Saturday

After a boys weekend away last week, Clare was feeling a little left out so, Dave managed to plan a meeting in Germany for the Monday which would allow time for a quick visit to the 'ring.

The week before consisted of making sure the car was ready and that included some spare front pads and a new set of rear tyres to match the fronts.

When they got near Dover there was massive traffic problems starting around 1 mile from the end of the M20. This traffic jam was still apparent on our return, not sure if it is caused by the schools breaking up or the extra checks taking place, but the best advice would be to use the A2. After leaving plenty of time they were 5 minutes late checking in for their ferry, but a little bit of sweet talking and Clare fluttering her eye lashes got us on the ferry we had booked. The check-in clerk made Clare and Dave laugh when he was handed the booking details and passports, he told them "I don't want those [passports], the frogs should have checked them!". How very PC.!

The ferry was also a little late docking, but they were on the E40 by 12 noon. After a conversation with Ross and Euan, Dave thought he would give the E42 a try instead of the "road to hell". This route saved 15 min on the journey time, so is definitely recommended, even with a diversion which was far from clear to follow.

They were staying at the Jung Stroof for this weekend, so the bags were dumped and a jar or Marmite was delivered to Karl, although he was in the pub, so a cup of coffee with Claire was enjoyed.

As usual for Saturday evenings, the track opened later the planned at 5.50pm so Clare and Dave went out and did a couple of sighting laps each and get familiar with the car on new tyres. During Dave's 2nd lap, he had a good lap following a German Integra. After a fairly even lap, Dave finally overtook him just before Stielstreke as he kept a higher speed through Mutkurve. Nothing more was thought of him until a Mercedes held Dave up at Hohe Acht, and the Integra was right behind the Clio again. He was right on it's tail through Wipperman before having the mother of all tankslappers! Both Dave and Clare really thought he had lost it, and in fact slowed down to watch it all in the mirrors! The track was closed on return to the car park.

After a short closure the track reopened and Dave and Clare thought they should have enough time for one more lap each. In fact Clare managed to sneak in 1 more on what was to be interesting lap to say the least! A British GT3RS was very close behind her though Fucshore and it pressured her take it faster than ever before! Quite how she kept the car on the Black stuff after the fast right is anyone's guess! After Adenau Forst it looked as it the GT3RS was about to overtake Clare on the right resulting in some colourful language in both cars! Dave managed to grab a word with the driver in the car park and clear up any "misunderstanding" they may have had.

The day was finished with a nice meal in the Pistenklause, followed with some beers in the Lindenhoff with Soren and Johannes.

Sunday

Clare, as keen as mustard was awake at 7am and was desperate to have breakfast so that no track time would be missed! Dave began to wonder just what had he created! Before they went to the track, they filled up with petrol and tried a slightly higher tyre pressures (up 3psi) to reduce some of the instability the new tyres were giving.

The Clio got to the completely empty car park at 8.15am and Clare went straight out and did a sighting lap, and then Dave did 2 laps. The tyres were certainly feeling a lot better, not great, but certainly better.

After a short break, Clare followed Karl around for a couple of laps and were both held up by an Austrian Porsche driver who did little to let the Golf and Clio pass. Later, Dave took the 'Kellogs accountant' out for a lap and then Dave and Clare took it in turns to do 2 laps each on a really nice clear track. During one of these laps, Clare was timed and she did a very respectable 9.22 with some traffic. During one of Dave's laps, he followed 2 bikers in to Breidscheid only to watch one of them "do a Ross". Fortunately he went in to the tyres very slowly and got straight up away.

Lunch was taken at the Pizza place on the 257, although this turned out to be at the wrong time because the track was closed when they returned. It opened 20 mins later, but closed after one lap due to 4 crashed bikes and a car around Wipperman. The track was closed for over an hour, with the ADAC helicopter flying over the car park.

By the time the track reopened, the rain had started and Clare went out to do a lap with Dan the Man following in his DC5 Integra Type R. It was raining at all sections of the track, but there was still some grip around, but the rain on the windscreen made Dave feel rather uncomfortable!

By the time Dave went out for a lap the track was pretty well soaked, although he thought he would drive around anyway because he could! On the 2nd of the slow wet laps, Dave and Clare came around Schwedenkreuz to find a red Peugeot 205 GTi on it's side in the Aremburg gravel trap. They stopped just before the bridge and ran to help the owner push the car back on its wheels. As they got near, they could see there was still someone else in the car who was still trying to get out - it was the driver's girlfriend. When she finally emerged Dave was expecting her to be quite distressed, but instead she was laughing hysterically!! He was both impressed and dissapointed at the red 3 series that came around the corner sideways as we were putting the car on it's wheels. Impressed that he held such a nice drift, unimpressed that he did it at that time!

After a few more laps it was obviously not going to clear up, so they made a move at 5pm to drive to Bielefeld.