Prosper Mollekens (1941 – 2022)

Prosper was the king of tarmac. Boss of a truck SME which inspired the name of the KTR (Keerbergs Transport Racing) team, he was for more than thirty years one of the key players on the racing scene. car European. It's Marc Duez, at the time when he twirled with equal talent between the rally and the circuit, which gave the structure its first successes. “In 1982, I had barely got off the top step of the podium at the 24 Hours of Ypres when Prosper Mollekens pushed me into a small plane to reach the Norisring in the early hours of Sunday, remembers the Ardennese. On a circuit that I discovered in two laps, I finished 8th. Above all, I remember a memorable party after the race. At the end of the season, I finished 2nd in the Super V European Championship. Prosper was a boss who attached as much importance to the festive atmosphere in his team as to strategy. He was a great guy, a generous and passionate man. »

Comments corroborated by Pierre van Vliet, who for years reported on single-seater races in the columns of AUTOhebdo. “Prosper had a Breughelian side, notes the journalist. He was an extraordinary character like we don't see anymore. » However, in more than three decades, KTR has welcomed an impressive array of talented drivers, ranging from the Super V to the World Series by Nissan, including the F3, the F3000 and, ultimately, the Formula Renault 2.0.

An atypical team

On the Belgian side, Eric Bachelart, Kurt Mollekens (Prosper's son), Bas Leinders, Jeffrey van Hooydonk, Yves Olivier, Bertrand Baguette and Stoffel Vandoorne wore the colors of this atypical team. We will also remember that Eric Bernard, Olivier Panis and Christophe Bouchut went through the Formula 3 box in this team, while Alex Albon competed in the 2013 and 2014 Formula Renault 2.0 seasons with this team. “The most beautiful memory is probably to Didier Artzet, notes Kurt Mollekens who took control of KTR at the start of the 3rd millennium until the end of activities in 2015. The Niçois won the international F3 race in Monaco in 1987. In addition to an incredible drive on the street circuits, he was also helped by Jacky Eeckelaert, our chief engineer. In 1987, Christophe Bouchut also took a very good 3rd place in Macau. »

Funnier: at a time when Bernie Ecclestone imposed that the Formula 3000 teams field a minimum of two single-seaters to raise the curtain of the Grand Prix of F1, the KTR team joined forces with the Arden team where a certain Christian Horner played the hard-working driver.

With the death of Prosper Mollekens, a page in the history of single-seaters is turning, a philosophy of racing where passion and a sense of celebration held a primordial place.