Delva bikes racing page

Memories from the good old days on the race track

FORZA RACING TEAM 1999 -2003

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Our thanks to Rutger Hauer for his support

TEAM PRESENTATION FORZA RACING

Driver STEVEN VERSTRAETE
Mechanics DOMINIQUE DELVA

Where did we race?

We took part in all the Belgian national championship supersport races from 199-2003. Some extra races are added in Holland and Belgium.

Our inter Belgian Championship races in 2003:

26+27apr	Mettet SS600
4 mei	Evergem stock 600
31mei+1juni	Oostdende stock 600
07+08juni	Chimay SS600
03aug	Erpe-Mere stock 600
16+17 aug	Gedinne stock 600
20+21 sept	Assen (NL) SS600
27+28 sept	Francorchamps SS600

Our inter Belgian Championship races in 2002:

20-21 april Mettet Supersport 600 : finished 23 th overal, 14 th Belgian driver.

28 april Erpe-Mere Stock 600 : race 1 : 13 th , race2 :11 th

11-12 mei Croix en Ternois stock 600 : had to stop, a spark plug broke inside the engine

18-19 mei Chimay Supersport 600: engine still waiting for parts

24-26 mei Francorchamps Probike 6 uur : engine still waiting for parts

2 juni Oostende Stock 600: finished 17 th, the driver got drunk and woke up with a hang-over

15-16 juni Zolder Supersport 600: driver was sick

4 augustus Evergem * Stock 600: 18 th in training, first part finished 18 th and second 15 th

17-18 aug Gedinne Stock 600: 23 th in training, finished 17 th

19-20 okt Francorchamps Supersport 600: did not enter this race

BELGIAN CHAMPIONSHIP RACES 600 CC (INTER) FOR 2001

29 April: finished 15, dry weather during training 14° and in the race 17°. This is a short race track with few possibilities to overtake. We had the 13 starting place, lost 3 places and took one back

6 Mei Mettet: finished 15, dry 13-14°. Street circuit.

23 June Chimay: super sport 600cc : Training : wet, 15°, qualified 23 position. Race : finished 19.

10 June Ostend stock 600cc : Training wet: finished 21 position. Race: finished 16

16-17 June Zolder stock 600cc : Training wet: dry 16°. Race: canceled due to excessive rain

Due to some financial and technical problems, the racing team was put on a hold.

BELGIAN CHAMPIONSHIP RACES 600 CC (INTER) FOR 2000

7 may Erpe-Mere: 13 Th.

13/14 may Mettet: In the serie 600 race we finished 16 Th.

21 may Ronse: qualified 13 Th., it kept on raining during the race and we advanced a couple of places.

04 June Ostend: Finished 13 Th. in both races

11 June Chimay Supersport : 1 race: finished 13 Th. and second race : finished 9 Th.

17 June Zolder Supersport, Battle of the low lands :finished 9 Th. Belgian driver and 20 Th. international driver.

13/14 July Francorchamps: Total of 70 teams, our team: Verstraete Steven, Vanhaeverbeke Benny. We managed to get up to 6 Th. place in the overall category and 3 Th. in the 600cc category.

13 Aug Ronse: finished 10 Th. in the first race, 8 Th. in the second race.

26-27 Aug. Gedinne: . We qualified 18 Th. and finished 15 Th.

1 Okt. Spa-Franchorchamps: we qualified 15 all round, we finished 25 Th. team and in the race we were 6 Th. Belgian team, after a 3 hour race.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 1998

12/04 3^e pl PRESGAUX (kk)
13/04 2^e pl PRESGAUX (kk)
19/04 2^e pl RONSE
26/04 2^e pl METTET
24/05 5^e pl CROIS-EN-TERNOIS
31/05 6^e pl CHIMAY
07/06 4^e pl OOSTENDE
14/06 4^e pl DOORNIK
28/06 6^e pl CROIS-EN-TERNOIS
05/07 6^e pl ZOLDER
12/07 4^e pl SPA/FRANCORCHAMPS
26/07 4^e pl ERPE-MERE09/08 3^e pl CROIS-EN-TERNOIS
06/09 1^e pl MAZEE

At the end of the year we arrived at the second place in the Belgian national 750

BELGIAN CHAMPIONSHIP RACES 600 CC (INTER) FOR 1999

05/04 Mettet : Unfortunately we had to forfeit our first race, it started raining again and it took to long to fit the rain tires

30-31/05 Carole France : 32° race was stopped prematurely due to an accident, we finished 9 place

06/06 Oostende : First race we had a good start but breaked a bit to late which lost us a couple of places, we finished eleventh. Second race gave a bad start, we finished twelfth.

08/07 Spa-Franshorchamps: endurance 4 hours, second driver Peter. In the training session: we could not get the suspension wright for two drivers so we put in a white power rear shock but this did not help. We were qualified as the 13 th 600 cc team. The start by Steven was good and after 6 rounds he arrived fourth place and stayed fourth until the driver change took place. Peter did not do so good he still was having suspension problems, he lost 10 to 12 seconds per lap. In total there were 4 driver changes Peter drove one and a half hours and Steven two and a half hours. All the pit-stops went without problems. The last hour of the competition the power of our machine began to drop. We finished 14 th in the 600cc. Tests later on the dyno showed only a 5 hp drop which we found acceptable due do to high temperature at the time.

24-25/07 Gedinne : Big problems, after only 2 laps the horse power was dropping again and we decided to stop before serious engine damage took place.

After opening up the engine we found a broken inlet valve spring. We were lucky the valves and cylinder head did not get damaged.

08/08 Dendermonde : the Belgian championship league canceled all further races this year in the 600 cc production league.

11/09 Chimay : Super Sport race, in the training we got 15 th place, a good start gave us a 8-th place which I find is a good finish with our production 600cc. The second race, we crashed in the final 3 laps. The driver got run over by one of the drivers behind him. Luckily no serious injuries but the bike caught fire and had to be cooled down a bit by the fire department.

For 1999 we finished on the twelfth place in the 600 cc production series and fifteenth in the 600 cc Super Sport Belgian Inter championship.