During the last round of the Trofeo Maserati Europa at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium's finest race and rally stars were paired together to the delight of local fans. Franky Boulat and Marc Goossens teamed up in the Toöra VIP car with resultant fireworks as the duo demonstrated their blistering pace.

Franky Boulat is the very popular triple reigning Belgian-Flemish Vlaamse AutoSportliga (VAS) National Rally Champion (2003, 2004 and 2005). Demonstrating his ability the three titles came at the wheel of a GpA Opel Kadett 2.0Gsi, when he beat several rivals piloting genuine four-wheel-drive WRC machinery. This year Boulat is driving a new GpA Opel Astra 2.0, and after suffering mechanical troubles in the first two rounds he claimed victory on the third outing, beating amongst others two Toyota Corolla WRC rally cars, and all in the wet.

He also has experience driving Italian machinery as he made his circuit racing debut last year driving the Buga Corse Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6 in two rounds of the Zolder Touring Car Cup. He also drove the Toöra VIP Maserati GranSport in last year's Trofeo alongside veteran English racer Tony Dron. The step up from a 240 bhp front wheel drive rally car to a 400 bhp rear wheel drive racing car with paddle-shift gears was a huge one, especially as his only experience at the Spa circuit was at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo road car in 2001 when piloting VIPs around the circuit. However his qualifying in the Toöra car was abruptly cut short when he went off on his first track lap having been sent out on slicks in the wet. Maserati substituted the damaged car allowing him to gain a few more laps of the legendary Ardennes forest circuit, and despite his lack of track time he quickly got up to speed in the race, lapping faster each time round. He is also now an instructor at the ErAnracing school at Zolder.

Alongside Boulat last weekend was Marc Goossens, another big local crowd favourite, and the reigning Belcar Champion. And just like Boulat, Goossens comes from Geel in Belgium, a noted "breeding ground" for top racing drivers. A former Formula Ford Festival and Championship winner, Goossens has been an Aston Martin Prodrive and Cadillac sportscar factory driver, with a blistering pace to add to his vast experience which includes all the most prestigious endurance races: the 24 hour races at Le Mans and Daytona, as well as the 12 hours of Sebring and 6 hours of Watkins Glen. He also has some experience at the wheel of Italian racing metal having first driven the Buga Corse Alfa Romeo GTV 6 2.5 back in 1995, and a year later under the "Racing for Belgium" banner, piloting a Ferrari 333SP during the Le Mans 24 Hours. This year he's driving a Marcos in the Belcar sportscar championship, turning in giant-killing acts and taking the fight to the two much more powerful Corvette C5-Rs, run by GLPK, and the car he won last year's title in for SRT. In a career that spans many disciplines Goossens has taken part in a Nascar-Bush race and is set to compete in the Nextel-Nascar series later on this year. Together with Milka Duno he also raced in the Xamax Daytona Prototype and with the same Riley-Pontiac DP he will take in further races later this year, again with Milka, the duo set to be joined by former Ferrari F1 star Stefan Johansson.
 

After final qualifying insiders knew that Marc Goossens hadn't shown his real pace with the Trofeo car yet and he would soon prove that there are only a handful of drivers able to equal his pace in a 'Grand Touring' car not in the least at the legendary Spa track as in qualifying Marc only got behind the wheel when it started drizzling. The lights went green and ahead of the Raidillon (Eau Rouge) he gained only one place, moving him from 15th to 14th, but going up the hill he gained another two places, taking him to 12th overall. Then how he managed to gain another three places ahead of the bus-stop was quite stunning - and suddenly he was now ninth. At the bus-stop life was made much easier by the opponent proceeding who spun, and then 8th was his. Then there was a gap to the next drivers which he closed within 3 laps and brought himself up to 5th place. With a stunning pace Marc closed the gap to the leaders and by lap 11 only Cerrai was in front of him, but on lap 13 he swept up that last hurdle.
 
While Marc came in to the pit area ahead of Cerrai, Franky Boulat who now took over the Toöra car, was sent out behind Cerrai, with Fabris and Bartocci firmly on his tail. Franky wasn't able to hold of their challenge: "Rally drivers are not used to meeting competitors on the same stretch of road," said the Belgian Rally Champion. Forced outside of the apex by one of them he still managed to conserve 4th spot, easily lapping faster than the guys behind him.

And while Marc posted a low 2.38 as his best lap, Franky turned in an excellent 2.43, set with the traction-control switched on as he knew that the tyres had lost their grip. All competitors generally run about 2 sec faster when the tyres are still fresh - although one exception to that rule was other Belgian Kris Wauters (a rock "singer" and an experienced regular Belcar-driver) who clipped several seconds off his team mates time on his way to a low 2.40 lap. Finally last-minute Belgian guest-entry Tom Van De Plas started off much better in the race than during practice doing a 2.45 lap in his opening laps.

Neither Marc nor Franky were through with racing-duties for the weekend: Marc went on to race in the 24 Hours of Spa at the wheel off the Gulf-Porsche 996 RS and finished behind a bunch of faster Italian Ferrari F430GTs but ahead of a few more up-to-date Porsche RSR cars despite suffering tyre troubles all through the race. He would have gladly exchanged the Dunlop tyres he used in the endurance race for the Pirelli's which performed so well on the Maserati Trofeo. Franky too was in action,  quickly back behind a rally car wheel ad finishing second overall behind a much more powerful Subaru WRC machine, but ahead of several other Japanese WRC-machines. He drove less spectacularly but more effectively than usual with very clean lines, which fans put down to him having practiced at a racetrack.