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Grand Am
GRAND-AM: Bryce Miller, My Spa 24hr Experience
We finished second in GT2, fifth overall! It was a great birthday present that my team BMS/Brixia Racing had delivered.
SPEED Staff  |  Posted July 29, 2009   Summit, NJ
American sportscar ace Bryce Miller came away from the Spa 24hr race with a newfound appreciation for the daunting Belgian circuit. (Paolo Briatico)
American Grand-Am racer Bryce Miller made the trek to Spa, Belgium last weekend to compete in the Spa 24 Hour race and returned with a memorable account for SPEEDtv.com of his first experience at the famed circuit:

I arrived in the small town of Spa, a beautiful quaint city nestled in the Ardennes hills, on Tuesday evening before the Spa 24 Hours. The city looked innocent enough at first appearance, but I quickly came to respect the abrupt weather patterns and frequent rain showers for which it is named – Spa.

When I arrived at the Francorchamps circuit the following day, I got my first live sneak peak at the 4.3-mile track on a motor scooter. It would be some of my best ‘dry’ time on the race track.

It became evident very quickly why this track commands so much respect while also being the clear favorite of many drivers. The entire track is very high-speed which, of course, is a blast but there is little margin for error without large consequence. The curbs are dramatically different at all of the corners and subsequently the cars accept varying usage at each corner. Local knowledge at this circuit would be a huge advantage.

And now I have seen for myself and can confirm that Eau Rouge cannot be captured properly in a photo or on video. It is a tremendous segment of high-speed compression with a blind exit – lots of fun, but to be taken seriously and difficult to master without leaving anything behind. The micro-climates that move across the 4.3-mile circuit make it additionally challenging, as it can be pouring rain on one corner and dry at another. I was glad to have familiarity with our car, the Porsche RSR.

Thursday was almost all rain with pockets of dry. The fans still came out and began to set up tents, and the energy and enthusiasm was palpable. These people love their motorsport! I was approached by several people who wanted autographs on pictures of cars I had raced at the junior formula level, and I found myself asking how they had obtained these photos. Corporate hospitality was massive and it was clear by the operations of the teams that the depth of talent in personnel ran deep, as well. By race day, the crowds had swelled so much that our pre-grid looked more like that of Formula One.

I started our race having logged only four or five intermediate/dry laps and maybe 20 laps total practice time. I still had no dry braking points or turn-in points and I still had yet to challenge the limits of the camber changes in the corners, as well as the curbing. I had to make my improvements methodically, especially in intermediate conditions with a wet track and marbles lying off the race line.
A 2nd in his first try at the Spa 24hr will have Miller coming back for more -- all with the goal of standing on the top step of the podium. (Paolo Briatico)

We had two pit stops that occurred exactly one lap prior to a caution flag, and in both instances we found ourselves on the unlucky end of having the pace car split the field and put us down a lap. Our pace was good to compete for the win, but the caution flags had effectively neutralized our contention barring an error or failure in the leading Ferrari.

In my last stint in the car, we had built up enough of a gap to those behind us that we could manage our pace and focus on bringing the car home. We finished second in GT2, fifth overall! It was a great birthday present that my team BMS/Brixia Racing had delivered, along with my co-drivers Luigi Lucchini, Martin Ragginger and Marco Holzer.

This is an event that I will have to come back to in the near future – I am hooked like the rest now. The feeling from both outside and inside the cockpit is very special. I think I will now also have to join the fraternity that says, “My favorite track is Spa.” Oh, and the Belgian waffles, chocolate and beer all stand up proud to their origins as well – I know because I tried them all.

~Bryce
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