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Come
rain or shine . . .
The
circuit at Spa Francorchamps remains one of
the most popular racing venues anywhere in
the world, not only with experienced drivers
but also with the spectators, who relish the
unique vantage positions offered by the hills
that surround the track.
The challenging layout ducks and dives around
the forested slopes of the Belgian Ardennes,
with changes in elevation creating stomach
-churning dips and brows, and tight, twisty
corners interspersed with long straights and
high-seed sweeping curves. The drivers delight
in the complexity of "getting it right"
and the exhilarating rewards they feel when
they do. There's also the enormous unpredictability
of the weather. It's rare that a race weekend
passes without a deluge or two, but sometimes
there's the added intrigue of thick mist at
the top of the circuit, or dazzling bright
sunshine on one side of the circuit to contrast,
simultaneously, with equally blinding spray
and torrential rain somewhere else.
RML's
driver line-up of Mike Newton, Thomas Erdos
and Andy Wallace heads for Belgium with two
reasons to feel buoyed by current circumstances.
The trio came away from the first round at
Paul Ricard with a third-placed podium, and
that alone made a pleasant change after the
recurrent disappointments of all those engine
failures in 2009, but they have also just
completed a very satisfying test at the Hungaroring,
just outside Budapest in Hungary. More on
that later, but the key issue is that the
two-day event was an official tyre test organised
by Dunlop, and the conditions were almost
perfect. During the first day the team faced
heavy rain, and were able to establish valuable
data about the Dunlop wet-weather compounds.
The following day they were rewarded by a
dry track and the chance to compare a succession
of slick tyres. Those varied conditions may
prove to have been extremely timely preparation
for the kind of weather RML AD Group may encounter
at Spa.
On
the Grid
A
total of 52 cars are entered for this year's
Spa 1000 Kilometres, which is up by eleven
on Round 1 at Paul Ricard. This increase can
largely be attributed to the fact that the
Le Mans 24 Hours is only just over a month
away, and the Spa 1000 Kilometres offers teams
the last serious chance to prepare for the
annual classic.
As
a result, the representation from the major
works teams is significantly enhanced, with
three works Audi R15s up against three factory-run
Team Peugeot 908s, as well as the Oreca Matmut
privateer 908. One of the R15s appears under
the Audi North America flag, and will be driven
by Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller.
The Paul Ricard victors, Allan McNish and
Dindo Capello, are bolstered by the arrival
of Tom Kristensen, while the third R15 will
be piloted by Marcel Fassler, André
Lotterer and Benoît Treluyer. Team Peugeot's
line-up includes the likes of Alexander Wurz,
Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Minassian, Pedro
Lamy, and Sébastien Bourdais.
Just
three days before the first practice session
was due to begin, Beechdean Mansell announced
that the squad would be missing the Spa race
as a result of "very difficult development
issues" concerning the team's Ginetta
Zytek GZ09S. Although the car completed the
Paul Ricard 8 Hours, the run was far from
untroubled. A succession of minor faults convinced
joint-owners Nigel Mansell and Andrew Howard
that the time might be better spent concentrating
on detailed preparation for Le Mans next month,
and so the "difficult decision"
was taken to skip the event.
There
remains just one works Aston Martin Lola,
although the factory's involvement in the
Signature racing example is reflected in the
continued application of the "008"
designation. The rest of LMP1 remains unchanged,
and much the same can be said of LMP2. The
only absentee is the WR Salini Zytek, which
had a relatively strong run at Paul Ricard.
Despite a successful test in Hungary a fortnight
previously, the Team RLR MG Lola EX265 is
not included on the entry list, so is not
expected at Spa. Hopefully the former RML
Lola will line up for Round 3 in the Algarve
later in the season. The full LMP2 and FLM
entry list is featured below:
After
the dire situation of just one GT1 entry for
the last round at Paul Ricard, the forthcoming
Le Mans 24 Hours has persuaded a host of fresh
cars to take part in the last serious opportunity
for pre-race "testing". Seven entries
are confirmed for GT1, including a second
Saleen S7-R; the Luc Alphand Adventures Corvette
(current GT1 titleholder in the Le Mans Series);
the Young Driver Aston Martin DBR9; and no
less than three Ford GTs.
Sixteen
GT2 cars are entered, with all the protagonists
from Paul Ricard returning for a second stab
at this very competitively balanced cake.
Fresh to the mix comes a second Schnitzer
BMW M3 and Team JWA, with a Porsche 997.
For
medium resolution images of most of the cars
entered, please see the All
Teams Gallery:
The
Circuit
Over
the last few years we have featured several
detailed previews of the Spa 1000 Kilometres,
including examinations of the history of the
circuit and the surrounding area. If you would
like to learn more about the Spa Francorchamps
circuit, please do take a detour and view
our 2008
Preview, which includes some interesting
material and background.
As
it is today, in the case of the current RML
Lola HPD, a TransVu mobile digital recorder
was fitted to the RML MG Lola EX264 throughout
the 2007 season. Perched on top of the "passenger"
roll hoop, the camera was exposed to some
of the most rigorous conditions a CCTV system
is ever likely to encounter. The system provides
invaluable reference for the drivers, who
are able to compare lines, braking points
and tactics. The footage below was gathered
during Friday Free Practice for the 2007 Spa
1000 Kilometres, and illustrates a complete
out-lap of the Spa circuit by Thomas Erdos,
including the re-profiled Bus Stop chicane,
the La Source hairpin, and an interesting
dice with the Quifel ASM Lola. In 2010 the
unit is fitted inside the cockpit of the Lola
coupé, and so doesn't have to endure
quite such arduous conditions as it did on
the open-topped Lola, although neither does
it offer quite such an unhindered view of
the track.
Right-click
on the image to access controls - "rewind"
to stop the sequence or start again.
The technology employed in the TransVu CCTV
system is based on very powerful media processors,
which allow the unit to compress in multiple
formats simultaneously, as well as trans-coding
from one format to another or at differing
rates. All TransVu recordings can be saved
to a solid-state media and then made available
in evidential quality MJPEG, whilst simultaneously
being viewed live or recorded over a low bandwidth
link using MPEG4. The Flash video device employed
here displays footage captured directly from
the TransVu unit mounted on the EX264, although
at a considerably reduced resolution and quality
to make on-line viewing possible.
Weekend
Schedule
The
following schedule is subject to change
and the circumstances and events of the
day
CHE
