Mikke van Hool (Astromega) about 2nd driver

[Rempie]

quoted from the team-astromega.com forum:

"If we could choose both our drivers purely on talent we would have started the season with Giorgio and ... Marc Goossens. I am 100 % certaian we would have gotten some really good results by now, also with Giorgio. We have tested Jeffrey in the past and rate his driving skills and have been regularly in contact with him but unfortunately there is also a budget issue. We have also stayed in touch with Dino over the years and thought he deserved a break."

[badoer fan]

Does anyone know what Goossens is doing this year?

[Rempie]

Marc Goossens is driving the full Belcar-season (thanks to some last-minute sponsors) and the 24hrs of Le Mans with Cadillac.

Belcar is the Belgian Touringcar championship, he won the first race in Zolder (wich was quite a surprise because the concurrention is a lot stronger).

He's by far the best driver F3000 ever had in my opinion (he also did Formula Nippon, ALMS, F3,...). Lack of sponsors is the only thing that kept him out of Formula 1, wich is a shame. Don't be surprised if he pops up again this season in F3000 though :-)

And most of all; Marc is one of the friendliest people you could ever meet...

[Rempie]

I even dare to say Alonso wouldn't be in F1 without Marc.

The strong performance of Team Astromega in Spa last year wasn't just luck :-)

[badoer fan]

I agree with u sort of Rempie. Astromega hadn't scored a single point until Goossens replaced Walfisch.
However, in the early part of the season Alonso wasn't trusted with setup, and it wasn't until his engineer let him set up his own car that he started 2 do well

[Mekola]

I agree with that Goosens is a very good driver what helped Astromega to find good results at late 2000 season. Also during 1999 he helped too much for team Lukoil Arden, but he had many problems, was involved on many pile-ups, and his only puntuable result was disqualified due to irregular technical piece...
But again: what a shame Norberto Fontana can't sign with Astromega for this year. Fontana is in the same situation as Mark: Mark races on Belcar championship, and Norberto races on Argentinian TC2000, an important touring car championship, for an important but not top-team: Toyota. It's remarkable they also were good F.Nippon drivers (Norberto had the opportunity to replace Krumm, but finally -really he is tired to race with short money and no support, to obtain the better results he can made- refused the offer)... I think he had the talent and ability to be in F1, and Astromega is again a team which needs talent to have the results. If not, they needn't Goosens last year.
At last I think if Astromega guys can contact Norberto for race for the rest of the year, I'm sure he agree with that.

[formula-3000net]

Given Fontana's connections with Fortec, I'm surprised he's not racing for them in Euro3000.

Incidentally, I saw today that Fortec are selling a pair of Reynard 99s, spares and transporters...

[Mekola]

If Fortec will be selling their Intl F3000 cars, there are sure the Lolas B99/50, not the Reynards 99L.
The only category what has F3000 Reynards from 1999 or more updated is, certainly, Formula Nippon. The last completely new model is the 99L, and the 2KL and 01L are only small upgrades of that first. Because that, many Japanese teams use the 99L chassises with only kits of updates.
About Fontana, Fortec members are interested to engage him again for his F3000 team for this year, but Norberto finally dropped the offer. It can be one of the reasons Fortec decided not to race on Intl F3000 this year. They need a talented driver to develop the team performance, like Fontana, but they don't found anything approachable. Norberto, after race many years with limited support, liked more race on one competitive team, like Astromega or Super Nova, to have a good year, and not struggling again as he must made with Fortec during 1999. Really, be the number one for a new team with no experience and no strong backing, with one teammate who miracleously saved his life after a terrible shunt in Macau and need recover his skills (I talk about Andrej Pavicevic) really isn't many helpful to made very good results. Fontana, I though, needs a teammate who be also with talent, to push him to made good results. Goosens was nearby on the same problem of Norberto in 1999, with the only difference of the wealthy backing from Lukoil to team Arden.

[formula-3000net]

You're right of course. They are Lola T99s, not Reynards...don't know what made me write that...