CSCC Spa Summer Classic @ Spa Francorchamps 15th – 17 th June 2012 – Stu MacMaster

When I heard about Andy and Allan Davies making the trip to Spa earlier in the year I jumped at the chance to see if there was a spare seat in the motor home to tag along and act as a pit bum for the weekend. So the weeks passed leading up to the event, and our numbers increased to make the trip over to Belgium. There was myself, Carl Bennett,
Dave Hill, Steve Turner, and of course Allan and Andy Davies who would be doing a shared drive in Allan’s impressive BMW E30 M3.
It was an early start Thursday morning to get down to Stafford, home of Driveme.Net, to get to the motor home, M3 in tow, to get to Dover for the 2pm sailing to Dunkirk. We arrived at Dover in good time, and were soon loaded on to the ferry, saying goodbye to the white cliffs and Old Blighty!
The format of the weekend was to be a 30 min qualifying session on Friday, where both drivers needed to learn the track, and the best time of the session would be used for race 1 on the Saturday, with the results of that race being used for Sunday’s race.
Unfortunately, the Belgium weather wasn’t being kind, with rain forecast for Friday / Saturday, but getting better and drier on the Sunday. As Andy had driven the circuit before he opted to do the wet race, with Allan doing the Race on the Sunday.
The “crew” What the holder was really made for…? So with a wet qualifying session, Andy took the first few laps in the Toyo 888 shod M3 before handing over to Allan for the majority of the session so he could get to know the 2 Hours later and we landed at Dunkirk, and started the 2nd leg of the drive to get to the circuit.
We arrived at Spa at about 8:30pm and made our way in to the circuit, there where already loads of people there, so we ummed and arred a little before deciding on the best place to set up camp, and promptly got unloaded what needed to be unloaded – table, chairs, cheese and wine, and had a bite to eat and some wine to relax after the trip.The format of the weekend was to be a 30 min qualifying session on Friday, where both drivers needed to learn the track, and the best time of the session would be used for race 1 on the Saturday, with the results of that race being used for Sunday’s race.
Unfortunately, the Belgium weather wasn’t being kind, with rain forecast for Friday / Saturday, but getting better and drier on the Sunday. As Andy had driven the circuit before he opted to do the wet race, with Allan doing the Race on the Sunday.
The “crew” What the holder was really made for…? So with a wet qualifying session, Andy took the first few laps in the Toyo 888 shod M3 before handing over to Allan for the majority of the session so he could get to know the track. With tricky conditions, and not the best wet weather tires, they did an impressive job qualifying the car, and set 12th fastest time out of a 52 car grid!
Following a wet Friday night, the weather forecast stayed true and a wet Saturday
followed… Andy struggled in the race with the Tires, with a few other competitors opting for list 1a tires to get some grip through the water covered track…. He finished the race a respectable 17th overall, which was bettered when it was
discovered a few cars finishing higher up the order had fitted full race wets to their cars – a tire not allowed in this series, and there where excluded from the results!
Thankfully Sunday saw some better weather, and by mid morning the sun was starting to crack through the clouds and dry the track. Allan started 14th on the grid after cars from the previous days racing had been excluded and moved to the back of the grid.
Allan made a reasonable getaway and started to settle down as he got familiar with the track. There was a fair bit of action on the track as higher powered cars, unable to use their advantage in the wet made their way forwards, and lighter, and less powerful cars that had prospered in the wet got shuffled backwards.
Allan brought the car home in a respectable 13th position out of the 46 that finished the race. The car was promptly loaded on to the trailer again, and we packed up everything again, and began the long trip back to England – roll on September when Andy is back over there racing in the Masters!!