Spa Francorchamps

The car you see in the picture is a Ford Capri 3.0s. It is built to replicate the car that won the Spa Francorchamps 24hrs race in 1978. I race this car and have done for around 15 years. In fact you could say that they'll have to surgically remove it from me when I die!

Anyway Spa Francorchamps is a fantastic circuit set in the Belgian Ardennes. As a racing theatre it is second to none and for many reasons is the favourite circuit of nearly all racing drivers. We race there every year at around the end of September and this year was no different. The event is the FIA 6hrs of spa Francorchamps and as the name suggests the weekend includes a six hour race for cars built prior to 31 December 1965. These cars run as Appendix A which is a category specific to the FIA. For the last three years, not only have I raced my Capri in one or more of the support races, I have also shared an MGB in the 6hours race. This has led to a busy if tremendous weekend.

This is the MGB as it looked during the 2008 race. It is a lovely little car and a delight to drive. Not the fastest out there but certainly not the slowest. But you need your wits about you because cars such as GT40s and Cobras are also in the race and they are significantly faster.

Anyway this year we decided to enter only one of the one-hour support races with the Capri and of course the 6hours with the MG.

It was somewhat disappointing to arrive at Spa on the Thursday to be greeted by rain, so any chances of practicing were washed away. It was therefore necessary to guess at the suspension settings for qualifying which would be dry the next day.

We qualified the car 24th out of 66, which was not too shabby. We were third in our class and had lapped 5 seconds quicker than any previous attempts. The race looked promising. This is a two driver race with a compulsory pit stop and we elected to stop at half way. My co driver would take the start. Unfortunately when we came to start the car before the race on Saturday morning, it refused to fire up until it was too late to leave the pit lane. The result was that not only would we start from the back, we'd have to catch up with the field that had already been warmed up! This incidentally is why the headlights are on. Get out of the way we're coming through!

My co driver performed brilliantly so that when I took over we were in 40th place. Every lap produced overtaking opportunities and the car felt fantastic. I could get on the gas so much earlier and of course I was able to drive through Blanchiment flat in top, something that previous years had required a lift to get the nose turned in. Due to the lappery we never got to beat our qualifying time but we did overtake the two cars in our class that started ahead of us and we finished 24th and first in class.

All was looking good for the 6hours.

I was due to take the start in the MG at 4pm and would run for 1 1/2 hours for the first stint. After that it would be another 1 1/2 hours for my co driver then I'd get back in for my second and final stint. I've spent around ten hours in the car and was looking forward to another good result for the weekend. Sadly it was not to be.

On my 6th lap a Lotus Elan approached me at very high speed as I was entering Pouhon, a double apex left hand bend. You enter in third gear and accelerate through taking top gear at the second apex. Anyway I saw the Lotus approaching and waved him down the inside and prepared to follow him through. That's when it went wrong. The driver of the Lotus slowed as he pulled in front of me, I saw he was struggling to control the car which was sliding sideways and over the kerbs. I had little choice but to move back on line and take the corner as normal. Sadly the other driver was still struggling and speared back on to the track, into the rear of my car.

Here is the result.

I spun into the barrier, then spun around and rolled, returning to what was left of the four wheels.

Without giving away names I can tell you that the other driver is a well known ex touring car and F3000 driver. I went to see him in the paddock afterwards to shake hands and commiserate. As far as I was concerned it was a racing incident. The only thing we did wrong was enter the race, yet this lord of all he races, took it upon himself to berate me and suggest that it was all my fault. I decided to walk away and went for a beer.

So, unlike previous years the unsporting behaviour of another competitor dampened what could have been a great weekend. Even the crash hadn't taken away the satisfaction of our class win earlier in the day.

But, that's not the end. The car is being repaired as I write and will return to the tracks next season. In the meantime there's a weekend of historic motor sport planned at Abu Dhabi 21 to 23 January 2010. 60', 70's and 80s, Sports Prototypes and Formula 1 cars will be heading out from Europe and we may even try to get them to Qatar later next year.