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Marcel won the categories of both single seaters and touring cars, and eventually the Marlboro Challange. The prize was a season in Dutch Formula Ford 1600 with the Van Amersfoort team. That year, Albers debuted with a second place and won his second race. Three more victories meant he clinched the title with one race to space, in his rookie season.

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Marcel’s Ralt suffered gearbox problems, and he fell back to sixth place. He regained some of his early pace and came across his teammate Elton Julian. Just before the braking zone of the Club chicane, Albers tried to overtake Julian, but instead, the two cars collided. Albers’ Ralt was launched into the air and after what seemed like time slowing down, his car smashed into the safety fence, upside down.

The impact broke the roll bar of the car. Albers was removed from his car but died on the way to the medical centre. He was just five days shy of his twenty-fifth birthday.

Albers was buried in the Belgian village of ‘s-Gravenwezel, near Antwerpen, the city where he studied.

All of the promise that Albers had shown was swept away in that instant. Albers’ former rivals went on to greatness; Barrichello and Coulthard together winning twenty-four Grand Prix in Formula 1, and De Ferran becoming the 2000 and 2001 Champ Car champion, and the 2003 Indy 500 winner. Instead, Marcel’s run towards greatness stops in 1992.