Photographing the Spa 24H EWC Motos – a round of the 2023 FIM Endurance World Championship.

Report by David Harbey from Spa Francorchamps

22 June 2023

When the now traditional summer European road trip was being considered, it became obvious that there was an opportunity to see something new at somewhere familiar. The “familiar” was Spa, visited as recently as April and the subject of our Belgian race and rally weekend report. The “new” was bikes, and as a bonus, sidecars at Spa.

Now some would argue that getting to two races at Spa in a year is being greedy … well, watch this space. Regardless, the chance to include in the road trip a weekend staying in Stavelot and getting to see bikes and sidecars at Spa for the first time would be worth doing. Tickets were duly purchased.

The 24 hour race for the bikes started at 2pm on Saturday and prior to that we were treated to the second sidecar race of the weekend. With the Spa circuit’s ups and downs – there is a 97m elevation change around the circuit – we decided to pace ourselves by only going as far as the Raidillon grandstand for the sidecar race.

The view is as ever superb and allowed us to see the new Endurance grandstand we used briefly in April and the additional grandstands being built for the Grand Prix.

The sidecar race included some familiar names – the Birchall brothers, the anglo-French pairing of Ellis and Clement, Kershaw and Charlwood and the Christies. With the race on Friday won by Ellis and Clement from the Birchalls by 0.189 second it promised much for the second race.

The teams named above produced a superb four-way battle for the lead and finished less than two seconds apart after half an hour’s racing. With a sparsely populated grandstand, I was able to walk along the front without getting in anyone’s way to get some different angles on the outfits from Eau Rouge through Raidillon and on to the Kemmel straight.

At the end of the race, it was time to hot foot it to the Formula 1 pit lane for the pit walk. The main protagonists for overall honours had the biggest crowds, but I headed for the only British team taking part – ADSS97 with Chris Walker, Chris Platt and Levi Day.

There I had a quick word with Craig Watson, team manager, to introduce myself and the idea of featuring the team in this report. Meanwhile the riders were busy signing pictures for fans.

The plan for the race build-up was to find seats in the Starting Grandstand so we could see the riders assemble for the Le Mans start – running across to their waiting machine and hopefully setting off in one smooth action.

We had a good view of the ADSS97 team and Chris Walker’s sprinting ability.

As a spot to watch the start this grandstand is fine, but as a location for action photography it is rather limited, especially as the riders tend to keep to the left of the track, thus behind the fence. So, we walked back to the tunnel just before La Source hairpin.

That allowed me to try a new location – of the riders as they accelerated out of the La Source. Without my step, the fence was a touch too tall, but I managed to grab a couple of shots – I need to return with step and long lens …

The plan was not to circumnavigate the entire circuit each day, but rather to work our way past Raidillon and Les Combes to Bruxelles. There is a gate looking up towards Raidillon where the bars are sufficiently wide for even some DSLR lenses to poke through. A high shutter speed is recommended.

Thereafter, having ascended Mont Raidillon for the second time of the day, some time was spent shooting from the grandstand. The only real downside is that all shots are from above.

Walking beyond the grandstand the track rises up the Kemmel Straight to the eventual right / left / right at Les Combes. The riders had been paying tribute to how good the Spa track was to ride. It’s fast, flowing and challenging with only really Les Combes and the Bus Stop to disrupt.

There are photography windows just beyond the Raidillon grandstand – most designed for someone six inches shorter than me …

As we arrived at Les Combes, another safety car was called. It’s one of those areas of the track where the fencing is heavy and double layer – largely due to the demands of Formula 1.

However, there is one narrow slot by a marshal’s post where a cleanish shot can be achieved.

There is also a small area where a panning shot of the riders in the left-hand part of Les Combes can be taken. It is only through one layer of fencing and still retains some of the characteristic softness. Alternatively walk a little further and there is an unencumbered view of the riders heading into Bruxelles.

Last year I had first shot from a location on the outside of Bruxelles next to where a camera is normally located for car meetings. This time there was no camera and a large hole in the fence – it would be rude not to use it. Later in the evening, watching on Eurosport, it was apparent that the camera had been relocated to a lower position. There were several laps where Chris Walker was in close company with the Yamaha of Geoffroy Dehaye.

Then to one of my favourite shooting locations at Spa – the approach to, and inside of, Bruxelles. There’s no fence (hurrah) and a good slow panning shot can be obtained. Little in the way of flames though, unfortunately, even from the BMW.

At the exit of Bruxelles, there is a precarious clamber down the bank to shoot on the level of the riders. I was looking for one of those cranked over, visor reflecting the kerb shots. I think there’s few decent ones here.

One final location for Saturday and another new spot that we had identified at the WEC race in April. It is possible to get to the inside of the exit of Les Combes – there’s a high fence, so the step would be needed or, as I did, shoot through the fence. I will definitely return there. The race was under safety car at the time and the dust is from the road sweeper cleaning up after an engine blow up.

Saturday finished with a walk to Eau Rouge via the forest road though the middle of the track where this can be found harking back to the early days of motorsport at Spa. Back to our accommodation for cuppa, a rest and to watch some of the Eurosport coverage.

Sunday dawned bright but had the promise of some rain, although it the end it wasn’t significant – the temperature was in the high twenties again – most unlike Spa! I wanted to walk past the Bus Stop towards Blanchimont, Paul Frere and Pouhon (aka Double Gauche).

We stopped off at the new Endurance Grandstand for these panning shots.

There are a number of shooting spots around the La Source hairpin. Some are through the fence and all were using a long lens.

Moving on to the Bus Stop, there are several angles. There are photography slots in the fence above the chicane and with a smaller crowd on Sunday there was no need to queue to use them.

The walk to the tunnel before Paul Frere is above the track and heavily fenced; better to enjoy watching the riders fully on it through Blanchimont. My next shots are from Fagnes where there is a double layer of fence.

However, there are slots for accredited snappers in the fence nearest to the track which with care (and if not occupied by said accredited snappers) can be utilised.

Further round there are slots in the spectator fencing that we could use – for a rear shot into Fagnes. Note that they may be covered by advertising.

By noon Sunday, the field had become a little depleted with laps gaps between the teams.  On a circuit as long as Spa (7 kms), 25 bikes get a little spaced out, but that is the nature of endurance racing. These shots are at Pouhon.

In the end, it was five different manufacturers in the top five positions with the YART Yamaha team completing a total of 572 laps taking the honours.

ADSS97 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R

Craig Watson team manager takes up the story for ADSS97

“It's fair to say that Spa was a very testing week for us. With six 24 hour race starts to our name it's absolutely gutting that this is the first non-finish. From the get go running the full endurance spec bikes on Wednesday we ran into issues with fuel pipe routing and the fuel tanks themselves.

We had the tanks made to same spec as a front running EWC Kawasaki team but, of course, they run underslung swingarms compared to our "Stock" swingarm that is braced on top. Through Eau Rouge we had some fouling issues and fabricated some alterations on the Wednesday evening and hoped this had cured the issue.

After around 7 hours the bike cut out on Levi Day at turn 15 and we had to await recovery back to the technical bay. Two issues were found - one with the fuel pipe and one with the actual tank itself. The team quickly changed the tank and fuel line and sent Chris Platt out with instructions to be aware. Unfortunately, the same issue reared it's head and we were left with no option but to retire.

Plans are already underway to make the alterations before the Bol d’Or at Paul Ricard in September. We have a great following for our team, and we want to come back stronger than ever to give the fans something to really cheer about.”

PistonClick wishes ADSS97 well as they prepare for the Bol d’Or.

As I said at the beginning of this report, bikes and sidecars at Spa are a first for me and it seems that Spa has some similarities to Silverstone. Motorcycles are relatively small machines (compared to, say, GT3 cars) and on the wide-open spaces of a circuit with big run off areas and acres of gravel they look a little lost and present a challenging subject for the spectator photographer.

Having worked through my images I think I would do this event again as despite the fences there are some great locations to shoot from. I used my 70-200 zoom, 300 and 500 primes plus 1.4x and 1.7x teleconverters over the weekend and my iPhone for the pitlane shots.

Regardless of what I think, there is no doubt that the competitors thoroughly enjoy the challenge of racing at Spa.