A 3.30am start had Gary and the Mondeo at Dover in plenty of time to catch the 6.25am crossing. The weather on route had been horrendous to say the least. An uneventful crossing and Gary was on his way to Nurburg as planned. The drive was reasonably quiet other than the awful weather which slowed things down in places.
On arriving at Nurburg Gary went straight to check the 205 out at Olly's. Thankfully it was ready. The F1 circus had come to town
A phone call from Steve G revealed that he was around too so Gary nipped to the house to meet up with him and Jochen. Half hour and a pizza later Gaute, Anders and Johan arrived in their machines. A couple of very interesting M3's
Steve had to go to Tom's to check on progress with his car so everyone went to have a look. This gave Gary chance to check out the other cars. With 640bhp the grey car looked like a serious supercharged machine.
Back at the house the guys decided to nip to the Pistenklause for a quick drink and to chill out. Gaute couldn't wait to have his picture taken next to a famous car
It appeared like karl had his picture on the wall too
That done the guys collect the 205 and nipped to the Nordschleife where apparently Alonso and Hamilton were due to do a lap. Bored of waiting the guys went back to the house.
From there they nipped to Adenau to have a beer in the comfy corner with Karl
Then it was back to the PK to have a meal and see who else was in town.
Jim looking rather fetching
The Clio was in town
Saturday
Although the alarm wasn't due to go off till 6pm Gary was up and about at 5.30. By 6am he was out cleaning the car ready for the photoshoot.
At 7.30 Gary / Steve and around 150 others were in the Car park getting a large bollocking from Graham (RMA). The purpose of the bollocking, who knows, apparently it's the way Graham does things. I guess when you have to deal with a lot of people who have more money than they know what to do with you have to get their attention somehow.
At 8am the track opened, but not as Gary had hoped. The straight from the car park to Chicane was being used as a coach park for the F1. Cars therefore had to drive this section at 15mph. Then it was through the old pits and a pedestrian crossing manned by an official. Once through there you got to the last checkpoint at T13 where you were let free. Gary was the second car on track and enjoyed a quiet lap, dropping Jochen off half way round. At the end of the lap he decided to go straight back out. Here he got his first telling off for not joining the line of people being told what to do. Having joined it once he didn't think it necessary to join it again. A pattern was emerging.
Having completed his second lap Gary was beginning to get an eye of the exotica on show. It ranged from his 205
To caterhams, many of which were on slicks
To Atoms
To modified 340R's
Zackspeed V8 stars
The usual aria of Porsches including full race cup cars
One lucky guy had his choice of a couple of Ferraris.
Plus loads of other lovelies
Gary met up with Jim C, Kenny and Phil and it was decided that the photography would start immediately. So they went to T13 and found a quiet spot on the track to get started.
The stig had been drafted in to drive the Clio
Once this was complete Kenny wanted to get some action shots with the Clio and the 205 on track. He went to various points on the track and got the others to drive past in close formation for the pics. The rest of those laps were spent playing like mad men to see which of the cars had the upper hand. The 205 pulled a couple of yards in a couple of sections and the Clio got them back up Kesselchen. In all there was nothing to choose between the pair of them though.
Once these laps were complete Gary was free to lap as he wished. This gave plenty of time for big game hunting. Following, but not catching a fire spitting F40 was fun to say the least. The 205 started becoming a busy pax lap car, it appeared to be gaining a little respect in the car park.
Gary spent some time taking pics
Gary's last lap of the day saw a man waving wildly at Spegelcurve just before Miss hit miss. A Porsche had gone in heavy just round the corner. Gary got the flag out and did his stuff for the next 30 minutes. He was very disappointed with the actions of the other drivers. They slowed a little but not a lot. In an act of defiance Gary throw the flag at one offender as he passed.
When the track closed he drove past the incident. The GT3RS had gone in VERY heavily at the entrance to MHM come back across the track hit again and finished up half on and half off the track. The car was clearly a write off. Luckily no-one was badly hurt.
Gary / Steve /Andrew M and Gaute left the track and went to the Chinese to look at Vbox figures. It would transpire that Gaute's 7mins 01 seconds T13 on lap would have equated to a 7.37 BTG had the full circuit been in use. Frighteningly quick
Guate on track pic
The guys nipped to the PK to have a beer and meet up with Jochen. Here they decided to walk to the Grand Prix circuit to see what was going on. A big party was the answer. When the GP comes to the ring it comes in a big way.
Gary started to feel ill and needed to return to the house. Back at the house things got worse with Gary being sick from both ends. Not a good finish to the day.
Sunday
The alarm went off at 7am and Gary decided to stay in bed for a while longer. At 9.45am he awoke again and went to the track. He took one of Blow Dog (scoobynet) friends for a passenger lap before deciding he felt too ill to continue. He made the decision to run for home there and then. By 12.30 he was back in the Mondeo and on his way home. After P&O took £50 from him he got the 5.35pm ferry back to blighty. 9pm he was home and tucked up in bed.
An excellent weekend marred only by Gary's illness.
