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Spa - Francorchamps 28/30th April 2006

Event Report by John Roberts

We crossed the channel on Thursday the 27th April. The weather was beautiful and the crossing tranquil, as we reached Calais leaving the white cliffs of Dover and memories of 1940 and the glorious sound of Spitfires and Hurricanes overhead. (I`m really not that old, trust me!).

Four hours later and not far from the German border we arrived at Spa - Francorchamps and unloaded the XK under a clear blue sky. The new race marquee looks the business, in British Racing Green of course and that was that.

Early on Friday morning we prepared the car for what is laughingly called “Free Practice”, which translated into 75 Euros for 30 minutes, but the XK performed admirably and I set my first lap times on this truly wonderful circuit, being the home of the Belgian F1 Grand Prix, soon to be completely renovated for 2007.

On Saturday, we again prepared the car for Practice/Qualifying on this fantastic, flowing 4.33 mile circuit. We managed over 110 mph on the Kemmel straight leading into Les Combes. Not bad for an albeit tuned 3.8 litre engine, but with very 1957 suspension.

Because I had never raced at Spa before, it took me some time to remember the order of the corners, the gearing required, the grip on 1st generation radial tyre design versus other cars on “slicks”. Oh the joys of mixed-marque Endurance racing, especially against the lightweight Morgan +8s of the 70’s and 80’s. I qualified 35th out of 45 cars and I was still in one piece and the weather conditions were dry.

HOWEVER, when dawn broke on Sunday, the heavens had opened and it was very cold. 3`C, if I remember correctly!! The conclusion was that we were in for a wet race. Luckily, it didn’t hail until after our race.

Lining up on the grid, then following the Pace Car for one lap I realised that the surface was going to be slippery to say the least. The so say Warm-Up lap was quite an experience. We came round La Source and the race was on. Down through Eau Rouge and up to Raidillon, the cars were sliding all over the place. I straightened up to go down the Kemmel straight and noticed that I was doing about 100mph and not significantly off my dry pace.

The difficult bit was braking for Les Combes, which I did and overtook 4 cars. Then out of Malmedy going down to Rivage, I overtook another two cars. So JDR (Me) was becoming a bit of a Rain-Meister, pulling my position up to 28th.

It was then time to change drivers with my race partner Chris Keith-Lucas and doing 60kph in the Pits we managed our change-over in 1 minute and 7 seconds. Note: The allowable time is a minimum of 1 minute as some cars only had one driver.

So Chris was off, setting new lap times as the track dried a little. By the end of the race, we had managed another four places, finishing 24th overall, from an original entry of forty five.

I have to say that Spa was for me, a great first experience and one that must be repeated, hopefully when the sun doth shine and in warmer ambient conditions. I can’t wait to return!!

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