The Spa "Six Hour" race meeting

Any one else going to Spa and this glorious meeting and circuit next week ?

I,m racing in the One hour race with the 917K and hoping for some better fortune this time round. Some recent issues have been sorted out, and I,m praying for dry weather, at a circuit which is famous for giving four seasons in one day !!!!!!

Only one GT40 in my race, but seventeen in the six hour one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Mike

Lifetime Supporter
Looking forward to seeing some images of the 917. That event is on my list just have not been able to time it right so far. Was in Brussels a few weeks ago should have planned better I guess :(
 
Will follow you thru the net as like you are telling about weather and I lived when racing there with LMP's I am not keen to go and get rain every 2 hours or so !!! LOL :embarassed:
Good luck for your Belgium week end !!! :thumbsup:
 
I'm told that there will be a few T70s there, as my tyre supplier in the UK is sending all of the stock of the size I need, to Spa for them!
 
There are plenty of Lola T70s, and every other type of sports and GT cars you could wish to see, at this fantastic 3 day meeting.

With 600 cars competing, the tyre suppliers are going to be working flat out !!!!

I,m off tonight to get the ferry, hoping that the weather Gods will look favourably on this coming weekend. Bit "iffy" on current forecast !!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Hi Graham,

I particpate with a Lotus XI in the Master Gentelmen drivers.
Had practice yesetdar and it was a heel of a rainy slippery track.

Good luck foryou race and I will try to pass by .

Grtz
Fred
 
It seems that it was not a good week end for Graham.
As I can see from race results....
qualifying time was very slow. (technical issue ?, Rain ?, both ?)
and he must retired at the beginning of the race. I hope it's not due to an accident.
will wait until more detail from graham...
 
It seems that it was not a good week end for Graham.
As I can see from race results....
qualifying time was very slow. (technical issue ?, Rain ?, both ?)
and he must retired at the beginning of the race. I hope it's not due to an accident.
will wait until more detail from graham...

Guss,

Dreadful weather from Tuesday onwards .... should have been power boat racing instead!!

Lots to tell, but the photographs taken on "iphones" just will not download onto this site.

All in one piece and no technical issues, but lots more to tell and of interest to you GT40 owners.

Sadly my friend who I had come down in convoy with, topped and tailed his GT40 in a big way at Fagnes during our qualifying on Friday, and that cast a big dark shadow over the week for us.

Anyway, once I can download pictures, all will be revealed.
 
details Graham, we need details!

save your photos from your iphone to you computer, and then upload them to this site ('manage attachments' below when you create a post; depending on what file size and dimensions they come out of your phone as you may need to resize to make sure it's below the maximum the site accepts)
 
details Graham, we need details!

save your photos from your iphone to you computer, and then upload them to this site ('manage attachments' below when you create a post; depending on what file size and dimensions they come out of your phone as you may need to resize to make sure it's below the maximum the site accepts)

Alex,

I,ve downloaded them onto the computer, but when I try to put them on this site it just keeps saying " upload failed".

I have lots to tell but I need to provide pictures to back up the story.
 
Alex,

I,ve downloaded them onto the computer, but when I try to put them on this site it just keeps saying " upload failed".

I have lots to tell but I need to provide pictures to back up the story.

I must see the pictures!!! I sent you my email address - email them to me and i'll upload them for you
 
Right, here goes.

These 3 pictures were sent to me by other photographers who were there for the early Friday morning first qualifying session. The other pictures taken by me just will not download onto this site, so I am sending them to Alex, who in turn will then put them onto this post, and I shall be able to tell all, and the tales of woe !!!!!

For starters though, it is a cold wet start, 8.55 am and 4 degrees. Two of the shots are of me waiting to go out of the paddock and onto the circuit, with the GT40 that I mentioned earlier in front of me. The other is coming round the "bus stop" and on to the pit straight.

The story will continue once we have the other pictures to relate to.
 

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It looks like Graham got wet (isn't my story exciting, haha!)
 

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Many thanks to Alex for resizing the above pictures and posting them here for me.

I love Spa, and I had really hoped and prayed that it would be a relatively kind weather meeting. WRONG !!

We all go out for the early morning first qualifying session on a very wet, greasy and cold (4 degrees) track.

First corner as we leave the paddock is the fantastic Eau Rouge, and as I exit the top the 917 goes completely loose on me as if the front wheels are falling off. Strewth, I know she is a nightmare in the wet but this is ridiculous, but we keep going, staying in 4th gear except for the "bus stop" and "La Source". The slightest touch of the throttle and she is trying to swop ends, I kid you not.

I had noticed on the very first out lap that a NSU was parked in a gap in the Armco barrier halfway down the straight following Eau Rouge, but did not know why at the time. My survival instincts take another bashing when on the second lap I,m heading down towards Fagnes and out come the Yellow flags and lights, only to see my friends GT40 comprehensively top and tailed and bits of debris all around. He is OK but racing is over for him for the weekend.
A lap later and red flags stop the session while the 40 is recovered from its vunerable position and we are brought into the F1 pitlane. Decision time for me as to abort the rest of practice as I have qualified, or to go out again and tire myself out even more. Well two more laps and the chequered flag, and I,m back to the paddock. Tired through literally fighting the wheel to keep on the black stuff and much anguished about my friend and his battered car looking decidedly second hand by our transporters.

Now, why had my car been so much of disaster to drive, and why was that NSU parked up so early on ???? He had dropped his entire contents of engine oil just before I hit the same bit of track, and of course there was only one outcome as the pictures show. All that black residue coming out of the front arches and louvres is not brake dust and road dirt, but oil and it is covering the whole car. It was impossible to use cement dust as it was a soaking wet track and in all my years of racing and marshalling I have never seen any other car pick up and carry all the oil onto them. My tyres, because of the rain, had not been able to rub the oil away completely and the multi-coloured oil film was just dripping of the tread and sidewalls where she was standing !!! Excuses, excuses, excuses, I know but the proof was there for all to see, and it was just my luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time !!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh ,the joys of motorsport !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
As a footnote to the above story, 3 days later, I,m up at Snetterton for FORC track event, and we unload the 917 fresh with "patina"of oil and looking like it had just done 24 hours.
It was warm and dry, and after a couple of warm up laps and cleaning of the tyres, she just ran faultlessly and like the wind. Why could,nt it have been like that at Spa ???

To you GT40 owners (I,m one also) please be careful in the wet, especially if you are venturing onto race tracks. In the last two months I,ve seen two 40 comprehensively damaged, and it is not a pretty sight, and certainly your bank deposits will take a hit.
 
Graham, Loved the footnotes and those pics do tell a tale. Glad you and your stunning 917 survived unscathed. I could look at the car all day. Shame about your mates GT40.

If I could ask for anything it would be to get some in car footage of you or maybe a mate of yours following you around a track. I'd love to hear your car at "full chat" as they say and seeing the car and you doing what your and her do best. Thanks again.
 
Jimmy,

I just do not have time to do "Movies" and have to rely on others having me in the frame, so to speak.
I did take my first video on my mobile telephone just yesterday morning, trying to better capture the mess of oil all over the car, and before I started the clean up. I managed to download it on to the computer but I cannot put it onto this site ...... can I ??? I,ve been told that on full chat it sounds good, but as I,m strapped in, masked and helmeted I,m not the one to ask !!!!!

There is some footage that was taken of me, Glen Mason, of this parish, in his 40, and other exotica at a Goodwood track day last month organised by Bill Telford of Classic Car Tours, here in UK. We are only poodling around behind a camera car for a lap or two. I know that it is on Facebook and probably YouTube.

Sorry.
 
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