Thierry Vermeulen and Britain’s Ben Green won the second race of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup round at Zandvoort on 20 September, in Emil Frey Racing’s No. 69 Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO, and by the flag they had 3.7 seconds in hand, which in a sprint race counts as a proper margin. That had been a long time coming for Dutch fans. According to the series, the last home driver to win a race outright at Zandvoort was Jeroen Bleekemolen back in 2014, who took a wet qualifying race with Harry Proczyk in a Lamborghini on a weekend when the main event, for the record, went to Enzo Ide and René Rast.
The restart settled it
Green started third and got past Louis Prette’s No. 58 McLaren almost immediately. A Full Course Yellow came out a little after the ten-minute mark, the No. 89 Porsche having gone off, and Green used the restart to sweep past the leading No. 14 Ferrari of Konsta Lappalainen. Vermeulen took over at the stop and held first place to the flag. There was one Safety Car period as well, for what it is worth.
Thirty-six laps took the crews 1:00:44.793. It stayed dry. Air temperature at the start was 17.4C, mild for the coast in late September, and the track a good deal warmer at 28.3C.
Who finished behind
Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller were second in the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche, and Matteo Cairoli and Lappalainen took third, 5.264 seconds back. Nine-time motorcycle world champion Valentino Rossi shared fourth with Max Hesse in Team WRT’s No. 46 BMW, just ahead of Thomas Neubauer and Arthur Leclerc in AF Corse’s No. 50 Ferrari.
Race one on 19 September had gone to Tom Fleming and Prette in Garage 59’s No. 58 McLaren, with Vermeulen and Green third, 5.893 seconds adrift, so, looking back, the weekend was already shaping up nicely for them. More than 26,000 people came through the gates, what the series itself called a superb crowd. In the Netherlands Ziggo Sport 3 had the races, and anyone elsewhere could catch the official stream on YouTube.
What keeps the series going
Motorsport at every level runs on sponsorship money, with each series keeping its own set of partners. For GT World Challenge that means global sponsor AWS, the circuit carries the name of partner MASCOT, and Zandvoort’s main partners include Shell, Heineken and Red Bull. In Formula 1 the list also takes in the official betting operators Betway and FanDuel. Spinchester Casino works with the same customers as they do, with full information and its catalogue at https://spinchesterslots.casino/ covering slots, roulette and live dealer tables. On the track at Zandvoort that weekend, it all came down to 3.7 seconds.
Close to the Verstappens
Vermeulen is 24. Born on 29 July 2002, he lives in Monaco. His father, Raymond Vermeulen, is Max Verstappen’s manager, and Jos Verstappen, according to Thierry’s official biography, was his coach as well as a friend of the family. He has been part of the Verstappen Racing program since 2022.
By motorsport standards, he came to it late. His first GT4 tests did not come until 2020, and what followed was a fairly brisk climb through the Porsche Carrera Cup and ADAC GT Masters to DTM and GT World Challenge with Emil Frey Racing from 2023. Zandvoort, remarkably enough, is his first outright win in the series.
The Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing car is in the title fight too. Max founded the Verstappen Racing project. Britain’s 2 Seas Motorsport enters and runs the car, which Dani Juncadella and Chris Lulham share in the Sprint Cup.
Barcelona decides
Buus and Feller lead on 59 points. Juncadella and the Leclerc and Neubauer crew are six behind, and Vermeulen and Green sit sixth on 40, which leaves them 19 adrift. Eight crews can still take the title in theory. It all ends at Barcelona on 2-4 October.
