2023 - Returning to Spa-Francorchamps - Part 2

Part 1 of this article can be found here

Tues at Dawn

Perfect weather 44deg F start to the morning.  Warmed up nicely to 71 deg F by the middle of the day. 

TFL Pits on Tuesday and Wednesday

No Sarah is not topping up the car with coffee!

I warped a set of front disks which needed replacing.  Phil is doing the replacement while Sarah supervises.  Turns out they are the original disks.  Still on original pads. 

Both Bruce and Cem were very diligent about looking at their data in efforts to reduce their laps times.  I viewed it as I am on vacation and could not care less about looking at another spreadsheet while enjoying myself on track.  Meanwhile Milly is demonstrating she can keep between the lines while coloring in!

GoldTrack

The GoldTrack UK folks are a good group to run with.  Clearly pitched at a cheaper price point than the RSR Spa people, the cars were cheaper and the drivers, on average, generally better.  Far less red flags than RSR, only 2 more cars written off over their two days.  Guess what – they were Porsches too!

On Track on Tuesday and Wednesday

The Caterham driving standards were for the most part some of the best out there.  However, there was a moment when Cem joined up with three other TFL customers to have an enthusiastic game of track tag.  A bit of drafting, passing, maybe the odd pass under brakes, etc.  All good fun. 

However, the track did not see it that way and put a black flag out for Cem.  However, that was not Cem’s car number so he rightly ignored it.  A little while later a red flag came out to bring everyone into the pits.  As our four Caterham drivers’ arrived they were pulled aside, made to get out of their cars and given a good bollocking (to use the English expression).  Oops!

Another driver was given a coaching moment on when it is and is not acceptable to repeatedly put four wheels off the circuit. 

No harm done. 

Meanwhile, driving away happily with less attention from the race control folks was me.

The Berlin Gentlemen Drivers Club Carnage

By and large the driving was good, except for drivers from a specific marque – Porsche.  Monday and Tuesday saw repeated red flags for crashes.  The Berlin Gentlemen Drivers Club was clearly present.  Fat wallets are no guarantee of talent.  By end of Tuesday there were seven written off Porsches and another two had made it back into the pits under their own power but were clearly up for expensive fixes.  One of those still rolling was crabbing – body not square with chassis, and another had blown all the airbags btu was still able to drive.

Look at the carnage.

Spa-Francorchamps demands the very best of a driver.  It harshly punishes those that are out of their depth. 

Wrapping it Up

I ended up giving it away at 3pm on Wednesday.  By then I had de-laminated a front tire.  Not bad for 3 days use since new.  While I had a spare of mine on the truck, I decided to save it for another day. 

The end of it was a great three day event in perfect weather.  Bruce and Cem stayed on for the fourth day, Thursday but the weather was very different - steady rain so they gave it away early. 

I am already planning an RSR event in April next year - 3 days on track at Estoril and Portimao.  Portimao is one of the most challenging tracks I have driven.  Who is coming with me?

Postscript

Cem added video of his fastest lap of the trip, which I have embedded below.  Really clean neat lap.

Links

TFL Racing

https://www.tflracing.co.uk/