Friday 5th August 2011
We all met at Guildford, Surrey at 5am and left for Dover soon after. The ferry departed at 8am and arrived at Dunkerque at approx. 10am (so 11am French time). Once all sat-nav's had been set, we headed to the first services as one of the Evo's was already running low on fuel since leaving England. So after a half an hour drive, stop and fill up, we were back on our way. We arrived at Eddy's "Hotel An Der Nordschleife" about four hours later. We checked in, chucked bags into the room and headed to the 'Ring. Upon arriving, a few cars were going on but the sirens soon came on and the track was closed. The marshalls didn't know for how long and as it was around 6/6:30pm, we decided to get something to eat. First night it was off to Pistenklause in Nurburg. Finishing off a lovely steak on a stone and a beer, we decided to head back to the hotel for a few drinks and an early'ish night.
Saturday 6th August 2011
Waking up and down at breakfast for 9am, we left and headed to the 'Ring around 10am. The weather was a mix of wet and dry but that didn't stop us and everybody else buying our lap cards and getting onto the track. The day was successful. We drove up to Brunchen to watch some of the action. We saw a few near misses as well as a few crashes and a German BMW Z4 having a nasty meeting with the armco. After a couple of hours, we headed back to the main entrance to get some more laps in. It got to 7pm and we decided to head back to the hotel. I asked Eddy to book us a table at an Italian at the other end of Adenau (Aviano). The food and drink was very nice and instead of getting a taxi back to the hotel, we walked back through Adenau and stopped off at a couple of pubs/bars, including Blau Ecke where Eddy was sitting outside with a few friends. It then started to pour down and once it calmed, we headed out to find another pub. I remember from previous years, we went into what was a sports bar with pool tables, darts, etc... I remember that time people smoking inside. We found it again this year, walked to the door, smelt the smoke so decided against it. We walked further down and realised there weren't going to be anymore pubs so we stopped off at the Murco petrol station for a few beers before heading back to the hotel and our balcony. After a few beers were consumed, we decided to call it a night.
Sunday 7th August 2011
Again... we were up and down at breafast for 9am. The weather was better and so we decided to head to the 'Ring a little earlier. We tried to drive straight on but found it was closed. We didn't know how long this was going to be for so we grabbed something to eat at the cafe/restaurant there. The 'Ring then re-opened but the "slip risk" sign appeared on the digital display near the barriers. About half an hour later, we were ready to get back onto the 'Ring and then saw it had closed again. We all decided to chip in towards one of the onboard cameras and so we hired that for four hours. Instead of waiting and queueing up, we spoke to a couple of the people in the passenger ride portacabin thing who said they think they knew where the incident was and so we decided to go for a drive. Anyway, we couldn't find it so went back to the 'Ring to find it was still closed. Eventually the 'Ring opened... three hours after closing and so it was a mad rush to get back on it. We got the camera set up and off we went, putting it in different cars, etc... About 6pm, we gave the camera back and took our memory card. A few of us went back on for more laps and it was one of my last laps where I went on, went to overtake a (British) Clio Cup and once overtaking him, I realised I had never overtaken somebody here before and there was a reason for it... BANG! I clipped one of the kerbs, which resulted in a knocking. I came off at Breidscheid and noticed a slightly bent wheel. So similarly to two years ago, I bent the OSF shock
The wheel however was fine but that was it for me. Wasn't a big loss though as I managed to get a couple of passenger laps. So the 'Ring eventually closed and we headed back to the hotel. A little bit more chilled this night, we decided to eat just outside the hotel so grabbed a burger and chips and some drinks. We got the laptop out, put the videos up and had a giggle watching those. It wasn't going to be a late one that night so we were all in bed by 11pm.
Monday 8th August 2011
Breakfast was a little later that day as the 'Ring was closed so didn't have to rush. So we decided to kill some time by going on the indoor karts, which opened at 2pm. 11 Euro's for 10mins wasn't too bad and I came 2nd so was happy with that
We then went to the shops and bought some clothes/gifts/merchandise and then grabbing a Subway. By this time it was around 3:30pm so we decided to head to the taboggans outside of Adenau. While driving, a road closure was in place so we had to drive through one of the picturesque towns, which took a while. We soon arrived at the taboggans and had a giggle there as well as a few off's. Haha! Approaching 5pm, we decided to head back to the hotel and then the 'Ring. I jumped in with a mate to improve his lap time, which we did by one minute
I then jumped in with my mate in his Evo 7. Just after Adenauer Forst, one of his pipes came off so we rolled down the hill, pulled up behind the armco and attempted to fix it. We had no choice but to them come off at Breidscheid, into Eddy's garage and fix it. It wasn't long before we back on the 'Ring. However, this wasn't so goood. It started raining quite heavy by this point. We approached Adenauer Forst and as we applied power to head down the straight, the back end kicked out, my mate tried to correct it but we slid sidewards across the track, grass and into the armco. It hit my side so my head hit the passenger window. We tried to start the car but nothing. Not good. A German car stopped and helped flagged some cars down, which was nice of him. We called for assistance, including the ADAC. The marshalls arrived soon after, sprayed the damaged barriers/posts and told my mate to go with him to the office while I went with the car and lorry to sort out recovery. Once sorting that out, I met my mate at the office where they demanded 3,400 Euro's (£3k) from him. He didn't have that money on him but he said he had it in savings. I told him to jump on their computer and transfer the money. However, this was only £1k. I therefore had to lend him the additional £2k. Anyway, once that was sorted out, we headed back to the hotel to get the cars ready to go. Our ferry was due to leave shortly before midnight but because of the incident, we had to go the later, but we would be struggling to get that. Anyway, in a mad rush back to the port, we caught the 2am ferry and I eventually got home and into bed at 5:30am. It was a looong day and night.
I have already found some photos of our cars on track...
So apart from a few mishaps, it was an amazing weekend. I was chuffed in getting 10 laps in before my incident and getting a 9:45, which is a 30 second improvement on last year
