With 7 grids and a total of approximately 250 cars, it was clear from the very beginning of the Spa Classic, staged in the weekend of 22-24 May, would be nothing but a huge succes. The Spa-Francorchamps race track in the Belgian Ardennes was the place to be for the event by Peter Auto, in its 5th edition yet. Nearly 20.000 visitors had a fabulous 3 days in the paddocks and near the track. (See our reports fromthe previous editions Spa Classic 2014, Spa Classic 2013, Spa Classic 2012)
As always, lots of things to do for the moments you’re not interested in the action at the track. In the village different exhibitors show their goodies, all of them one way or another related to classic cars or vintage car racing. Watches, books, art, memorabilia. Name it and you’ll find it in the ‘shopping vilage’ located in the middle of the track. A great place to enjoy a small bite or just to have a talk with one of the other race fans. Bonhams had an auction inside the F1 Pit building. Headlight in this auction for us was definitely a Porsche 962C that hammered for about 1.5 million Euros. Actually we had expected that the car would bring more, and we are very keen to see it on the grid next year. Wonder if that will happen or not.
As usual with Peter Auto events, there is some space allocated for clubs. We have been told close to 1500 cars made use of the reserved spots to bring a visit to the Spa Classic 2015.
But ofcourse most of the visitors spent most of the time close to the track or near the pitlane to enjoy the atmosphere of the event and to smell the burning rubber or the fumes spit out by the red-hot exhausts of the cars that were the actual stars of the Spa Classic.
No matter what cars you were intrested in, all found one or more of the 7 race series extremely interesting. The touring car grids included the Heritage Touring Cup and the U2TC for the under 2 liter Touring Cars. Sixties Endurance Race, Trofeo Nastro Rosso and the Classic Endurance Series 1 and 2 are the 4 grids only racing at Peter Auto events. The grids consist of prototypes and grand touring cars that used to race in the Spa 1000kms of back then.
The Group C was the icing on the cake at the Spa Classic. The era of the Porsche 956 and Porsche 962, the Sauber-Mercedes or the stunning Jaguar XJR-14 driven by Christophe d’Ansembourg relived and that’s an absolute understatement. With only 14 cars at the start, the grid was rather small compared to Spa Classic 2014. But nevertheless the brutal power and stunning beauty of these pure racers, combined with the deafening sound of their roaring engines, make this series on it’s own worth a visit.
To conclude, the Spa Classic 2015 was an absolute highlight so far in 2015 with lots of great Porsches. The fact that the track was sunbathing for a complete 3 days, rather unusual at Spa-Francorchamps made it even better. Looking forward to another stunning Spa Classic in 2016. In the meantime you can enjoy are 200 picture gallery.
Pictures by Vintage Race Photography
Spa Classic 2015
