EVENT>> BEHIND THE SCENES AT SPA FRANCORCHAMPS
This trip has been soo incredibly crazy. We've been traveling all over Europe, the UK, and Japan to explore the car cultures in different countries. Currently we're in Japan, so our content has been very drift focused. That definitely isn't a problem for me, because I love drifting and everything about it!
Our resident sports car pro, John Brooks, proved to us that he's the man when we were at Spa. He and our new buddy David Lister busted out their arsenal of long range weapons as they stood trackside, creating some of the most spectacular images from the event. However, I thought I'd just give you all a glimpse into what the scene was like for me when we were at Spa-Francorchamps.
I think maybe my two favorite cars at the event were the Maserati MC12 and this Aston Martin, above. I love the subtle-yet-stylish color scheme on the Aston Martin… silver and orange look awesome together. On top of that just look at those wheels and tires… sexy. Check out our previous Speedhunters post, by our main man John Brooks, if you want more info on the cars themselves.
As I stood in the pit area watching the cars leave and enter the track, I couldn't help but be captivated by the sexy rear ends on the Aston Martins and Porsches… damn. Just look at the tail on that Aston! That is the sex! I love everything about it. And actually, as I was looking through the photos on my hard drive, I was thinking, "damn, either that guy is a giant, or those cars are super duper low." Hmmm… or maybe both.
All the males trackside were staring hardcore at the Total grid girls… apparently at the FIA GT Championship, they utilize "grid girls" instead of umbrella girls. The difference is, the grid girls hold these super long poles with numbers at the end, which help the drivers find their spot on the starting grid.
When I was walking through the Spa Francorchamps media center, I opened a door, and got bum rushed by all these grid girls, who were hurrying past me, towards their dressing room. Just imagine if we had media access to that. LOL! Anyway, many of them didn't speak English, but I did manage to briefly talk to a few choice grid girls – too bad the people at Total don't create cool outfits for these girls, like the ones used in the Super GT and Formula D series.
I was severely distracted when walking around the booth area at the track… they had several booths selling cool stuff, like fresh Belgian waffles (which were awesome – we were in Belgium for crying out loud, so of course they tasted perfect!), pommes frites (the original name for French fries, which came from Belgium apparently), die cast models, and this awesome booth, which was selling rare horn buttons, steering wheels (see the Nardi Classics, Personal wheels, and Momo Prototipos hanging there?), steering wheel hubs, pedals, and even actual wheels for your car! This was an extremely dangerous booth for me to be at… I dunno if you guys knew this, but I have a pretty extensive collection of steering wheels and horn buttons.
Doing maintenance on a Ferrari never looked so cool. I love it!
I didn't know why they had these girls bring pom poms… they weren't cheerleaders or anything, but oh well, I took a photo so you all could see the differences between the Japanese race queens, the US umbrella girls, and these European (and one asian) campaign girls.
I think it was really cool how alot of the trackside mechanics and other staff were wearing full fireproof Nomex suits, and balaclavas – they looked like motorsport ninjas or something. I was, however, rather puzzled that these two guys were standing so close to each other and apparently looking into each other's eyes. LOL maybe they were having a staring contest?! I dunno! So I just took a photo and laughed about it to myself. I crack myself up sometimes, haha.
This was one of the booths at the event selling highly detailed "die cast models" (Rod gets all mad when I call them toys) of race cars in famous liveries. It's a pretty dangerous place for both Rod and I… but luckily for me, they didn't have many AE86 or TE27 die casts, so I was safe (actually there was a really cool European FIA AE86 Levin model, which was expensive – like $200 USD when I converted the price in my head!)… but Rod dropped some major Euro for a super cool die cast car. Since it's so expensive in Europe, I figured I'd just save my dough for the Japan leg of our trip!
I had never seen this type of car before in my life. It's called a Vertigo, and if you're interested in learning more about it, then go to the website address found underneath the rear wing! Okay, I'm going to go think about drifting now… ttyl!
Spa 24H Through the Lens of John Brooks
Cars of the FIA GT Championship
-Antonio Alvendia
