Up's & Downs at Spa Francorchamps for Dennis Racing
After excellent result from Silverstone International (1st in Class) Dennis Hays and his team headed to Spa Francorchamps, Belgium with smiles on their faces for what was without doubt the highlight of their season and their first race on an International circuit.
Friday was qualifying, and with both Dennis and James having only 3 laps each to learn the track, the team qualified 48th overall out of a whopping 61 cars on the grid (2nd in Class). Later that evening the Team completed a track walk, 7 kilometres later up and down the steep hills where they learned a lot about the track.
Saturday was race 1, Dennis was up first on the rolling start. With everyone getting away well we was gaining pace and places with every lap, pushing hard and with a few battle scars along the way, the team used what they had learned from the track walk well, keeping it on the track… mostly.
A quick stop from the team, with Carrie doing a perfect job having to change between the drivers for the first time, James was out next. Gaining places and pace Dennis Racing was growing with confidence in the car and its abilities around this amazing track. To say they were excited is probably an understatement, even taking the famous eau Rouge and Blanchimont corners flat out on the rev limiter! With only 0.6 seconds between the drivers best times.
The end result was 40th overall and 2nd in class to the very quick Honda NSX of Rob Fenn.
Sunday was race 2, with qualifying positions based on Saturday’s race results, Dennis was sent out first. With more confidence (and some rear brake pads borrowed from Carrie’s road car) the team had a good start even in the damp conditions, until Dennis caught up with another car through eau Rouge and had to take avoiding action coming off the track to prevent a collision only a few laps in.
Unfortunately this caused damage to the front suspension, knowing something was wrong and backing off the pace a little, Dennis almost made it back to the pits before the suspension failed completely, but thankfully Dennis was OK and the car only suffered minor damage. The race was stopped shortly after due to a crash on another part of the track.
Dennis, James and the team cannot wait to return to Spa next year, in the meantime they will be back at Donington Park on the 9th of September and some shows between now and then.
