2015 F1 Belgian GP Roll Call

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:29 am

So who's headed to Spa for the race next weekend?

Work has me in the Baltics for a month, and the regional airlines here are really cheap, so I figured when am I going to get a chance to go see the race at Spa again?

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2015 1:26 pm

Sounds like a fun trip. Nurburgring has been checked off, now Spa is on my to-do list. Maybe in a year or two.

I will however be at COTA in Texas next month for the WEC race.

Richard

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:41 am

My daughter keeps trying to talk me in to taking the family out to Texas to visit our relatives and see the COTA race in October. I'll have to see how the budget looks in a couple of months.

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Mon Aug 24, 2015 5:40 am

Here's me in the hospital tent getting fluid and pain medication through an IV. This is after the fluids and drugs kicked in, before then I was less smiley. I went in the tent around lap 4 and was there to the end of the race.

So, a couple of things; if you are not physically up to hiking through the Ardennes for several hours, then don't get the Bronze General Admission ticket. I have a huge kidney stone and am good for about an hour of serious physical exertion before I need to get off my feet and rest for a bit. Parking was about an hour walk away from the track, and by the time I got there and checked out the viewing spots ("General Admission" at Spa means you will be sitting on a hillside that overlooks the track), my kidney stone was starting to hurt. Spa is in a forest in the hills, very spread out and with long trails between track viewing areas. I tried to hike back to the exit, but by then I was hurting too badly to walk for more than brief periods before I had to lie down on the side of the trail and recover. Eventually, resting and then walking a short distance and repeating, I made it back to the Gold section gate where security called the ambulance for me. Then I got to lie down in a tent and get fluids and meds, which got me functional long enough to make the long walk to my car, then the drive back to Brussels. By the time I got on the plane to Latvia, I was in pain, nauseous, and sweating profusely, clutching a barf bag in each hand and mildly alarming/amusing my fellow passengers. I got my own 2-seat row, which was just enough room to lie down on my side and I felt better by the time I landed in Riga. I'm at work today and feeling okay, but I'll take it easy for a few days just to make sure.

One thing that I didn't get about Spa until I saw it live was the extreme elevation changes. It's got 341 feet of elevation change, and that is a lot. Compare that to 130 feet for VIR, on a course that's about the same length as VIR Grand, but spread out through a forest. Looking at it live, the uphill/downhill parts look ridiculous. I'd love to drive it, although the Duff car would have a tough time in the uphill sections.

If I do Spa again, then I'll opt for the Gold ticket section near the entrance with on-site parking.

Also if you do go general admission, the hillside between Blanchimont and the Chicane (T17-T18) is a nice spot to sit. It has a good view of a great overtaking spot and a lot of trees, so it's nice and shady. It's also not too far from the entrance.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Aug 24, 2015 1:01 pm

So to summarize...

Went to Spa, almost died.

Sounds like you need to do something about that kidney stone!

I have yet to visit, but a common comment is always that the elevation changes are much more than they seem on TV. I think photos and video always seem to flatten it out. I have heard that it's actually hard to walk down the track from Radillion to Eau Rouge given how steep it is. I found this photo that seems to make show how steep it is...

I think Eau Rouge + Raidillon is if you did a mirror image flip of the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca and then drove it in reverse, but at 180 MPH.

Richard

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Mon Aug 24, 2015 2:34 pm

Roger McDaniels wrote:

mildly alarming/amusing my fellow passengers

"It's ok, he does that." :-)

With the RV at the shop, he has a nice place to "nap". Before that, he'd just lay down in the floor. That floor is so nasty his dog won't even lay on it. (she'll whine, and look at you until you spread out her mat) Robert actually had the balls to lay on the actual shop floor -- "but I swept up the trash". Where a dyno used to be is a dirty beyond imagination. (plus roger's been painting in there, so everything -- and I mean EVERY THING -- is touched by purple.)

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Mon Aug 24, 2015 3:10 pm

Yeah, after I've been working on the shed or the race car in the morning, it is really nice to go lie on a bunk in he RV for an hour or so and recuperate. I probably should have just packed a bed roll so I could lie down when I needed to, but I've actually been doing really well with the kidney stone lately, so this trip seemed like something that I could handle. I just had no idea the amount and intensity of walking that was involved. Last time I went to an F1 race was Bahrain, and that was like a big sports stadium; you park in the lot surrounding the track, walk across the parking lot to the gate, then go to your seat. The other problem was that right after the race I had to fight traffic back to Brussels and get on the last flight to Riga at 1900 so I'd be on time for work in the morning, so I couldn't afford to find a nice spot to rest for an hour or two or I'd miss my plane. I don't know if you remember the CMP race where I drove 2 shifts in one day, but after the second driving shift I went straight to the bed and took a nap for an hour or two before I got up and ate the pig that Terminally Confused had cooked. It was like that, but at the point where I needed to rest, I was way out in the woods and on a tight timeline to catch a plane to Latvia. As with many things in my life, this one could have been planned better.

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2015 F1 Belgian GP Roll Call

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