Corner Burning Coverage: World Endurance Championship At Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps


Corner Burning Coverage: World Endurance Championship At Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

(Words by Dennis Vos – Photos by Dennis Voss and Mark de Bruin) – One thing that I always like to achieve is to get something special done at least once a year. This year it worked out that me and Mark de Bruin were allowed to access to the 6 Hour endurance race at Spa. For both of us it was the first time to attend such a big event being official Press photographers, but I can say for sure this isn’t the last time we visited this awesome and above all one of the most historic circuits in the world.

This circuit (which is now in it’s 95th year) is situated in the forestall Ardennes and originated from a road track circuit of about 14Km. Since 2000 it has been a closed off circuit with a total surface of about 7 Kilometers, with the corner combination of Radillon/Eau Rouge being the most known throughout the world. Many cars have chewed off the wrong end of this corner ending up in pieces an causing quite a few nasty crashes. Although it’s well known an Endurance race is mostly based on tactics we knew this would be full throttle from the start and were not disappointed.

As we were due for a safety briefing we had to be there very early. After this mandatory item we headed out to visit the pit boxes, this was a nice first encounter and were lucky with a few teams gaining us access for some up close photography. Some bigger teams known for participating with the 12hours of Sebring, are now racing within the WEC and were standing their ground between the well known European teams. One team we were able to capture up close was the Sebring 12h winner of 2016, the Extreme Speed Motorsport team lead by Scott Sharp. They were gave us all the room to capture this wonderful team doing what they do best, getting the cars in the best shape to win.

With a few hours to spare before the start we decided to plan where to get the best shots and just enjoy the whole atmosphere. The start was scheduled for 2.30pm, so headed out again to capture the full grid passing by. This would only take about 5 rounds to spread out entirely as the whole race contains 4 separate racing classes, each battling for their own points in their individual championship. During these 6 hours, we were blessed with a great atmosphere and enthusiasm of the attending crowd. We witnessed some extraordinary racing and fierce racing battles, experienced a few crashes, but had overall a great time with getting some valuable track side experience as a bonus.

The race ended at around 8.30PM after 160 laps with most of the 34cars that started, finishing without a lot of problems. After the race all we saw was smiling and happy track marshals and attendees, so we can conclude it was overall a brilliant day. We do would like to recommend this race for everyone that wants to witness a race in it’s purest form and is 100% Bangshift approved by us. But I think the pictures and video will say enough.

 


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One thought on “Corner Burning Coverage: World Endurance Championship At Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

  1. Patrick

    My favorite for of racing. Long distance, high speeds, variety of vehicles, great locales. Thanks

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