Dries Bosmans brought his BMW Z3 home in a fine second place, ahead of Tibo Vaesen, who once again showcased his daring and car control at the wheel of his BMW 3 Series Touring. Tom Geenen finished fourth ahead of Bart Goris, the fastest of the front-wheel-drive runners after Danny De Beuckelaer\u2019s elimination in the semi-final.<\/p>\n

Conversely, Kristof Bex, champion in Supernational +2000cc, got his first taste of Cross Car. The multiple Belgian Champion was unable to qualify for the three semi-finals. \u201cAll my respect to the young talents in this category. They are really quick in these small, light buggies. I have to admit I didn\u2019t have enough confidence to match their lap times,\u201d admitted Bex.<\/p>\n

Several favourites failed to make it beyond the semi-finals, including Viktor Vranckx and Mervin Klaassen, both knocked out by the fast Dutch drivers Pim Vlassak and Nathan Ottink. Kyandro Van de Vivere missed out behind Ronnie Grauwels, who finished second to Jari Van Hoof in their semi-final. Kevin Letroye, for his part, had to bow to Nick Kooremans and Romuald Demelenne, who once again showed his talent after a year away.<\/p>\n

In the final, Pim Vlassak made the best start from pole position, ahead of Jari Van Hoof. But on the approach to the hairpin, the pack was squeezed from behind. Van Hoof spun, briefly blocking the other competitors. Pim Vlassak seized the opportunity to pull away, took the Joker Lap straight away and led the final from start to finish. A superb performance by the vice-champion. On the penultimate lap, Nick Kooremans, then running second, also spun at the hairpin. Second place therefore went to Romuald Demelenne, ahead of Nathan Ottink and Nick Kooremans.<\/p>\n

A first win for Daan Spies<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the other categories, Martin Boesmans was once again the class of the field in Mini U9, while Lex Verbelen won the U12 final ahead of Yenz Leysen, Belgian and Dutch Champion. Having taken the title in the youngest category, Leysen immediately dominated U12 in his very first season, while also being the youngest driver on the grid.<\/p>\n

In XC Junior too, a young driver stole the show. The season had been largely dominated by Pim Klaassen, who had already wrapped up the title several rounds earlier. But in the final rounds, Daan Spies, who had reigned supreme in U12 for two years, had been steadily raising his pace. At Mettet, Sferre Grauwels appeared to have a slight edge in outright speed, but Spies took advantage of a battle between Grauwels and Danny Van Groningen to win the final. His first Junior victory clearly gave him enormous satisfaction.<\/p>\n

In Superbuggy, Glenn Sente surprised champion Mark van Eyken by diving straight down the inside at the jump. On the fast Mettet track, Sente thus ended the season with a superb victory. \u201cI knew I had to get ahead of Mark quickly to be able to win the final. From the outside, I dived down the inside when he ran a metre too wide in the first right-hander. That\u2019s where the race was decided,\u201d explained Sente, whose buggy has always been particularly quick at Mettet.<\/p>\n

And so, at Mettet, an exciting season drew to a close, full of hard-fought, spectacular and, above all, very sporting finals.<\/p>\n

(Photo : M. Marchal)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Belgian Rallycross & Cross Car Championship came to a close this weekend at the Circuit Jules Tacheny in Mettet. In three categories, the title fight went down to the very last final of the season. Yves Teelen, Jo\u00ebl Strackx and Rigo Verstreepen were all able to celebrate their Belgian Championship titles. Yves Teelen dominates… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":59404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59411,"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59410\/revisions\/59411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mettet-xp.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}