Gary left work at
1pm Friday afternoon and along with 4 of his ‘virgin’
work colleagues started the long arduous trip to Germany.
Not far along the way a potential M20 closure problem
reared its ugly head. Luckily this didn’t affect
the trip to Gillingham where they met up with Dave who
had a similar length journey.
With the M20 problem
still looming the two cars, 2005 boxter and civic type
R continued on their way. The going was slow but they
arrived in Dover just on time. Unfortunately the ferry
didn’t, it was delayed for the best part of an
hour so they had to wait it out.
Dave as always was
doing mental calculations of times. It being Friday
at some point in the proceedings he would HAVE to drink
beer. This was not optional. It was looking like they
wouldn’t arrive at the ‘ring’ until
1.30am, so a beer was still a possibility. The journey
didn’t quiet go to plan and although several SMS
messages to Euan showed the bar still open the guys
just weren’t close enough.
2.40am saw the tired
crew arrive and although they were too late to go for
beer Dave hadn’t let that stop him having consumed
5 pints over the course of the journey.
The cars were collected
from Ring Racing at around 9am leaving 3 hours for Dave’s
broken suspension to be replaced. Quick work and a bit
of bad language saw this finished in-time to get to
Adenau for the VLN start. Gary nipped to Karl’s
house on the way to drop off some bits and pieces he
brought over only to be told by Claire that Karl was
still in bed having been somewhat poorly the night before.
What that actually meant was that Bren and Karl had
both been sick in the pub the night before.
The guys started
watching the race at Wehrseifen and moved around the
circuit finishing up in and around Pflanzgarten. Watching
full race cars being dragged off the circuit and unceremoniously
dumped in the public car-park was somewhat amusing.
A late opening due
to scrapping more VLN cars off the track than expect
meant only 45 mins of track open time, but that was
enough for a sighter lap and a pax lap in the Type R.
All in all not a bad day at the track.
Saturday evening
started with a beer at the Lindenhoff and ended in the
Pistenklause drinking even more beer with Eaun, Espen,
Tor Helge, Jochen and Mickel.
The walk up the hill to the Jung Stroof was a long one
and consisted mostly of aiming and trying to walk.
Breakfast was duly
consumed by Dave and the rest of the guys, Gary decided
it was time to nip back to the room and visit the big
white telephone. He explained his last pint of the evening
had been a bad one !!
A trip to the track
to see why it wasn’t open and who was using it
found a multitude of old time exotica. To name a few
16 De lorean’s, around 10 GT40’s not convinced
by the authenticity of some though, batwing CSL BMW,
NSU race car, etc etc. It really was a sight for sore
eyes. Back at the track for opening time and it was
time for the fun to begin. Both the 205 and the 944
had busy days. They both had full passenger seats the
whole day, fun in the most but every now and then its
nice to have a quick solo lap. Tor Helge, Espen, Mickel
all went in the 205 and enjoyed the experience. Dave
was doing the same with the 944. Both agreed it was
nice to now have a few return pax laps in their back
pockets for later in the season.
As well as the more
experienced passengers the guys also took out complete
novices. The look on their faces when they exited the
cars was great to see, a couple of them complaining
bitterly of nausea.
Gary as usual was
off talking to just about anyone, he also got some interesting
pax laps. Being a TVR owner for 7 years in the past
himself a trip in a new TVR T350 was a treat for him.
He explained that the raw power of the car was impressive,
but more so was the cars handling ability. A far cry
from its older oversteer roots. How it will survive
the test of time would have to be seen but for now it
seemed a good quick ring car.
Dave had an interesting
lap where Sabine in the ring taxi passed him on the
entrance to Adenau Forst. She then proceeded to light
the rear tyres up and drift the whole way through the
complex, very impressive.
Gary had a short
excursion to rescue Karl who had broken down on the
road home. So for the second month running Gary found
himself being dragged down the road by Karl’s
Mondeo. He is now wondering if Karl has some kind of
strange fetish.
All too quickly
the track closure time came around. The day had been
good, clear and pretty quite. A couple of short closures
hadn’t spoiled the fun. The Porsche as usual had
performed impeccably, Gary’s 205 was smoking more
than normal pointing towards a valve seal problem which
would need to be solved during its Winter engine rebuild.
More beer was drunk
at the Lindenhoff before ending up with steak on the
stone at Pistenklause and some nice conversations with
Tor Helge, Espen and Mickel.
The trip home was quite quick an
uneventful leaving Gary with a 6 week wait till his
next trip and Dave having only 5 days to wait for his.
