Spa Francorchamps 28-30 May 2010

A long winter with lots of problems with the CFFC there finally was a race meeting. Harald had kept everybody guessing before packing it in. That had left a lot of driver to find their luck elsewhere. Luckily Frank Richter had picked up the gauntlet and started off where Harald left off. In a two and a half week he had assembled some twenty drivers and found a sympathetic ear from the organizers to get some track time. It was a promising start of a surely difficult year to keep everything together. From this place I call on everybody with an eligible car to contact Frank Richter and enter in one of the events this year. There will be lots of drivers welcoming you with help, advise and good competition.

Check the website of the Formula Ford Racing.

Qualifying

There was only one qualifying but our entry in the free-practice was included. Unfortunately the free practice was cut short by a red flag. So I could only do 3 laps in damp conditions. I had my car in dry set-up but it behaved reasonably. The qualifying was under good conditions. I could easily follow Chris Stones. I passed him and he could follow me. I made an error and I let Chris pass me again while I let my tires cool down a bit. Then I tried again and I made my fastest lap, which was a 2:48.9. This proved to be good for second place in the 1600 category. It was almost two seconds slower than Matthew Dean, who had qualified on ACB10's, but 0.9s faster than Chris Stones.

Race

Photo: Olivier Pluim

The day started wet and just when we decided that a wet setup would be the safe option as the track dried very slow, it started to rain a little bit. Later at the pre-grid a little more rain fell which made the track thoroughly wet. The race started and I was a little apprehensive as I couldn't see anything. Not even the rain lights were visible if they were more than 30 m away.

Photo: Olivier Pluim

Photo: Olivier Pluim

Matthew was a bit more bold and made a gap. Chris was on my back. The car was very good to drive and was very communicative. I also had the advantage of new tires that worked very well. I just got down to it to see whether I could follow Matthew. I could keep the gap at the same distance. In the second lap Chris fell back which made concentrating on Matthew easier. Next time I looked back I couldn't see Chris at all. I could close the gap to Matthew towards the end. On the penultimate lap in my drive to get closer I almost lost it in Pouhon. Still there wasn't that much of a gap and in the run to the last chicane I thought to make a mad dash by going through Blanchimont a little quicker. This resulted in an excursion on the run off area and there was only the second place 2 sec behind Matthew. My fastest time was only 0.2 s of his so the season got off to a good start.

Photo: Olivier Pluim

Results Spa FFC
Formula Ford 1600
Pos Driver Car No Class Time Laps/Diff Fastest Lap In Speed
1 Matthew Dean (GB) Reynard FF 88 44 C 26:46.016 -- 8 laps -- 3:16.850 5 125.58
2 Ed Waalewijn (NL) Van Diemen RF 88 46 C 26:48.066 2.050 3:17.056 5 125.42
3 Dieter Haeckel (D) Van Diemen RF 92 29 B 27:15.496 29.480 3:18.648 6 123.31
4 Chris Stones (GB) Van Diemen RF 88 42 C 27:21.060 35.044 3:22.070 5 122.90
5 Rebecca Dean (GB) Reynard FF 88 47 C 27:45.905 59.889 3:24.746 8 121.06
6 Paul McMorran (GB) Crossle 25 F 20 D 27:52.339 1:06.323 3:24.956 6 120.60
7 Hemut Hess (D) Van Diemen RF 88 52 C 28:21.143 1:35.127 3:26.393 6 118.55
8 Nils Leuber (D) Van Diemen RF 88 57 C 26:04.897 -- 7 laps -- 3:37.954 5 112.77
DNC Povl Barfod (DK) Titan MK 6 36 D 11:33.490 -- 3 laps -- 3:45.142 2 109.06
DNC Alan Williamson (GB) Reynard SF 88 43 C -- 0 laps --
B-class 1989-1994, C-class 1981-1988, D-class 1967-1980
Formula Ford 2000/1800
Pos Driver Car No Class Time Laps/Diff Fastest Lap In Speed
1 Thomas Warken (D) Reynard SF 84 5 A 24:57.596 -- 8 laps -- 3:05.310 6 134.67
2 Stefan Scho (D) Reynard SF 86 1 A 25:04.209 6.613 3:05.870 6 134.08
3 Ole Vejlund (DK) Reynard SF 87 14 A 25:36.842 39.246 3:09.755 7 131.23
4 Tony Krumbach (D) Reynard SF 88 2 A 25:40.900 43.304 3:07.746 8 130.88
5 Nico Castrup (D) Reynard RF85 3 A 26:07.720 1:10.124 3:12.642 7 128.64
6 Felix Haas (CH) Swift DB 5 15 A 26:08.678 1:11.082 3:12.608 8 128.57
7 Peter Richards (GB) Reynard SF 86 54 A 27:33.538 2:35.942 3:18.150 8 121.97
8 Harry Franz (D) Swift SC 98 81 E 25:20.482 -- 7 laps -- 3:32.604 5 116.06
9 Bernard Huebel (D) Schiesser SF 86 18 A 29:00.712 3:40.230 4:01.467 3 101.38
10 Frank Wolber (D) Reynard SF 86 8 A 19:35.408 -- 6 laps -- 3:07.311 6 128.69
A-class FF2000, E-class FF1800 Zetec