RE: Spa Gets Official Reprieve

[pgwbell]

Great news - the world's best circuit - when will the 24 hour for bikes be back!

Walking down Eau Rouge at 1am on a hot night, with a group of good mates, sparks flying from bottoming out exhausts and a belly fully of chips and juplier - priceless!

Edited by pgwbell on Thursday 19th November 15:56

[pgwbell]

That should be spelt - Jupiler - just the thought of it has me using the 1am Juplier version!

Edited by pgwbell on Thursday 19th November 16:14

[CooperD]

Excellent news that the great circuit can continue. Hope to get over for the 1000 KM next May.

[LHD]

Garlick said:

POTW anyone?



Love it

[RDMcG]

Great news, but the noise restrictions are troubling. No way you will be able to drive ( say) a standard production GT3RS around. When I took mine there A mate of mine drove it round at full whack and I was surprised that I could hear it clearly all round the circuit while standing at the pit wall. Admittedly a less than pleasant sound for the residents. Still ,better noise restrictions than closure.

[Allyc85]

Glad to hear its getting its license back.

Will hopefully be going to Spa for the Gp next year

[vetteheadracer]

It's not exactly surrounded by houses, so not sure who exactly is complaining about the noise. If I owned the circuit I would meet with them and offer to buy their houses, then sell them to motorsports fans.
There can't be that many people who are actually complaining which brings me to the point of this post which is why do the tiny minority have to right to dictate to the vast majority of people who enjoy the noise and actively seek out race circuits?

[jpf]

Historically, I have thought Bernie was a knucklehead for pushing F1 to the third world and ignoring F1's heritage. If the Europeans don't value a track like Spa, then maybe the problem of F1 drifting from Europe has more to do with the Europeans than what meets the eye.

If the track is too noisy, move away--the track has likley been there longer than the residents in the vicinity.

[bonehead]

AAARRRGGGHHHHH

I am a Walloon (French-speaking Belgian) and I come from near Spa. I want to ask my countrymen this: WHY DID YOU MOVE INTO A HOUSE ADJACENT TO A RACE CIRCUIT THAT HAS BEEN IN EXISTENCE LONGER THAN YOU HAVE BEEN ALIVE AND THEN COMPLAIN ABOUT THE NOISE?????

Drives me so insane with rage that these IMBECILES might kill off the greatest race circuit on earth, and with it an important part of the tourism in the Ardennes region of Spa!!! If they kill Spa, Wallonia will die with it!

I really hope they find a way to purify the gene pool of such idiots between now and 2011...I really hope we can still all enjoy Spa-Francorchamps for many years to come!


Vive la Belgique, mais pas les Wallons!

[Hansgerd]

There's a petition of residents of the region around Spa-Francorchamps who are FOR the circuit and stand up to defend it.

Please support them and sign the petition at:

http://www.defendonsfrancorchamps.be/petition-trac...

The last signature (no 35.675) is from a chap from China.

Jackie Oliver signed it a couple of weeks ago:

26/10/09 : Jackie Oliver
Dear Andre, Please would you be sure to register my petition. I never got a reply from Antoine...... Best I have raced at spa since 1968 until this day. I finished 5th on the old circuit Belgium Grand Prix in 1968 and won the SPA 1,000kms for Porsche in 1971 with Pedro Rodriguez. My Arrows Formula One team contested every Belgium Grand prix on the circuit until 2004. I still race there with my classic cars finish second in the U2TC saloon car race this September. It is a great track and due to a minority complaining should not be diminished both for its heritage and commercial benefits it brings to the region. I have and will continue to spend my Euros there because of it. Please be sure to register my petition attached. Thank you.Yours truly

Edited by Hansgerd on Friday 20th November 07:46

[beck01]

The locals who complain do this because they don't see it as legitimate activity or sport, like an airport and maybe football. Politicians usually see motorsports the same way. Socialists don't understand motorsports at all in my experience, (and I mean experience, not opinion) just as conservatives seem ambivalent about football. Trouble is, motorsport people accept football as legitimate but rarely the other way around. Politicians with any sympathy for motorsports (They see it as elitist) are very rare world wide, and that's why F1 is moving to these non democracies. Spa needs to be promoted as "Our Track" or "The Belgian Track" to the Belgians at large and only then will it have the immunity enjoyed by other tracks of "National Significance" around the world. And, yes, the loudspeakers around the race circuits are totally irritating!

[Lutz]

Ah yes, there is Spa Francorchamps, brilliant...and there is Zolder.... and then the Airports of Zaventem, Liège, Antwerpen, Charleroi, Oostende, not to forget the about 40 smaller airfields all over the country... and the ten (or so) military airports.... ahh, and the airfields for UL planes... and the highways crisscrossing the country....

Seriously guys, some poeple love t.he piece and quiet in the Ardennes. Spa is in the first place a health SPA..... Surely, there can be found a solution that accomodates everyone.

Belgians are the kings of compromise. Watch the new president of the European Council, VAN ROMPUY. Wathc and learn

[errek72]

bonehead said:

Vive la Belgique, mais pas les Wallons!

As a Flemish guy, I agree, Except the first part :

Lutz said:

Belgians are the kings of compromise. Watch the new president of the European Council, VAN ROMPUY. Wathc and learn

Watch how your taxes will increase, and how speed limits will be ruthlessly enforced, while real criminals get a slap on the wrist because the justice system will crumble, you mean. Please. The only lesson Belgium can teach the world is that it is not sustainable to FORCE different population groups who have nothing in common, do not even remotely speak the same language, and have a different set of values, to live together as one group.

Because what you will get then, is an unbalance in politics and an abnormal high vote rate of GREEN PARTY imbeciles, which will empower them to shut down places like Francorchamps first chance they get.

Hopefully Van Rompuy won't have anything to say. Hopefully the Germans will call the shots. After all, they are the only European people to be sane enough not to have a speed limit fetish.


This is all tit-for-tat politics, and possibly something to do to weasel out of the F1 contract that is financially bleeding the walloon region.

Edited by errek72 on Saturday 21st November 17:43

[Nurburgsingh]

Frimley111R said:

Excellent news but can't anyone apply common sense to this stupid law about noise polution, i.e. If you move near something noisy you can't complain about it - its your fault!

It's not noise.. it's music! Sweet Sweet sweet music!!!

[Mr V]

I've been to the last 2 Spa GPs and have already bought my 2010 weekend tickets. Glad to hear it's safe... For a while.

There's only one disadvantage by going to the track to watch it - you can't watch the race all round the track like on TV! lol! Such a great track.

Next year will be sad if Kimis not racing, I view him the king of Spa!

[Alicatt1]

errek72 said:

bonehead said:

Vive la Belgique, mais pas les Wallons!

As a Flemish guy, I agree, Except the first part :

Lutz said:

Belgians are the kings of compromise. Watch the new president of the European Council, VAN ROMPUY. Wathc and learn

Watch how your taxes will increase, and how speed limits will be ruthlessly enforced, while real criminals get a slap on the wrist because the justice system will crumble, you mean. Please. The only lesson Belgium can teach the world is that it is not sustainable to FORCE different population groups who have nothing in common, do not even remotely speak the same language, and have a different set of values, to live together as one group.

Because what you will get then, is an unbalance in politics and an abnormal high vote rate of GREEN PARTY imbeciles, which will empower them to shut down places like Francorchamps first chance they get.

Hopefully Van Rompuy won't have anything to say. Hopefully the Germans will call the shots. After all, they are the only European people to be sane enough not to have a speed limit fetish.


This is all tit-for-tat politics, and possibly something to do to weasel out of the F1 contract that is financially bleeding the walloon region.

It took long enough to get Van Rompuy as first minister and then you ship him off to be president of europe!
Zolder has a lot of problems with noise complaints, but it is in a built up area compared with Spa, still Zolder is open most thursdays for pay and drive. We have a house in Zonehoven and are within earshot of Zolder, we knew this when we bought the house and it isn't too bad but I'm glad we are not trackside! We live near Kline Brogul airbase and that is a lot worse but you get used to it and the F16s fly 24/7 and even break the sound barrier, on the otherside we have the ranges at Leopoldsburg with machinegun, cannon and tank firing going on you do get used to it all. I've lived in Limburg for 4years now and love it.
Knowing how a lot of things work around here... at Spa maybe there is not enough "zwart geld" going around! The Belgian way is to make rules, and then to find the back door through them
I drove at Spa last weekend and it is a fantastic track, I loved every minute of it right up until I hit the wall at Radillion. The track is very fast and the corners flow into each other so well, pity it was my first and last time I'll drive there, had to promise the wife I wouldn't drive on the track again before she would let me rebuild the car.

[RobbieL]

I would actively look for a house near to a circuit if I could!

These people don't know how lucky they are............

[remoh]

Its like those divs that buy a house next to Heathrow and complain about the noise....Peasants..

[errek72]

Mr V said:

I've been to the last 2 Spa GPs and have already bought my 2010 weekend tickets. Glad to hear it's safe... For a while.

There's only one disadvantage by going to the track to watch it - you can't watch the race all round the track like on TV! lol! Such a great track.

Next year will be sad if Kimis not racing, I view him the king of Spa!

They've got some whopping big monitors at the track, you can get that thingling feeling from F1 blastwaves AND watch the telly :-)

[mchammer89]

Simple, build some houses to relocate the NIMBYs, sell the current houses at a low price for petrolheads to buy, win-win.