My experience of Spa-Francorchamps

Welcome back to the series where I’m showing off where I went last year! Next up after Monaco was the incredible Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the World Endurance Championship.

For those of you who don’t know what WEC is, it is endurance racing over either 6, 8, 12 or even 24 hours in prototype cars like this:

And modified GT cars like this:

Skill, luck, reliability and the weather all play a part in a WEC race and it is a constantly evolving, exciting motorsport to watch.

I was really excited for this trip as Spa is one of the best circuits in the world, so much so, I dragged my mum along with me! I know, lucky lady!

To start with, we visited the small town of Spa, which in all honesty, was a bit of a let down. I don’t know whether it’s because we were there on a random Wednesday at the beginning of May, but there wasn’t much to do unless you fancied trying your luck at the casino.

Now, to the important stuff – parking! I bought the yellow P4-6-8 parking ticket for the 3 days, which is about a 10-15 minute walk from the circuit down a fairly sizeable hill, which brings you out right by Eau-Rouge. On the Thursday and Friday, getting to the circuit was relatively easy, as we followed coloured sign posts down some VERY funky back roads off the motorway, but it worked and we got there in one piece. Race day however, good heavens. We set off earlier than the previous days, but even that wasn’t enough. We ended up queuing for a very warm 2 hours, with little to no movement for around an hour. This was the major ‘disappointment’ as it felt poorly organised until the police became involved in traffic management. Because the circuit is located in such a remote area, the roads are small and so aren’t built for the amount of traffic on a race day. If I was going for the F1, I would camp at the circuit as the queuing across the whole weekend would be unbearable.

Because of this whole debacle, we missed the Porsche Carrera Cup Race, where on the Friday we made a friend, (he doesn’t know this) Dirk Schouten. Their racing was really entertaining to watch, with varying levels of ability, so we were really disappointed to miss the second race.

Nevertheless, even with that disappointment, we didn’t let it spoil our weekend, as what a place we were in! The circuit is a ribbon of tarmac perfection for 4 miles, winding through the Belgian landscape. On the Thursday we walked around the perimeter of the track and some of the areas for watching were just superb.

Eau Rouge

Sitting above this section was a dream come true. You can’t put into words how steep it is, just walking it a few times a day was enough to require a lay-down! But it was a hotspot for action. You could see down to turn 1 and watch the cars roar up the hill to the start of the Kemmel straight. Being there really makes you understand how dangerous that area is, with a fairly large crash for a Porsche in Qualifying happening right in-front of us – he was all okay don’t worry!

The Kemmel Straight, Bruxelles and Pouhon

I didn’t realise how uphill the Kemmel Straight was. The TV makes it look much flatter than it actually is, but it goes up at a fair rate. We wandered round to Bruxelles where watching the cars handle in the lower speed corners was quite a treat, as well as seeing them flick into the left of Pouhon at ridiculous speeds.

One issue we did notice over that side of the track was that there were no food and drink options, which seemed a bit daft. It was 25 degrees and Spa is a big circuit (4.3 miles), so getting caught out about 2 miles away from any food and drink was a very real possibility.

Speaking of which, the catering options at Spa had its positives and negatives. The food vendors were all owned by the circuit, which meant each one was the same. This was great as when you turned up, you knew the options and they were able to produce it relatively quickly. However, there were nowhere near enough of these places to cope with the amount of people on race day. We (my mum) queued for just under an hour on the Saturday to order and then another 20 mins waiting to collect, with the race on-going behind you meaning you miss a chunk of the action! I would definitely suggest taking a packed lunch to save yourself precious time, as well as your wallets.

The bus stop

This was our favourite place to sit as it was a bit surreal. It’s the last two corners on the circuit and is right by the woods. Having seen people sat here when watching the F1 on the TV, I figured we should give it a go. There’s something very odd about watching motorsport whilst sitting in a forest, with people in hammocks next to you, but it was brilliant. It felt weirdly peaceful and it was just a lot of fun!

Along with our admission ticket, we also had pitlane and paddock access – both not quite as glamorous as it sounds.

Don’t get me wrong, walking through the paddock was an amazing experience. Getting up close and personal to the cars in parc ferme, as well as teams and drivers was unreal, but blimey it was busy. It was, ironically, the most convenient walking route to get underneath the circuit and across to Eau Rouge, which is what made it traffic paradise.

As for the pitlane, the access (fairly obviously) was allowed between sessions (12-1) on the Friday and Saturday. We decided to give it a go on the Friday and I think the whole population of Belgium turned up! It was so busy. The drivers were handing out signed cards in front on their garages, so people were running up and down the pitlane to try and get a chance to see their favourite drivers. If you were a Rossi, Kubica or Button fan, you might as well have given up and gone home as their queues were absolutely humongous.

If you read my previous article about my time in Monaco (!), you’ll know I made a bit of an embarrassment of myself when the opportunity to have a picture with one of my racing idols – Paul Di Resta - happened. Well, he races for Peugeot in WEC, so another opportunity arose. We dove for his queue and we both managed to get a signed card from him and the team. However, he was unfortunately a bit preoccupied with much more important things, so I didn’t get to say hello, but it was positive progress from last time!

One of the main highlights of the Spa experience is how relaxed the atmosphere felt. Nobody was in a rush, everybody was enjoying the on-track action and so it felt really easy-going and fun compared to a stressful F1 event.

Also, compared to an F1 event, it costs peanuts. The ticket cost 80 euros for 3 days, which includes access to the pitlane – which is just mind boggling. Going to an event like this, where the value for money is so good, doesn’t tempt me back to an F1 race anytime soon.

We also collected one of the greatest souvenirs when we were there. We noticed groups of people walking off with used Lamborghini race tyres. We wanted a slice of the action and so sniffed out the complex where they were being stored and selected our desired ones and set off back to the car. It should be noted that we didn’t steal, you were allowed to take them, Hankook said themselves that we could don’t worry!

I unfortunately had the joy of carrying them back up the big hill to the car. How on earth I managed it, I don’t know, as I am renowned for being quite pathetic! But they did survive the journey to the car and all the way back from Belgium to the North of England, where they now have pride of place in the garage!

Overall my time at Spa Francorchamps was brilliant. I’d never been to a WEC event before and it was nothing short of superb. The relaxed atmosphere, the amount of amazing on-track action was a dream and because there weren’t as many people in attendance like the F1, it meant there was opportunity to try different grandstands all around the track. 

If you ever get to the chance to go to Spa for a race, I couldn’t recommend it enough. It is a brilliant experience and puts a track as exceptional as Silverstone, to shame.