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Reports - June 2006


	Gallery of this visit can be found HERE
FRIDAY 9th June 5am start for Gary, Rob and Josh. Rob had his foot down and the first 100 miles were completed in one hour.


They had to wait for Simon to arrive so they went for a fat boy breakfast each. Caught the early tunnel at 7.58am. Quick crossing and easy drive saw them arrive at 2pm. Not bad 8 hours door to door!! Down to Adenau to pick the cars up. Robs BMW wasn’t finished, some of the paint work hadn’t been done, what was done was excellent quality though. Gary’s 205 had the tyres changed, discs on but the bodywork hadn’t been done. Still not to worry. Gary was worried that the tyres were going to rub the arches as they looked to be bulging pretty badly.


On the drive back from Adenau Gary tried the tyres out. Second hairpin his trolley jack shot from the passenger seat hit Gary in the back of the ankle wedging his foot against the accelerator pedal. Not a good moment and nearly an early disaster. 4.30 up to the track waiting for it to open. Met up with Ed who still hasn’t changed the 9 year old tyres on the 944 and another American friend with his Mx5. 5.15pm the track opened and with a quiet car park the guys got some good laps in. Gary spent time talking to people in the car park and handing out Northloop leaflets. Jonah knocking in sub 9.15 laps with Josh in the car and no-one to follow. Simon re-learing the ropes but getting quick again in short time. Gary not completely happy with his cup sport tyres but still managing an 8.51 with a hold up. Perhaps they were good after all Met new northloop members with Legacy and an M3 amongst others. 7.30 track closes, a meal and beer on the way back …….. Josh drives back to the apartment from the pub, Don’t ask Gary noticed a groove in one of his front tyres. It appeared that the arch had been cutting into the tyre and worn a grooved almost down to the braid. A pair of pliers some sorted the bodywork out though . Beer at the apartment and time to watch video laps. Rob put in an 8.48 which was outstanding considering he had only done one dry lap and about 5 wet laps previously. He doesn’t play video games, had a passenger and had no-one in front or helping with his lines. Worth a mention.


Phone calls from Karl confirming and then re-confirming the venue for Football the next day Hour after lights out Gary got up and moved his Duvet to the living room to get away from the stereo snoring coming from Josh and Rob which was scaring the horses in the field two miles away SATURDAY 10th June Nice lazy start, well for most. Gary was up at 5.45am couldn’t sleep so playing play station and recording the horrible snoring noises coming from Rob and Josh. Shopping trip to Koblenz. Comical watching Rob try on the Euro skinny fit tee shirts. Even funnier when he heard a splitting sound trying to get one off. He ended up stood in the middle of the shop arms above his head while a shop assistant pulled it over his head. A funny moment.


Back at the track to see if anything was going on saw the start of the ‘ring’ cycle race and I don’t mean motorbikes. These 500 or so individuals must have been nuts.


Football for England’s first game with Karl and Clare, A disappointing 1-0 but it killed a couple of hours before the track opened. Clare intending to get totally drunk and Karl looking like he was going to have a crack at it too. 5.45 track opened and within minutes it was easy to see it was going to be one of those nights. Gary’s second lap saw 5 accidents. It wasn’t going to get any better, Robs car suffered a split water hose so a quick patch up trip was needed to Ring racing. Gary stayed and continued lapping. Each lap was showing on average 4 accidents and finally ended with a rolled British E36 BMW. The guys called it a day and returned un-battle scared. The guys nipped to Karl’s house for a quick beer as instructed by the man himself. Sunny up to his old tricks tried to hump the hell out of Rob’s leg as soon as he walked through the gate. Rob told Karl he thought his dog needed to go outside and ‘’wring its neck off’’ A quick beer then a Chinese with Northloop members Juan and Rachel, nice to see them again. Retired to bed about 1am.


SUNDAY 11th June A VERY BAD DAY 7.20am the alarm went off and Gary was up washed and ready to leave with Simon at 7.45. Turn the key on the Pug and what happened? NOTHING, battery dead. Jump start the 205 off Simons Scooby, perhaps the jap crap is useful for some things 8.00am straight on track for 2 laps in succession with Simon following Gary in the Scoob. Back in the car park Rob turned up and another 2 laps. Gary had a large tank slapper going into Adenau Forst so decided to take pics for a while. He watched an amusing scene where a black standard looking Leon flashed the ring taxi out of the way through Hatzenbach. The taxi obliged, moved over and the Leon passed. I wonder if the passengers asked for their money back


An hour later Rob called to say he was on scene at a bad accident at Fuchsrorhe and that he had tried to help two bikers but they were appeared to be already dead. He went on to say it was carnage with 5 bikes down and a badly damaged Porsche. The track was immediately closed and stayed closed for the next 5 hours. Gary and Simon walked to the scene from Quidelbacher Hohe and wished they hadn’t, in blazing heat it was knackering and more like a mountaineering expedition. 4.30pm after a 5 hour closure the track re-opened with its usual mayhem. The number of people walking round the car park had to be seen to be believed. 15 minutes later the queue had all but gone so Gary and Simon went out for a couple of laps. The number of cars on the track was stupid, the new barrier on the main straight meaning an additional load of traffic. A good idea? Gary was not sure. The usual carnage after a long stop occurred but the track didn’t close. A chat with Bren and Suzy revealed the two bikers were germans. About 7pm they finally called a hault when one too many accidents happened.


Nurburg looked like it was being invanded by 1920’s tractors and EX army trucks on the drive back to the apartments. The 24HR was coming to town and that meant organised chaos. Everywhere near the circuit was full of huge queues of every vehicle known to man towing caravans, trailers, everything possible. People had BBQ’s fired up on the side of the road and Gary even saw a washing machine whirring away. A carnival in the making and still 6 days till the race. 7.15 back at the apartment and time to reflect on a very bad and very sad day. Rob was clearly very affected by what had happened. He explained how he had tried to help one of the bikers along with another man but there was nothing which could be done. The paramedics arrived but gave up on both of them after a short time. A meal at La Fontana where the main topic of conversation was understandably the accident. The guys trying to piece together how the incident occurred. The Porsche was a write off having been hit very hard in the rear by one of the bikes (or so it seemed) The impact speed must have been 100 mph or more by the state of the GT3. How could this of happened? The unusual nature of the incident affected everyone, especially Rob and Josh who had the misfortune to witness things. Our thoughts are with the families of those affected in any way. MONDAY 12th June 9am start to get the gear packed, loaded and return the cars to their garages. Gary’s 205 had a small list of jobs to be completed, Robs only a couple of jobs but one of them being a full respray. 9.50am start the journey to the tunnel. 1.50pm arrive at the tunnel to find no early slots avail able so a 2 hour wait in 90 degree heat. Gary tried the ‘’my wife is in labour, I need to get home ploy’’, but even that didn’t work. The guys finally got home at 5.45pm. An interesting weekend with highs and lows.