Mazda MX-5 Cup: Marcel Dekker pipped Jordy van der Eijk to victory in race three

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In the third and final race of the BetCity Mazda MX-5 Cup, cars can line up in qualifying order. This puts pole vaulter Daan de Graaff in the front row with his brother Timo next to him. In row two Leon van Verseveld and Marcel Dekker and in row three András Király and Delano De Ketele. Behind them, Jordy van der Eijk, Matej Sikhart, Wouter Jansen and Filip Wojtowicz complete the top five.

Mazdas have already completed two big races and this fine tradition will no doubt be maintained in the third race. At the start, Daan de Graaff starts well from pole and leads, with his brother Timo in second and Dekker in third. Dekker makes a big move right away in the first round and comes through as the leader in the first pass, ahead of Daan and Timo de Graaff. Van Verseveld four while De Ketele has switched positions with Kiraly. Van der Eijk, Jansen and Wojtowics have passed Sikhart and are in seventh to ninth place.

In the third lane, Dekker leads by a few meters in front of a fiercely contested group consisting of Timo and Daan de Graaff, Van Verseveld and Van der Eijk, who has passed Kiraly. At Tarzan’s corner, Van Verseveld, with or without the help of one of his competitors, makes a mistake and spins, causing him to drop out of the lead group.

While Dekker still leads, Van der Eijk makes a big move to move up to second, with Timo de Graaff in third, Jansen in fourth and Daan de Graaff in fifth. De Ketele, Sikhart, Wojtowicz and even the group behind them also remain promising. As always with Mazdas, nothing can be predicted.

Van der Eijk clearly has the speed because he meets Dekker within one lap. At high speed, the pair cross the road to avoid their pursuers. This seems to work because in the sixth round the gap between Timo de Graaff, Jansen, Daan de Graaff, De Ketele, Wojtowics, Kiraly and Sikhart is already almost four seconds.

Van der Eijk does not let go of Dekker’s goal and so the battle for first place remains exciting. Behind the leading pair, anything is possible for the five cars that seem to be stuck together. Wojtowics had to allow a gap of one second in eighth place and has Sikhart on his bumper.

While Dekker and Van der Eijk are not making things difficult for each other, and the latter seems to be waiting to pounce from the last stretch on the last lap, Timo de Graaff is a little separated from the fighting group behind the two leaders. However, with two laps to go, things go awry between Van Verseveld and Glaesener, with the former left standing on the side of the track with a breakdown. Given the position of Van Verseveld’s car, race officials have no choice but to send the safety car onto the track. The order is Dekker, Van der Eijk, Timo de Graaff, Daan de Graaff, Jansen, Kiraly, De Ketele, Sikhart and Wojtowics with Schilders completing the top ten. Because the last lap has now started and the finish will take place behind the safety car, this is also the final result. It just goes to show that it’s not always wise to wait until the last lap to create a position.