Data Access Europe sponsored the Benelux Racing League’s 8th race event for 2006. The additional race was organised during the season’s opener of the A1GP, this year held at circuit Zandvoort in The Netherlands. Circuit Zandvoort was used for Formula-1 GP events until the mid 1980’s and did not host an event like this for around 20 years. The circuit has been improved and changed over the years, and was selected this year for the A1GP.

The A1GP race week started on Tuesday, September 28th with training and qualification rounds organised during the first 3 days. On Sunday, October 1st the real races were run - in the morning the A1GP sprint race (maximum of 20 minutes) was held; in the afternoon the main race took place (featuring 70 minutes of race car pleasure!). The main difference between the "new kid on the block" A1GP race and the Formula-1 GP race is the fact that in the A1GP, all drivers have the same car with the same specs, versus car manufacturer teams that are featured in the F1 race. The A1GP has country teams, and 23 countries were present at Zandvoort (among them Germany, Austtralia, Singapore, India, South Africa, the USA and of course The Netherlands).

The 80,000 visitors on Sunday were treated to not only the A1GP race, but to other sub races as well, including the BRL-v6 (Benelux Racing League) race, in which Data Access Europe sponsored the car driven by Niels Bouwhuis. As with the A1GP, all cars are equal to each other in this race, so the driver truly makes the difference in the race results. The cars produce 350 horse power,  and are built as light as possible and feature a tube system with a polyesther body. It’s funny that none of the cars have real headlights - they are painted on to the body. To avoid power reduction the exhaust is open (directly from the engine), producing a lot of raw noise.

Unlucky for driver Niels Bouwhuis was that he was disqualified due to a racing accident in the Saturday race and that he could not start at Sunday. But on a positive note for Data Access - everyone in the neighborhood of the car could clearly read the Visual DataFlex logo on both sides of it.

The photos below give an impression of the racing day at Zandvoort.

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