This was a first visit to Spa-Francorchamps, it was partly a factfinding mission and partly a post-exam treat for my son whose exam timetable meant that he had to miss the Le Mans 24 hours. We were booked to cross on the tunnel at 11:50 on the Thursday prior to the race and to stay at the Eau-Rouge campsite at Stavelot.

The route from home in Oxfordshire to the Tunnel via the M25, M20 was uneventful, mostly full of holiday traffic. The five e-mails we had received from Eurotunnel in the week beforehand had led us to believe that the checking in process would be hell and that we would queue from the motorway. This could not be further from the truth, we were the third car in the queue for check-in and we had plenty of time for a coffee in the terminal prior to our train being called. Passport control was a breeze and everything was fine up until the final marshalling area. What I have come to believe is that if Eurotunnel e-mail you to say it is busy then they mean that they have already decided which trains are not going to run. So as the 12:00 and 12:20 left before us we departed 40 minutes after our scheduled departure time.

The route through Northern France and Belgium via Brussels to the circuit was fairly eventful, Belgians are not particularly good at maintaining a consistent speed, indicating before changing lanes and/or using their mirrors as we would have to report several near misses and one or two accidents that caused hold ups. The distance from the Tunnel to the circuit is around 240 miles, so by 18:00 local time, with one comfort stop, we had covered the distance.

The route from the campsite to the centre of the circuit is about 4 miles according to my bike computer, going out is a bit of a slog as there is a slight uphill incline and it always seemed to be against the wind, however this meant that coming back was very easy, with the wind behind us we ran out of gears as it pushed us home at a fair lick. We arrived at the entrance and had our e-tickets, that I had carefully folded and put into a pouch on a lanyard, exchanged for wrist bands and then following a check of our rucksacks we were in. Just keep following the road to the Pits and Grandstands, as we had General Entry tickets with Paddock Passes, we locked our bikes up in the Car Park under the main pits.

It being about 8pm at this point we were hungry and thirsty and were following the signs painted on the paths and roads to ‘Bar-Resto’. These signs led us past all the hospitality trucks, up another two flights of stairs to the back of the pits and then tucked between the white trailer of Strakka Racing and the red Trailer of AF Corse there was another entrance and another four flights of stairs (don’t panic there is also a lift). We finally arrived at the Pit Brasserie which was an unexpected surprise, situated right above the pits with a view over the Bus Stop and the start finish straight. For 16 Euros we were able to help ourselves to as much of the buffet as we liked and have a beer. This was very welcome and a plate of meatballs the size of tennis balls and chips (with mayonnaise of course) and a bit of salad was duly consumed.

This was the 67th running of the Spa 24 hour, the race having first been run in 1924 along a mainly public road circuit from La Source through Eau-Rouge to the town of Malmedy and the village of Stavelot and back to La Source. The original circuit was 14km long and was renowned for being superfast and super dangerous and fell victim to the cost of making it safe in the 1970s following the refusal of the F1 drivers to drive there in 1969, with no F1 races on the old circuit after that year until 1983, four years after the circuit had opened in its present configuration of 7km.

As with other 24-hour events most qualifying takes place at night with Rookie drivers having to complete their statutory 10 laps, so even with our arrival at the circuit at a relatively late hour, we were still able to enjoy 4 hours of cars on the track whilst having a good wander round the paddock and grandstand areas to get our bearings, find the underpasses and following each car’s progress from the multitude of big screens dotted around the circuit. Making our way back towards the campsite about 23:30 we watched the last throes of the session high-up on the ridge above Malmedy corner where you can also look over the entry into Rivage.

The meeting itself consisted of racing from 5 different series: FIA Formula 3 European Championship, Peugeot 308 Racing Cup, Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Blancpain GT Sports Club with the main event being the 24-hour race that forms part of the Blancpain GT Series. All this means is that there are cars on the track all day, either qualifying, or in races, we decided to eschew the morning activity at the circuit, instead opting for an excursion to Malmedy for provisions. Malmedy itself appears to be a fairly busy market town, with a pretty square and typical architecture for the region and if we go again it is on the list for further investigation.

The highlight of Friday evening was the Super-pole qualifying session, this is where the top 20 in the previous night’s qualifying gets half an hour to improve their grid position. The highlights of this half hour were the Pro-am (i.e. Second division) Aston-Martin V12 Vantage was put 4th on the Grid by Oliver Gavin (he of Corvette Racing Le Mans fame) and the Jaguar XKR G3 of Emile Frey Racing managing to get on the grid at 8th. So, we were set for some exiting racing over the Saturday night. We decided to eat back at the campsite where generous portions of lasagne and chips (with the obligatory large dollop of mayonnaise) were supplied from the kitchen for €8.50 each.

The main race was not scheduled to start until 16:30 on the Saturday, most of the morning’s racing were the conclusions to the other series weekend programmes. We saved our energy for a long night by staying at the campsite for the morning. Having made sandwiches from the bread procured form the visiting baker we made our way into the circuit for a late lunch and watched the end of the Formula Renault and then the VIP laps. As we had Paddock passes we duly queued up for the Pit Walk and managed to get some autographs, most notably from Chris Harris (Top Gear) and Andre Lotterer (Works Audi Driver and 5 times Le Mans winner) we also spent some time chatting to the Jaguar drivers as we had adopted them as ‘honorary plucky Brits’ even though the team is Swiss based. Formation for the start is down the old pit straight, there is a traditional ‘Ear of Corn’ formation with the cars starting behind the safety car for a rolling start from the start/finish Straight just before La Source. This we watched from above the pits before moving into the paddock and spending some time against the inside fence at La Source. One of the best things about Spa is that nothing seems too far away, we walked up the inside of Eau-Rouge and Raddillion and then followed a steep path that brought us out half way along the Kemmel straight. Here we were stopped from further progress by a very pleasant security guard, who allowed us to stand in the gateway and watch the cars brake for Les Coombes, often three abreast. The racing is hard and this was possibly the best place to see it as it is the fastest part of the track with the cars hitting 200mph just before the braking zone. We then clambered down the long bank and re-joined the main thoroughfare up to the double left at Pouhon and then onto Campus, although at Pouhon there is a path to the left that takes you up to the highest point on the circuit at Bruxelles, this we decided to leave for another day. Just by the entrance to the karting track we caught the free bus (when I say bus I mean one of those resort type 3 carriage road trains) that was being drawn by an old Land-Rover. On the way back up to the Bar-Brasserie for supper we bumped into Chris Harris who was making a sheepish exit from the Blancpain Hospitality suite. He told us a tale of woe regarding his McLaren, but the news was good, it was repairable and would be back out on the circuit within the hour. This is the beauty of 24-hour racing, even if you suffer the worst of fortune and can make it back to the pits, there is hope that it is repairable, if repairable you can re-join the race and there is every chance that you could still finish relatively high up the order as the same fate will just as likely happen to the competition.

So, the racing continued furiously, the Jaguar #14 had held its place on the grid for the first hour and at one point was even running sixth but then started to slip back by about one place per lap and retired at midnight after a mix up with a full course yellow had incurred a penalty and put the car down to 45th with retirement around midnight with a cockpit full of blue smoke. The sister car #114 having retired several hours earlier with rear suspension and power failure that meant that the driver, Cristian Klein (formerly of Jaguar and Red Bull F1) was unable to get back to the pits. Whilst all this was happening the race was being led by the Pole Sitter the #51 Kaspersky Ferrari 488 with Giancarlo Fisichella as one of the drivers. So, at about 01:00 with the race looking fairly settled we returned to the campsite for some shut-eye. At 04:00 it rained.

We were leaving on the Sunday and had to vacate our pitch by 10:00, and it was about that time that we finally got the tent dry enough to pack away. Leaving the campsite towards the circuit, we parked on the verge and removed our bikes so that we could use them to get back to the middle of the circuit. As we had not had any news on the race for at least 9 hours we wanted to get in front of a screen to get the latest news, we did not need a screen as we rounded one of the corners in the centre of the circuit we came across what can only be described as the world’s most expensive scrap yard and were surprised to see the pole-sitting Ferrari and the second on the grid Lamborghini, a multitude of McLarens, both Jaguars and assorted Mercs, Porsches and Audis.

Returning to the Pit Brasserie viewing area we watched the decisive battle between the #90 Mercedes and the #5 Audi unfold, but at around 14:30 we felt it was time to go as we were getting e-mail warnings that the tunnel was going to be busy for our return and the crowd was by now very thin on the ground. The eventual podium was #5 Saintéloc Audi followed by the #8 Bentley ahead of the #90 Akka ASP Mercedes with the #117 KÜS Team75 Bernhard Porsche being classified fourth.

The drive back to the tunnel, into the setting sun, was relatively straight forward, I was expecting to see pedestrians in the road as we approached Calais, but it was all clear. The Tunnel terminal was completely rammed, with the overflow car park overflowing. We were originally booked for the 22:20 departure, but as it was about 18:30 when we arrived we were allocated the 20:50 departure and eventually at 21:50 we were on-board and on our way back to the UK, thus vindicating the decision to leave the circuit early.

It is very easy to understand why Spa is such a favourite for the drivers and the fans, it is much more intimate that any other race circuit that I have been to and with a knowledgeable crowd, a joy to spectate at. If I were to do anything differently for the next visit I would make more time to explore the environs, such as Malmedy, and as a keen cyclist it would be a great excursion to cycle the original 14KM circuit that is the stuff of legends.