Formula BMW

D: Thomas Hylkema Zandvoort summary

THOMAS HYLKEMA MAKES GOOD PROGRESS AT ZANDVOORT ZANDVOORT, 29 JULY 2007 - Scoring a good 13th position, Thomas Hylkema has shown on his 3rd weekend in the German Formula BMW only, that he is making good progress. In the first race, the young and ...

Published: Jul 29, 2007, 8:28 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

THOMAS HYLKEMA MAKES GOOD PROGRESS AT ZANDVOORT

ZANDVOORT, 29 JULY 2007 - Scoring a good 13th position, Thomas Hylkema has shown on his 3rd weekend in the German Formula BMW only, that he is making good progress. In the first race, the young and talented driver had to prematurely finish the race after a crash. Race 2 went much better and the rookie finished 13th, scoring important point for the championship race. He currently ranks 23rd in the overall standings with 64 points and 14th in the Rookie Cup.

As a step-in race series, the Formula BMW has been the ticket to great success in recent years. Formula 1 drivers like Ralf Schumacher, Christian Klien and Nico Rosberg being the best examples here. Because all races next year will be held before Formula 1 races, media exposure is bound to increase greatly. The use of identical cars, engines, tires and fuels ensures that the actual skill of the driver is the determining factor of success in the Formula BMW.

FREE TRAININGS + QUALIFYINGS:

In the free training of 45 minutes, Thomas Hylkema attempted to get to know the course and seek his own limits on it. Unfortunately, much sand was being blown on the track and conditions were far from ideal. Despite this, Hylkema was continuously ranked among the 11 best drivers of the session and in the end, he finshed 15th. In the first qualifying he tried to stay in the slipstream of one of the other drivers but quickly had to realize that he had picked the wrong driver and thus had to settle for a 15th place (1:46.668). In the second session he changed his tactic and concentrated on himself and by this was able to improve his formerly fastest lap greatly. He finished 13th (1:45.321).

RACE 01 + 02:

Hylkema did not catch a good start in the first race. He lost 3 positions at the start already and only finished the first lap as 18th. However, he did recover from this temporary weakness quite quickly and in lap 2 already caught up 2 of the positions he had previously lost. In lap 3, Hylkema got into a crash that rendered his car heavily damaged and forced him to end the race early. Luuk Glansdorp was forced of the track by another driver and lost control over his car. Upon returning on the track he hit Samuel Curridor. Thomas Hylkema tried to avoid Curridor but did not succeed in that. His front spoiler got wrecked entirely.

In bad weather conditions, race 2 commenced on Sunday morning. Hylkema only got one instruction for this race: to finish it. Because the track was utterly wet, he caught a bad start again and lost 1 position immediately. After loosing a couple more he started to attack again. The driver with the number 30 slowly but steadily advanced through the ranks. Also due to the fact that his team member Jens Klingman was not able to continue the race after a crash he gained a number of positions. Just like Klingmann, a number of drivers had to quit early but Hylkema stayed calm and concentrated on himself and finishing the race. He succeeded in that and finished the race in 13th position.

THOMAS HYLKEMA: 'By and large I am not unhappy. After a somewhat weak qualifying for race 1 I did much better in race 2. I stayed calm and improved my fastest lap by almost 1.5 secs. The 13th place I scored there represents exactly where I see my self at the moment. The crash in race 1 was a pity but there was nothing I could do. The final race went much better then. I managed to stay out of any crashes and was able to finish despite the bad weather. I have learned much from this challenging and very technical track and hope to be able to use that in the next races at Oschersleben, Germany in a month from now (24 - 26 August).'

-credit: www.thomashylkema.com

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article USA: Philip Major San Jose race summary

Next article USA: San Jose round nine race report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

26 min

Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics

Dale Jr. explains why he doesn't use 'Earnhardt' in his signature

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup 1 h

Dale Jr. explains why he doesn't use 'Earnhardt' in his signature

NASCAR to allow brake rotor and pad changes after Phoenix qualifying

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

2 h

NASCAR to allow brake rotor and pad changes after Phoenix qualifying

Why Christian Horner banned Mercedes' name as Red Bull built its own F1 engine

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

2 h

Why Christian Horner banned Mercedes' name as Red Bull built its own F1 engine

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts