Spa, Belgium

Here is our friend Ken trying to decipher how to put the stickers on his UK car headlights so that they do not blind drivers on the other side of the road in Europe. They fell off in the end anyway!


The view back from the ferry towards Dover.

Ken and his car (Nissan Silvia). This was the beast that was to take us from London to Spa and then around the F1 track.



Some of the competition we were up against.

Ken and Chiz in action.


Still room for a VW amongst all these modern racers!

Mike, there were lots or Porches. Fancy racing yours here??


In amongst the street cars there were also some proper racing teams.


Well my friend Ken managed to persuade me to join him on a trip to Belgium to race his street car (Nissan Silvia) around the F1 track at Spa in Belgium. Well what a sensational time we had. After a quick trip across on the ferry we had an afternoon in Brugge before making it to our final destination just outside Spa. We also picked up our friend Chiz along the way who decided to join us on his motorbike.

After a good night's sleep we were all ready for a day of racing on the Sunday. Unfortunately the weather was not very cooperative and there was heavy fog until about 1pm. However after this it was all on. Ken took me for a few laps as passenger to get me used to the experience. After initally being quite terrifed I quickly got into the swing of things and started to really enjoy the speed. So much so that I had a drive myself and even had a lesson with one of the pros on hand. It was quite an experience driving on the track at the same time as everyone else, especially when Ferrari's and Porsche's were appearing out of nowhere in the rear vision mirror.

The only minor glitch of the weekend happened near the end of the day when Ken, after taking a spectator for a few laps, came into ther pits and announced that the gear box was not sounding very nice and was slipping out of gears. At this point I had visions of an expensive tow truck ride back to London. However, after getting a quick opinion from one of the racing team mechanics he said he thought we could risk the drive back, and we should just go from second to fourth when changing gears. No problem.

After a failed attempt to switch from the ferry to the channel tunnel at 10 pm on Sunday (was way too expensive at 180 Euros) we drove back to the ferry terminal at Dunkirk and got the midnight ferry back to Dover. Climbed into bed at 3am on Monday morning. Needless to say I was a bit tired at work the next day. Well worth it though.