Well, if you've never been to Spa, you ought to, it's as simple as that! Arguably the last real racers circuit not to be emasculated. (like that one??) by well intentioned twits and / or Mad Max.
Anyway we arrived for the HGPCA race after a good trip across Belgium to find ourselves locked out of the gates at La Source. No admittance until 0730! So nothing else for it but to break out the whisky and then get some zzzz's.
0715 and there is a very long queue parked very neatly either side of the access road waiting for the gates to open, when along comes this buffoon, for want a of a very rude alternative who promptly attempts to drive right down the middle of the road to the gates. I stood in front o f him and explained that he had just jumped a very large queue. " Tough "was his reply and started to move forward again, until he realised I wasn't moving and he was going to run me over! Whilst I stood there, all the guys who were in front of us anyway studiously drove their rigs out into the road to make sure he didn't go any farther.
Anyway, we had a good qualifying session and ended up about where we normally are; about 4th in class. The Belgian weather was being very kind to us and we ran in dry conditions throughout. However, disaster struck for Brian Jolliffe, our pal with his Cooper. He had pulled up in qualifying with a gearbox problem, only to find that the casing had cracked and all the oil had escaped.
Now let's be clear guys. THIS IS NOT F1!!! So up came Rod Jolley
with a spare gearbox for Brian to fit AND we're not talking any
old gearbox here, this was an ex Jack Brabham gearbox! It was
very pleasing to see people mucking in and helping / advising.
The Jags had a good turn out for the TOP HAT Challenge, even if they did park in the wrong paddock!! Great stuff guys
Brian was using our awning to work under and it was great when he fired up the car and ran in the race.
We had a good race and finished 4th in class after being pipped by someone, who as far as we could tell, hadn't even practised! OK, that's historic racing for you.
Rod Jolley was giving it large going through Eau Rouge and
we commented to him afterwards that we figured that he felt he
had had a good life and therefore didn't have much to live for...
Anyway, to see him sliding it up the hill was something else......
Up front there was a monster dice which initially included Rod,
until he fell away but thereafter was taken up by Dickie Attwood,
Frank Sytner and John Beasley hammering at it, with John running
out successful at the end.
The meeting was a high class one with Gentlemean Drivers, plus a Sportscar race of very high qulaity and a couple of F2 races, which had the commentator shrieking at one point. good stuff.
So, overall result?
Belgian beer - 8, The Rest - hungover.....
Some nice photos for you.
Just to prove
that the weather was good and the bon viveur was
working!
The wonderful interior of the DBR1 which has been campaigned this year in Historics by Peter Hardman.