Spa Summer Classics 2009

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The Spa Summer Classics is an annual classic car race event on the circuit which Wiki describes thusly... "The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix and the Spa 24 Hours endurance race. It is also home to the 25 Hours of Spa, run by the Uniroyal Fun Cup. It is considered to be one of the most challenging race tracks in the world, mainly due to its fast, hilly and twisty nature. Spa is a favourite circuit of many racing drivers and fans. ... the original 15 km (9.3 mile) triangle-shaped course used public roads between the Belgian towns of Francorchamps, Malmedy and Stavelot. The Belgian Grand Prix was held at Spa-Francorchamps for the first time in 1924..."

early morning arrival of the day or races ... the pits are peaceful and quiet ...

aww, lovely little yellow tops ...

over at the waffle stand a family of Porsche fans are stopping off for a croissant and a gauffre ...

as the pilots gather with their craft for the first time trial of the day the photographers are out in force, when it comes to cameras and lenses I cannot compete, this fellow's are definitely _way_ bigger than mine ! !

it is a deceptively casual morning, the fellow in the red car is quite patient, while the youngster in the green is a bit twitchy, but not half so twitchy as (I am presuming) his dad standing nervously next to him, Dad is carrying a roll of duct tape and a philips screwdriver! No Formula one computerized nonsense here !

getting the heat shield in place ...

some fancier iron in the pit lanes ...

in case anyone was wondering what the trailer contains, a helpful schematic diagram is provided ...

out on the track an Aston in bright yellow is giving the peaceful morning a thrashing!

but back at the paddocks some of the non-racing cars are as interesting as the racers ...

liked the co-pilotti on this little MG Midget

the track really is in what pass for mountains around here, lots of trees and pleasantly cool after a heat wave in Brussels ... lots of up and downs ...

loved this class of racers, basically anything older than 10 years or so? Here some monstrous big Jaguar sedans get seriously sideways as they come down and around a particularly hairy turn ... shoulda seen them belch oil smoke when piling on the gas ...

little silver 911 and 356 slicing it up together ...

here the 'natural order' is reversed ... see, the little fishie goes real Real REAL FAST past the medium size Alfa fishie and they are both passing the great BIG fishie like it is standing still ... mind you this great big piece of American fishie is lapping the track at a very respectable rate of speed ...

oh this is not the way the poor P-car wanted to end the race, getting a rope tow from the Seat pace car ...

here is another down-hill sideways corner, terrible fun to watch the rear engine heavy porsches thunder through here sideways all in a row...

back in the paddock the MG's are all lined up ...

but it is a pretty day and a break for lunch is certainly warranted ...

a trip down to Stavelot is a pleasant excursion, the Abbeye there has a nice local history museum, including a fun exhibit of local car racing history, this track is close to the UK and has a good history with folks floating over to take part, and the amount of saw-dust on the ground soaking up oil dripping from the cars let us know this are genuine British cars and no museum mock-up shells... the car on the upper left was one that showed up as part of Herge's Tintin comic series ... the Team Lotus are lovely in green and the wall of honor to the famed drivers are nicely presented ...

there is a more detailed exhibit marrying two Belgian passions, motor sports and comic books, apparently Msr. Michel Vaillant was the Speed Racer of print with many adventures to his credit, even chasing down long-haired fellow over the streets of San Francisco ... the one showing feckless girls on Vespa's and the young fellow learning to drive with his 'Starter' plate on a Porsche 356 were too cute ...

but back on the track the Ford Cortinas are competing for space with the Porsches on the track ... Ford is very well represented here and seem popular with the classic racers ...

this is a fun hairy/scary corner, thunder down the straight past the pits, a hard right up the hill and a cresting tope and a hard left ... eek! a challenging hilly track indeed ...

oh no! this poor fellow looks to have lost a tire, the driver is fine, standing back looking a little disgusted ... they really are racing and these older cars do have issues, but fortunately modern safety technology helps a great deal ...

this little guy did not hit anything, but something certainly broke in his left front suspension to plant his front tire so firmly up there even when the car is hanging from its roll cage ...

a bevy of open wheeled guys are ready for their turn on the track ... a few more cars in this lot are better than their drivers as this group spends more than half of their track time under the yellow flag signaling a shunt (accident) somewhere on the track ...

but soon enough it clears out and the cars start really pacing about ...

as the day wears on the boys are still having plenty of fun ... would that I were staying over with, some friends and a nice BBQ this 4 of July with my own classic racer, but again, the road back to Brussels lies ahead and it is time to go ...

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