●        Team RaceArt opens new Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux season at Spa-Francorchamps

●        Jaap van Lagen secures two podium finishes, scoring well in overall standings 

●        Arthur Peters and Joep Breedveld deliver impressive debuts in Rookie class

Maastricht, 12 May 2026 – Team RaceArt enjoyed a strong start to a new campaign in Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux. At Belgium’s Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the team secured a total of four podium finishes across two cars, including one each for debutants Arthur Peters and Joep Breedveld.

As has become something of a tradition, the season opener for the one-make series was scheduled for early May, featuring as part of the support bill for the prestigious FIA World Endurance Championship. The Maastricht-based squad, reigning champions in the series, lined up with three cars for Jaap van Lagen (NED) and newcomers Joep Breedveld (NED) and Arthur Peters (BEL).

Following two free practice sessions on Thursday, qualifying was scheduled for Friday afternoon. Each driver’s fastest lap determined the starting order for the first race, after which the second-fastest lap was used to set the grid for race two. Van Lagen, struggling with a shock absorber issue, qualified fourth and fifth overall. Breedveld picked up fourth on the Rookie class grid for his first Carrera Cup race, two places ahead of Peters. The young Belgian secured sixth position twice, whilst Breedveld qualified second on the grid for the second race.

The first race of the weekend, held on Friday evening, had to be red-flagged early with a red flag due to an incident at the start. Once the race was restarted, Peters stormed up the order in the Rookie category and snatched first place. He would remain there until the finish, but was later found to have overtaken outside track limits and thus received a five-second penalty. As a result, he was classified second in class second place, with Breedveld fifth.

At the front of the field, Van Lagen made a strong start to his title defence by fighting his way up from fifth into a podium position. He finished third, but as the race winner was a guest entrant and thus ineligible for points, it boosted Van Lagen’s points haul towards the overall standings.

The following morning, the second race got underway in front of packed grandstands. Once again, Van Lagen got off to a good start from fourth on the grid, allowing him to fight his way up to third place. In an entertaining battle, he held on to this position until the finish. In terms of points, the same scenario as the day before resulted in another twenty points scored. 

In the Rookie standings, it was Breedveld who crowned his debut with a trophy this time around. He came out on top in an intense battle for second place. Peters fought his way forward from sixth on the grid to finish fourth, coming up just under two seconds short for another podium.

With four podium finishes from the first two races, Team RaceArt has enjoyed a strong start to the season. Van Lagen is second in the drivers’ standings, whilst the team occupies the same position in the team standings. In the battle for the Rookie title, Peters and Breedveld sit in third and fourth, respectively.

The Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux season is set to resume on short notice, racing as part of the DTM support bill at Circuit Zandvoort on May 22-24.

Drivers’ comments:

Jaap van Lagen: “Last year I finished fifth and third here. Now I’m going home with points for second place on both occasions. We had a bit of bad luck in qualifying with a leaking shock absorber, so I didn’t get the best results from that. Naturally, that means you start the races differently, but I managed to fight my way up the field twice. Two third-place finishes, but points for second place. I’m satisfied. I just need to score points consistently throughout the season. I did that last year too, and that’s how you ultimately win the title. The car was particularly good in the second race. The team did a good job and did well to sort out the problem with the damper. We need to keep this up and make sure we’re in first place by the end of the year.”

Joep Breedveld: “My first Carrera Cup weekend – tough, high level, a field that’s very close together. But in the end, I was still able to make good progress and finish the weekend on a positive note. The second race in particular was good. I managed to iron out a few driving errors compared to Friday, made some improvements to the car setup here and there, and drove a very clean race. Overall, that leaves me with a positive feeling.  I’m really looking forward to Zandvoort.”

Arthur Peters: “Overall, I’m happy with this weekend. It started with the Talent Pool, where I learned a lot. My progress in Thursday’s practice sessions was good. Qualifying was a bit of a let-down after that, but Race 1 was absolutely amazing, penalty aside. Race 2 was actually good too. I’ve learned a great deal this weekend. These were my first races in the car and it was incredibly close racing, but actually I’m very satisfied.”