RE: Future Of Belgian GP In Doubt

RE: Future Of Belgian GP In Doubt

Author
Discussion

fatboy69

9,373 posts

188 months

Thursday 24th September 2009
quotequote all
the closure of this circuit cannot be allowed to happen. it is the greatest current race track in the world & must live on forever.

who was the idiot who complained about the noise? he, or she, should hang their heads in shame for all eternity.

the world will shortly be populated by sterile, dull, featureless race tracks which give the drivers no challenges at all.

absolutely disgraceful.

samurikid

54 posts

242 months

Thursday 24th September 2009
quotequote all
Ummmm - everytime I have been there all I have seen next to it is trees.Tell me which one complained?
This appears to be a sympton of the nanny caring interfering state, I mean look at Croft. This is something we need to jump on! It seems to me that it is too easy to complain, but not too easy to show support,or am I wrong? Can we lodge a sort of opoosite to a complaint, like a sort of notice of a circuit being too good, or too quiet? Thought not, so my view is that this is too one sided and therefore is open to abuse.I dont know the details of Croft, or Spa, but it seems to be one sided, and too easy.I have said it before, but I live near London, and sometimes it keeps me awake at 7.30PM- please can I have compensation...........

errek72

943 posts

247 months

Thursday 24th September 2009
quotequote all
Ehrm, guys, don't believe the hype.

Here's the problem : the Francorchamps circuit lies in Wallonia, the french speaking part of Belgium. Unlike the other part(s), which are teetering on the brink of bankrupcy, this region has been bankrupt hundred times over for as many years. It is in a truly dismal state and would have slid into third world levels of poverty if not for the constant sponsering by the rest of the country. Until now, the other part(s) of Belgium came to the rescue, but now due to the financial crisis, they are running out of money themselves.

Meanwhile, the Wallonians have signed a contract running several years with a certain Bernie E. Each time F1 comes to Spa, there is a LOSS of over 20 million Euros, paid by the Belgian taxpayer.

The local government seems to have found a way to put an end to this money pit though : under the excuse of some fringe lunatic green hippy losers complaining (what else would they do?) they can now effectively stop the circuit being a circuit. No more circuit, no more contract, no more money pit.

This is nothing more than an evasive manoeuver by a local government that is at it's last straw. Next year we won't even remember it happened. Chill.

cragswinter

21,429 posts

197 months

Thursday 24th September 2009
quotequote all
sorry wrong link befor:
cragswinter said:
Rite news so far is the circuits lawyers have activated a 2007 ruling that allows them to race up to & including 9 hrs a day. This obviously has issues for the 2 24 hr races they hold but does not cause any problems for circuit days track days next week.
As it stands the Monday & Tuesday events are going ahead as planned.
The ring is open all day Sunday for tourist laps & anyone going on the hull overnight crossing can obviously take advantage of this. The tourist laps are only on for the Monday & Tuesday evenings & depending on the weather a few of us will be heading back across for these.
If you need any further help either message me on hear or keep an eye out for the blue megane with red wheels on the trip & come over & say hi.

VX Foxy

3,962 posts

244 months

Thursday 24th September 2009
quotequote all
errek72 said:
Ehrm, guys, don't believe the hype.

/snip

This is nothing more than an evasive manoeuver by a local government that is at it's last straw. Next year we won't even remember it happened. Chill.
Linkage?

errek72

943 posts

247 months

Thursday 24th September 2009
quotequote all
VX Foxy said:
errek72 said:
Ehrm, guys, don't believe the hype.

/snip

This is nothing more than an evasive manoeuver by a local government that is at it's last straw. Next year we won't even remember it happened. Chill.
Linkage?
That last sentence is my interpretation of what I summed up before. Like mentioned before by others in this thread, nobody lives there, and although the shriek of an F1 engine can carry some distance on flat terrain, in wooded hills not even the nearest town will have any hinder. The excuse of opposition of locals (who in a part of the country, and Europe, with enormous unemployment have everything to loose) seems like a strange and flimsy one.

The other stuff I mentioned is going for decades though, and is well documented, just google on "Francorchamps" and "loss", "bankrupt" or similar.

whitevancam

34 posts

197 months

Thursday 24th September 2009
quotequote all
cragswinter said:
sorry wrong link befor:
cragswinter said:
Rite news so far is the circuits lawyers have activated a 2007 ruling that allows them to race up to & including 9 hrs a day. This obviously has issues for the 2 24 hr races they hold but does not cause any problems for circuit days track days next week.
As it stands the Monday & Tuesday events are going ahead as planned.
The ring is open all day Sunday for tourist laps & anyone going on the hull overnight crossing can obviously take advantage of this. The tourist laps are only on for the Monday & Tuesday evenings & depending on the weather a few of us will be heading back across for these.
If you need any further help either message me on hear or keep an eye out for the blue megane with red wheels on the trip & come over & say hi.
Cragswinter, thanks for that it has put my mind at ease!!
Will be travelling Hull-Rotterdam on Friday night and at the Ring saturday evening and all day Sunday, also at Spa on Monday, will be in a white Scooby, travelling with Porsche Turbo, Evo and M3.

See you there.

Chas-Chiro

224 posts

220 months

Thursday 24th September 2009
quotequote all
PascalBuyens said:
topless_mx5 said:
This sort of thing really pisses me off. Its happening at circuits worldwide. Houses are popping up and then residents feel it reasonable to complain about a race track that was there BEFORE THEY BOUGHT THE HOUSE. Ffs.
Absolutely right... There are two circuits in Belgium, and both have the same problem.

People get to buy the ground at a super low price, due to the presence of the circuit, then they start complaining about the noise. Governments should REALLY start to think about having those people sign a document that they'll never start complaining before they sell any property to them.

Shame, both Zolder and Spa are now at silly noise restrictions, and in one of the two cases, the major driving force behind it is rumoured to be an ex F16 pilot... Irony !!!
It's about time a noise survey was done on the premises you buy. Then you buy it knowing what the expected noises and levels are. This way only if there is an unreasonable increase in noise disturbance the complaint is justified, otherwise the owner will have accept that's what they bought, noise conditions and all.

It's not just race tracks, but airports, motorways, factories and farms even suffering complaints of noise from outsiders moving into the area. It really should not be allowed. But I suspect a lot of these people are speculators looking to cash in on a forced change in the area and friends of councillors or government officials so able to create a damn fuss and get their cake and eat it. If the noise levels are forced to be lowered by such means then the council tax banding (or whatever applies in europe) should be forced to be raised from date of complaint, to the new value of property. That might end some of the whimpering busy bodies trying it on all the time.

anonymous-user

55 months

Friday 25th September 2009
quotequote all
Chas-Chiro said:
It's about time a noise survey was done on the premises you buy. Then you buy it knowing what the expected noises and levels are. This way only if there is an unreasonable increase in noise disturbance the complaint is justified, otherwise the owner will have accept that's what they bought, noise conditions and all.
whatever laws you bring in don't matter. all uk courts are subservient to that bastion of idiocy and political correctness, the european court of human rights, and regardless of when or where you moved to it's your 'human right' not to hear the glorious sound of competing tortured race engines.

Edited by fbrs on Friday 25th September 12:06

graeme36s

7,034 posts

218 months

Friday 25th September 2009
quotequote all
Thank you John Pierre and Errik for your insite into what this is really all about. So short and ugly with mega money is the true culprit ?.

Ahonen

5,017 posts

280 months

Saturday 26th September 2009
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dcw@pr said:
Years ago when I worked at trackdays a lot, the boss at a well known trackday company told me that hiring Spa for the day cost ~£15k, compared to Silverstone/Donington etc coming in at around £40k.

Maybe they are underpricing themselves?
We've had Snet on an exclusive basis a few times and I'm sure it's only in the £8-10k region.

Zolder is €18k.

baphi

1 posts

175 months

Thursday 22nd October 2009
quotequote all
Some neighbours from Francorchamps created a petition FOR Francorchamps.

Please feel free to join !

Already available in French and Dutch but soon in English.

Use the French one, I am sure you will be able to complete the form;


Defend Francorchamps

dinkel

26,955 posts

259 months

Sunday 25th October 2009
quotequote all
Did this a few days ago, also on FaceBook. Nice one!

Hope the track will stay.

Batfink

1,032 posts

259 months

Sunday 25th October 2009
quotequote all
interesting... if a uk trackday company is hiring spa then they will not be paying belgium vat so I can see why the local government sees it as a venture where they get little back.