Daniele Somenzi's Belgium

Belgium The day before in Brussels, events had happened in a certain Heysel stadium, which we Italians will remember for a long time. At the match, there were many deaths among the crowd from crushing, almost all Italians. I, with my air-cooled 600 cc Fiat 500, had disembarked from the ferry coming from England.

I've come to Belgium to attend the practice sessions of the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. The motorways in Belgium are very beautiful, and besides being free, they're incredibly all lit at night.

I finally arrive at Spa, at the edges of the circuit, which on normal days is open to ordinary traffic, and since it's Thursday, I park exactly in front of the pits, with my 500.

I get out for a moment and notice that 20 metres further on, in the pits there's Niki Lauda's red-and-white McLaren, and in the next one the 2 Brabhams. I get back in the car, even though no one had chased me off, and take a little path nearby, into the conifer forest, and go 200 metres, where in the middle of the forest I find a clearing for the little 500, far from prying eyes. A few metres away I pitch my tent, since it's almost dark; it doesn't seem real to me to be so close to the circuit and that no one has chased me away from there.

The morning as soon as I wake up, I take down the tent, put it in the car and on foot go down those 20 metres to walk on the circuit's asphalt; at that point, devoid of fences, I start walking towards the pits.

I arrive and, as if nothing were happening, I visit them all, the cars all there, at Brabham they throw spark plugs in a bin, and I snatch one that now sits in my display case; then the security people make everyone without a permit leave; I sit at the end of the pit box, and nobody says anything to me, what luck; from there I watch half an hour of the morning free practice.

As soon as they finish, walking still at the edges of the track, I return near the little 500, and watch the single-seaters flash past for the timed practice. As soon as they finish, I set off from Spa heading for Italy; for the record, the GP was then suspended because the asphalt was crumbling.

bye