Dirk Vermeersch: “I have always been a mercenary”

Dirk, why are we in Francorchamps aboard your Bentley Continental GT?

It is on this track that I wrote some of the most beautiful pages of my list. As for the Bentley, it's a dream car. Its designer is Belgian (Dirk Van Braeckel. Editor's note), its mechanics are German (W12 Volkswagen. Editor's note) and the interior exudes good English taste. What more ?

Essential question: how did you get into motorsport?

By chance. When I was 18, my father asked me to leave home. He agreed with the opinion of my teachers who considered me good for nothing. I did odd jobs to survive: taxi driver, errand boy, bartender, DJ. A friend suggested to me: “ You who ride like crazy, would you like to be my teammate in an endurance race in Zolder on my NSU TT? ". I had never set foot on this circuit and in the race, I set the absolute best time in the car. This result gave me confidence. I said to myself : " That's at least one area I'm not too bad at. ". From that moment on, I wanted to become a racing driver.

Not easy when you're broke...

It's certain. But it required me to be creative. So, I persuaded my brother to lend me his VW Polo which was equipped with a roll cage. It was also the only racing part, the rest was to be