Summer Really Did Arrive at Spa!
- 6 hours ago
- 5 min read
Spa can have changeable conditions whatever time of year we visit, but full sunshine everyday, in April, is a rare but wonderful thing. The combination, of perfect weather, at one of the worlds finest circuits, helped make it one of our best events yet. We hope that all competitors got home safely.
We were pleased to hear that very few had any issues crossing the channel, with or without a carnet, proving that the last few years have settled down among customs officials. Those worst delayed were actually members who flew in to Brussels airport.
We probably took more first-timers to Spa, than any other recent years, with all that we spoke to blown away by the atmosphere and sheer scale of the place. A real contrast to Mallory Park just one week ago, but the perfect example of how the CSCC tries to cater for all cars, preferences and budgets.
Charlotte Lake did a superb job, with photos and videos posted throughout the event on our social media channels, with a little more to follow too.
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We're pleased to say that Charlotte will be back with us at Brands Britannia too.
Best known for usually focusing on the CSCC Ramair BMW Championship, photographer Mike Gibbon trained his lens on all models this week. Mike has captured photos of every CSCC car, whether modern or classic. Please contact him directly, for proofs and to buy photos. The photos used in this article are courtesy of Mike.
or email him at mike@mvgphotographic.co.uk
Full results can be found here: http://roadbook.alkamelsystems.com/ You'll need to select 2026 and then Spa Summer Classic, top left.
Awards will be given as per our series/championship regulations. Due to time and cost we can't post them, but will bring them to the next race meeting you enter.
The Roadbook team, Vincent, Anne and Kathleen were brilliant, a joy to work with. Jean-Yves delivered no-nonsense briefings and worked with us to find that balance between CSCC and RACB/Spa rules. Our friends at the HTGT helped make it possible to offer a classic grid, their cars and drivers working as well with us now as they did ten years ago. We look forward to welcoming them to Brands Britannia next month. Tony and Jackie Harman took care of our drivers at the scrutineering tent, importantly liaising with the RACB scrutineers, never easy with a language barrier and technical matters. Their presence helped keep the queues to a minimum and overcame slight difference in rule interpretation. As true petrolheads they packed light and drove their Morgan to and from Spa! Always good to see UK Marshals represented there, with CSCC regular, Alison Tyrrell among them, flying the Union flag (and waving others), cheering on the brits.
The club committee is proud of your conduct; there was no judicial action taken by the Belgian Stewards, with only a handful of short pit-stop and track limits time penalties in the first races. Given the 60+ grids in both groups, with a huge variety of machinery and lap times, you showed each other respect, observation and high-speed planning as we requested in the briefings. You adapted well to the last minute changes, with paddock parking, gridding up and race start procedures all being new this year.
We witnessed some fabulous, close racing. Thank you to the Liqui Moly Slicks and Gold Arts Magnificent Sevens drivers who left a large gap to the BMW's ahead at the starts; it worked well.
Andy Jones/Clive Black and David Bellamy, to name a few, showed a great deal of awareness and courtesy to those that were lapping them, whilst the Pittard's, Stephen Nuttall, Craig Dolby and many more showed patience in traffic, whilst still pounding-round at a ferocious pace. We had virtually no car-to-car contact the whole event.
Poor Phil Woodward was a helpless passenger in his AMG, when he skidded on oil from the stricken engine of Steve Griffiths' Ginetta. The impact was hard into the barrier; so we were glad to see Phil in the paddock afterwards. We know that a number of you said they could see the oil trail before the accident happened, however, from the high definition cameras in race control and the marshal post at La Source, it was impossible to see until cars started sliding.
In the main event, the Spa 3 Hours, CSCC members achieved impressive results, the best for some years in fact. Congratulations to CSCC members Marcus Fellows and Alisdair Bowie (Healey Sprite), for winning the Performance Index award in the Spa 3 Hours, coming 40th overall from 55 starters. We love that perhaps the lowest powered car in the field still has a chance of a watch and podium glory, despite clutch problems.
CSCC member Alex Taylor, with co-drivers and former members Dave Coyne and Michael Wright came second overall on the road, in the distinctive, yellow Mustang, a fabulous result and one of the best of all time for the Brits. Kallum and Michael Gray (the former had earlier been in CSCC modern action, in the family BMW M3) finished 5th overall, in their E-Type. Classic K drivers, Alex Hewitson and Jack Rawles were just 2 places back, in 7th (Healey 3000).
The highest placed MGB belonged to Brian Lambert/Iain Rowley, 18th overall. One lap and a further four places down was another MGB, of Mark Hope/Jason Minshaw/Mark Burton. A very respectable third in class and 30th on the road was one of the oldest cars in the field, the beautiful red Jaguar Mk1 of Mark Pollard/Daniel Gannon.
Room for improvement
Every year the CSCC team look to improve, whilst still delivering value to its members. We all know that costs have risen and with more categories than ever filling our pair of grids, we agreed with the organisers, Roadbook, there were simply too many to offer podiums to. The races would have seen at least 72 drivers on the podium; just too many to offer cups and champagne to, not to mention mini-bus transport and time taken to get through that many drivers. That said, we know just how important the Spa podium experiences are to you. Next year, we will try to find a compromise, where an overall top 3 will still receive Spa Summer Classic cups and bubbly, with all other series top three having a chance to stand on the podium 15 minutes later, holding CSCC awards that are passed to the next category for photographs and crowd appreciation, and so on.
As already mentioned, all drivers will receive CSCC awards in the UK, as per our series/championship regulations. There are around 120 winners (a pallet full of awards), so we hope you will understand we didn't have room in the car, as well as potential customs issues bringing goods in or out of the EU. We really would love to see the return of more Adams & Page Swinging 60s and Midland Classic Restorations Ecurie Classic K entries, to boost those 1960s car numbers in the classic. We'll ask for your views in the summer surveys.
The additional paddock generally worked well, but if we use this in the future we will arrange for more facilities in the press outer paddock. We will request marshals control the tunnel lights, the delay was far too great. The gridding up of the first BMW/modern grid was a disaster, though the security guys did their best, they are not experienced Marshals. This is why you saw the office staff, plus CSCC scrutineers Tony and Jackie getting involved from then onwards. The space did make it better to form two columns, compared to the usual long snake around the inner paddock.
We move on to Brands Hatch next, with our special British GT support race at Oulton Park on the same bank holiday in late May. The finer details of our Donington Park Endurance event will be revealed this week, at the same time as we open entries, keep a look out in your inboxes.
