After a summer break of no less than 12 weeks, the drivers of the Puchshop Racing Cup returned to action. The contrast with the race before the summer break in the sun-drenched Ardennes at Spa-Francorchamps could not be bigger: on a gray Saturday the drivers started their qualifying practice in the pouring rain on karting track De Landsard in Veldhoven.

Leader in the championship standings in the Expi-class Bart Dijkhof has a lead of 7 points over Henk Minnen and 28 over Kenny Buchser. Minnen is known as an excellent rain driver, but on a wet track anything can happen... In the Standard Class it is Pascal Mussche who leads the championship with 59 points ahead of his biggest rival Jordi Minnen and 71 on Jannick Vos. With 100 points to go he could almost smell the title, especially at the moment when Minnen turned out not to be at Veldhoven with his Puch but as a spectator. Minnen broke his fibula a while ago and after surgery he had to deal with complications, so he would have to watch the last two races of the season from the sidelines. 

The first qualifying session kicked off in the pouring rain and it quickly became apparent that the track was slippery. Although it was Minnen who clocked the fastest time ahead of Dijkhof and Van der Weide, it was not without first checking the ground. He was not the only one as Jan van Ipenburg, Roel Roo, Sander Mulder, Jannick Vos, Chris Weenen and Kees-Jan Stoffelen, who was back on the track after a long absence, also visited the slippery asphalt of De Landsard. Fortunately all were unscathed and most were able to continue their way. In the second qualification it was the Swiss Dominik Rudin who surprised friend and foe by going around fastest. The pouring rain had turned into a light drizzle and almost everyone improved their times. Rudin would start the races from pole position with Van der Weide next to him on the first row of the grid. On the second row were Dijkhof and fastest Standard Class rider Vos, who qualified just faster than Mussche, who was one of the few who had not crashed in qualifying. 

By now it had stopped raining and the track was as good as dry, but with still a few treacherous wet spots. Minnen left no stone unturned and from start to finish was untrackable by anyone. He won the race with a lead of no less than 12 seconds over Dijkhof. Van der Weide saw his third place go up in smoke just before the finish while Buchser only managed to pass his compatriot Rudin in the final phase and finished third. In the Standard Class it was Mussche who managed to stay ahead of Vos and took the full 25 points. This increased his lead to more than the 75 points still to be earned and the championship was a fact. Mussche prolonged his title of Champion Puchshop Racing Cup Standard Class. Once again there were many dropouts, including Justin de Bruin, Marijn and Jan van Ipenburg, Silvan Hofmann and Sander Mulder, who had to park his machine along the track with a broken head gasket. Hugo Satter, driving with Mark Dijkhof's engine block, also had his twelfth place slip through his fingers just before the finish.

For Minnen the moments before the start were perhaps even more exciting than afterwards, when in the parc-fermee his pull starter failed. After quick wrenching work in which fellow competitors Mark Dijkhof and Sander Mulder also came to the rescue, he was just able to get onto the track at the back of the field for his warm-up lap. After the start he was once again flying and drove unchallenged to victory. This time it was Buchser who tried to take away Dijkhof's second place, and did so midway through the race. Dijkhof did manage to hold on to his third place and Robert van Steenis finished a handsome fourth ahead of Van der Weide, who did not have his weekend in Veldhoven. Behind Rudin, Mussche was seventh and again fastest Standard rider. He rode an extra lap with the national tricolor after the finish flag fell, but will be officially honored as champion on October 1 in Assen. Who will then be honored in the Expi-class is the question, because the difference between Minnen and Dijkhof is only 7 points and also Buchser still has a chance at the title. It promises to be an exciting final at the TT Junior Track in Assen! 

1 Henk Minnen

2 Bart Dijkhof

3 Kenny Buchser

1 Pascal Mussche

2 Chris Weenen

3 Jannick Vos

1 Henk Minnen - 212 pnt

2 Bart Dijkhof - 205 pnt

3 Kenny Buchser - 177 pnt

1 Pascal Mussche - 270 pnt

2 Jannick Vos - 181 pnt

3 Jordi Minnen - 161 pnt