Sponsors: 

1. N-R-P Largescale Products
2. RV Racing Engines
3. Samba Titanium exhausts

My story so far:

The Start of the unknown:
As a kid (~ age 5) I was always asking for remote control cars as a present for my birthday, xmass,... This used to be the basic cars you can buy in a toy store. However I had a blast with these at young age. Being a few years older an uncle of mine told me there was a race track for model cars not far away from where he lives, as the interest in rc cars reignited I went on the internet and subscribed to a forum out of curiousity. Never posted a thing and it even got out of my head as I was too busy playing first person shooters. When suddenly I got a MSN Messenger friend request from some guy of my age who found my profile on this forum and saw we live relatively close together. Started talking and I believe within a month I bought myself a Protech Fun12 (nitro 1/10 touring car). It was the same car that guy had so it had to be good, right ? By the time I finally did my first meeting with this guy he did not only own a 1/10th touring car, but he also had a FG Marder (largescale offroad). Oh boy, this was the real stuff ! I had never seen or heard anything like this and I was hooked ! As I was only 14 years old at the time and I couldn't do a real job I did everything possible at my parents to get some money saved to buy such an expensive machine ! And there we had it, at the end of 2004 I bought my very first second hand FG Marder and all I was looking forward to was doing meetings on a parking or grass field !

2005: From parking/grass field to the racetrack:
I did meetings for half a year and then I came acros a guy and his dad who lived 10minutes away from me and they brought me home after one of the meetings (As my parents sadly never had the interest in my hobby). This guy and his dad were Ken & Pascal Walckiers (keeps these names in your head because they will come back in this story). Had a good chat with them and Ken was my age (apart from 3months) so we had quite some in common. And I heard he was racing at a racetrack (guess which one lol...) almost every weekend and he convinced me to give it a try ! They picked me up at home and I was going to a racetrack for the very first time ! Being nervous about what people would expect of me but when I arrived there the athmosphere was really relaxing and well... I think the story only started there haha !
We spent every possible wednesday, saturday & sunday afternoon at the racetrack, never to race but just to have fun. Eventually that summer there was an interclub going on between a few clubs in Belgium. This would be my first real race and I was nervous for an entire week before that day ! Eventually it was a fun based competition with a rookie & pro class. Both me & Ken were in the rookie class and we finished 1-2 ! Ken won the race and I came second which was just bizarre ! Ken had allready a year of expirience and was just that class higher than me. Few months later we had the powercup. Which was a big largescale event with drivers from all over Europe. I finished 2nd to last I believe so I was back with my feet on the ground. When Ken managed to wrestle his old, beaten FG Leopard to the Semi finals, beating some well respected names in the 1/4th final. Later this weekend Ken got offered a team driver role inside the new Elcon Models brand.

2006 ~ 2007The European yourneys:
As Ken got sponsored now he was invited by Elcon to do major events all over Europe (EFRA GP and other big races). As there was always a seat available in their car I was happy to join them on their journey. I never managed to finish high as I was 1. Not a good driver 2. Even a worse mechanic (as I did not have a parent to help/teach me). However this last thing would change over the years, as I chose for a technical education and my interest of repairing and maintaining the car brought my skills up to a higher level. Having less reliability issues and by this having more track time = more time to practice race craft. In 2005 Ken received his team driver role at Elcon Models after racing an incredible Powercup. This time in 2007 the powercup was held on my home track which gave me a huge advantage. With a massively overweight car compared to the top drivers back then I was up for a huge task to prove my worth. To make the playing field more even the club decided to add a tripple 180° corner section which was a killer back than as the cars simple did not turn at all ! At first I was pissed for this decision, all the training straight into the bin. I simply could net get arround those tight corners with my car. As I was still doing everything on a very low budget I only had 3 sets of tires. So I made a gamble and put a verry aggresive tire on the front end and the car was terribly aggresive ! But I could make the corners now ! So I sticked with these tires the entire event and by the Finals I was able to control the massively overweight / oversteering car in most of the corners. This was my breaktrough race and I finished P2 in the main finale with Ken taking the victory !

My first sponsor:
Due to my latest powercup result and a few other decent results on the Dutch nationals in 2007 I was not this untalented peasant anymore. I was still traveling to all sorts of meetings with Ken and here we are again, on our way to the 4hour endurance race in Zeeland (Holland). When we arrived there and started to unload the car with all our equipment there was suddenly a group of people arround us and Jan & Onno from Elcon Models stepped forward with a decorated big box which was for me. There it was... I received one of their prototype Elcon Cleons and was a team driver for the Elcon Models brand.

2007 - 2015 Elcon Models 2wd + 4wd (at the end):
I can write a hell a lot about this but this would just bore you all (if you are allready reading up to this point I would allready be flattered !) To keep things short, Me & Ken were pushing the relatively unknown / small Elcon Models brand as hard as we could on track. With a lot of times bad luck & bad reliability (this is what happens if you race with a new concept car) But we also had some incredible moments along the way ! Big and special victories. I will list a few that stay in my memories forever:

** 2008 Powercup:** Yes, again the powercup ! Me & Ken were dominating the event at our home track in quali & the finals. Even up to a point when the race director called us "The Elcon Twins" on P1 and P2. In the main final Ken was P1 with me not far off in P2 it was going to be a repeat of 2007, Ken his engine failed after the half way mark and now I was leading a big race for the first time in my career and as I was the only Elcon now driving at the top all focus was on me. Made the finish in P1 and this was my first big race victory on home soil (Belgium).
** 2009 EFRA GP France:** First victory on an EFRA GP !

2010 A year to forget: Finished only 1 big race in the entire season with a new car with huge reliability issues. I even considered to stop RC Racing.

2011 A new relationship: For some this might not be RC related but in 2011 I started my relationship (girlfriend you know..) with Melanie Visser. At this time she was still racing, and so were her dad & brother (Rinus & Nick Visser). They were part of the Hörmann team. Which were our main rivals most of the races. This was a bit of a weird situation at the start but we kept things seperated in a good way. Due to her I was also more relaxed on race weekends, Specially if I had a bad weekend (and this was a massive improvement for me as a person)

2011 2nd place at the European Championship 2wd A well deserved 2nd place at the European Championship, and maybe there was more on the table if I was more aggresive. If this situation would happen again now, I would be more selfish and go for it instead of going for a team result. But never the less this was a massive result for me back then !

2014 EUROPEAN CHAMPION 2WD !!!! It took me some time but here we are. We finally did it ! When I say "We" I say me, my sponsors but also my girlfriends father. As Nick stopped racing the year before and he left the Hormann team he was now my mechanic and he brought my gear up to another level which I was not used to ! The car was running so beautifully once he got involved with it. What a maniac when it comes to detail, incredible !

2015 European championship Fehring, P2 in 2wd & P3 in 4wd: This would be my first year of racing 4wd aswell. I did a few races during the year but never spent a minute on the setup. As I was heavily 2wd focused. Same was for the European championship. I fell a bit into a hole when Nick Visser decided to come back to racing, but this time with his own brand (N-R-P). He created his first prototype and it was going to race it's first time at the European Championship. This meant I was left with less attention from Rinus who was my mechanic (magician) the year before. As I struggled with the car in 2wd and had some bad communications between my team and myself I decided to take a step back and setup together with my family rather than with my team. While they were doing there best to keep their proto type on track they also helped me with the setup and the car. I was wrenching on 2 cars on 1 event and it was just too much to handle. In 2015 we had a new type of tire from the brand FG which was good but it felt edgy for the entire week and I had a feeling it was not as good as the year before with the old tire model. As I was struggling to keep up with the pace of the other team drivers and due to the fact I had a not so pleasant week with the team. I decided to get me some old tires from the year before, bought them from Michael Keinemans who had them still with him, brand new. Not telling anyone from my team I stood at the start of the main final with other tires. And I still remember Ken looking at me and asking me what the hell are you up to ? As the entire Elcon team was on the other tire. The tire was a gamble but it worked out well. Overtook a few guys and was in P2 chasing down the leader when sadly the rear right tire started to shred 10minutes in the main final. I knew we didn't have a spare tire of this compound so instead of coming into the pits I decided to keep on going with a shredded tire, carefully on the throttle on the straights and using all traction possible, using the shortage racing lines as possible. And still I managed to maintain in P2 thanks to the advantage of the tires. 4wd story was like I said before nothing special, Callan Gunn provided me with a setup he mastered in Australia and I just adapted to the setup in the week. I started P2 in the semi final behind Dario Veseli and without me knowing I had the actual pace to go for it I managed to pass Dario and had a verry tense semi final, We were neck & neck for the entire semi, not giving an inch. I won the final and this gave me Pole Position for the main, which I never expected ! The start was ok up untill I got into the technical section, there was this off-camber corner which was a 100% reverse steering lock for the 2wd and as I had just finished the 2wd final 5minutes before my muscle memory did what it's good at and I shunted straight into the side of the track, bending one of the C hub which strangled my transmission, so I had like 80% of the power output I had before. Dropping me back in the order, having not a chance against Jorg Tiit & Dario Veseli but still good enough to maintain P3.

2016 ~ Now : N-R-P Largescale Products
As mentioned above there were 2 things going on: I had a few arguments with some people within Elcon Models and my girlfriends brother started his own large scale brand with a new proto type car. Eventually I chose to drive for the family, with a new, unknown brand. Leaving what was at that time the greatest team in Europe. I wanted to have more impact on the product. At Elcon Models ideas were welcome but I never felt they took notice of what I said/asked for. From day 1 at N-R-P things are openly discussed and I am feeling great ! A lot of people considered me crazy or even some said it could be the end of me being at the top of big events with a new team. However I believe we have showed the strength of our team (family) by building on after every event. We have won allready a lot of races with the N-R-P Ultron. We could have been European Champion in 2016 if we didn't have electronical issues with 2 cars being in P1 & P2 but thats racing a new product.

2020 Special: The TWINS are reunited ! Title says it all I believe. Me & Ken Walckiers are back in the same team. Being able to setup a car again together with my buddy makes the hobby even better ! We wrench together at my house and it just feels natural again to race for the same flag, same team. As me, Michael & Ken are the elders in our team we also needed some young bright starts of the future. Mike & Daan will also bring our team to a higher level. So to everyone racing in this scale: Keep your eyes open, because** we** are going for the top !