SPA Francorchamps is one of the most famous racing circuits in the world.

This fast and daunting 4.5 mile circuit in the middle of the Ardennes forest has been famous as a road racing circuit for more than sixty years.

It also is well-known for its rapid-changing weather conditions.

Local rider Charlie Fazackerly, riding in his fourth European Supermono championship race of the season on his 600cc Yamaha, arrived at the circuit for practice on the 31st of September with the weather perfect for his first-ever circulation of the world's fastest road circuit.

The spectacular Eau Rouge section which is in effect a chicane that begins with a steep downhill approach followed by a steep hill, this is the most challenging part of the circuit and one were many riders come to grief.

The top riders claim to take the chicane flat out at some 160 mph, but as much as Charlie tried, he just had to touch the brakes for his own peace of mind.

Eau Rouge was followed by long straights and fast sweeping bends.

On one of his fastest qualifying laps he almost came off the bike at some 150mph, giving him quite a scare.

This first qualifying session of only four laps, saw him in 37th position out of 60 competitors.

In the second qualifying session, he improved his lap times by more than 12 seconds which brought him 27th place on the starting grid which was a most welcome improvement.

The rain started Saturday evening and did not stop all night. It was still raining by the time the race started on Sunday.

A combination of the large number of bikes and the very wet weather meant that within seconds of the green light, visibility was the worst that he has ever had to deal with in a race.

Slipstreaming at nearly 150 mph in those conditions was not the safest way to enjoy a Sunday afternoon's ride.

As each lap passed he noted a lot of riders dragging themselves out of many of the gravel traps around the circuit after they had fallen off their bikes.

He did not let this put him off as his Yamaha SZR was proving itself to be working better than ever.

He was swapping places backwards and forwards so many times that he never knew what position in the race he was.

On the last lap he made a mistake on one of the corners losing three places and as a consequence ended up in 17th position.

After completing only 10 practice laps before the race he was more than pleased with the result, especially after learning that British rider Spencer Cook had done enough with a sixth place finish to win the European Championship.

Charlie and his helpers could do nothing more but celebrate a good weekend.

The following weekend it was down to earth again, racing at The Three Sisters track near Wigan, were he had entered his 600cc Yamaha and a borrowed Seeley Commando bike for 12 races during the day.

The day started wet, dry, wet, dry and was the story of the day as it made tyre choice very difficult under the conditions.

Inevitably some of the decisions were wrong but on the whole he did pretty well.

The day was so hectic that he couldn't remember all the results, but countings his trophies at home he found that he had scored six second places and had won the final race of the day.