Observations from Zolder

We awoke to heavy fog at Zolder Saturday morning but it is expected to burn off by 10:00 AM and become sunny and quite warm……Dinner last night was in nearby Hasselt, a historic little Belgian town with a fantastic downtown of narrow cobblestone streets lined with shops and outdoor cafes. Hasselt is the educational and commercial heart of the Limburg province, the eastern region of Flanders. 43,000 people are employed in Hasselt, and 37,000 attend school there. Many banks, insurance companies and public services have their regional administration centers in Hasselt. As a trade city, Hasselt ranks sixth in Belgium…….We ran into Kevin Kalkhoven in our hotel lobby last evening. He and his entourage finally arrived in Belgium after their plane engine scare we reported yesterday. One of the metal fins that direct air into the engine broke off and it went through the engine and damaged one of the main turbine blades, which caused a fairly noticeable vibration. The crew cut the power in that engine back to 10% and they made an emergency landing in Minneapolis. Apparently the Rolls Royce engine in the plane has had similar failures recently and the company is investigating……..The Zolder circuit reeks of history and watching the EuroBOSS cars circulate the track, some from the same year when F1 still ran at Zolder, brought back a lot of fond memories……There are far more media (270) covering this event than any other event so far this year and the media center puts the American ones to shame.