2009 Round of Belgium

The 2009 Round of Belgium, the sixteenth of 19 events in the 2009 TM Master Cup season, was held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium.

Pre-race storylines
Alonso Tosia dominated the qualifying race, but that wasn't the biggest news. Nor was Alan Foster taking over the No. 69 McDermott Motorsports car for the injured James West.

No, the biggest news was made by Alexis Rainsford, who, when asked by a British reporter if the TM Master Cup Series should add more races worldwide, said, "Absolutely. We need to be outside the United States more than we need to be in it. In the American races, I'm under far more scrutiny than I am here in Europe. The series has a lot of officials in America that are overly sexist; they don't want a woman to do better than the good old boys, and most of the team bosses don't want women to do well either." She cited Flare Motorsports' (apparent) sabotage of Allie Riggs' run in the 29 car as her reasoning.

"The only reason I got the job with Jeff Cesnik in the first place is because I was a half-second faster than all the other candidates for the ride," Rainsford added. "I had to be that much faster, otherwise I wouldn't be here."

Rainsford's comments were not taken well by the rest of the paddock, especially by Tony Durbin, who said among other things, "Alexis got where she is because of her gender. She controls that entire team, and is the contractual No. 1 driver. Put her on level ground and she won't stand a chance."

Cesnik himself took exception, citing that when Tyrone Stanley asked to be the No. 1 driver back in 2004, Cesnik promptly fired him.

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