Twenty Seven years ago today  I was covering my first 1000 Kilometres of Spa. What should have been a magical experience turned to horror when Stefan Bellof was killed during the race. Bellof was always a bit special to me, what might he have achieved if he had lived? Rest in Peace, Stefan.

John Brooks, September 2012

The post Almost The Last Lap………….. first appeared on DoubleDeClutch.com.

Müller Lite

Touring cars have always brought out the inner hooligan in racing drivers, looking through the archive the other day I happened upon this little cracker.

I wrote about this incident at the time,

BMW faced factory efforts from SEAT, Peugeot and Ford. But their closest opponents was the squad of Alfa Romeo 156 S2000s. At Spa the lead driver for the Italians was Augusto Farfus, who led Race Two till he had to serve a drive through penalty for this bit of mischief on the second lap as Jörg Müller’s BMW attempted to pass………………the cars are flat in fifth, climbing up the long Kemmel Straight to Les Combes, so repeatedly biffing the car next to you and putting them on the grass is regarded as a bit much………….I am pleased to report that my man Jörg did not lift…………..when I asked him after the race about the incident he looked surprised that I even considered the possibility that he would take his foot off the gas for a fraction of a second………………..

A Real Racing Driver

John Brooks, April 2012

The post What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits first appeared on DoubleDeClutch.com.