LuCaspeRobin + Thomas ;-)

And then it was there, the birthday. Not THE birthday (becoming "thirtysomething") but almost that one. Sebastiaan turned 29 today. 29 years on the 29^th of August. Not a big change, but the last year before adolesence REALLY is over. Then there's no way back, parenthood has started for good ;-). Anyway, it was a wonderful day. Woke up that morning around 5 am - not because of the kidz, but because the alarmclock was set at that time. I spent the night at Jonathan's place as we were due to leave for Spa Francorchamps and the 2004 Belgian Grand Prix. This was a birthday gift to myself. Quite expensive (€ 160,-) but hey, you only live once right? And this is what one works for? Together with Jonathan's brother and another familymember we sped off in the early morning hours towards southern Belgium.

We arrived around 10 o'clock in the middle of a beautiful landscape where the racetrack is situated. Up through the meadows over winding roads we slowly crept towards the circuit trying to spot a parkingplace between the villagehouses and the local animals and fauna. Finally we came to a petit gathering of houses. A total traffic chaos met us as we meandered through cars and walking spectators. For € 10,- we were offered a parkingplace on the lawn of one of the houses. Seeing the mayhem around us we swallowed hard and teethgrittingly accepted the offer. Gathering all our stuff for "a day at the races" we slowly made our way towards the racetrack. Which in fact on a normal day is a collection of B-roads on which you can get from A to B (or rather from farm to farm)! Along with some tens of thousands of other spectators and visitors to the Grand Prix we settled in one of the corners of the track, picking a nice spot where the racecars would come by at high speed, break and skid through the tight corner. Looking over our shoulders we would be able to see the fast racers speed down the valley and around another bend, out of view. And then the waiting began...

The race wasn't due to start until 2 o'clock in the afternoon, but there would be two, possibly three races before that, as well as a drivers parade. The latter is where the Formula 1 drivers are placed on a large truck and paraded over the track, waving to all the spectators. One of the downsides of being a Formula 1 star ;-) ? Anyway, a small halfhour later the first racecars sped past. It was the Mini Cooper Cup - really fast Mini's resembling the ones used in "the Italian Job". They made quite some noise, but not like the next set of Cup-racers coming by just over an hour later.

Posted by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk | top