Club Arnage

Not signed, sealed and delivered yet, but who else is going?
Freaky deaky Dutch contingent?

For €25 and the fact I'll have bored my wife after a few days together immediately prior, I think I could get a pink ticket for this. It's not far to drive for me, at least.  ;D

I'll be there with a friend if I don't put them off 1st with how bad the weather can be at Spa  ;D

As they say, there is no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. In the case of Spa, appropriate clothing would be wellies and rain cape plus sun block and wide brimmed hat.... yup, anything can happen, and usually does.

Hoping to be there.

Hoping it's not raining.

Hoping that Barry is riding shot gun with me.

freaky deaky dutch will for sure be there, but who? not 100% sure

my guess: at least 10 strong

hopefully same camping spot as always! (and hopefully less then compared to last year)

I'll be there if I'm not selected to sit on the jury on the Monday before. It will be a last minute thing but fingers crossed.

Looking very hopeful at the moment.  :)
Cunning plan seems to have worked for once, but I never count chickens.

Hey Barry, how many chickens have you got and are they regular layers. Used to keep chickens when I was young(er)
Always fancied sheep as well and I am not even welsh!

>Martini...LB

Don't think we'll be there this year - can't face a 9hr drive each way and the green-tree-huggers have just had Spa Airport closed (https://www.lapetition.be/en-ligne/Pour-la-sauvegarde-de-l-Aerodrome-de-spa-et-les-emplois-12563.html) so can't even fly in. Reckon it'll be Le Mans (and possible a flying visit to the WEC test day at Paul Ricard on the 30th) only this year.

Wanting to do this. Plan to go out lat thursday afternoon, back on Sunday. I'll have spare seats if anyone wants a lift

I have my "pink ticket". I'll arrive early Sat a.m. and probably stay Sat night in my car as I'll not be able to lay off the Belgian beers. It's only 1h20m north from my place.  8)


EDIT 18/04/13: Once you've paid for your e-tickets, you receive a 'facture' via email. It still takes some days to receive the proper e-tix and car park pass via email.

Got a sniff of some work at Spa but sadly the wheels wouldn't be up to the trip at the moment. Any spare seats around? Still waiting for the nod from the team but thought I'd better get planning just in case  ;)

It's just Barry & I in my car at present.  Aiming to leave his place around 11pm on Thursday to catch the 02:00 ferry from Dover to Dunkirk.  Return Ferry Sunday lunchtime.

Landman/Paul

Present.


RV and little trailer.
With big tent, gernie, fridge and BBQ

Arriving Friday afternoon

Camping / parking in the Woods (  P 3  ? ) 

Is that the same place as last year?

Yep

Great, got the place, getting there Friday for breakfast.

Well, I had better load up the BBQ again!!!

Change of plans Wishy?
Are you Spa...ing?

Yes,I will be there with the boys.
Olly decided that he would do an all expenses paid trip for my birthday(only because he wants to go!! ;D)

 8)
Wish I had such a thoughtful son!

What 's your eta?

How is Coat Boy these days!!

:)

We will be arriving Thursday afternoon at around 3pm

Finding his second year at uni a lot tougher than the first.

Leave home Saturday at 8am, arrive at Spa 9.45 am.
 ;D

We'll be there also then around that time wishy. I'll also bring the BBQ.

I haven't been to Spa since 1990 so I could do with some advice please  :)

buying tickets on the door, parking I believe costs 5 euro's ?
Best places to watch (I've got some new hiking boots especially ;D)
places to cross from inside to outside of circuit & vice versa
scrum place for pit lane signing session
access to grandstands

anything else that could be useful, I have been there twice. once I came back with webbed feet the other time sunburn  ;D

Thanks!

Buying on door will suffice.
Parking could be 5, if syou show up on thursday, chances are you pay nothing. ;D
Places to watch? Radillion, even has a bar. Kemmel/Les Combes, La Source. Busstop isn't what it supposed to after the big change.
Crossings will show themselves when you're wondering around. A walk around the circuit is doable during the race.
Signing session? whut? ;)
Grandstands are free accesible.

Be prepared for any kind of weather. Looks like it will be raining thursday/friday, with clouds on saturday.

Thanks for the reply, looking forward to more and more as it gets Closer.

Anyone have any advice on a quick route from leper to Calais Sunday night? We're going to watch the last post ceremony at 8 which only just leaves enough time to get back Calais on time. Google maps say's N8 & A16. Are there any better routes people know of?

i so wish i could go ....
next year i hope .

Just been informed that I will be on the jury for the case starting tomorrow. That's f**ked up my plan for a last minute dash to Spa. Bollocks bollocks bollocks  :'(

Have they actually picked the jury out of the 24 people submitted Bob?
If not thy might not like the look of you  ;)
They might change their plea to guilty at the last moment, if not hang them high. ;)  ;D

When I phoned they only read out 14 juror numbers Barry. The chances of being one of the 2 rejected are not very good

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

audi will be testing a long tail version driven by gene,grassi and Jarvis designed for le mans this weekend.looks the same to me.bit longer though.will be installed on sofa watching on telly.enjoy all who go to spa hope weather aint tooo bad.

Bob if you want you could join us? we're leaving Uxbridge around 2.30 Saturday morning.
Staying in Leuven sat night then visiting Brugge, Diksmuide Tyne cot & Leper Sunday. home late Sunday. Monday bank holiday to recover.

Tweeted by John Dagys (Speed) : new 2014 LMP1 project revealed at Spa this weekend (and it's not Porsche)

Update.  Picked for the final 15 this morning from which the 12 jurors will be chosen tomorrow. Been told the trial will last up to 8, yes weeks. You do the math.

Bob I was in the same position 4-5 years ago around this time, I managed to get out of a long case when the court asked if anyone had a genuine reason why they couldn't serve for 6 weeks. I took my ferry booking and ticket confirmation & that was enough to get out of it.
Still had to sit on 2 short GBH cases though  :police:   

Hi Bob,
           A remark in a loud voice along the lines of: "He looks guilty to me" will have you out of there lickety split  ;D
Seriously though Thank You for your service.
see you in Le Mans
Phil

I agree with Phil.
"He's a wrong 'un and no mistake."
or pretend you have Tourette's, Bob. The nervous tick will put people off very quickly.

Let's hope though, that if you are chosen for the jury, the case DOESN'T take 8 weeks, or we won't see you in LM either.

Take a plastic bag of poo with you so that it upsets the rest of them, similar has probably been practiced in LM, but it may work.  ;D ;D

Look forward to seeing you at LM Bob.

>Martini...LB

Bob,
I think we should all be proud of you.
A fine, upstanding member of the community and an obvious moral compass!
The Jury System is obviously in very safe hands. ;0)

FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps..

Jox Jottings also on http://spawec2013.blogspot.co.uk/ (http://spawec2013.blogspot.co.uk/)

Free Practice..

Your CA team is in place and free practice has passed reasonably quietly except for #24 Oak Racing Morgan Nissan. The culprit behind the wheel was David Heinemeier Hansson he went off at Pouhon. Fair enough.. it was a bit damp in places.

We have another cracking grid of 35 cars including of course the big banger LMP1 cars from Audi and Toyota. This is their last chance to scare off any gremlins that might be lurking about prior to Le Mans.

The new qualifying procedure is back despite its rather murky debut at Silverstone. It seems that the computer software didn’t cope particularly well and got in a huff and went home for an early bath but the chaps that know about these things have, we are told, got it all sorted out now. So once again we are looking forward with eager anticipation to the following:-
Driver One goes out and does at least four laps and the computer remembers the best two of them… then Driver Two goes out and also does at least four laps, and again the computers remember which were the fastest two. Now the clever bit.. these four times are averaged out to give a final time that gives the car its place on the grid. Get it? Simples!
Now a few ‘Michael Caine’ moments… did you know that:-

All the cars are fitted with three lights in a vertical row beside the number decal.. one light ‘on’ means the car is leader its class.. two lights second in class and three lights third in class. These are triggered by the transponders and time keepers. These were not working all that well either but we are assured that will be tickety-boo by Le Mans. If you are watching on TV the LMP1 Cars have Red numbers.. LM P2 have blue ones… LM GTE Pro are green and LM GTE Am are orange.

Nine drivers here today have taken part in F1 Grand Prix… Allan McNish, Alexander Wurz, Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Luca di Grassi, Marc Gené, Stéphane Sarrazin. Kazuki Nakajima and Nick Heidfeld.

Fuel tanks on petrol powered LMP1 and LMP2 cars are allowed 75 litres… the diesels get 60 litres.. LMPGTE Pro and Am also get 60 litres.

Just looking at the programme and noticed that it claims Marcel Fassler clocked a 1:01.851sec to claim the fastest lap in the 2012. A mere 205 Kph… in fact this would have been nearer 400kph which would be about 250 mph!! Maybe it should read 2:01.851secs!
My guru Tony tells me that the #7 Toyota is a new car and the #3 Audi has the ‘long tail’..remember the 917 Porsche ? Well this one is a massive few cms!
35 Cars…8 in LMP1..11 in LMP2…7 in LMGTE Pro and 9 in LMGTE Am

Back after practice and qualifying

Spa WEC Qualifying
All Spa reports can also be found at: http://spawec2013.blogspot.co.uk/ (http://spawec2013.blogspot.co.uk/)

Will it work? Was it exciting? The jury is still out, certainly amongst one of two of the drivers that were interviewed. Compared with Round One at Silverstone the good news was that at least it all worked. The timing screens are mighty complicated as those of you watching ‘Live Timing’ will perhaps agree. If you take the live timing screens and the main TV timing screens here in the media centre you have either twelve or fourteen columns to try and keep up with. It was refreshing that Kamui Kobayashi freely admitted that really didn't have a clue what was going on and what was needed from him!

So how did LM GTE pan out ? Aston took pole in Pro with the #98 car, between them Bruno Senna and Frederic Makowiecki always looked promising and they saw off the two AF Corse Ferraris, #51 and #71. The Porsches again didn't shine. In ‘Am’ it was Aston Martin #95 that took pole ahead of the #81 Ferrari and the second of the Aston Martin Racing machines.

The final results can be seen on http://live.fiawec.com/

With no time to take breath the LM P1 & LM P2 cars are already out. Except initially the #28 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola Nissan which is back in its garage with what might be a starter problems.

#41 has gone off at turn 9 with Dyson driving … there is a red flag so the clock has stopped and no doubt some team managers are having to think mighty fast and re-plan their strategy. When lights went green there was an ugly rush to get out…whether it was all legal is questionable.

The top speeds are soaring and are now over 300 kph which is round 190 mph. Degrassi in the #3 Audi has set a high benchmark and was running with just about enough fuel to get the job done. At this stage the Toyotas still seem down on speed. It is perhaps a bit  disappointed that the new #7 Toyota isn’t significantly quicker than the ‘old’ car but it may be running in a ‘Le Mans’ specification aero pack. Once again the Rebellion Lolas with their Toyota petrol powered have done astoundingly well against the might of Audi and Toyota.
The #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan came back to pits on the back of a lorry so it will start from the back of grid since it didn’t do anywhere near enough laps.

Qualifying is not utterly crucial in a six hour endurance race but it certainly gives us some indication of what might happen tomorrow.

Rebellion Fan asking what time does the race start on Saturday? CET.
I will be up early :)
Phil

Hi Phil

race starts at 2:30 pm CEST, that'll be 8:30 am local time in Toronto.

Best

Werner

Things you might already know….
Full Spa jottings at: http://spawec2013.blogspot.co.uk/ (http://spawec2013.blogspot.co.uk/)

Ever since Rebellion appeared at Le Mans in 2011 we have been wondering what Rebellion was and what it did for a living. So off we went to good old Google for a look!

Extraordinary fact one is that, allegedly, in 2012 roughly one person in five on planet earth still buys a watch each year. Extraordinary fact two is that Swiss watches only account for 2% of this volume but this represents more than half the value of the worldwide watch market.

There are a couple of things you need to know about Rebellion.. firstly they don’t produce ‘watches’, they produce ‘timepieces’ and secondly you won’t find them on offer at Argos! For example The Rebellion REB-5 Black Diamond retails in the region of $930,000! This is the cheapish one.. the limited edition T1000 will set you back somewhere in excess of $1.2 million. They only plan to make 25 of them so the revenue would go some way towards the tyres and fuel for Le Mans and WEC.

This might account for why watch companies have a rich heritage in motor racing. At Le Mans you can’t fail to spot Rolex sponsorship all over the place… Richard Mille sponsors the Le Mans Classic.. Blancpain have their own Endurance Series under the watchful (!) eye of SRO. In fact there are so many deals in motor sports from Tag Heuer to Tudor ( who, as an offspring of Rolex, are involved here at Spa) and sailing ( Corum, Boss etc) so maybe the watch industry is the new tobacco sponsor.

All this makes my £13.99 Sekonda watch purchased duty free on the ferry look a wee bit modest.. mind you it does tell me what time it is !

Currently streaming live on live.fiawec.com (http://live.fiawec.com)

SPA Race Report

Full blog is at http://spawec2013.blogspot.co.uk/ (http://spawec2013.blogspot.co.uk/)

The final results can be found at www.fiawec.com

It is good to report that around 14,000 members of the public turned out in force to sit in the sun and watch some top of the range motor sport.

During a short pause in hostilities before the start we had a chat with Paul Truswell.. the amazing combination of voice and analytical brain that we know so well from Le Mans. Not surprisingly he had a few thoughts… He suggested that it would need a simply huge c*ck up for Audi to lose this race, in fact it would probably take a huge c*ck up to keep them off the top three steps of the podium. So why no Toyotas in the frame? The ‘new’ #7 car is geared up more for Le Mans in June and is brand new.. the #8 car on the other hand is now out of date. As far as Le Mans goes Toyota will probably miss out tactically by not having three cars to deploy at La Sarthe. We also discussed LM P2 and how hard it was to keep up with them during the race and on TV. The problem sort of lies with the fact that as far as sponsors are concerned there are no really big, distinctive ones that highlight the cars, which makes them hard to identify in the midst of the action ( and during the TV edit) Equally while they have some very experienced and quite famous pilots they are short of big name endurance super-stars. We all agree that despite all this they do give us some cracking racing even if goes unnoticed for some of the time. In GT Porsche may well continue to struggle until they can get their hands on the new 991 engine ( good old Porsche .. keep us guessing on these numbers!). There was only one safety car session and it caused a couple of teams problems not just with pit lane access but also with getting stuck behind the safety car.

The LM P1 lead sort of ‘went with service’ for a sizeable part of the race. The analysts amongst us were told that the lead changed around 13 times. The #7 Toyota took up the lead several times occasionally on merit but generally during the pits stops. All the same the new car did lead the race until that is with three hours or so to go it wound up in the pits and expired with what was clearly a brake overheating problem but we think that may have been related to the ‘Hybrid’ systems. The Toyotas would appear to be able to match the Audis, broadly speaking, on pace and apparently beat them in the fuel consumption stakes. As you may have gathered we are fans of the Rebellion Racing Team, the only problem is that being ‘petrol powered’ they have nobody much to race against apart from each other! Even so this is a highly professional and superbly managed team… now .. have a think ..what if …?! The #25 Strakka Racing Morgan Nissan is not truly competitive but they are heading for Le Mans come what may! Back with Audi they did suffer with a puncture on the #1 car but in the true tradition of Audi it didn't appear to faze them at all and the team carried on in its unflustered way. Incidentally the #3 Audi was running in ‘Le Mans’ specification which didn't suit Spa but the casual onlooker might be hard pressed to spot the difference. The new fashion is ‘Long Tails’ everybody is trying them, maybe as a tribute to the Porsche 917 Lang Heck!

In LM P2 it goes almost without saying that we will see some close racing and today was no exception. It was eventually won by #49 Pecom Racing Oreca 03. This was probably due in no small way to presence of one Mr Nicolas Minassian who is immensely quick. Even so they came home just 12 seconds ahead of the #24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan which was only 16 seconds ahead of the third placed #38 Jota Zytek Z11SN. The Lotus T128 fared much better than they had done at Silverstone and despite the #31 car hitting problems but still finishing the #31 car saw the chequered flag. All the LM P2 cars finished the race except the #25 Delta ADR which crashed out. They are quick, reliable and well worth watching when they get to Le Mans.

For Aston Martin things didn’t pan out as well here as they had at Silverstone. We did wonder if the other teams might have been holding back at Silverstone. Maybe they were because this time in LMGTE Ferraris came alive with the two AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia’s looking much more dangerous in ‘Pro’ . This was helped by the Astons getting caught out by the safety car. Porsche didn’t have a great weekend, it was summed up rather well when, with about 45mins to go , the #51 AF Corse Corse Ferrari punted the #91 Porsche up the back end and took it out of the race! With around 40 mins to go a flurry of stop go penalties kicked in after that safety car business hours ago. This involved the two factory Aston Martins #97 and 98. Team boss David Richards reckoned it was all entirely legal so we suspect this might involve a protest form Aston Martin Racing.

In ‘Am’ it was Ferrari again and they did well with the #81 Ferrari 458 Italia seing off the #95 Aston . The #50 Chevrolet had a steady race and came home 3rd, again ahead of an Aston Martin, this time the #96 car. So not quite the spectacular performance we saw at Silverstone. But everybody is now heading for Le Mans so all bets are off !

After 168 laps only three cars retired from the race , these were the #7 Toyota, The #25 Delta-ADR which crashed out after 25 laps and the unfortunate Patrick Pilet in the #91 Porsche who crashed out after being hit by #51 Ferrari driven by Bruni. As a curtain raiser for Le Mans? Well .. guess what Audi do look incredibly strong but Toyota have the pace and the economy and maybe with a bit of luck they might see the podium.

Hi Werner,
               Thanks. I was up in plenty of time but unable to watch any of the race due to other commitments.
Phil.

First batch of pictures

(http://xposed.be/FTP/kristof/2013/_VER6769.jpg)

(http://xposed.be/FTP/kristof/2013/_VER7072.jpg)

(http://xposed.be/FTP/kristof/2013/_VER7977.jpg)

(http://xposed.be/FTP/kristof/2013/_VER8120.jpg)

Beer side of the fence this time.  Next : ELMS at Imola, on the good side of the fence  ;D

Great pictures! :)

Kristof, was that the No 25 "moment" ? Looks very much like it. What happened ?

Yep, that's the moment.  Apparently something broke off the rear suspension and Pizzonia crashed hard into the tyre wall.  The next image I took was one of a loose rear wheel rolling around  :D.

Pizzonia didn't seem to have his day at Spa; he spun early in the race at the exit of Combes on to Rivage and allmost ran over the marshalls who were helping  him back on track.  Let's hope he'll get himself sorted before Le Mans or his race will be a very short one.

Thanks Kristof... I'm pleased to see you have all your extremities in the place they should be again... The medical car came round at Les Combes where we were at this moment and I was afraid that it was something BIG. Good on my little group because later on we were in the pits and had a free pit stop of the No 26 car... Strangely, there was no food/drink stall/circuit radio in the outer spaces. From a spectator's view it was like... what, 3 years ago, when the power went down during the race. NASCAR couldn't make it worse.

Seemed like all the food stalls at the back of the track are gone.  Only place were you could get something was at the double lefthander after Pouhon, but from the Raidillon up untill there nothing. Circuit radio has always been a disaster there, thank god for Radio LM.

If you went out of the track at Les Combes, there was a chippy van parked up just beyond the gates doing a roaring trade, and at about half the price of the paddock equivalent.