This photo was taken at La Source hairpin,Spa,just after the start of the Belgian round of the World Sportscar Championship (WSC) in September 1989. It shows the TWR Jaguar XJ11 of Lammers/Tambay just leading the eventual winner the Sauber C9 of Acheson/Baldi followed by the eventual second placed Joest Porsche 962 of Jelinski/Wollek.
I took the photo with a 28mm lens on my Leica . It's not often that I used a wide angle lens to take action shots but rarely was I this close to the cars .
I remember this day for some great racing and rain and some fantastic frites which were sold from little stalls around the circuit. Wonderful and I am sure so unhealthy but what the hell -you don't go to Spa every week .
The WSC gradually fell apart after 1989 and the wonderful Group C sportscars were soon no more .The world financial slowdown dried up the sponsorship money and motorsport politics did not want the sportscars to in anyway detract from the main game -formula 1. Which is a real pity as in its heyday the WSC and the Group C cars were a wonderful spectacle with a big spectator following on some great historic circuits .
Spa still hosts some great racing including historic racing and surprisingly it still hosts the Belgian F1 Grand Prix although I am sure that it will soon be replaced by a GP on some extraordinarily boring track in some faraway fiefdom.
oi! who regard belgium as boring? We dispute that and will thrash anyone who says so with a curry ketchup & mayo covered frite! and we have some kick-@rse tracks and road/rally history, yes, you may know Spa, but also, ahem, "Liège-Rome-Liège", the "Marathon de la Route" or the "Tour de Belgique" and "Douze heures de Huy" (Huy Twelve-Hours Race) http://www.racb.com/fr/events.cfm
ReplyDeleteSpa has been redone to make it safer, and safer means further separation of viewers and cars, so you are indeed lucky to have got this shot, lovely!