AFTER his fine performance in the Nrburgring 24-hour race when second in class, endurance driver Dave Cox returned to the track for a "foreign round" of the Belgium, Belcar Championship, and went one better finishing first in class and second touring car despite rain lashing the track for the last half of the 125-minute race.

Organisers decided to use the Grand Prix course, instead of the full 24km Nordschlief circuit. Competing at a circuit where some of the Belcar drivers had not previously raced, meant there was a free test session on the Friday morning before Sunday's race.

Obviously, Cox, who is from Gravesend, and co-driver WIllie Moore had the advantage of knowing the circuit and by the end of the free session were quickest in class by some margin.

Cox said: "Later that afternoon was the first timed qualifying session. Confident of setting pole position time for our class, Willie took to the circuit first and set a very good time, handing over to me for the remainder of the session.

"The conditions were perfect for a fast lap. On my fourth lap, I was pushing very hard and by two-thirds of the way round, coming up to the Veedol chicane, I saw a slower car, a Seat Leon Cupra, ahead.

"After the chicane there is a very short straight before the long hairpin leading back to the main start/finish straight.

"Determined not to lose any time by slowing down for this Seat, I dived down the inside but a combination of braking too late, going too fast into the corner on the wrong line and the Seat coming across to take his line, which he was quite entitled to do as he was in front at the time, the inevitable happened, we crashed!

"There was a fairly heavy impact, which sent both cars off the track into the gravel trap.

"I was able to keep the engine running and get out the trap, but I realised I had severely damaged the car, with smoke pouring from the front-left tyre and my steering wheel about 180 degrees out of alignment. I sheepishly limped back to the pits to receive Willie's wrath."

Cox added: "I did accept full responsibilitiy for the accident and went to the Seat driver to offer my humblest apologies for the damage I had caused to his car.

"Our mechanics, led by Paul Denchfield, stripped the suspension to find a number of parts, including the wheel and wishbone, bent beyond repair.

"We carry a huge array of spares but there was one part of the damaged suspension which we did not have and, apparently, was a special BMW Motorsport part and no-one in the paddock had one.

"So the atmosphere changed from a relaxed accidents happen' to panic and depression, due to the distinct possibility that we would not be racing at all if we could not replace it.

"Luckily enough, we were racing in Germany and Willie phoned all the drivers and teams we know from that area, many of whom race the same car as us, a BMW M3.

"After a few calls, there were cheers from the team when Johannes Scheid confirmed he had exactly the part we needed.

"Denchy set to work rebuilding the front left suspension and by 10pm Friday night the car was back to its original perfect condition.

"The time sheets were brought round from the first qualifying session and we found the other drivers had learned the circuit and had gone substantially quicker than they had in the earlier free session, and we had only qualified second in class, and fourth overall touring car.

"We were not too concerned as we knew there was a qualifying session on Saturday and were optimistic of getting pole back then.

"However, Saturday morning dawned to heavy rain. Although we knew we could not go any quicker, we decided to take the car out to make sure my accident had not affected the handling and performance of the car.

"I was pleased it was still perfect and although the grid remained exactly as before due to the wet second session, at least we knew the car was perfect for the race."

For race day Sunday it was dry, at least for the start of the race. Cox added: "It was Willie's turn to start and he made an excellent one, and by the end of the first lap he was already leading our class and up to third overall touring car.

"Willie was to do the first hour before handing over to me to complete the race. Everything was going fine, when about half an hour into the race it started to spit with rain.

"The rain was not heavy enough to warrant a change from dry slick tyres to rain (wet tyres but it was making conditions tricky.

"If the rain continued or was to get suddenly worse, we would have to change to wets and been out for more than half an hour, so we took the opportunity of making the driver change at that time to save a further pitstop.

"However, we did not want to make a rash decision bringing Willie in to change on to wets if it was only going to be a short shower, in which case the track would dry and we would then have to make another pitstop for dry tyres.

"Although the track was wet and conditions difficult, there was no standing water so Willie stayed out and we kept in constant radio contact with him, keeping one eye on the track and the other on the sky.

"Forty-five minutes into the session, an incident involving a Viper losing part of its bodywork on the main straight brought the safety car out and, like Formula 1, many teams pitted while the safety car is controlling the speed of the racing cars, as you tend to lose less time that way.

"Willie ignored calls to come in the pits for the first couple of laps while the pace car was out, which turned out to be an excellent decision as at that time the rain was still not very heavy.

"On the fourth lap behind the safety car, the rain became very heavy, so Willie immediately pitted for me to take over and during the driver change the pit crew refulled and changed the tyres from slicks to wets.

"I exited the pits and was very pleased with the decision, as by that time the track was very wet with a lot of standing water. I drove the last hour and 10 minutes without any incident, making sure I gave other cars plenty of space when overtaking, particularly in view of the conditions.

"After 125 minutes of racing, the chequered flag came out and we were delighted to not only have finished second overall touring car but won our class, finishing more than a minute in front of the next BMW in our class.

"The Belcar Championship has a very high standard of cars and drivers and to win our class while finishing second overall touring car was a very good result."

Cox and Moore next race when the Belcar Championship returns to Zolder for the 24-hour race of Belgium on August 21 and 22.