This time last week, I was absolutely buzzing at Spa.
The last time I was there was in 2005 for some single seater racing (I would mention the series but I would have to wash my mouth out afterwards!). The weather then was a bit wet and as it was my first time there I didn’t really venture around too much but last week we explored every little bit of the track and what a wonderful track it is too. Absolutely fantastic! I’ve heard it described as the Ardennes rollercoaster and I think that is spot on, I love the way it rises and falls and sweeps round, very flowing and picturesque too.
The most memorable moments for me were probably sitting on top of the bank at Rivage as the sun was about to set with a light breeze and a bit of cloud cover and watching the cars, magic stuff. Also, when we got to the karting place as we made our way back, we decided to head to the bridge and have a look at the entry into Blanchimont. We must have been about a metre from the track! I don’t know if we were meant to be there on that side of the fence (probably not, judging by the chunks of rubber which would occasionally shoot through the fence) but the impression of speed was fantastic not to mention scary! It was all a blur. The Pugs didn’t seem that quiet at this point if I remember correctly. They were visibly the quickest things out there.
Oh and the town of Spa isn’t bad either, quiet and very relaxed.
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Originally Posted by GTfour
…I was REALLY dissapointed by the near kilometer of new steel fencing at the back of the track.
Starting from the underpass at Blanchimont,one could before enjoy the cars at high speed from in between the trees, allmost all the way to the former busstop chicane. Many hours have I spend there looking at slipstream actions,listening at racecars roaring by at near topspeed on one of the most challenging curvecombinations in racing.
That has now all ended drastically…
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That is one thing which left me a bit puzzled, I don’t remember that much fencing 2yrs ago, in some places it is even doubled, there is fencing immediately beside the track and then there are the green ones even further back. It is quite bad at Les Combes and like you say, no more viewing in between the trees around Blanchimont towards the bus stop. We managed to find a gate in the fence which was open so we still went to view from among the trees but somehow I don’t think people would be allowed there during the GP. The banking appears so much steeper now around that area, it is probably why it is fenced off. I still think the best place to view is the section from Rivage through to Pouhon. I got some great pictures from this area. There are even places in the fence here where there are nice cut-outs in the fence which invites you to poke you camera through! Were they cut out by spectators or are they deliberate? I’m guessing its the former. Did anyone else notice the small fires left by the spectators from the 24hr race last month?
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Originally Posted by isynge
… I felt there was a fairly reasonable crowd there. At the start the grandstands after La Source were maybe 25% full (okay, not what you'd call a sell out, but compare this to a lot of other LMS events) and there were a lot of people on top of the new paddock building. Later on walking up to Kemel the grassy banks were reasonably well populated and there was quite a throng walking back and forth.
It's probably not 100% there but the impression I got was considerably more positive than Donington last year. Progress indeed.
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isynge, I couldn’t agree more, I was in the blue grandstand at Eau rouge (the one which looked a bit unstable so the organisers stuck a disclaimer on it!) and the stand was packed for the race start. It was great to see so many other sports car fans. There were quite a lot of people in the paddock area and on the roof like you say. The banking along the Kemel straight all the way to Les Combes, Rivage and Pouhon were also fairly populated as we walked about. To my mind, it is the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen at any of the LMS races I’ve been to. OK, that is not saying much but I think it was a decent turn out even if the place looked relatively deserted around Stavelot, Blanchimont and the new bus stop.
One thing which was lacking was big screens. I didn't see a single one!! What on earth was that all about?
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Originally Posted by JAG
Self destructed AGAIN.
Maybe they should all take a leaf out of Pescarolo and Rollcentres book?
How can you spend SO much money designing, building and running cars, only to have such awful reliabilty and poor race craft?
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Ah yes, the Courages! I’ve resided myself to the fact that supporting Courage is an exercise in futility. Their reliability is absolutely woeful. One wonders if they are actively tackling these issues or whether they just wheel out the cars again and again with the offending part(s) repaired/new ones fitted and then hoping against hope it wouldn’t break this time!
I remember reading quite a while ago when the LC70 was introduced that they had to make a bit of a rapid change of engine (Judd to AER?), it feels like they’ve never really got on top of things ever since. The Gounon car starts well as always and tends to run about 4th but then after the first hour you just know its going stop out on the track somewhere. It is so frustrating! How on earth can they hope to attract sponsors and develop the car to the point where it can actually win something? Maybe Yves Courage and some of the drivers have very loyal sponsors who don’t mind putting their hand into their pockets or someone is bank rolling the whole project and results don’t really matter at this point!