A few short weeks ago, an article was written about the history of the legendary Nurburgring, which is one of the most historical circuit tracks for motor racing. This week, another famous course that has been around just as long and it not too far away, lies on the other side of the Eifel Mountains in Belgium that is named as a huge forest known as the Ardennes. This area was famous for the World War II battle in 1944 as Battle of the Bulge, which turned the tide
for the Allied forces in their hunt to defeat Nazi Germany one year later.
But history might be correct, but in the motor racing world, this is not the most important thing as the track there that is named as Spa Franchorchamps not only holds the formula one world championship, but other sports car, saloon car racing (which is a competition that involves cars that you and I drive on the road) and the famous six hours of Spa. The track used to be more than the required four miles a lap, but years ago, it was known as an out in the wilds race that went many more miles than it currently ran. The first race here was in 1921 and the track
pretty much remained the same until the late 1970’s.
At the end of that decade, Spa was considered too dangerous to drive, and the owners of the track decided to give the nation’s grand prix race to the Zolder track, just miles away north in the town of Hasselt. The race there ran for a few more seasons, until the fatal accident in practice for the grand prix in 1982 with Gilles Villeneuve that made organizers return back to the Ardennes a few years
later, where it has hosted the race ever since.
If the race with its long lap is not bad enough, then there is the difficulty of the weather. Last season’s race was the exception of the fact, even if the first lap crash caused by Frenchman Romain Grosjean did not change things, the weather was just fine and for quite a while, the racers had great weather. However, normally the track has had the occasional shower during the race, and the change of weather can turn the race into a huge difference. This is the only race on the formula one calendar where two drivers died on the same day as what happened in 1960 to Chris Barlow and Alan Stacey. Even three time world champion Jackie Stewart crashed his car in 1966 at this track, prompting safety features to be considered here. It never came to friction for a while, but a lot of good history has come from this track as well. Take in consideration the famous pass on the Kemmel straight by Mika Hakkinen in 2000, when the Finn overtook Michael
Schumacher and Riccardo Zonta , who was being lapped by both drivers.
In comparison, the current track is only a third in distance to the very old track, which went on for many more miles, but the change of this track was mainly for the intent of safety purposes, and the track today is one of the
most safest in the history of the race.
If there is ever a chance for the race fan to visit a grand prix track, many stand out like Monaco, Suzuka, Silverstone, and of course, the Nurburgring and Monza, which is the next race. Spa has to definitely line up with all of those, maintaining its history as being one of the most popular of all circuits for the enjoyment of
drivers and fans alike.
Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.