Kurt Mollekens grew up in a motorsport environment, travelling with his father's KTR team to many of the races. Despite Kurt’s enthusiasm, Mollekens Senior insisted he completed his studies before competing. So in 1990, 17-year-old Kurt started karting. Testing went well and, in addition to winning most of the regional races he participated in, Kurt finished runner-up in the Belgian Championship. In 1991 he finished 5th in the European and 8th in the World Championships, and was then offered a works drive with Tony Kart. By now 18, Kurt nevertheless decided to move on to single-seaters in 1992.

He drove for MB Racing in the Belgian, Dutch and Benelux F.Ford 1600 Championships. Marlboro provided generous prize money and as Kurt won all three of the championships, this helped him finance his next challenge: the 1993 British F.Ford 1800 Championship. With a Marlboro/Duckhams-backed Van Diemen, he had a great '93 season, finishing 3rd in the championship behind works drivers Ingall and Smith. 1994 promised much with a Marlboro backed drive in the Opel Lotus Euroseries, but a podium at Magny-Cours was a rare high in a disappointing season.

The 'bad' news for the next season was Marlboro halting its 'Filière', its staircase promoting young drivers. The 'good' was that Mollekens Senior was now convinced of his son's talent. He became a KTR driver, hitching up with Alan Docking Racing, to compete in the British F3 Championship in a KTR/ADR Dallara-Mugen. 1995 was a learning year and also Kurt's first season of managing his own team. He finished 14th in the championship, enjoying racing back in Britain.

In 1996, working closely with his engineer Frank Coekaerts, KTR's chief engineer since '89, and with engine builder Neil Brown's full support, he was one of the men to beat from the start, eventually finishing runner-up to Ralph Firman. Highlight of that year was the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort, where the best F3 runners from all national F3 championships meet head-on. Kurt took pole position, race win and fastest lap in a field including current F1 drivers Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli and Juan Pablo Montoya.

By 1997, Paul Crosby, an ex-Paul Stewart Racing engineer, had set up his own F3000 team, and had a sponsor lined up allowing him to run a Mollekens/Montoya driver line-up. Winter testing went very well, but when Crosby's sponsorship deal fell through, it left Kurt without a drive. The Belgian wasn't going to give up that easily however, and decided to promote his own KTR team into the FIA F3000 International Championship. 1997 was a learning year, most of the tracks being new to him. Nevertheless he scored two points finishes and was lying 2nd in the Helsinki street race before retiring.

The FIA altered the rules for '98, allowing only two-car teams. As a driver/manager, it was impossible for Kurt to run a second driver so he joined forces with Christian Horner's Arden outfit to form Arden-KTR. He was immediately on the pace, even though funds were but a fraction of rival teams’. After two second places from the first three races, Kurt was leading the championship in front of Montoya, Heidfeld and Sarrazin. Unfortunately, two big crashes and the lack of finance forced Kurt to miss two races halfway through the season. Kurt recalls: "After that, it was just 'hanging on' but after all the disappointments it was good to finish 4th at the last race and finish 6th in the championship."


Going tin-tops

When an F1 seat didn't materialise in 1999, Kurt decided to concentrate his single-seater energies on the management of his KTR team. Nevertheless, his desire to race burnt as brightly as ever, and he gladly accepted Kronos' two-year contract to race a Peugeot 306 in the Belgian touring car championship. Kurt quickly emerged as the team's pacesetter and finished runner-up in the '99 championship. For 2000 Kurt and Peugeot decided to compete in just two events - the Spa 4 Hours and the Spa 24 Hours. They won both.

Kurt turned to GT-racing for the next two seasons, developing and racing PSI's Porsche GT2 Turbo in selected rounds of the FIA- and Belgian GT Championships. Despite several victories and podium finishes in the national series, their international success was limited to a couple of top ten finishes in 2002.

Kurt's 2003 program was highlighted by a class victory and 5th overall during the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa, where he shared the Inno Zakspeed Viper with stars Pedro Lamy and Didier de Radigues.

In 2004, Mollekens was elected to join BMW Belgium's long awaited ETCC programme, competing in five of the ten rounds. Despite a year-old car, he was driving for the best team in the paddock, RBM, with the best imaginable team-mate, that year's champion Andy Priaulx. Kurt ran in the points at all of the events he participated in, and saw his performance rewarded with a BMW Motorsport works drive for the Spa 24 Hours. Unfortunately, the M3-GTR he shared with Lamy, Priaulx and Garcia stopped out on the track after 12 hours of racing, while lying in 3rd place, behind the two leading Ferrari GT1's.

When the ETCC became the WTCC for 2005, it was impossible for BMW Belgium to continue supporting the series. This left Kurt with limited GT programs for the next two years. It didn’t stop him from scoring consecutive podium finishes in the Spa 24 Hours in 2005 and 2006, first in a Ferrari 550 Maranello, sharing with Bouchut, Gardel and Vosse, then in a Corvette C6-R, accompanied by Hezemans, Kumpen and Longin. With the latter line-up he also finished 3rd in the Zolder 24 Hours.

2007 was a busy season, with Balance of Performance duties for SRO’s new GT4 category being combined to a full racing program in the Belgian Touring Car Series. Despite scoring the highest number of victories and podium finishes in the Reanult Mégane he shared with Didier Defourny, Kurt had to content himself with 3rd place in the final BTCS standings due to two crucial DNF’s. The continued collaboration with Kumpen-Longin netted another podium finish at the Spa 24 Hours in an outdated Corvette C5-R.

Although 2008 brought little racing, Mollekens continued to ensure the Balance of Performance of the GT4, and was also appointed by Renault Sport to perform the development work of the new-for-2009 Mégane Trophy car. An unreliable Saleen prevented him and his teammates to make it to the finish of the Spa 24 Hours, Kurt’s first DNF – and first non-podium finish – since 2004.

Kurt’s unaffected faith in the Peka team was rewarded in 2009, when he scored his second overall victory at the Spa 24 Hours, sharing a Corvette C6-R with Kumpen, Hezemans and Menten. A podium finish also looked ensured at Zolder’s 24H endurance race, but an engine failure brought his Red Bull Ferrari to a halt less than 4 hours from the end.

When Kurt’s good friend Vincent Vosse created the new-for-2010 W Racing Team, Mollekens was hired to drive one of its Audi R8’s in the French GT championship and the Spa 24 Hours. Partnering with David Tuchbant, the pairing only managed 17th in the driver standings. Spa wasn’t a great success either, with a P13 finish following a couple of technical gremlins.

For 2011, Kurt has decided to restrict his personal racing in order to fully concentrate on his team’s double FR2.0 program.