Where do I start! I haven’t done a ring novel in a while so this may be a bit rusty. LOL

I booked the trip a couple of months ago and intended taking my Westfield over to go break the 8 minute barrier, which was well on the cards with me doing 8:10 whilst on low boost in hot weather. Needless to say that didn’t happen as I totalled the car a few weeks ago.

So instead of a 480BHP/tonne rocket I had my rather underrated, bog standard spec Impreza Sport 2 litre AWD Non Turbo, all 115BHP of it!!!! (90BHP/tonne!! LOL)

I set off for Dover after work Thursday night, just after seeing my westie towed away to it’s new owner who bought the salvage and is rebuilding it, pretty gutted about that but time to move on to the next project. I have it in my head I can resist another track car, or rather I did have it in there till I got to the ring. Back to that later. So I arrived at Dover at Midnight and found my room for the night, well sort of night, I was back up at 4:45 as Jon had booked the 6am Ferry and we had to be at the port and booked in by 5:30am! Remind me to give Jon a good kicking!! I don’t do mornings, everyone knows that! LOL

I met up with Jon at the port; he was taking his truck along with two R1 super bikes in the back to use on track. I was wondering where Rainey, Jon’s girlfriend was as she was due to be with us having come over from Dublin. I got the answer when Jon asked me to go to the back of his truck, only to find Rainey in there hiding. LOL She had forgotten her passport, oops! A fun way to meet Rainey again anyway, not the most conventional meets I have had. We got on the ferry and sailed at 6am, I met up with a lot of Jon’s Biking mates on the ferry for a chat, they are all barking mad, Phil Hacker was amongst them, that guy has had some serious stuffs on his bike and still keeps on riding the ring, his wife was telling me about one or two moments, I think cars are definitely my thing!! They were a great bunch of people, pretty nuts but good fun.

We arrived in Calais and I followed the truck up through France and into Belgium at a steady 70MPH, I usually travel that run at a hell of a fast pace. I got nearly 40MPG, I usually get around 20MPG on that run. LOL

When we arrived at the final fuel stop a pal of Jons took the truck and we headed north on a detour to pick up “another” car, just to run around in rather than the van, honest.

We then headed back down to nurburg across some stunning Eiffel mountain scenery, me following Jon and Rainey at a nice brisk pace. We arrived in nurburg about 2pm and unloaded the car then headed straight to the circuit, which was bone dry. I did a couple of sighting laps in my sport, taking it easy as I have standard one pot brakes and pads up front and drums up the rear!! and they aren’t up to a dry nurburgring at full (even 115BHP) pace. I instantly realized just how special my Westfield had been round there. I hadn’t really taken in the loss of that car until that first lap and I was gutted. Places I thought were flat were actually very steep inclines indeed, where I used to be doing 140MPH I was lucky to be doing 90MPH, the difference was that massive. It was hard to not feel depressed about the whole thing and the thought of 3 days on track was starting to **** me off big style, it was just too slow and not a challenge really. I then met up with a few friends who started to trickle in from there later eurotunell route and having a chat with them made me feel a lot better about the whole weekend. It was going to be fun after all! I did a few more laps in the “other” car and that was far more fun in the dry, more power, less grip so it was actually a challenge. Jon took the **** big style as I just wasn’t concentrating and my lines were seriously poo, not sure if I was on the ring or Silverstone at times. LOL

 

I then met up with Gareth Lloyd who arrived in his escort cosworth road car. Gareth is one of our most talented privateer race drivers, he drives an awesome 580BHP full race Escort Cosworth, without doubt the fastest racing escort cosworth in the world. He also races an Ex BTCC cavalier, plus drives a Ferrari F40 when he gets time (which I am now promised a ride round the ring in!). I have known Gareth a few years through the races he has done against the Esprit GT car I help run, he is very, very talented. Gareth won his class in the nurburgring 4 hour race last year and has done two 24hour races at the ring too; he knows the place like the back of his hand. The escort cossie he brought along was just his road going 350BHP car with 90,000 miles on the clock, koni suspension but huge 330mm AP racing brakes and 18” raceline alloys.

Gareth decided to do a lap so I sat with him. By T13 (3rd corner) I was thinking “holy ****” I have so much to learn! Gareth nailed it the whole lap, I kept looking at the speedo and thinking, bloody hell, it feels faster than that! Turns out it undereads by 10MPH so when it was showing 145MPH down the foxhole we were actually doing 155MPH, it felt like 200MPH to me. That was the most awesome lap I have ever had the privilege of being a passenger in, 130MPH sideways with the barriers 6 feet away and in total control, amazing stuff. I wish I timed it, it had to be an 8 minute BTG lap, it was that fast! Now I understand how people must have felt strapped into my westie doing those kinds of speeds on a track, I had no idea it was that wild a ride as a passenger, it’s a totally different experience when you are in control and know what you’re going to do next. I learned quite a lot that lap, and used that info for the rest of the weekend. Big thanks to Gareth for the rest of the weekend too, he showed a lot of people what is really possible in there car and made the whole experience a lot of fun for lots of people. Gareth is doing the 24hrs again this year; I may pop along and see this myself.

I then went to the hotel and booked in, I wasn’t in my usual place as that was full so I ended up right down the far side of nurburg (nearer the track though ), I haven’t a clue what the owner said to me all weekend, she didn’t speak English, not one word! I didn’t speak German, so I basically ignored her and just did my own thing. LOL She insisted on banging on my door at 8am for some bizarre reason? 8am start at the ring! I don’t think so!!! LOL

I had a good clean up and then headed down to the lindenhoff bar, my favourite Nurburg haunt. I told myself I must leave after 2 drinks and get some sleep; I had just 4 hours sleep last night plus all the driving from Manchester to the ring and was pretty tired. Well, true to form I ignored my own advice and found myself leaving at 3:30am, I was having too much of a good laugh as usual. I didn’t drink much though, pretty sensible on that front! It was great to meet up with some of the original gang from our ring trips plus plenty of newbie’s, some I knew from other meets in the UK, some I had chatted to for years on the net but never met, all fantastic people. I then pottered off to bed, what a hike that was, damn steep hill at 3:30am! LOL

Saturday morning arrived; as usual I missed most of it. Why change the habit of a lifetime? So I arrived at the track around 12:00, grabbed a bite to eat and drink then did a lap in my sport just to get my head into gear. It was raining, fan bloody tastic! That meant no bikers, which is very good news for the newbie’s in our group as they can be a handful at times, plus it meant I could play with my sport and use it to it’s limits and not be destroyed on sheer grunt, or rather lack of it, power meant a lot less in the wet, I still had the problem of being very slow up the steep hills but I could nail it in the corners and easily handle the turbo boys.

I then spent all day in the “other car” doing two laps driving then spending 2 laps taking the **** out of Jon as he drove. Jon instructs the bikers round the ring and has done lots more laps than me so I was learning all day from his lines, I taught him a thing or two myself in some places too. It was huge fun passing all the scoobs, Elise’s, Porsches etc in a 1.8FWD. I am not a big fan of FWD, I just don’t get on with it that well but it was still a lot of fun, I concentrated on getting my lines sorted in my head and smoothing out all the corners so they flowed from one into another, rather than being individual corners, it massively increases your pace when you can learn the track enough to do that. There were plenty of cars in the barriers at times, none of our group I think though, which was good! It always amazes me how many Porsche 911/996’s that end up written off when it rains at the ring, I think Saturday saw 3 Sunday 2! I know exactly what the drivers do wrong, having started out my driving by rallying a Hillman Imp, a car with a very heavy rear weight bias, you have to drive these cars with a different mental approach, where you would back off the throttle to save you when things get lairy in a normal car, do that in a 911 or similar and your dead meat, you have to keep the power on. It takes a lot of self training to do that and most drivers aren’t up to it, they don’t have the guts or don’t know that’s what you have to do, hence another written off porker. These people should take there cars somewhere safe and find the limits and how to cope with those rather than drive the ring, it’s just too dangerous a place to learn a new technique.

I had some fun taking a few passengers out in my sport also, I was trying to show how learning the track isn’t rocket science, driving quickly yet safely isn’t either, it’s all about taking your time and concentrating. There is no substitute for time on track though. One of the things I recognise most in people who are new to track driving is the fear of using the whole track, most tend to want to stay in the middle and follow the line of the road, rather than straightening out the track as much as possible. I think a few people understood this well and were really improving over the day, it was great to see.

Saturday night came and went as normal, plenty of time in the lindenhoff chatting with the gang. Yet again another late night, I can’t remember what time I left, but it was way past my bedtime. LOL

Sunday morning started with Herr Battleaxe bashing my door down at 8am, which true to form I ignored. I got up about 11am and looked outside to see snow. Yet again another trip to the ring of mine was hit by snow. The track was wet again and it was going to stay that way pretty much all day! Cool!!!

 

I took my sport out for a lap then came in and started to look around the car park for the “other” car so I could go play again. Less than a minute after parking up I get a call from Jon. “hi john, errrmmmm, I have crashed at aremburg, help!” hahahaha So I jump back in the impreza, I spot Louisa in the car park so commandeered her help too and we head out to see what’s what. I get there to find a rather muddy car with a few slightly *cough* scratched panels well and truly beached in the gravel. Jon lost it in one of the simplest yet most demanding high speed corners on the track and was very lucky with the way he span into the kitty litter, he just glanced the Armco as he span. After chatting for a moment Lou and I shot off and headed back to get a tow rope from the van, the marshals wanted to call the truck but we convinced them we could get it out so they decided to let us try. Having found the rope we headed back on track and drove round to aremburg again to find gossie in his stunning wagon ready to act as tow truck. First attempt was a complete disaster, it wasn’t moving, so Jon dug out the front wheel and we tried again. Like a true Muppet I stood right next to the front wheel and lifted the wheel arch, I duly got covered in mud as the wheels started spinning. Doh! The car shot out though so that was a few hundred quid saved in tow truck charges.

We then started to do a slow convoy down the track, after about 3 seconds I thought this wasn’t such a smart idea, sitting in line at 20MPH going down the foxhole so I decided to leave them too it as the car was driving OK and just left them driving the lap as per normal. I think everyone else got the same idea as they all arrived about a minute after me, no one was cruising, that’s for sure.

Having got the car back to the car park we decided to go give it an inspection and clean. I took the front wheels off and cleaned all the stones out of the brakes and tried to get as much out of the underside of the car as possible. What a mess!! Big thanks to Lou for helping out there too!!

The front, side and rear were not pretty! Oh dear!!! tomorrow was going to be interesting when the car was returned! I left Jon too it then and headed back down track, looks like it’s Impreza sport time all day then! I did a few more laps and took along a passenger as usual. My sport was fabulous fun in the wet, such a great balance to the chassis and with it’s relatively (for a scoob) soft suspension plus no rear anti-roll bar it gave it great traction in the wet. I have got a lot of the track to a point where I can now take a very smooth line making 2 or 3 corners blend into one continuous arc, driving a slow car like the sport has also allowed me to spot tiny little marker points I never spotted in the Westfield, I can remember things like where the tarmac has a 6” wider section on the edge and use that as a turn in point, stuff like that is clicking now. I can do that on most UK tracks but to feel that I have enough knowledge to start to apply that kind of level of detail at the ring is very satisfying. I have a tonne to learn yet, but I feel I have got some strong foundations to build on now. Spending the weekend in the sport and “other” car helped in this massively.

 

My final run of the weekend was a cracker, still wet but a few places had a dry line starting, with the last 2 miles very greasy again as it started to drizzle. I joined the track just behind gossie, taviaRS and the two reyland cosies. They were doing a run to film the cosies for redline magazine so I thought it would be fun to see if I could keep up. I had my 115BHP sport, Tavia has 180BHP in his Skoda RS I think? Gossie had his turbo wagon, 240BHP? Then there was the 3 door cossie with 420BHP? And then the real beast of martin’s 500BHP+ escort cosworth.

I passed the Skoda on the run up to T13 and was right with gossie through that and all the way through to flugplatz, I got a much faster exit from there than the cosies and scoob and pulled alongside gossie and was past by schwedenkreuz. I caught right up behind the two cosies braking into arenburg and lost some ground on the exit down the foxhole due to sheer grunt. I just kept it nailed through the foxhole though and at the top of the hill into adenaur forst I passed the 3 door cossie up the inside, I did that a bit gingerly just making sure he saw me before taking the line properly. It was then a case of trying to catch one of the fastest Escort Cossies alive and I just couldn’t manage that, I lost out big style on the fast uphill sections, just no power and he was gone. We then came upon a rather smashed up Porsche in wiperman, I had been catching what looked like an STi5 impreza and caught him at the crash scene so we all tootled past that, I then followed the STi and passed him at brunchen and then just took the rest of the lap at a quick pace. I pulled out a bit on the others through PfatzgartenII, I can take that flat now, it’s very fast and most of it is blind, you just have to have blind faith that the road will be there when you take the crests. All in all a top lap, great fun, very smooth too. I think my Sport surprised a few, knowing the circuit is a big advantage over horsepower in the majority of the lap, there are just a few places where power is absolute king and I didn’t have a hope in hell against the really quick escort cossie there.

So that was my driving over and done with. I went back to my room then, avoiding the mad German, who always stared at me as I entered the hotel front door, it was bizarre, as soon as I opened the front door she was out the back room as though her life depended on it, never said a word and watched me walk up stairs, then she disappeared, well strange! LOL

I got cleaned up from all the mud from digging out the “other” car then went down to Sabine’s bar for a meal. Sabine is the amazing woman who drives the ring taxi during the day; she has won the 24hr race at the ring twice, a very gifted driver. That was fun being waited on by an international race winner. I then popped over the road and spent the night in the lindenhoff with the gang and called it a day about 2am as I HAD to be up at 8am to go drop the “other” car back off. Bizarrely I didn’t get my door bashed down by the mad German. LOL

Jon and I then headed off to deliver a rather 2nd hand looking car. That was interesting! Top tip Jon, take the bloody old ring tickets out of the car BEFORE you drop it off next time! Especially when it’s a bit bent!!! What a plonker LOL

After negotiating that little moment we headed back to the ring. There was a racing school on with all sorts of exotica in attendance such as Ferrari 360 modena’s, GT3 race Porsches etc, I would have stuffed the lot in my sport but they wouldn’t let me go play. After taking a few photos I then left nurburg heading for Calais for the ferry. I left at 1:30pm and arrived at the ferry terminal at 5:15pm. 3hrs 45 mins is a hell of a good run, I love driving in Europe, they just get out of your way, unlike the UK where everyone thinks its there right to sit in the outside lane.

I caught the 5:45pm ferry, landed in Dover at 6:15 UK time only to find the M20 closed due to a truck overturning so I had to fight my way up to London on the A2. I didn’t need that! Still, it wasn’t too bad. I then decided to drive up the M1 to chesterfield rather than use the M6; I couldn’t face those roadworks in a bank holiday. I then blasted across the moors from chesterfield to Manchester and arrived home at midnight. Not a bad journey really.

Yet again my Impreza Sport has handled a long journey without missing a beat. It was a lot of fun to drive in the wet, once I accepted it was never going to be anything but slow on the really steep sections I had a lot of fun driving it on the circuit. Do I miss my 480BHP/tonne though!!! I’ll have a ponder about that one, I have these visions of a 5 litre V8 westie in my mind at the moment, that’s good for a very docile 400BHP or a very manic 450BHP if I build the engines Next trip to the ring should be with Jon’s Atom in tow, that’s a whopping 700BHP/tonne, which should be quite exciting round the ring.

Thanks to everyone that came along and made the trip a lot of fun, The ring is not a place to be taken lightly, it is very dangerous in places, I was very pleased with the way everyone handled the track side of the trip, there were a couple of oopsies but nothing major. It was great to have the cossie boys along too, I have a real soft spot for cosies having owned one and currently running a GroupA escort cossie forest car, plus of course my westie had a cossie turbo motor too.

Roll on the next ring trip, they are always fantastic fun!

John

 

Well here is my account of the weekend events!

My day started on the Thursday, still booking ferries for late Ringers! Loads of paperwork to do, so was up at stupid o’clock in the morning!!

Giles had bought an R1, unfortunately it had a new engine and so needed running in and servicing. Due to a couple of silly hiccups it wasn’t going to schedule, but Giles finally managed 700 miles by the service time at 17:00…Picked the bike up at 19:00 thanks to Charlie Pittick for a good service and working late!!!

Had to go and meet my girlfriend Rainey on the Friday Morning so didn’t get any sleep that night. Her dad was driving down to London from Dublin so it seemed convenient to pick her up on the M40, only problem was it was 02:00 and the ferry was at 05:00. Stopped at Clacket Lane for 20 mins snooze and then legged it to Dover…Damn van will only cruise at 65-70 mph. The rabble started rolling in to the port. We were taking a couple of people across along with Phil Hacker. John Felstead eased his way into the port looking like a man that hates Mornings!! Hehe. Joppy arrived in his P1 and then we could get going.

The ferry was an amusing time as someone forgot their passport so some fast thinking was needed……So we hid her LOL we didn’t fiddle anyone, just didn’t need the questions.

Once we were across the waters we loaded all the bikes luggage into the back of the van and then set off. Joppy and John followed the van for a while, but after about half an hour Joppy got bored so I briefly saw the **** end of P1 as it disappeared into the distance!! (please note that was the last time I saw a Scooby disappear off like that!!!) Stopped at a couple of services to check everyone was all present and correct then at SPA Giles drove the rest of the way to the Ring while John took myself and Rainey to Airport to get the Audi….. Up an till this point John was getting 40 to the gallon, amazing double that of his normal trips, LOL..

Both John and I were insured on it, but I we were both expecting a 4 wheel drive 220bhp mean machine. Instead we got a 180 ish front wheel drive, and it was a let down. It did have the ability to put the roof down, so I thought Ben would appreciate it if nothing else…Taking of Ben, you did phone at the most inopportune moment, whilst overtaking up a hill with a car heading towards us. Then we were going through the tunnels so no signal to phone you back….

Made it to the Ring for 14:00 dropped the bags off into the room and then time to get a new pass. As soon as it was ready Rainey and I hit the Ring in the Audi. Well roof down helmets on and away we went, all very civilised it has to be said. The engine was still tight due to the 2300kms on it, so it needed some TLC, why they gave it to me I don’t know, it spent its time on the ring with the needle between 5 and 8 thousand rpm LOL. It did have the desired affect and the engine loosened up. After a couple of dial in laps we started timing and we were able to achieve comfortable 10:30’s. Changing the tyre pressures from the Europcar standards: 44 psi front 39 rear, to 35 all round helped loads. It was then that the car asked to be spanked. I didn’t dream it, I remember it well, it said to me Jon, for it new my name, spank me like you’ve never spanked a wench before. So I did. The time came tumbling down to 9:25 respectable I thought. There was still room for improvement so as the day drew in I thought that the next day would possibly give us a sub 9:00…

That night was spent in the Lindenholf with surprising little alcohol. Sparky was trying to explain that he had done nothing wrong, but managed to loose the GSXR at T13. And stories of old were told. An early night was definitely called for, so we slopped off early.

 

The sub 9:00 was not to be. The rain came in overnight, when we don’t know cos most came to bed at 4:00 and it was still dry. Drove around trying to find bits for Sparky’s bike. But unless we had taken a trip to Bonn there was no-one with any Gixxer bits at all. Hit the ring around 10:00 and started to relearn the place in the wet again. Met up with Gareth Lloyd and knowing that he is a quick one, asked him to come on a criticism lap. He showed me a couple of new lines and in general was quite comfortable with my driving apart from a silly error of braking into the right-hander before Breidscheid. This done Gareth offered me a lap in the passenger seat of his Escort Cosworth. He is mad, never before have I sat next to a more capable driver. He had already done a 9:25 in the wet that morning, so I put the clock on him for this lap. He is so clam, we were breaking into 4 wheel drifts and he was turning to me and chatting as though we were driving through town. When we got to the said corner at the top of Breidscheid he proved a point of accelerating the whole way through, unfortunately when we got to the turn in point for the left-hander we were going a little too fast, oversteer ensued and then we were suddenly pointing back up the circuit Ben style. With inches to go we stopped, an oh bugger was said and away we went. We still managed a 9:40, so the guy is a god!

With my newfound lines I set off to beat the 11:10’s for that morning. Well I must have been going through fields (actually they came later!) before cos the times were tumbling, and I was making up to 10:40’s. I started to then adjust my braking points and found that I could get down to 10:24.

By 13:00 John finally managed to drag himself out of bed LOL I went and collected Rainey from the Room she was desperately trying to do her Chemistry project for her final year at Uni. We headed down for lunch or breakfast in John’s case and then hit the track again. John and I took turns of doing 2 laps each. It was such a giggle as the pair of us just sat there slagging each others lines and complementing the odd fluke or two!! We got a fair few laps in doing this. Jason asked if I wanted to take his Scooby round, so being I have never looked a gift horse in the mouth I started the engine before he had chance to change his mind…Wanted to take Rainey out for a lap that didn’t involve having a picnic up Kesselchen, we managed a full power drift in the long left-hander after Bergwerk at 120mph…I just giggled…Jason turned to Rainey with a worried look on his face LOL

I must have done something good as when we got back in he offered another lap. This time the drifts were longer and more frequent, but I didn’t (wasn’t allowed to) put a clock on it.

I owe Jason a big thanks for that one, as that was another highlight of the day!!

John and I then went out for more laps, I was still king of the TT with my 10:24 staying untouched by Felstead hands hehe. We were still overtaking all insight, Scoobies, Elises, Cosworths, it was kewl! Nothing could stop us or so I thought!!!

That night was spent getting very drunk at the Lindenholf. Ben Pike had been getting quite tasty at the place. He was a very confident guy and I think judging from the cars he had previously owned he was a capable person. He had a Civic type R, and having raved about the thing I was looking forward to seeing how this thing handled itself at the Ring. I overheard him saying that he was starting to get to know the place and was looking forward to pushing the car on the Sunday. I had to tell him to take it easy at the place as it would only bite him! This was quite Ironic really, just no-one realised it at that moment.

 

Another early night was called for but that turned into an early ish night. Woke up the next morning to see a bright light coming through the curtains…For a moment I got excited thinking there was a chance of a dry day, only to find snow on the ground. Still I went down to the track and asked if they had any thoughts on opening. They confirmed that it would open by 10:00. I went down to the petrol station and filled up and did stuff, then on arriving back to the gates the marshal was collecting the barriers, so I was first out!!!

Nice gentle lap, looking out for snow, the place was a mess…. Blossom everywhere and slush up at Wippermann but we carried on. Dragged Rainey out of bed at about 12:00 and then went out for a lap, and something to eat. After dropping her back to carry on with her project I went out for some more laps. I was due to take a break for the GP at 14:00 but I offered a lap with Pikey just before…. All was going well and I think we were set to beat the 10:24, but I had to push the limit of the car. I came into Schwedenkreuz at about 220kph and scrubbed some speed off, before getting back on the throttle and turning in… I have been very wary of the stories of lift-off oversteer. So was very careful to get each corner right. But this was unpredictable. The thing just let go; the back whipped away and despite steering in within milliseconds and keeping my foot firmly planted the car just spun on the grass. We were now going backwards at 100 odd miles an hour with me looking over my shoulder. I managed to get the car spun back but before I could locate the track we were in the gravel. And we were in deep. Look at http://www.pikeynet.com/ for full photos of the incident including a 10 second video of the spin.


The other case of Irony is that not only a week earlier I replied to a mail on the list saying how the hell do people crash at Schwedenkreuz, well now I know it comes from asking silly questions!!


A worried couple of phone calls to John and Rainey and we soon had a few people out helping get the car out of the kitty litter. We eventually got the car out with the help of my climbing rope (best tow rope in the world!!) and then gingerly made it back to the car park. The Marshal’s were very good to us by giving us some time to get the thing out before contacting Bongard!!

Sabina, Ben, Neik and Euan all gave there approval of my spin. But thanks for the Chinese whispers. Mike had a small incident at T13 with his Escort Cosworth but according to the whispers I had hit him. Need to clear this up it wasn’t me!!!

Cleared up all the gravel from the brakes and other bits, and then got back out on the place. Louisa was kind enough to help with the recovery so I gave her the chance to be the first out again!! At first it was hard to convince her I was safe enough. Best quote was “These heated seats make you feel as though you have **** yourself!“ what a lady, LOL.

Managed another 5 laps before diner. Most of the bikes that were with us were now on the ferry as the weather had beaten them! L

Monday brought us amazing weather. The Ring had been rented to a motorsport club and there were some very tasty bits of kit out there. John and I took the TT back to the airport. They checked the car in and to start off with only looked at the petrol and mileage 1100 Ring Kms!. It was as he was looking at the registration he noticed a large gash in the front bumper. His face was a picture when having stood back to look at the damage he was met with the scars on the right-handside!

I was doing very well at convincing him that the damage was nothing to do with me until he found a ring ticket DOH! But it was very unfortunate that my credit card was stolen the night before and I had to cancel it.

We then legged it!!!

Grabbed Rainey and hit the Ring with the Bike. Managed 4 laps 2 two up and 2 without. On the last lap it rained so ended up picking up a couple of bikers that had fallen off. Took Dave’s bike home in the van, and then went down to the beer place and picked up 440 bottles of beer. Its going to be a big party!!

That was it a long journey back in the van, and a flight for Rainey back to Dublin.

Oh and then to find myself on countless websites with my head in my hands looking a bit miffed!

What a fantastic weekend!!!

 

Was there any doubt?!

 

Yup! LOL

 

Hey, hope you guys had an excellent weekend. Actually, seeing what's been posted already, I know you did!!!

Seeing as I'm a BMW driving tosser (in Harj's words?) I don't like to post on here too much, but then seeing as I go to the Ring a lot, I feel I can sometimes post on this particular forum???

I arrived in Nurburg at 2.30am on Friday night/officially Saturday morning. Driving through the village, I saw that Sabine's Fuchsrohre restaurant had closed, but the Lindenhof was still rocking. Needing a beer after a long late night journey, I wandered up there for a beer. On opening the door, I knew immediately that the Scoobynetters had arrived! The stereo was up at full blast; Stef was behind the bar with Renate; and some bloke was up on the table trying to dance with a blown up condom and a chair over his arm! After 15 mins waiting for a beer at the bar, I figured being 10+ hours behind you guys on the beers made me feel out of place, so I went home for some sleep.

Conditions on the track were crap on both Saturday and Sunday. All the laps I did on those two days I didn't enjoy - it's too dangerous a track in the wet. Came out on one lap following a dark coloured MY02 STi and a light green old style Impreza with a Ring sticker on the back. Got past both of them by T13 in the wet (with Harj in the passenger seat of the green one), but it looked like the green one was giving a training lap to the black one - I'm sure they were ultimately faster than I was.

Met up with Harj - the main man - briefly on the Saturday evening in the Fuchsrohre - where we agreed to swap passenger laps the following day - unfortunately I was drinking till 5am on the Sunday moring, so made the sensible decision not to drive at all on the Sunday. I left Stef in the Lindenhof around 5am, and he'd obviously had a skinful, Sorry, I mean was enjoying himself. Funny how I didn't see STEF 1 out the whole weekend.

Saw Matt Oz in his 'new' grey Skyline coming out behind me the following day at start on one lap. I knew he was quicker in a 330d than I was in my 328i, so expected to see him come blasting past me, but he didn't. My mate Dave who had followed me out in his maroon TVR Griffith complained that evening that the Skyline had held him up all the way to Miss Hit Miss before he could get past. I told him the Skyline had a problem, but I didn't know what? I'd be interested to knwow what?

Not a lot else to tell, other than I got in five quick laps (round about 9-9.10 mins btg) on Monday afternoon when the track eventually dried.

Having yet again experienced a weekend where the Ringers and the Scoobynetters were there at the Ring together, I reckon we ought all to get together for a big time social evening on a trip soon. There's no question we all like our beer, we like the Ring, and I for one would like to get some laps in your Scoobys. However, we seem always to manage to separate ourselves

There's a lot of people over the last weekend I would have liked to have gone out with passenger laps with - Stef, Harj, MRK, Matt Oz, Octavia RS, to name but a few, but we all seemed to keep to our own groups. Let's be a bit more sociable next time, OK?

EMD

(edited to remove rude word


[Edited by Eat My Dust - 5/8/2002 5:46:18 AM]

 

My version of event went like this.

Petrol (9 tankfulls)
Laps (30)
Beer (dont know)
(plenty)

I am addicted to the ring. I am now looking at buying another car just to go back there!! I keep waking up thinking about it!

Thanks to John for a lap in the "other car" (before you know what ) Tavia for a lap in the unmodified skoda Clarebabes for not crashing In fact everyone it was cool!!





[Edited by davyboy - 5/8/2002 9:31:11 PM]