Spa Francorchamps

http://www.spa-francorchamps.be/

This has got to be my favourite circuit - it has everything. The original circuit was 9.31 miles down narrow Belgian roads, and was first used in 1921. Various small changes were made which shortened the circuit slightly, and in 1939 the Ancienne Douanne hairpin was bypassed with the very steep sweep upwards from Eau Rouge, reducing the circuit to 9.01 miles. Incremental change occured in the 50s, shortening it again - corners were gradually eased, and a chicane was installed before Malmedy.

In the 70s the old circuit was considered too long and dangerous. The new circuit opened in 1979, and shortly after the Bus Stop chicane was built to slow the cars into La Source. The circuit was now 4.3179 miles in total, the circuit length was officially revised in 1986 by the RACB to 4.312 miles, but this temporarily changed in 1994 when a chicane was installed in Eau Rouge after Alex Zanardi's huge accident the year before.

Further work was undertaken for 2002, with changes to the gravel traps around the Eau Rouge (replaced with high-grip tarmac), additional.tarmac was also added around the outside of Blanchimont, and the Bus Stop exit corner was eased to make it possible to accelerate through without kerbing. The F1 pit entry was also moved from before the Bus Stop entry corner to just before the Bus Stop exit.

In 2004 the Bus Stop was changed again to ease the entrance to it, current circuit length is 6.968 km, making it the longest circuit in the GP calendar.

Hotels: Beau Site, Francochamps - basic, but near the circuit, they also have a rental house located a short distance away that can sometimes be hired by a group. In Spa (a little further away), there are 2 Radisson hotels - the Balmoral and the Palace; a Dorint; and numerous other hotels.

My photo gallery can be found here

Spa, Bookatrack, Sept 2004 & 2005

A quiet day and an interesting selection of cars, the Porsches were unbelievably fast.

The Elise climbing Eau Rouge