• Celebrities compete in Supercup at Spa-Francorchamps • Both races provided thrills and spills to the thousands of fans along the circuit • Spike collects three points in Race 1 after improving nine places to finish 16th
This past weekend, the sixth and seventh rounds of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup took place at the famous 7.0 km-long race-track at Spa-Francorchamps in the Ardennes forest in Belgium. Spa with its long straights and high speed corners, including the famous Eau Rouge, is one of the fastest tracks on the Supercup and Formula 1 calendar. The young Australian Racing Driver, Spike Goddard, impressed once again with a good run from P25 to finish in position 16.
Overtaking is possible in several places on this track, but in some places it requires both bravery and skills by both drivers not to make contact. The regular drivers in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup were joined by nine-time World Rally Champion and legendary racing driver Sebastien Loeb as well as by movie actor Patrick Dempsey, who is competing in the World Endurance Championship.
The weather for the entire weekend was perfect, which is a very rare occurrence for Spa. The weekend started with the 45-minute Free Practice session late Friday afternoon, in which Spike completed a total of 16 laps with a best time of 2:27.344, which placed him 23rd in a field of 34 drivers.
Qualifying took place at midday on Saturday, where Spike used two of his three sets of new tyres and completed 11 laps. His fastest lap was 2:26.015 (which was 1.3 seconds quicker than he went during Friday’s practice), but still 2.8 seconds off pole set by Michael Ammermüller. His lap time was only good enough for 25th place on the grid in the field of 34 drivers. “I had a poor qualifying as I was not able to put three good sectors together in the same lap. My best sector times put together were nearly a second quicker than my fastest lap. I was too inconsistent. On one lap, I was up by nearly a second and then I put a wheel on the astro turf, which ruined the sector and the lap.”
The first race over 11 laps (30 minutes) started around 7pm on Saturday, as it was delayed due to two big accidents in other races. Spike used his final set of new tyres and got a good start from 25th on the grid. He was up four places after the first lap, passing two cars right at the start and another two following a collision in La Source (Turn 1). A couple of laps later, race leader Michael Ammermüller had a mechanical failure, which led to a spectacular one-car-accident as he rolled the car over. Thankfully, the driver walked away unhurt. The Safety Car was deployed while Ammermüller’s car was cleared.
During the second half of the race, Spike’s pace was good and he was able to overtake three cars. With another driver retiring, it enabled him to finish in 16th position, nine places ahead of where he started. Since guest drivers are ineligible for points, Spike earned three points by finishing 13th amongst regular drivers. “I was happy with how I drove in the race. I had great battles and was able to overtake a few cars but some drivers were exceeding track limits (not allowed) which made it more difficult to pass them.”
The second race, also over 11 laps, took place around midday on Sunday. Again, there was an incident on lap one when Ledogar lost control and collided into Cairoli, taking both drivers out of the race. Also on the first lap, nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb was forced to retire with a broken drive shaft. The Safety Car was deployed for a couple of laps. On lap five, as Spike exited Turn 1, he was hit from behind by Rivas, which caused him to spin and lose about six places. However, it also heavily damaged his rear bumper, which proceeded to drag along the track for the rest of the race. This incident ruined his race and he was only able to finish in 24th. “Race 2 was disappointing. I got a good start, got given a few places from other drivers´ mistakes and then I became the casualty of another driver’s error. I could have scored a few more points today, if I had not been rear-ended.
That’s racing!”
The Porsche Mobil1 Supercup will have two races at the famous track in Monza, Italy in two weeks.
