On the Grapevine – Luxembourg Hockenheim & Austin

Some things need to be experienced in order to be truly appreciated. One of Formula 1′s most famous corners is Spa-Francorchamps’ Eau-rouge, which seeing it on television does no justice to the true gradient of this spectacular piece of Belgian race track. I have had the pleasure of travelling to Spa a number of times with work and each time I was taken a back by the scale of the climb cars make racing up Eau-rouge. My first trip there was with two drivers I was promoting, one of whom was racing there for the first time in a round of the European Formula Ford Championship. Like any driver making their first visit to a track and having clocked up hours learning it on the Playstation he wanted to check it out for real but at 7km long and it getting late walking it was not really an option. The next best thing was to borrow his team’s pit bike and together with his race engineer they set off for a sighting lap which while on a 50cc was never going to be quick would beat walking but it wasn’t long before they found themselves on foot. Half way up the famous corner the bike simply ran out of steam with both of them having to jump off – thats how steep it is. The reason for reminiscing is that this rather funny moment came back into my head when I travelled to Round 5 of the Euro Touring Series in Luxembourg.

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