Page 27 - Paddock Life Issue 13 ADRENALINE

up the pit garages, unlike Ferrari they are looked after by a range of teams, then we found the blue Mercedes number 16 of Black Falcon racing, a Pro Am entry whose amateur driver was none other than Oliver Morley, best friend of one of my old friends.
We take a stroll through the paddock and down to the support paddocks where the Super Trofeo teams are starting to pack away. The atmosphere is great on this unusually sunny and warm day. The fans are all settling in for the long haul and the bars are cafés are full. There are always some interesting companies at these events with trade stands, one that caught my eye here was Velocifero, an e-bike company with a range of super cool bikes and scooters, I rode the model E-Classic which was a retro design e-bike, but the NYC and Army models could best be described as fat bike e-scooters and ideal for zipping around the paddock.
It was time for the teams to go to the grid. This is really the start of the pre-race build up and you can feel the atmosphere turn up a couple of notches. We are in the garages so follow the tyre trains out of the pit lane exit which curves around just inside the La Source hairpin and onto the start/finish line. It is so difficult to see just how steep this is when you watch a race on TV, but the pit crews are pulling their trollies back to stop them rolling down the hill as the mass of team personnel converge onto the grid and take residence in their grid boxes. The cars roll silently through the crowded grid and are pushed back by their teams into a herringbone line against the pit wall to the endurance paddock. This is on the opposite side to the F1 paddock that the Pro and Pro-Am GT3 cars are using. This today is home to the Am cup cars that make up the back half of today’s grid of over 60 race cars.
As the pole sitting car, the number 55 Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella took its position the grid was now almost fully formed up as I walk back up the hill. Starting on the Pro-Am Cup “pole” behind the Pro driver cars was Jonny Adam’s number 97 Oman Racing Aston Martin with the Black Falcon number 16 Mercedes of Oliver Morley not many places behind, followed by the rest of the Pro-Am field and then the Am and Cup cars, the grid stretched right back up the hill toward the exit of the pit lane. The drivers were in the cars and engines started as the grid is cleared... marshals usher the VIP grid walkers back through the pit wall entrances, teams push tyre trains and tool trollies down to the exit of the endurance pit lane, whilst every car is allowed one crew member to remain with the driver. I take up position at the end of the pit lane ready for the start. Stephane Ratel of SRO waves the flag as the Audi R8 Safety Car leads the pack out on the warm up lap of the 7km circuit.
When the cars pass the start line at the end of this rolling start lap they will be racing. It seems to take forever for the 63 cars to pass me as they peel out from the wall one at a time, until the last car passes and the noise of the engines has gone. The expectant crowd seems hushed from where I am standing, until we see the lights of the Audi Safety car appear from La Source at the top of the hill, this time building speed... and as they pass the line the rumble of Fisichella’s Ferrari turns to an angry howl, I can feel the noise in my chest as he accelerates hard from pole up the hill to Raidillon pulling away from the screaming V10 of the number 63 Grasser
27