Second Edition 8 Hours of Spa

August 11th, 2009

Article By IPA Member: Guy Verstraeten
Guy594 Photography

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For the second time, the 8Hours of Spa was held on 08/08/2009 in one of the world’s finest race tracks, Spa Franchorchamp in Belgium. This second edition of the endurance race was full of suspense from the beginning to the end, it was breathtaking.

After a lot of problems and difficulties encountered during the race, the two-man team of Jadoul/Dutronquois with their Kawasaki has made it possible nevertheless to drag the victory.

The BMW which the Spaniard Mazvecos shared with Werner Daemen had a crash after almost two hours in the race which caused them to give up just when they were in the lead. A couple of minutes later, after three and a half hours of the race has been driven, the Honda of Sébastien Le Grelle/Mertens had problem with the valves, forcing them to quit although they were leading this time. The Kawasaki of Jadoul/Dutronquois had therefore a free chance to go ahead and took the lead, it had a couple of pit stops though, due to the problem with the clutch. The Yamaha 600 of Weynand/Depoorter took advantage of the situation to overtake and keep their gap as close as possible. However, they couldn’t pull through due to some troubles with the break. With this situation, the Kawasaki took over the control again and strived right to the victory.

After six and a half hours of this exciting race, Weynand crashed at Le Combes due to the broken chain, he couldn’t even bring the motorbike from the Francorchamps race track back to the pit-box. This situation turned out to the advantage for Julin/Troiano (Yamaha), which automatically acquired the title of Belgian Champion Endurance 600 and eventually became the winners in their category.

The victory platform was still undisputed, because behind Marnix D' Hondt/Mario Van Vossel (Honda/Honda winner of the cup 1000) and Martin Scherrer/Niggi Schmassmann (Suzuki/Suzuki), with intensified speed, Marc Fissette and Fabian Le Grelle forced their way not only to the third place on the victory platform but also for the title of Belgian Champion in 1000cc category. Even though they did not succeed with their Suzuki to obtain a position on the victory platform due to the penalty minute they got for not respecting the safety guidelines during the last pit stop, they did grab the title from Mertens/Sébastien Le Grelle although this team has won every other round.

The duo Kenny Bourguignon/Eric Hubert (Yamaha/Suzuki) were the winners in the Cup 600 before Michaël Honnay/Olivier Poste /Rodrigue Dury (Suzuki/Suzuki/Honda).

The race lasted until midnight but it was a race worth watching, very spectacular and full of suspense all the way through!